Fig. and Figs. refer to the gathered illustration section.
About Drawing (exhibition), 190
Abstract Expressionism: in BAM collection, 139; expressive figuration juxtaposed to, 74–77; figurative work in, 34, 63–64, 70; gestural painting as analogue to, 240–41n14; Guston’s work as, 103–4; narrative of, 59–62; Pop Art compared with, 105–6, 230n21; public interest in, 46; in San Francisco, 156, 240–41n14; Seitz’s scholarship on, 52; suspicions about, in 1960s, 229n12; triumph at Venice Biennale (1964), 60, 221–22n26. See also German Expressionism; New York School of painting
abstraction: geometric, 42; German Expressionism and move toward, 29; Rothko and importance of, 85; struggle to find verbal language for, 86–87, 225–26n35. See also Abstract Expressionism; German Expressionism; New York School of painting
ACA (gallery), 181
Acton, Arlo, 128
Adler, Felix, 18
aesthetics: authorship, originality, and the machine-made in, 101–2; beauty in, 82, 192; form and content working together in, 100; Hard Edge painting and, 43–44; individual and subjective vs. communal and objective in, 34; New York self-consciousness and, 41; spiritual search for soul linked to, 130–31, 163, 173–77; subjectivity emphasized in, 71, 104–5; surface vs. depth in, 101–2. See also art and politics connections; figurative work; humanist position; “living the art life”; modernist art
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition), 72, 92, 95–96
Alloway, Lawrence, 44
Alpers, Svetlana, 139
Alphonse Berber Gallery, 181, 203
Alte Pinakothek (Munich), 4–5, 205
Altman, Ralph, 41
Altoon, John, 42
American Impressionists, 103
American Place (N.Y.C.), 19–20
American Veterans Committee (AVC), 38
Amyx, Dick, 144
Andersen, Wayne: career of, 161, 170; on Rothko estate trial, 168–69, 243n59; on Selz, 170–73, 244nn66–68; works: Cézanne and the Eternal Feminine, 170, 244n64; German Artists and Hitler’s Mind, 170; Marcel Duchamp, 172–73, 244n71
Anderson, Jeremy, 128
André, Carl, 202
Angelico, Fra, 120
Anglim, Paule, 131
Anna Halprin dancers, Fig. 19, 124–25
Anonymous Was a Woman (organization), 162, 242n39
Antin, Eleanor, 158
anti-Semitism: in Cheronis family, 113; experiences downplayed, 65–68, 106; in New York vs. Germany, 21. See also Nazism (National Socialist Party)
Appel, Karl, 78
ARC (Society for Art, Religion, and Culture), 173–74
Ariel. See Parkinson, Ariel
art and politics connections: Andersen’s comments on, 171, 244n66, 244n68; anti-war stance in, 24, 217n36; Ashton and Selz’s friendship in, 164–65; Berkeley as center of, 133–34; Chicano connections in, 187–89, 247n27; feminism and, 157, 241nn20–21; Free Speech Movement and, 119–20, 123, 233n3, 247n32; immigration and changes in, 15–16; independent outsiders in, 161; influences on exhibitions and, 59–60; as key focus, xi–xii; Pomona students’ awareness of, 38; retirement activities focused on, 190–91, 196–200; Simon and Selz, compared, 145–46; youthful direction in, 7–8. See also Art of Engagement (Selz); “living the art life”; Werkleute (Working People)
art brut. See Dubuffet, Jean
art critics: controversy and reviews of New Images of Man exhibition, 63, 75–78, 172, 222n32, 223n5, 223–24n6, 224n12, 248n29; post-WWII art as purview of, 151–52; Selz’s view of role of, 100–101. See also artist-critic-curator-dealer nexus
art dealers and galleries: Germans as, in New York City, 20, 22, 28; later activities in association with, 181–82, 190–91, 195–96, 201, 203; Rothko estate trial and, 165–69; Selz’s view of, 166, 168, 243nn60–61; Venice Biennale (1964) and, 60. See also artist-critic-curator-dealer nexus; art market
Artforum (journal), 129
art history: as academic discipline, 69, 151; artist-focused and object-oriented approach (biographical) to, 149–50, 152–53; connoisseurship vs. contextual approaches in, 29; cultural and intellectual approach (antibiographical) to, 94, 151, 152, 153, 157; empathy with artists in, 37–38; oral history method in, 158; post-WWII art excluded from, 151–52; professional organization for, 40–41; Selz as outsider in, 152, 171–72; Selz’s view of role of, 100–101; Selz’s voice in, 200–205; standard textbook of, 159–60; ultrareactionary attitudes toward, 39–40. See also students; teaching; UC-Berkeley art history department
