Book excerpt: From formative years in Toronto and Philadelphia, MacAgy became the catalyst for the advent of American abstraction, the spirit behind the modern art movement, the introducer and interpreter of European and Russian art to America, the head of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the installer of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. He was on the cutting edge of modern art movements from American abstract expressionism to conceptualism and fought as an independent educator against the forces using art for political ends. “MacAgy has a place in history,”—George Rickey.