Alice Goldfarb Marquis was a cultural historian and journalist who wrote eight books, including Alfred H. Barr Jr: Missionary to the Modern, a revealing biography of the long-time director of the Museum of Modern Art.
She earned a doctorate in modern European history from the University of California San Diego in 1978. Her doctoral dissertation on Duchamp became her debut book. Subsequent books included Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg, Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare, and Art Lessons: Learning from the Rise and Fall of Public Arts Funding.
Dr. Marquis was a Holocaust survivor who wrote about having a touch of survivor’s guilt. “As a person saved from the Holocaust by lucky flukes … I find myself anxious to repay the world – and especially this country – for being spared from extinction. Writing the kinds of books I have written … seems to be the best therapy for confronting these feelings.”
She was a founding member of the San Diego Independent Scholars and was active with the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla.
| Hopes and Ashes: The Birth of Modern Times, 1929-1939 | 1986 |
| Alfred H. Barr, Jr.: Missionary For The Modern | 1989 |
| Art Lessons: Learning From The Rise And Fall Of Public Arts Funding | 1995 |
| Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare: A Biography | 2002 |
| Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg | 2006 |
| The Pop Revolution: The People Who Radically Transformed the Art World. | 2013 |
| Brushstroke! | 2014 |
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