Art in America (journal): on Denes, 161; Dickinson’s Crucifixion series reviewed in, 160; on Funk, 29, 132–33; gender discrimination in, 242n27; on Petlin, 182–83; on Witkin, 198
Art in a Turbulent Era (exhibition). See German and Austrian Expressionism: Art in a Turbulent Era
Art in Our Times (Selz), 144, 157, 236n32, 241n20, 245n1
Art Institute (and School) of Chicago, 34, 173
artist-critic-curator-dealer nexus: artist vs. art historian in, 151–52; art works in relation to, 87, 226n37; authorship, originality, and the machine-made in, 101–2; emerging relationships in 1960s, 98–101, 228n4; Funk artist on, 132–33; MoMA as viewed in, 105–6; Pop Art in context of, 228–29n5; Selz’s view of, 102–3. See also art critics; art history; art market; museums
artistic license idea, 38. See also “living the art life”
art market: MoMA influenced by, 59–62; for Pop Art, 98–99, 101–3, 228n4; Rothko estate trial in context of, 166–67; U.S. vs. Japan and other countries, 192. See also art dealers and galleries; artist-critic-curator-dealer nexus; museums
Art News (journal): anti-Semitism in, 66; on Jewish “glass ceiling,” 106; New Images of Man reviewed in, 63, 75, 222n32; New Realists reviewed in, 101, 229n12; reading of, 35
Art Nouveau (exhibition), 73, 82–85, 228n3
Art of Assemblage, The (exhibition), 73, 88–89, 236n32
Art of Engagement (Selz): award for, xi–xii, 200; on Garcia, 190; on gender discrimination, 242n27; impetus for, 197; Landauer and, 241n15; political stance of, 15, 191; praise for, 158, 200; review of, 171; Selz’s openness evidenced in, 213n2; youthful direction reflected in, 7–8
arts: cerebral, structural turn in, 98; conceptual turn in academic, 151, 152; faith in transformative power of, 163; gender inequality in, 158–60, 234n11, 242n27; human beings as central to, 95–96; influence and appropriation in, 84–85; public exposure to diverse, 137–38; relationship of past to present, 93–94; spirituality in, 130–31, 163, 173–77; subjectivity and metaphor in, 104–5; unity of, 83–84; what makes “good” art, 208–9. See also aesthetics; and specific movements or types
art scene. See Bay Area art scene; New York art scene; Southern California art scene
Ashton, Dore: on Abstract Expressionism, 240–41n14; on anti-Semitism at MoMA, 67; exhibition collaboration with Selz, 183; Jean Tinguely exhibition and, 78, 79, 81; as maverick, 161; on New Images of Man, 224n6; at Pop Art symposium, 101; on Rothko estate trial, 165, 167, 168, 169, 243n59; on Sam Francis (Selz), 191; Selz’s relationship with, xi, 109, 163–65, 190, 195; Symbolists exhibition and, 57
Asian art, 143
assemblage: as art movement, 133–34, 237n49; exhibition of, 73, 88–89, 236n32; use of term, 88–89, 226n42. See also Funk art; Jean Tinguely (exhibition)
Auguste Rodin (exhibition), 91–92, 170, 226–27n47
AVC (American Veterans Committee), 38
awards and honors: best art book (Charles Rufus Morey Book Award, 2006), xi–xii, 200; German, for “Interest in Twentieth-Century German Art,” 91, 201; Peter Selz Day proclamation, 201; tribute exhibitions, 177, 181, 235n21, 247n28
Baas, Jacquelynn, 147, 148, 234n11, 239n79
Bachert, Hildegard (Gina): career of, 17, 20; on immigration and networking, 14–15; name of, 216n12; Selz’s romance with, Fig. 9, 16, 17–18, 216n16
Bacon, Francis, 64
Bahr, Hermann, 29
Baldwin, Justin, 179
Baldwin, Kyra (granddaughter), 179, 204
Baldwin, Mia Schemmerling (stepdaughter), 179
Baldwin, Rian (granddaughter), 179
Ballaine, Jerry, 145
BAM. See Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM])
Banyan (“pickup” supergroup), vii
Barbara Chase-Riboud (book and exhibition), 158, 159
