Katherine S. Dreier

Home > People > Literature and the Arts > Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies

Dreier, Katherine S. (1877–1952). American painter, patron, and collector, a wealthy heiress remembered chiefly for her missionary zeal in promoting modern art in the USA. She was born in New York, the daughter of immigrant German parents, and studied at the Brooklyn Art Students League and elsewhere. Her early paintings consisted of traditional portraits and still-lifes, but in 1913 the Armory Show converted her into an ardent supporter of avant-garde art and she devoted much of the rest of her life to championing it. She did this mainly through the Société Anonyme, which she founded in 1920 with Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. ‘A domineering woman of tireless energy and Wagnerian proportions, she was the antithesis of Duchamp in every possible way, and they got along famously’ ( Calvin Tomkins, The World of Marcel Duchamp, 1966). In addition to organizing exhibitions (the main business of the Société Anonyme), she did a good deal of lecturing, and she also promoted avant-garde music and dance. Her best-known painting is her portrait of Duchamp (MOMA, New York, 1918). Soon after this her work became abstract, influenced by Kandinsky. She bequeathed 99 works from her personal art collection to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, including examples by Brancusi, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Klee, and Mondrian.

Dreier, Katherine S. (b New York, 10 Sept. 1877; d Milford, Conn., 29 Mar. 1952). American painter, patron, and collector, a wealthy heiress remembered mainly for her missionary zeal in promoting modern art in the USA. Her early paintings consisted of traditional portraits and still-lifes, but in 1913 the Armory Show converted her into an ardent supporter of avant-garde art and she devoted much of the rest of her life to championing it. She did this mainly through the Société Anonyme, which she founded in 1920 with Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. ‘A domineering woman of tireless energy and Wagnerian proportions, she was the antithesis of Duchamp in every possible way, and they got along famously’ ( Calvin Tomkins, The World of Marcel Duchamp, 1966). In addition to organizing exhibitions (the main business of the Société Anonyme), she did a good deal of lecturing, and she also promoted avant-garde music and dance. Her best-known painting is her portrait of Duchamp (1918, MoMA, New York). Soon after she painted this, her work became abstract, influenced by Kandinsky.

Dreier, Katherine S. (1877–1952). American painter, patron, and collector, a wealthy heiress remembered mainly for her missionary zeal in promoting modern art in the USA. She became an ardent supporter of avant-garde art as a result of the Armory Show, where she met Marcel Duchamp, and in 1920 together with him and Man Ray she founded the Société Anonyme. ‘A domineering woman of tireless energy and Wagnerian proportions, she was the antithesis of Duchamp in every possible way, and they got along famously’ (Calvin Tomkins, The World of Marcel Duchamp, 1966). In addition to organizing exhibitions (the main business of the Société Anonyme), she did a good deal of lecturing, and she also promoted avant-garde music and dance. Her best-known painting is her portrait of Duchamp (1918, MoMA, New York). Soon after she painted this, her work became abstract, influenced by Kandinsky.