Barbara Doyle Duncan, a collector, curator, and promoter of Latin American art, was born in 1921 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her father was a businessman, and her mother was an artist. Duncan always maintained that it was her mother’s influence that led her towards music and the visual arts.
Duncan moved to New York City with her mother in 1925 after the death of her father. She attended Vassar College and majored in music. She left Vassar in the fall of 1943, as a senior, to live with her new husband, John C. Duncan, who was in the military and stationed in Fort Hood, Texas. Mrs. Duncan finished her Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar in absentia through the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
After WWII, John Duncan was hired by W.R. Grace Company, and he, with Barbara and their three children, moved to Lima, Peru. The family lived in Peru from 1948 to 1955. It was in Lima that Mrs. Duncan learned Spanish and developed her interest in Latin American culture and art. When the family returned to the United States, Duncan was given the opportunity to continue her travels to South America, as John’s work still required him to travel frequently. She also began exploring other parts of Latin America, making her first visit to Mexico in 1956. It was around this time that Duncan began building her collection of modern art, going to galleries and expanding her contacts with artists by visiting their studios directly.
In 1964, Duncan joined the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and became chair of the Latin American Subcommittee. In this position, Duncan encouraged exhibition exchanges between South and North America. There was almost no interest in Latin American art in the United States at that time, and she wanted to increase knowledge of the genre. It was her work with MoMA that prompted her, in 1968, to gain her MFA from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Her master’s thesis focused on two topics: Joaquin Torres-GarcÃa and colonial viceregal painting. She would later present both of these subjects in different exhibitions.
In 1973, while assisting MoMA in building its Latin American art library, Duncan presented her private collection of art to The University of Texas at Austin. She managed the continued growth of the collection over the years, both by buying pieces and appropriating money toward preservation and purchases. Concurrently, Duncan began her own art consulting firm in New York City. She not only consulted others, but sold pieces and curated shows. She put together shows on Joaquin Torres-GarcÃa of Uruguay (1972) and Gunther Gerzso of Mexico (1976).
In 1977 Duncan organized a highly influential exhibition of Latin American art: Lines of Vision . The show toured the United States and international locations for two years and was sponsored by the Center for Inter-American Relations (now the Americas Society). The show was critically acclaimed for its unity and scope, and helped Duncan rise to the forefront of the Latin American art field. She was invited in 1984 to become a visiting scholar at NYU. In addition to her activities as a lecturer, she produced a documentary on Argentine art, and curated many small shows in various venues around New York City. She was involved with the International House and the Americas Society as a member of the board of directors.
Duncan curated another large exhibition entitled Gloria in Excelsis (1985), that focused on viceregal representations of angels and virgins in present-day Bolivia and Peru. Duncan worked with Teresa Gisbert in Bolivia and Enrique Tord in Peru to research the topic and find works that suited their vision for the show. It was very successful due to the great variety and quality of the art from the U.S. and South America. Some of the works had never before left Bolivia and Peru.
In the 1990s, after Duncan had reached the age of 70, her activities slowed somewhat, although she still gave lectures at The University of Texas and elsewhere on the history of Latin American art. She remained active on MoMA's International Council and the Americas Society, as well as the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. In 1992, curated her last show entitled Beatrice McComb Ley: A Creative Perspective, that showcased her own mother’s work.
Barbara Duncan died on March 28, 2003 at the age of 82.
From the guide to the Barbara Doyle Duncan Papers 2003-43. N/A., 1954-2001, (Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin)