Barr, Alfred H., Jr.: Abstract Expressionism exhibition and book of, 59–60; attraction of, 225n18; on Beckmann’s Departure, 93, 227n49; on controversial exhibitions, 78; film archive and, 121; Jean Tinguely exhibition and, 80, 81; on Miller’s exhibition series, 79; MoMA acquisitions handled by, 51; as MoMA director, 49–51, 220–21n8; MoMA’s canon established by, 49, 56, 72, 73, 99, 228n3; Selz’s departure and, 106–7, 108; Selz’s view of, 33, 52, 54; spirituality and, 173–74; on Stieglitz Circle exhibition, 46
Baskin, Leonard, 202
Bates, Tom, 201
Bauhaus: curriculum inspired by, 30–31; decline of idea of, 35; kinetic art discussed at, 127; recent exhibition on, 219n22. See also Institute of Design (ID, Chicago)
Bauhaus 1919–1933 (exhibition), 219n22
Bay Area art scene: art and politics nexus in, 133–34, 246nn15–16; immersion in, 123–24; later association with galleries in, 181, 182; Selz’s impact on, 186–90. See also Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM]); University of California at Berkeley; and specific cities
Bayer, Herbert, 35
Bearden, Romare, 201
Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (album cover), 246n13
Bechtle, Robert, 142
Beckmann, Max: in BAM collection, 140; central place of, 32; Christian aspect of, 74; humanism of, 92–95, 208; MoMA exhibition of, 72, 92–95, 218n14; Oliveira influenced by, 193, 194; Selz’s view of, 5, 28, 186, 191; St. Louis exhibition (1948) of, 94; works: Departure, Fig. 1, 93; Large Self-Portrait, Fig. 27, 28; “Letters to a Woman Painter,” 94, 227n55; Woman Half-Nude at the Window, 140
Beckmann, Quappi (Mathilde Q.), 32, 94, 227n55
Bellagio Study Center, 182
Berkeley: antiwar, antiestablishment counterculture of, 119, 124–26, 133, 233n3; art and politics nexus in, 133–34, 246nn15–16; attractions of, 119–20; later association with galleries in, 181, 182; National Guard crackdown on protesters in, 145–46; Peter Selz Day proclamation in, 201; Selz’s arrival in, 117, 118; Selz’s impact on art scene of, 186–90. See also Bay Area art scene; Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM]); Graduate Theological Union (GTU); University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM]): collection development at, 136–40, 142; design and construction of, Fig. 16, 119–20, 233n5; difficulties and disappointments at, 140–48; faculty collaborations with, 144, 238n69; founding of, 118; funding of, 119–20, 121, 123, 124, 143, 145, 146, 239n79; Hofmann gift and wing of, 118, 138, 141; hoped-for new building of, 238n60; innovative, subversive course of, 123–24; later activities in association with, 183; MATRIX series of, 237n43; New York contacts and, 120–21; opening events at, Fig. 19, 124–26; politically engaged art at, 133–34; renaming from University Art Museum, 183; reputation before Selz, 123–24; Selz’s arrival at, 117, 118; Selz’s departure from, 144–45, 146–48, 149; Selz’s goals at, 118, 137; sexism at, 158–59, 234n11, 242n27; Stich’s contributions to, 151, 240n2; students’ view of Selz’s work at, 150. See also Pacific Film Archive (PFA); Powerhouse Gallery
—exhibitions: Abu Ghraib series, 183, 246nn15–16; Asian art, 143; The Hand and the Spirit, 174–75
—exhibitions by Selz: Barbara Chase-Riboud, 158, 159; criticism of, 158–59; Directions in Kinetic Sculpture, 123, 126–28; Excellence, 124; René Magritte, 123; Jules Pascin, 123. See also Funk (exhibition)
Berkeley Parks Commission, 246n11
Berlin Olympic Games (1936), 12
Berman, Wallace, 42, 45, 61, 245n4
Berry, Chuck, 106
Beyond the Mainstream (Selz), 184, 188, 196–97
Bierstadt, Albert, 137
Bingham, George Caleb, 99
Birkmeyer, Karl, 41
Black Mountain College (N.C.), 35
Blanckenhagen, Peter-Heinrich von, 28
Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider, group), 29
Boggs, Jean, 41
bohemian lifestyle: Andersen’s comments on, 172; Berkeley-area triumvirate of, 135–36; creativity and liberation associated with, ix; of Pomona social life, 38–39; sexuality in, 114. See also Funk art
Boswell, Peter, 130
Botero, Fernando, 133–34, 246nn15–16
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe, 104
Boulez, Pierre, 43
