Robert Goldwater

Robert John Goldwater (* 1907 in New York; † March 26, 1973 ) was an American art historian and professor. He was an expert in the field of African art.

Study

Goldwater was the son of the physician S. S. Goldwater and his wife Clara born. His father was a well known health expert and director of the Mt Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. He studied art history at Columbia University, which he left in 1929 as a Bachelor of Arts. He continued his studies at Harvard University, where in 1931 he received his master. Mid-1930s was Goldwater participants of an informal circle New York art historian Meyer Schapiro to, the Alfred Barr and Erwin Panofsky belonged. In 1937 he went to New York University where he received his doctorate in 1938 with a basic book on Primitivism and Modern Art. This thesis was in the same year, overworked, under the title '' " Primitivism in Modern Painting" published by Harper & Brothers as a book. The work was considered groundbreaking, since it was first accurately examined the relationship between tribal art and the modern art of the 20th century and proved the rather sparse relations between primitive art and modern art. Only William S. Rubin 1984 could extend the theme and re-evaluate in part.

Work

From 1939 to 1956 taught Goldwater at Queens College art history. In the meantime, he was responsible in 1949 for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, which was dubbed by him and the former museum director, Rene d' Harnoncourt, as " Modern Art in Your Life ". 1957 Goldwater returned as a professor of art history back to the New York University. In the same year he became the first director, were exhibited in the Primitive founded by Nelson Rockefeller Museum of Art where, among other collectibles from the possession Rockefellers. Goldwater in 1957 organized the first exhibition of African art in a New York museum. In 1969, Rockefeller offered the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the complete collection of the " Museum of Primitive Art ". A new museum wing was contemplated in memory of Michael Rockefeller, who no longer returned home in 1961 by an expedition to explore the nature of the Asmat people, with Dutch anthropologist René Wassing in New Guinea. Goldwater worked from 1971 until his death as a consultant for the Department of Primitive Art at the Metropolitan Museum. For the public, the exhibition was opened in January 1982.

Robert Goldwater's extensive library became the nucleus of the named in his honor, " Robert Goldwater Library" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Today it includes 20,000 books and 10,000 magazines on art in West Africa, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, as well as Präkolumbien, Mexico and Peru. The portfolio is supplemented by books related disciplines such as anthropology, ethnology and archeology.

Private

In 1937, Goldwater married the French artist Louise Bourgeois, one of the world due to their surrealist sculptures made ​​his name later. The couple moved in 1938 to New York, where Goldwater resumed his teaching position again. In order to meet the common desire to have children, they adopted their son Michel in 1940, the same year the first natural son of the couple, Jean -Louis was born. A year later, her third son, Alain was born.

Publications

  • Le Primitivisme dans l' art moderne. Denise Paulme. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France ( 1988)
  • The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: a critical catalog; Jim M. Jordan; Robert John Goldwater. New York: London: New York University Press ( 1982)
  • Symbolism. London: Penguin Books (1979 )
  • Robert Goldwater: a memorial exhibition, October 1973 - February 1974, The Museum of Primitive Art, New York; by Robert John Goldwater; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dept. of Primitive Art, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ( 1973)
  • Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ( 1969)
  • What is Modern Sculpture? New York, Museum of Modern Art; distributed by New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Conn. (1969)
  • Space and Dream. M. Knoedler & Co. New York, Walker (1968, 1967)
  • Primitivism in Modern Art NY, Wittenborn (1966 ); Vintage books (1966 )
  • Senufo Sculpture from West Africa. Museum of Primitive Art, New York, N. Y. Greenwich, Conn. , Distributed by New York Graphic Society (1964 )
  • The Great Bieri. Museum of Primitive Art, New York ( 1962)
  • Traditional Art of the African Nations; by Museum of Primitive Art, New York, Distributed by University Publishers ( 1961)
  • Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan. Museum of Primitive Art, New York, distributed by University Publishers ( 1960)
  • Lipchitz. London: A. Zwemmer (1958 )
  • Modern Art in Everyday Life. New York, Abrams ( 1955)
  • Modern Art in Your Life. New York, Museum of Modern Art (1953 )
  • Abstraction in Art New York, Abrams ( 1953)
  • Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890); by Meyer Schapiro; Robert John Goldwater; New York: H.N. Abrams (1953, 1952)
  • Rufino Tamayo. New York, Quadrangle Press ( 1947)
  • Artists on Art, from the XIV to the XX Century. 100 illustrations; by Robert John Goldwater; Marco Treves. New York, Pantheon books ( 1958, 1947, 1945)
  • Primitivism in Modern Painting. New York, London, Harper & Brothers (1967, 1938)
  • Paul Gauguin. New York, H.N. Abrams ( 1928)
Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan) Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Queens College, City University of New York Surrealism
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