David Anfam

David Anfam (born December 5, 1955 ) is a British art historian , art critic and exhibition curator. He is a curator at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver and is a specialist in Abstract Expressionism .

Life

David Anfam studied at the Courtauld Institute in London , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree. His plan to then write a dissertation on Mark Rothko , he gave up on the advice of his academic teacher John Golding (1919–2012), who advised him to instead study the work of Clyfford Stills . Although Anfam was more interested in Rothko and had already tried to contact his family by letter, he flew to the United States in 1977 to see Still, who had been close friends with Rothko during a period of his life, to interview and take a detour but to approach the subject of Rothko. Anfam wrote to Still's friends, his collectors, and Still's students - including Jon Schueler (1916–1992) and Ernest Briggs (1923–1984) - a meeting with Clyfford Still, who was known for not giving interviews, never came conditions.

In 1979 he finished his dissertation in England and gave individual lectures at the Courtauld Institute and University College London , but efforts to find a permanent position at the university proved difficult. In addition to his sporadic lecturing activities, he got by with odd jobs. In the 1980s he met Nikos Stangos (1936-2004), the publishing director at Thames & Hudson , who encouraged him to write his first book The world of Art , which later became his best-known and in an expanded version entitled Abstract Expressionism most successful book. In 1989 he began working on the catalog raisonné of Mark Rothko's paintings. He was supported by Kate Rothko, whom he had already met in 1977 during his stay in the USA. Since 1997 he has been Commissioning Editor for Fine Art at Phaidon Press .

Since 2006, Anfam has played a key role in the planning of the Clyfford Still Museum as a member of the Museum's Advisory Committee , where he holds the position of senior curator and curated the first exhibition.

Anfam curated Bill Viola's Ocean Without a Shore at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 , in the Church of San Gallo and at the 56th Biennale in 2015 Jackson Pollock ’s Mural: Energy Made Visible in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection at the Palazzo Venier in Venice. In 2016/17 the exhibition Abstract Expressionism , which he curated , was shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London .

Prizes and awards

• 2000: Mitchell Prize for the History of Art
• 2009: Umhoeffer Prize for Achievement in Humanities

Publications (selection)

Books

• Abstract Expressionism. World of Art. Thames and Hudson, London 1990, ISBN 978-0-50020243-2 .
• Franz Kline: Black & White. 1950-1961. Menil Foundation 1994, ISBN 978-0-93959432-0 .
• Mark Rothko. The Works on Canvas. Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-30007489-5 .
• Anish Kapoor. Phaidon, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-7148-4369-8 .
• Clyfford Still. Exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 2001, ISBN 978-0-93959432-0 .
• Mark Rothko: The Decisive Decade: 1940-1950. Skira Rizzoli, Milan 2012, ISBN 0-84783900-1 .
• With Christos M. Joachimides , Norman Rosenthal (ed.): American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993. Prestel, Munich 1993, ISBN 978-3-79131261-3 .

Anfam regularly publishes articles in The Burlington Magazine .

Movies

• 2000 Rothko's Rooms.

Web links

• Literature by and about David Anfam in the catalog of the German National Library
• In Conversation - David Anfam with John Yau. The Brooklyn Rail. January 10, 2009.
• Interview: Dr. David Anfam on Abstract Expressionism. Christie's Post-War & Contemporary Art, April 1, 2008 (video)
• David Anfam talks site-specific art in USA Today. Phaidon.com
• bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In Conversation - David Anfam with John Yau in: The Brooklyn Rail, December 11, 2009, accessed July 17, 2017
2. ^ The Guardian , April 30, 2004, accessed May 19, 2015.
3. ^ Bill Viola - Ocean Without a Shore - Venice Biennale 2007, YouTube accessed on May 19, 2015.
4. ↑ IMDb