Brancusi, Constantin, 185
Braque, Georges, 162
Brautigan, Richard, 125
Bresdin, Rodolphe, 57
Brewster, John, Jr., 137
Brown, Joan, 142
Brown, Richard (Rick), 40
Bruner, Louise, 97–98, 227–28n1
b. sakata garo (gallery): Tribute to Peter Selz exhibition at, 235n21, 247n28
Buber, Martin, 8
Burden, William, 65
Burkhardt, Hans, Fig. 22, 196–97
Busch-Reisinger Gallery (Harvard University), 183, 198
Buxbaum, Richard, 148, 188, 239–40n82, 247n32
Cage, John, 43
Cahill, James, 143–44, 146, 147, 238n68
California: cultural exceptionalism of, 123, 235n15; New York attitudes toward, 63, 75, 118; Rothko’s visit to, 121; Thalia’s resistance to return to, 115, 116. See also Bay Area art scene; Southern California art scene; University of California at Berkeley; and specific cities
California lifestyle: Funk in context of, 132–33; openness to, 18, 36, 41, 123–24; post-WWI political context of, 171. See also bohemian lifestyle
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 184–85
Callahan, Harry, 31
Canaday, John: Jean Tinguely reviewed by, 80–81; Mark Rothko reviewed by, 87, 90; New Images of Man reviewed by, 75–76, 224n6; on Optical Art, 99; on Pop Art, 228–29n5; The Work of Jean Dubuffet reviewed by, 89–90
Cándida Smith, Richard, 79, 134, 152, 224n17
Cartwright, Derrick, 152–53, 155
Centenary Exhibition of Morris Graves (exhibition), 190
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 23, 24, 25, 53, 54
Chagoya, Enrique, 187–88, 247n27
Chase-Riboud, Barbara, 158, 159
Chermayeff, Serge, 30
Cheronis, Dion, 113
Cheronis, Nicholas D., 113
Cheronis, Thalia. See Selz, Thalia (Cheronis) (first wife)
Chicago: Art Institute (and School) of, 34, 173; Dubuffet’s work known in, 89; figurative movements in, 63; happiness of Peter and Thalia in, 111; Museum of Contemporary Art in, 198, 199; socialist circles in, 38; teaching art history in, 30–31. See also Institute of Design (ID, Chicago); University of Chicago
Chicago, Judy, 158
Chillida, Eduardo, Fig. 21, 184–86, 191
Chipp, Herschel B.: art interests of, 143–44; Guernica visit of, Fig. 21, 185–86; Selz’s introduction to, 217–18n8; students of, 136, 150–51, 189; teaching focus of, 152
Christo (artist): discussions about, 202; Running Fence project of, 153–54, 185; spirituality of, 177
Christo and Peter Selz (exhibition), 177
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), 23, 24, 25, 53, 54
Ciampi, Mario, 119, 233n5. See also Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM])
Cimabue (artist), 137
Cinémathèque Française (Paris), 121
Claremont Colleges in Southern California. See Pomona College; Scripps College
Cline, Nels, viii
Claude Monet (exhibition), 52
Close, Chuck, 102
Coalition of Women’s Art Organizations, 160
Cohen, George, 34
cold war, Abstract Expressionism in, 59–60
College Art Association of America: Selz and, ix–x, xi–xii, 35–36, 164; Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) of, 158, 159–60
color-field painting, 104, 130, 208. See also Rothko, Mark
Columbia University, Selz at, 19, 21, 27
conceptual art: academic interest in, 151, 152; Chillida’s work in context of, 184–85; Denes as Selz’s introduction to, 161–63
Conner, Bruce: in BAM collection, 142; circle of, viii, 213n2; illustration of, Fig. 23; on Selz, 130–31, 236n33; Selz’s view and support of, 129–31, 236n32; works: in Art of Assemblage (exhibition), 236n32; The Box, 236n32; Child, 236n32; in Funk (exhibition), 123, 128, 130–31
Consey, Kevin, 183
Constructivism, 127
Coppola, Francis Ford, 154
Cornell, Daniell, 182
Cox, Kevin (step–foster son), 179
Crucifixion series (Dickinson), 160
Dadaism, 79, 81, 128, 134. See also Jean Tinguely (exhibition)
D’Amico, Victor, 19
dancers, at BAM opening, Fig. 19, 124–25
Daniel, Greta, 83
Dannenmüller, Sophie, 134–35, 237n49
Danto, Arthur C., 102
de Bretteville, Sheila, 158
Debussy, Claude, 83
de Kooning, Willem: in BAM collection, 140; changing attitudes toward, 105; circle of, 90, 196; discussions about, 202; figurative work of, 63–64, 70; Oliveira influenced by, 194; Selz’s life parallels to, 69–71; works: The Marshes, 140; in New Images of Man, 63, 64, 70, 222n32
