Queer Places:
10 W 8th St, New York, NY 10011
The Inn at Barley Sheaf Farm, 5281 York Rd., Holicong, PA 18928
Doylestown Cemetery, 215 E Court St, Doylestown, PA 18901
Juliana
R. Force (December 25, 1876 – August 28, 1948) was an American art museum
administrator and director. The contest "The Immigrant in America" was sponsored by wealthy
sculptor Gertrude
Vanderbilt Whitney and organized by her right-hand woman,
Juliana R. Force. It was the
brainchild of Frances Kellor. In 1918 Gertrude
Vanderbilt Whitney joined
Mabel Dwight and founded the Whitney Studio Club[12],
Juliana R. Force was
the club's director.[2]
Juliana Force, appointed as director of the Whitney Museum of American Art
in 1929, had no training in art. She came from a poor family and never had
the opportunity to attend college. Force rose to the helm of one of the
nation’s top art institutions through a carefully constructed social
network. Nevertheless, her biographer Avis Berman tells us, Force endured
insults and criticism. Despite her close relationship with the museum’s
founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, she was given the unflattering title
of “Ugly Duchess” and was accused of being an interloper in a social and
professional circle that was beyond her birthright. Yet in her time Juliana
Force was one of the most powerful leaders of the art museum world, wielding
considerable influence over the direction of collecting, exhibiting, and
funding. Today she is recognized for her pivotal role in advancing the
careers of American artists including Edward Hopper and George Bellows.
Throughout her remarkable career, Force advocated that people should form
their own opinions and trust their intuition. “Think for yourself” was her
mantra.
Force was born Julianna Reiser in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on December 25,
1876.[1] She
became known as "Juliana".[2] She
was a twin and had seven other siblings besides her twin sister.[3] Force's
last name was spelled Reiser;[1] she
later changed the spelling to Rieser.[1][4] Her
father was a grocer[5] and
a hatter. [3] The
Rieser family moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1886.[6] As
a child Force attended a Christian boarding school for girls.[6] For
a short time in 1908 Force taught at a secretarial business school
in Manhattan, downtown New York City.[5] In
1911, at the age of 35 Force married Willard Force, a dentist, then becoming
known as "Juliana Rieser Force" or "Juliana Reiser Force" or "Juliana R.
Force", which is sometimes shortened to "Juliana Force".[4][6]
Her husband died in 1928, and they had no children.[3]
Jane Wasey
Juliana Force
1947
Force's first job was as the personal secretary of socialite Helen
Hay (wife of Payne Whitney).[2] At
the age of 38 in 1914 she became the private secretary for Helen Hay's
sister-in-law, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a great-granddaughter of
"Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt and eldest surviving daughter of Cornelius
Vanderbilt II. Whitney, a sculptress and art collector, had inherited a
Vanderbilt fortune.[6] Whitney
gave as Force's first duty an assignment to help organize art exhibitions at
the Colony Club, an exclusive conservative social club for wealthy socialite
women in New York City. Here Force showed off Whitney's art and a different
kind of new unusual art by creative artists of a group called The Eight.
Whitney was making a statement that all kinds of art, including different
styles of art from new artists, should be represented to the public.[7] Whitney
was interested in displaying her collection of work as well as other art from
modernist artists, especially living Americans.[6]
Whitney assigned Force in 1929 to contact the Metropolitan Museum of Art to
prepare a plan for a gift of Whitney's collection. Whitney's art collection
gift was to be displayed in a new wing, partly financed by her. The museum
turned down the gift. Whitney then displayed her work in her own studios and
galleries, that were under her name. Force managed these art enterprises and
then in 1930 became director of the new Whitney Museum of American Art that
developed from these art studio and gallery enterprises. Force was not trained
as an art historian. She hired Lloyd Goodrich, an art historian, to be curator
of the Whitney Museum of American Art, best known throughout the United States
for displaying new kinds and unusual styles of modern art from living artists.
Force's passion for new styles of art and her organizational traits made her
an administrative director of the nationally known art museum notable for
twentieth and twenty-first century art.[6]
Force initiated the first display of American folk art in a gallery in the
United States, the "Early American Art" collection.[8][9] On
February 9, 1924 she began a presentation of folk art in a Whitney gallery
that she administered, intending to bring folk art attractiveness closer to
the level of contemporary art.[10] Because
of her passion for folk art, this initial display led to the first official
public exhibition of folk art in a public showing presentation.[9]
Although her interactions with artists at the Whitney Studio Club inspired her
to personally collect modern art,[11] her
collections of nineteenth-century and older folk art and decorative arts were
larger and more significant. Her Eighth Street apartment was decorated in a
Victorian style, contrary to contemporary tastes, and her home at Barley Sheaf
Farm in Doylestown was filled with her folk art collection.[12] Primarily
acquired from rural antique dealers, her collection included portraits by
early American limners, theorem paintings on velvet, and eclectic objects
like cigar store Indians and toys.[13]
Force became chair of the American Art Research Council[14] in
1942. The United States government did a national tour show of German art in
1946 of war booty.[6] Force
shortly thereafter undertook a course of action to return the art to its
rightful owner.[6]
The Whitney Museum of American Art directed by Force did art shows between
1946 and 1948 on Albert Pinkham Ryder, Robert Feke and Winslow
Homer to promote public awareness of these artists.[6]
Force died in New York City on August 28, 1948,[4] and
buried at the Doylestown Cemetery in Pennsylvania.[1] The
museum held a memorial exhibition in her honor in 1949.[6]
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