Henry Geldzahler
| Henry Geldzahler | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 9, 1935 Antwerp, Belgium |
| Died | August 16, 1994 (aged 59) Southampton, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Yale University Harvard University |
| Occupation | Curator, art historian, art critic |
Henry Geldzahler (July 9, 1935 – August 16, 1994) was a curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a modern art art historian and art critic. He is best known for his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 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.
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Geldzahler's Jewish family emigrated to the United States in 1940. He graduated from Yale University in 1957, where he was a member of Manuscript Society.
In 1960, Geldzahler left graduate school at Harvard University 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. 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.
Unlike most curators at the time, he befriended many of the artists he was interested in, and socialized with them as part of the same art world. Artists he associated with included Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Richard Bernstein, David Hockney, Ching Ho Cheng, Larry Stanton, Burhan Dogancay, and later Jean-Michel Basquiat. 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, where he initiated a program of museum grants for the purchase of art made by living American artists. He appeared, as himself, in the 1974 David Hockney biopic, A Bigger Splash.
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