Object number1987.53.115
Museum of Modern Art Fire, New York City
Date1958
Artist
Rosalie Thorne McKenna
(American, 1918-2003)
CultureAmerican
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 6 x 8 3/4 in. (15.2 x 22.2 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
InscribedOn verso, by artist, upper left in pencil: L on stair - Porter McCray; center in ink [vertically]: Museum of Modern Art Fire 1956 / N.Y.C.; possibly by artist, center in pencil [vertically]: MOMA FIRE / [?] I #5; by unidentified hand, lower right corner in pencil: 87.53.115
MarkingsOn verso, partially obscured stamp lower left corner [vertically]: PHOTO BY: ROLLIE McKENNA / [copyright credit label] / Please Credit With Photo; ASMP MEMBER / AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHERS
On printed label, on verso lower left corner: © Rollie McKenna, Photographer / 1 Hancox Street / Stonington, CT 06378 / (203) 535-0110/2126
ProvenanceGift of the artistVassar Exhibitions
Label TextThe central role McKenna played at MoMA was driven home on April 15, 1958, when she received a call that the building was on fire. Concerned for her friends and colleagues as well as the artworks, she hurried to midtown to document the event. By the time she arrived, the fire had been extinguished but she was there to capture the chaos and confusion that followed. Her vivid images show her beloved sanctuary transformed by blackened interiors and broken windows, ladders and emergency workers. In the days and weeks after the fire, McKenna returned to photograph its aftermath, which included conservation efforts to salvage artworks that had been damaged. It was during that time that MoMA’s conservation department was formed with Jean Volkmer as director. Volkmer, who had been an exhibition designer at the museum since 1943, worked closely with Tosca Zagni to set up a makeshift laboratory and restore a Jackson Pollock painting that sustained considerable smoke damage. McKenna’s admiration for the two women working side-by-side, meticulously treating MoMA’s masterpieces, is abundantly clear in her numerous images of the scene.
DescriptionTwo fire fighters with hoses moving about on interior wet floor while several people descend stairs silhouetted by windows
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Rosalie Thorne McKenna
c. 1959
Culture: American