Dempsey, Terrence, 155, 173, 176–77
Demuth, Charles, 46
Dern, Carl, 125
De Staebler, Stephen, 182, 202
Detroit Institute of Arts: German Expressionist collection of, 28; Selz’s appearance at, 97–98, 227–28n1
de Young Museum, 131, 207, 209
d’Harnoncourt, René: curatorial freedom under, 57; diplomacy of, 54–55, 58, 231n36; Jean Tinguely exhibition and, 79, 80; loans for Auguste Rodin and, 92; at MoMA planning retreat, 65; MoMA role of, 51; Seitz’s hiring and, 49, 52; Selz’s departure and, 106–7, 108; Selz’s first three exhibitions proposed to, 72–73
Diebenkorn, Richard, 63, 78, 142, 202
Dilexi Gallery (San Francisco), 179
Dillenberger, Jane Daggett: background of, 173–74; The Hand and the Spirit exhibition of, 174–75; Selz’s relationship with, 175–76, 177
Dine, Jim, 104
Directions in Kinetic Sculpture (exhibition), 123, 126–28. See also kinetic art
di Suvero, Mark, 185
Donahue, Kenneth (Kenny), 22–23, 27–28, 217n32
Dorment, Richard, 101, 229–30n14
Downtown Gallery (N.Y.C.), 46
Drew Theological Seminary, 173
Drexler, Arthur: Art Nouveau exhibition and, 83; at MoMA planning retreat, 65, 66; MoMA role of, 52–53, 54, 57
Drey, Edith. See Selz, Edith (Drey) (mother)
Drey, Julius (maternal grandfather): death of, 6, 216n14; illustration of, Fig. 3; knowledge of art, 1, 4–5, 214n10; living situation of, 2, 3; mansion and gallery of, Fig. 2, 1; Peter influenced by, 1, 4–6, 14, 139, 205
Drey, Marie (maternal grandmother, Frau Julius Drey), 17
Dubuffet, Jean: “assemblage” coined by, 88–89; MoMA exhibitions of, 55, 72, 89–91; Ossorio influenced by, 74; Selz influenced by, 32; Selz’s view of, 185; work in New Images of Man exhibition, 64, 70
Duchamp, Marcel: on art as idea, 101; opening at Cordier Ekstrom, 116; poem by, on handout for Jean Tinguely, 81; at Pop Art symposium, 101; reconsideration of work, 172–73, 209, 244n71; scholarship on, 158; Seitz and Selz on, 70–71; Selz’s view of, 244n71; sexual behavior of, 156; Société Anonyme and, 220n5; works: Étant donnés, 172–73
Duncan, Robert, 125
Dürer, Albrecht, 4
Eakins, Thomas, 103
Einstein, Albert, 127
El Greco, 5
Elliott, James, 146, 148, 237n43
Emil Nolde (exhibition), Fig. 14, 66–67, 91
Ettlinger, L. D., 151
Europa (steamship), Fig. 8, 11, 12
European Legacy, The (journal), 171
“Evenings on the Roof” music series, 43
Excellence (exhibition), 124
Exhibition Momentum (group), 33–34
exhibitions: curatorial freedom in, 55–57, 58; idea vs. execution of, 58; listed, 257–59; political and market-driven influences on, 59–60; Selz’s voice in, 200–205; as tributes to Selz, 177, 181, 235n21, 247n28; trustees’ influence on, 58–59
—by Selz at BAM: Barbara Chase-Riboud, 158, 159; criticism of, 158–59; Directions in Kinetic Sculpture, 123, 126–28; Excellence, 124; René Magritte, 123; Jules Pascin, 123. See also Funk (exhibition)
—by Selz at LACMA: Four Abstract Classicists, 43–44
—by Selz at MoMA: Alberto Giacometti, 72, 92, 95–96; Art Nouveau, 73, 82–85, 228n3; The Art of Assemblage (with Seitz), 73, 88–89, 236n32; Auguste Rodin, 91–92, 170, 226–27n47; Emil Nolde, Fig. 14, 66–67, 91; Fifteen Polish Painters, 61; Futurism, 87–88; Max Beckmann, 72, 92–95, 218n14; U.S. Representation, 53–54; Venice Biennales, 56, 60–61; Peter Voulkos, 62; The Work of Jean Dubuffet, 55, 72, 89–91. See also Jean Tinguely (exhibition); Mark Rothko (exhibition); New Images of Man (exhibition)
—by Selz at Pomona College: contemporary artists, 34, 218n17; Leon Golub, 41; Greene and Greene (architects, exhibition), 41; Stieglitz Circle, 45–47
—by Selz in later years: venues and overview of, 181–82; About Drawing, 190; Centenary Exhibition of Morris Graves, 190; Ferdinand Hodler, 186, 198; German and Austrian Expressionism: Art in a Turbulent Era, 198; Hans Burkhardt (with Rutberg), 196–97; Richard Lindner, 182, 198; Robert Colescott, 182; Sam Francis, 181; Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (with Ashton), 183; The Visionary Art of Morris Graves, 182
