Robert Goldwater

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

Life

Education

Goldwater was born the son of doctor SS Goldwater and his wife Clara. His father was a noted health professional and the director of 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 he made his master's in 1931 . In the mid-1930s, Goldwater was a participant in an informal group of New York art historians around Meyer Schapiro , which also included Alfred Barr and Erwin Panofsky . In 1937 he went to New York University , where he received his doctorate in 1938 with a fundamental work on primitivism and modern art . This dissertation was revised in the same year and published as a book by Harper & Brothers under the title "Primitivism in Modern Painting" . The work was considered groundbreaking as it first carefully examined the relationship between tribal art and modern painting of the 20th century and demonstrated the rather sparse relationships between primitive art and modern art. It was not until 1984 that William S. Rubin was able to expand the topic and, in part, re-evaluate it.

Act

From 1939 to 1956 Goldwater taught art history at Queens College . In the meantime he was jointly responsible for an exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in 1949 , which he and the museum director at the time, Rene d'Harnoncourt , dubbed “Modern Art in Your Life” . In 1957 Goldwater returned to New York University as a professor of art history. In the same year he became the first director of the Museum of Primitive Art founded by Nelson Rockefeller . Among other things, collector's items from Rockefeller's possession were exhibited there. Goldwater organized the first exhibition of African art in a New York museum in 1957 . In 1969 Rockefeller offered the Metropolitan Museum of Art the complete collection of the Museum of Primitive Art. A new museum wing was considered in memory of Michael Rockefeller , who did not return home in 1961 from an expedition to research the Asmat people with the Dutch anthropologist René Wassing in New Guinea . Goldwater worked as a consultant for the Department of Primitive Art at the Metropolitan Museum from 1971 until his death . The exhibition was only opened to the public in January 1982.

Robert Goldwater's extensive library became the basis of the “Robert Goldwater Library” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, named in his honor. Today it comprises 20,000 volumes and 10,000 journals on art in West Africa, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, as well as Pre-Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The holdings are supplemented by books in related subjects such as anthropology, ethnology and archeology.

Private

In 1937 Goldwater married the French artist Louise Bourgeois , who later made a name for herself around the world for her surrealist sculptures . The couple moved to New York in 1938 , where Goldwater resumed his teaching post . In order to fulfill their common desire for children, they adopted their son Michel in 1940, and in the same year the couple's first biological son, Jean-Louis, was born. A year later their 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 the 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, NY 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: Zwemmer Gallery (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: HN 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, HN Abrams (1928)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Spiess: rosarot vor miami: Excursions to art and artists of our century , Prestel, 1989, p. 77
  2. ^ William S. Rubin: Primitivism in the Art of the Twentieth Century , Prestel, 1984
  3. ↑ Internet site of the Robert Goldwater Library (English)
personal data
SURNAME Goldwater, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goldwater, Robert John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American art historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1973
Place of death new York