Henry Geldzahler (July 9, 1935 – August 16, 1994) was a Belgian-born American
curator
A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...
of
contemporary art
Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...
in the late 20th century, as well as a
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
and
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...
of
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...
. He is best known for his work at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
and as New York City Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, and for his social role in the art world with a close relationship with contemporary artists.
He has been described as "the most powerful and controversial art curator alive" and the art critic of ''The New Yorker'' magazine Calvin Tomkins said "If you were involved in any way in the
ulturalworld, you met Henry".
Life and career
Born in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
, Belgium, Geldzahler's Jewish family emigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1940.
He graduated from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1957, where he was a member of
Manuscript Society
Manuscript Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. It is reputedly the arts and letters society at Yale.
History
Founded in 1951, Manuscript was Yale's seventh "landed" senior society. That is, its alumni trust ...
.
After graduating from Yale, he began work on a doctorate in art history at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.
In 1960, Geldzahler left Harvard to join the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
He became the Curator for American Art there, and later the first Curator for 20th Century Art.
Among his closest friends were artist Andy Warhol and
David Hockney
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...
.
Geldzahler is the subject of the underground Warhol film ''
Henry Geldzahler
Henry Geldzahler (July 9, 1935 – August 16, 1994) was a Belgian-born American curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a historian and critic of modern art. He is best known for his work at the Metropolitan Museum ...
'' (1964), which features him smoking a cigar.
His time at the Met is most known for his landmark 1969 exhibition, ''New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970'', which included his favorite contemporary work and became the talk of the town.
It was the Museum's first exhibition of contemporary American art and marked both the inauguration of the newly established department of Contemporary Arts and the
100th anniversary of the Museum. The exhibition featured 408 works in 35 galleries, by 43 artists including
Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky ( ; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, ; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian Americans, Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his life as a national of the ...
,
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...
,
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...
,
David Smith,
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker. Considered a central figure in the development of American postwar art, he has been variously associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and ...
,
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...
,
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
, and
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...
. "My guiding principles in deciding which artists to include in the exhibition have been the extent to which their work has commanded critical attention or significantly deflected the course of recent art", said Geldzahler in the press release of the exhibition.
In 1966, he was the United States commissioner to the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
, for which he selected the American artists to be exhibited.
In 1966 he took a temporary leave from the Met to become the first director of the visual arts program of the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
, where he initiated a program of museum grants for the purchase of art made by living American artists.
Geldzahler is depicted in portraits by several of his artist friends, including a famous 1969 double portrait by
David Hockney
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...
of Geldzahler with his then-partner, painter Christopher Scott. Other artists who painted his portrait include
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
,
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...
, and
Alice Neel
Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist. Recognized for her paintings of friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers, Neel is considered one of the greatest American portraitists of the 20th ...
. "There are lots of pictures of Henry. He didn’t have many mirrors in his home. He knew what he looked like just by asking people to make portraits of him.’ Hockney said.
Geldzahler appeared, as himself, in the David Hockney biopic, ''
A Bigger Splash'' (1974).
In 1978 Geldzahler left the Met and was succeeded in his role there by
Thomas B. Hess. He was then appointed the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
by
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
Edward I. Koch.
As an openly gay man who was part of the Koch administration and the conservative Metropolitan Museum of Art, Geldzahler contributed significant time and effort to
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
-related causes. Raymond Foye, publisher of
Hanuman Books
Hanuman Books (named after the Hindu monkey god Hanuman) was originally a 50 book series of very small books, formatted to resemble Indian prayer books. In 1986 Hanuman Books was founded and published by American art critic Raymond Foye and arti ...
, was his companion for many years.
After leaving his New York City government cultural post, he continued to write on art, and acted as an independent curator, working at the alternative space
P.S. 1 and the austere high modernist
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumbe ...
.
Death
Geldzahler died of
liver cancer
Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...
on August 16, 1994, at his home in
Southampton, New York
Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stre ...
. He was 59 years old.
He is buried in
Green River Cemetery in
Springs, New York
Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) roughly corresponding to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, the ...
.
Writings
Geldzahler wrote, among other works:
* Catalog of ''New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970'' (1969)
* ''American Painting in the 20th Century'' (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1965),
* ''Charles Bell: The Complete Works, 1970-1990'' (Abrams, 1991)
* ''Making It New: Essays, Interviews, and Talks'' (Harvest Books, 1996) with an introduction by Mr. Hockney.
* He co-wrote ''Art in Transit: Subway Drawings by Keith Haring'' (1984),
* ''Andy Warhol: Portraits of the Seventies and Eighties'' (Thames and Hudson, 1993)
Legacy
In the song "Forever Changed" from the album ''
Songs for Drella
''Songs for Drella'' is a 1990 studio album by Lou Reed and John Cale, both formerly of the American rock band the Velvet Underground; it is a song cycle about Andy Warhol, their mentor, who had died following routine surgery in 1987. Drella was a ...
'' (1990),
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...
and
John Cale
John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, dr ...
, speaking and singing in the first person, as Andy Warhol, mention Geldzahler as one of the people who'd "seen
arholthrough."
The
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
''Who Gets to Call It Art?'' (2006) by Peter Rosen explores the life of Geldzahler.
References
External links
*
*
*
Henry Geldzahler Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geldzahler, Henry
1935 births
1994 deaths
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American art critics
American art historians
American people of Belgian-Jewish descent
Belgian emigrants to the United States
Belgian Jews
Burials at Green River Cemetery
Deaths from liver cancer in New York (state)
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Horace Mann School alumni
Jewish American historians
Journalists from New York City
People from Antwerp
People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Yale University alumni
Historians from New York (state)
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American LGBTQ people