Expressionism (arts festival), Fig. 12
False Image, The, 33
Family of Man, The (exhibition), 59
Farber, Manny, 75, 222n32, 223n6
Farm Security Administration, photographs by, 59
fascist aesthetics: use of term, 7, 9
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany): award for Selz from, 91, 201; Emil Nolde exhibition and, 66–67, 91; Selz’s visits to, 66–68
Feininger, Lyonel, 22, 186, 198
Feitelson, Lorser, 44
feminism: critique of Selz’s exhibitions based in, 158–60; Denes on, 162; Selz’s claims of, 157, 241nn20–21; Selz’s writing on, 158
Fern, Alan, 83
Fieldston School of Ethical Culture (high school), 18–19
Fifteen Polish Painters (exhibition), 61
figurative work: in art on the Holocaust, 198; in assemblage, 89; attachment to expressionist type of, 85, 94–95, 103–4; Dubuffet’s work as, 89–91; focus on, 99; modernist definitions and, 63–64; New Images of Man exhibition and, 74–75, 76–78, 224n13; of Oliveira, 193–94; Rothko’s work in context of, 86; Selz’s reflections on, 208–9. See also German Expressionism; humanist position
Fink, Ray, 34
flop: use of term, 78
Forbes, Hannah (born Engel), 14–16
Foss, Lukas, 43
Four Abstract Classicists (exhibition), 43–44
France. See Paris (France)
Francis, Sam: in BAM collection, 140, 142; connections of, 225n24; gallery representation of, 181, 195; illustration of, Fig. 20; importance of abstraction of, 85; political activism of, 248n48; promised exhibition at MoMA, 56; Selz’s relationship with, 192–93, 195; Selz’s view of, 164, 186, 191–92, 246n10; teacher of, 159; works: Berkeley, 140; Iris, 193
Frankenstein, Alfred, 103
Freedman, Tracy, 181
Free Speech Movement: bad press for BAM due to, 123; defense team for, 247n32; excitement about, 119–20; personal account of, 233n3
Freudenheim, Tom, 123, 129, 134, 147–48
Fuller, Buckminster, 35, 80, 127
Funk (exhibition): BAM acquisitions of artists in, 142; collecting work for, 128–29; controversial aspects of, 132–33; definitions of Funk and, 131–32; reviews of, 129, 130; significance of, 123, 133–35, 187; space for, 123
Funk art: artists and characteristics of, 128–31; circle of, 135–36; descriptive definitions of, 131–32, 134; localism of, 123, 131, 134–35; promotion of, 187; rejection of term, 132–33. See also assemblage
Gagosian, Larry, 181
Gallery Paule Anglim, 131
Gallery St. Etienne, 16–18, 181
Garcia, Rupert: Chicano art of, 247n27; as maverick, 161; on Selz as friend, 187, 188, 190, 191; on Selz as teacher, 155, 189–90; teaching of, 247n35
Garver, Tom, 131
Gay, Peter, 214n15, 215n23, 215–16n3
geometric abstraction, 42
George, Stefan, 8
George Staempfli Gallery, 80
German and Austrian Expressionism: Art in a Turbulent Era (exhibition [with catalogue]), 198, 200
German Democratic Republic (East Germany): exhibition of artists from, 183
German Expressionism: characteristics that attracted Selz, 33–34, 71, 175; Christian aspect of, 73–74; context of research on, 28–29, 32; continued importance to Selz, 198; Dempsey’s interest in, 177; earliest contact with artists of, 4–5; Lindner’s connection to, 182; New Images of Man and, 77; Oliveira influenced by, 193; similar exhibitions on, 198–99. See also Abstract Expressionism; New York School of painting
German Expressionist Painting (Selz): award for, 91, 201; editing of, 204; praise for, 46, 164, 170, 189; reflections on, 29–30; review of, 217–18n8; significance of, xii, 151; writing of, 42
German Jewish community: childhood in, 1–6; gradual awareness of Nazi goals, 9–10; opportunities to rejoin, 66–68; perceived as second-class, 215n27; youth groups of, 6, 7–8, 214n15. See also Munich (Germany); New York; Werkleute (Working People)
German Realism of the Twenties (exhibition), 198–99
Germany: families left behind in, 13, 17; Jews’ experience of getting out of, 13, 215–16n3; Jews’ identification with culture of, 8–9; law against “overcrowding” of schools in, 9; Selz’s later views on, 66–68. See also Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany); German Democratic Republic (East Germany); Munich (Germany); Nazism (National Socialist Party); Werkleute (Working People)
