Mario Amaya (October 6, 1933 – June 29, 1986) was an American

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, museum director and magazine editor, and (1972–1976) director of the New York Cultural Center and (1976–1979) the Chrysler Museum of Art in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

. He was also (1969–1972) the chief curator of the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

and the founding editor of London's '' Art and Artists'' magazine. He studied

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

for 35 years, for some of this time under the teaching of the artist

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 ...

Background

Mario Anthony Amaya was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in 1933. After graduating from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

in 1958, he travelled to England and was from 1962 to 1968 the assistant editor of the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

magazine ''About the House''. While still in England he was (from 1965–1968) the (founding) editor of '' Art and Artists'' magazine.

Shooting

On June 3, 1968, Amaya was in

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 ...

's office when radical feminist

Valerie Solanas Valerie Jean Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 25, 1988) was an American radical feminist known for her attempt to murder the artist Andy Warhol in 1968. Solanas appeared in the Warhol film '' I, a Man'' (1967) and self-published the '' SCU ...

opened fire and shot both him and Warhol. Amaya, 34 at the time, was discharged from hospital after receiving treatment of bullet grazes on his back.

Curatorial work

While in his curatorial positions he mounted major exhibitions of

. Examples include "Realism Now" (1972), "Blacks: USA" (1973), "Women Choose Women" (1973), and "Bouguereau" (organized with

Robert Isaacson Robert Isaacson (1 September 1927, St. Louis, Missouri – 5 November 1998, New York City) was a collector, scholar, and art dealer eulogized upon his death as "the Berenson of nineteenth century academic studies."Draper, James David (biograp ...

, 1975); he also arranged a retrospective of photographer

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...

(1975). When he became the director of the New York Cultural Center in 1972, he helped strengthen the Center's position as one of the liveliest of New York's museums at the time. Amaya used his position at the Cultural Center to house over 150 shows in three years. Amaya also contributed to many galleries, and lectured and acted as a visiting professor at the

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...

Writings

Amaya wrote books on art. ''Pop As Art: A Survey of the New Super Realism'' (1965), ''Art Nouveau'' (1966), and ''Tiffany Glass''. In the early 1970s, when living in London, Mario Amaya was engaged in research for a proposed biography of Lee Miller (with which she co-operated), but the project came to nothing.

Death

Amaya died from complications of

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 ...

on June 29, 1986, in hospital in Kensington and Chelsea, London, at the age of 52.

References

Notes Sources *Amaya, Mario. ''Art Nouveau.'' Studio Vista, Ltd., London, 1966; *Bourdon, D. "New York Museum Crisis: Two Bite Dust." ''Art in America,'' vol.63, No.5, 1975; *Russell, John. "Mario Amaya, 52, Art Critic, Editor and Museum Director," ''The New York Times'' June 30, 1986; *Russell, John. "Obituary," ''Art in America,'' vol.74, 1986; *''The Globe and Mail'' No. 36968, June 4, 1968. {{DEFAULTSORT:Amaya, Mario 1933 births 1986 deaths AIDS-related deaths in England American art critics American expatriates in England American shooting survivors Directors of museums in the United States Brooklyn College alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers Journalists from Brooklyn University at Buffalo faculty