image of person or book cover 6866770168830737995.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon The Museum of Modern Love single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 The Museum of Modern Love
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

''If this was a dream, then he wanted to know when it would end. Maybe it would end if he went to see Lydia. But it was the one thing he was not allowed to do.'...

Arky Swann is a film composer in New York separated from his wife, who has made him promise to keep a terrible secret. One day he finds his way to The Atrium at MOMA and sees Marina Abramovic in her performance The Artist is Present. The performance continues for seventy-five days and, as it unfolds, so does Arky as he considers marriage, art and the nature of commitment and love over a long-term union. The Museum of Modern Love is the story of one of the world's greatest art events and a man in search of connection.' (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

19046856
18667821

Adaptations

The Museum of Modern Love Tom Holloway , 2022 single work drama

'Adapted from the Stella Prize-winning novel by Heather Rose, The Museum of Modern Love follows New York-based film composer, Arky Levin, a man struggling to live and work in the face of incredible loss.

'By chance, Arky finds his way to MoMA and sees Marina Abramović in The Artist is Present—a marathon and now-legendary feat of performance art that saw Abramović sitting silent and completely still opposite thousands of museum visitors in the spring of 2010.

'Arky returns to MoMA again and again, and encounters other viewers also drawn to the exhibit, each with their own reasons for spending hours in the presence of Abramović. As the performance unfolds, so does Arky, and with his life coming back into focus, he finally understands what he must do to move forward.

'Set against the backdrop of one of the greatest art events in modern history, and blurring the lines between spectator and artist, this transfixing new work explores dying and living, courage and commitment—and meditates on the power of art to unite and connect us, even in an increasingly disconnected world.'

Source: Seymour Centre.

Notes

  • Dedication: For David & / for Marina / & / all people of art

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 6866770168830737995.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 288p.
      Reprinted: 2018 (paperback)
      Note/s:
      • Published 24th August 2016
      ISBN: 9781760291860
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Weidenfeld and Nicolson ,
      2019 .
      image of person or book cover 5147409369390314954.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 284p.p.
      ISBN: 9781474611640, 1474611648
Alternative title: El museu de l'amor modern
Language: Catalan
    • c
      Spain,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Editorial Les Hores ,
      2018 .
      image of person or book cover 4900446554094180060.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 322p.p.
      ISBN: 9788494677595, 8494677594

Other Formats

  • Also large print.
  • Also dyslexic edition

Works about this Work

Stella Prize 10 Years on : Australian Authors Reflect on How the Award Changed Their Careers and the Literary Landscape Hannah Story , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , March 2022;
Art as Consolation Jazmyn Tynan , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 28 no. 1 2019; (p. 44-46)
'IN March 2010 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Serbian artist, Marina Abramović, takes a seat in a simple wooden chair under bright theatre lights. Across from her, over a wooden table, is a space for prospective participants to join her extraordinary performance art piece The Artist is Present. She waits silently for an observer to become a partaker; she will connect with them through nothing but a gaze.' 

 (Publication abstract)

Heather Rose : The Museum of Modern Love Jessica Stewart , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , January 2019;

'This Stella Prize-winning novel from Helen Rose is a masterpiece of introspection. Passages linger in the mind; her evocative prose demands that we stop and ask What would I do?' (Introduction)

A Novel’s Inspiration, Right There at MoMA Tacey Rychter , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 27 November 2018; (p. 1)

— Review of The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose , 2016 single work novel
y separately published work icon The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose : Notes Khadija Caffoor , Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2018 13925106 2018 single work criticism
Creating Drama Out of Stillness Dominic Smith , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 October 2016; (p. 23)

— Review of The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose , 2016 single work novel
The Brave Art of Looking Death Straight in the Eye Louise Swinn , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-30 October 2016; (p. 25) The Saturday Age , 29-30 October 2016; (p. 25)

— Review of The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose , 2016 single work novel
Real Life Morphs into Fascinating Fiction Katharine England , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 10 September 2016; (p. 36)

— Review of The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose , 2016 single work novel ; The Bradshaw Case Nicholas Hasluck , 2016 single work novel
Review : The Museum of Modern Love Joanne Peulen , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Booklover Book Reviews 2016;

— Review of The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose , 2016 single work novel
A Novel’s Inspiration, Right There at MoMA Tacey Rychter , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 27 November 2018; (p. 1)

— Review of The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose , 2016 single work novel
The Steady Gaze Heather Rose , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3-4 September 2016; (p. 24)
The Mischievous Artistry of Heather Rose Peter Pierce , 2017 single work review criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , February 2017;
'Heather Rose’s career as a novelist has been pursued with a calm daring. Her four adult novels are notable for their narrative experimentation and for the different ways in which each tests readers’ credulity. ' (Introduction)
[Review Essay] The Museum of Modern Love Duncan Fardon , 2017 single work review essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 388 2017; (p. 63)

'E.B. White once said there were three New Yorks, comprised of those who were born there (‘solidity and continuity’), the daily commuter (‘tidal restlessness’), and the searcher on a quest, the latter giving the city its passion and dedication to the arts. In The Museum of Modern Love, this third type is drawn to Marina Abramovíc’s The Artist is Present, a simple yet profound performance stretching over seventy-five unrelenting days, in which Marina unflinchingly meets the gaze of a series of individuals in a gallery.'

(Introduction)

Stella Prize 2017 : Heather Rose's The Museum of Modern Love Wins Award Stephanie Honor Convery , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 April 2017;
'$50,000 prize for Australian women writers goes to novel based on Marina Abramović’s performance of The Artist is Present'
Unflinching, Luminous, and Moving, the Stella Shortlist Will Get under Your Skin Camilla Nelson , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 18 April 2017;

'There are certain books that have the knack of getting under your skin. This is why George Bernard Shaw declared Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit to be a far more “seditious” text than Karl Marx’s Das Capital.

'What he was getting at is the power of books to work on your emotions. The intellect can be too cold an instrument to engender empathy, to bring people who are distant from you into your “circle of concern”. And it is precisely this, as philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues, that matters for the pursuit of social justice.

'In 2017, the Stella Prize judges have again come up with a shortlist of books that will engage your brain, but also your heart. They illuminate all the aspects of life that make us frail and vulnerable – sickness, dying, inequality – realities that many of us would prefer to ignore.' (Introduction)

Last amended 30 Nov 2021 11:50:04
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