gestural painting, 156, 240–41n14
Getty, J. Paul, 124
Giacometti, Alberto: MoMA exhibition of, 72, 92, 95–96; Oliveira influenced by, 194; Selz influenced by, 32; Selz’s view of, 185; work in New Images of Man exhibition, 64, 70, 223n5
Gilhooly, David, 128
Glitter and Doom (exhibition), 198–200, 249n61
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 8
Gogh, Vincent Van, 197
Goldschneider, Cécile, 92
Goldwater, Robert J., 84–85, 166
Golub, Leon: Andersen-Selz friendship and, 170, 172; exhibition at Pomona, 41; in Exhibition Momentum (group), 34; as imagist, 33; reviews of drawings, 78, 224n13; work in New Images of Man exhibition, 75, 78, 172
Goodall, Donald, 41
Goodyear, A. Conger, 50
Gorky, Arshile, 196
Goya, Francisco, 175, 186, 193, 194, 208
Graduate Theological Union (GTU): art circle of, 174; Burkhardt exhibition at, 197; later activities in association with gallery of, 176–77, 182; Selz’s teaching at, 175–76
Grant, James, 43
Graves, Morris, 182, 190, 222n28
Green, Wilder, 95
Greenberg, Clement: Artforum influenced by, 129; color-field painting touted by, 104, 130; formalist ideas of, 89, 162; Selz’s difference from, 177; Tobey’s work rejected by, 222n28; younger generation’s rejection of, 106
Greene and Greene (architects, exhibition), 41
Grünewald, Matthias (artist), 5, 73, 77
GTU. See Graduate Theological Union (GTU)
Guggenheim Museum, 198
Guston, Philip, 103–4, 169, 202
H2NY (documentary on Tinguely’s Homage to New York), 224n16
Hadzi, Dimitri, Fig. 17
Hairy Who, The, 33
Haley, John, 138
Halpert, Edith, 46
Halprin, Anna: dancers of, Fig. 19, 124–25
Hand and the Spirit, The (exhibition), 174–75
Hard Edge painting exhibition, 43–44
Hartley, Marsden, 46
Harvard University, Busch-Reisinger Gallery, 183, 198
Hatley Martin Gallery, 160
Hayakawa, S. I., 34
Haydn, Lili, viii
Hearst, Phoebe, 137
Heartfield, John, 104
Heckel, Erich, 32
Hershman Leeson, Lynn, 153, 154, 158–59
Hertz, Deborah Paris (Debby), 135–36
Hess, Thomas B., 66, 101, 106, 229n12
Hesse, Hermann, 8
Heyns, Roger W., 138
High and Low (exhibition), 230–31n25
Hinckle, Marianne, 67–68, 214n9, 223n40
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 182, 233n5
History of Art (Janson), 159–60
Hitchcock, Henry Russell, 83
Hitler, Adolf: decadent art show of (Entartete Kunst), 5; early Jewish attitudes toward, 8–9; Olympic Games and, 12; postwar documentary on, 68; rise of, 2, 13; water-color paintings of, 2
Hofmann, Hans, 118, 138, 141, 183
Holland, Frank, 34
Holocaust, 66–68, 198. See also Nazism (National Socialist Party)
Homage to New York (exhibition). See Jean Tinguely (exhibition)
Horn, Walter, 119, 141, 146, 151, 186
Howard, John Galen, 119
Hughes, Robert, 199
Hultén, K. G. (Pontus), 81–82, 225n24
humanist position: of Beckmann, 92–95, 208; building blocks for art in, 183–84, 187; ecological awareness linked to, 185; of Giacometti, 95–96; New Images of Man and, 74–78, 224n13; Oliveira influenced by, 193–94; Pop Artists as rejecting, 101–2; retirement activities focused on, 183–84, 191–92, 193–94; Rothko’s work in context of, 86; Selz’s unassailable, continued support for, 207, 208–9; spiritual in art linked to, 130–31, 163, 173–77. See also figurative work
Hunter, Sam, 48
ID. See Institute of Design (ID, Chicago)
Illinois Institute of Technology, 35
Imagists (Chicago), 33
immigrants: adaptability key to success, 14; art history introduced as academic discipline by, 151; artists and musicians as, 43; divisions among, 17; networking and assimilation process for, 14–16, 17; Tillich as, 73, 223n3
immigration: Jewish difficulties in, 13, 215–16n3; obstacles to, 8–9; realizing necessity of, 10–11; reminiscences about, 15–16; youth group’s role in, 6, 7
Impressionists, American, 103
Inness, George, 175
Institute of Design (ID, Chicago): aesthetic stance of, 31–32, 33, 34; decline of, 35; departure from, 36; kinetic art discussed at, 127; Selz’s teaching at, 30–31, 32–33
