In His Own Words: The Life of William S. Rubin

The Art Newspaper's article is here. It is a wonderful inside look at one man's impact on the art world and his methods of collecting during his tenure at MoMA. The article speaks for itself however, I must comment on the title of the article, "The memoir MoMA declined to publish," which I think unnecessarily attempts to weaken Rubin's legacy with MoMA and undermines the passion Rubin had for the Museum. An excerpt from the article provides MoMA's explanation:

When asked to comment, MoMA publisher Christopher Hudson said: “The Museum’s publishing programme presents books that are mission-related in nature, i.e. with specific art historical or educational content. The Museum therefore does not publish personal memoirs of past or current staff or Trustees, no matter how influential and/or long-standing their relationship with the Museum has been.”

It is hard to find fault with this line of reasoning. MoMA could not possibly risk compromising their very important relationships with trustees and other wealthy individuals by having to determine which memoirs are worthy of publication and which are not. Remember, memoirs are generally written by old people. In this case we are talking about wealthy and important old people, the sort of old people you don't want to cross, particularly when you've spent years cultivating a relationship with them that will ultimately yield an important and valuable bequest. Indeed, it is just these sorts of longstanding relationships that Rubin sought out, developed and nurtured over many years, which is evident by the incredible works he brought to the Museum of Modern Art. The current policy protects the Museum from having to make judgments of quality, importance, etc. about memoirs, and the decision to reject all such books in order to avoid risking important relationships should be commended, not criticised.