International Congress of Art Critics, 196–97
Iraq War: art series about, 133–34, 246nn15–16; protest of, Fig. 24
Irwin, Robert, 42
Italy: I Tatti collection, 140, 141; Selz’s bicycle expedition through, Fig. 7, 5; Selz’s trip with Rothko to, Fig. 17, 120. See also Venice (Italy)
Jack Rutberg Fine Arts. See Rutberg, Jack
Jackson Pollock (exhibition), 55
Jane’s Addiction (band), viii
Janis, Sidney, 101
Jean Dubuffet (exhibition), 90
Jeanne-Claude (artist), 153–54, 177, 185
Jean Tinguely (exhibition): decision to hold, 78–79; documentary on, 81, 224n16; implications for Selz, 81–82; kinetic art anticipated in, 88, 126; preparation for, 79–80; reflections on, 72, 80; reviews of, 56, 80–81; scheduling of, 85; spectators at, 80
Jonathan Clark & Co., 181
Jorasch, Richard, 119
Judd, Donald, 230–31n25, 248n49
Kala Institute, 182
Kallir, Jane, 20
Kandinsky, Wassily, 5, 29, 177
Kantor, Paul, 42
Kantor, Sybil Gordon, 220n6, 220–21n8
Kaplan, Fred, 98
Karpel, Bernard, 65
Kentridge, William, 207–8, 209
Kerr, Clark: BAM fundraising of, 119, 121, 123; Guggenheim proposal of, 141; Hofmann collection development and, 138; Reagan’s firing of, 141, 143; Selz’s relationship with, 138–39
Kienholz, Ed, 42, 45, 88, 245n4
kinetic art: exhibition of, 123, 126–28; manifesto of, 235n24; Selz’s teaching and involvement with, 157; Tinguely as anticipating, 88
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig, 5, 28, 29
Kirkeby, Paula, 131, 181, 195–96
Kitaj, R. B., 104
Klee, Paul, 5
Kohn, Karl, 43
Kokoschka, Oskar, 16
Kollwitz, Käthe, 8
Kootz, Sam, 138
Kostka, Robert, 190
Kramer, Hilton, 100–101, 188, 228n2
Krautheimer, Richard, 36
Kress Foundation, 144
Kuh, Kathleen, 76, 77, 224n6, 224n12
Kunitz, Stanley, 101
Kunstgewerbemuseum (Zurich), 82
Lacey, Suzanne, 158
LACMA. See Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Landauer, Susan, 155–56, 197, 240n13, 240–41n14, 241nn15–16
Leaf, June, 34
Le Corbusier, 57
Léger, Fernand, 22
Lemert, Deirdre (fourth wife), 245n1
Leslie, Charles, x, 38–39, 110, 213n3
Leutze, Emanuel Gottlieb, 137
Lewallen, Connie, 133–34, 237n43
Lichtenstein, Roy, 100
Lieberman, William S., Fig. 14, 57
Liebmann family (in New York City), 10, 18–19, 21
Lindner, Richard, 182, 198, 246n13
“living the art life”: adapting to American life, 14; as “artist-agent,” 154–55; artist friends in, 64, 85, 120, 129, 135–36, 153, 154–55, 161, 162–63, 170, 192–93, 201–5, 234n8; creativity and liberation, ix; enthusiasm and engagement, x, 152–53, 186–87; generosity and inclusiveness, 187–88; as independent outsider, 152, 160–61, 171–72; loyalty to chosen art and artists in, 105, 155, 184, 195, 198; open to new experiences, vii–viii, x, 18, 36, 41, 123–24, 150, 155, 173, 187, 195–96, 213n2, 240n11; Paris sojourn in clarifying, 31–32; in Pomona’s milieu, 38–39; spiritually focused friends in, 174–77. See also art and politics connections; bohemian lifestyle
Lloyd, Frank: crooked dealings of, 168–69, 243nn60–61; lawsuit against, 165–66
Los Angeles: L’Angolo Cafe in, vii; cultural exceptionalism of, 235n15; later association with galleries in, 181, 196; music scene at midcentury, 42–43; Whisky a Go Go in, vii–viii, 150, 213n2. See also Southern California art scene
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA): professional support for, 40–41; exhibitions: Four Abstract Classicists, 43–44; Hermitage treasures, 197; Made in California, 197
love and sexuality: characterization of, 178; first love (Gina), Fig. 9, 16, 17–18, 216n16; first marriage, 30, 36, 39; first divorce, 116; Peter’s infidelities in, 110, 113, 114, 232n42; Peter’s reputation and, 155–56, 157, 164; second marriage, 113–14, 116; Thalia’s infidelities in, 114, 232n45; third and fourth marriages, 245n1; fifth marriage, 178–80. See also bohemian lifestyle; Selz, Carole Schemmerling (fifth wife); Selz, Norma (second wife); Selz, Thalia (Cheronis) (first wife)
Lowry, Bates, 41
Lydiate, Henry, 166
Lynes, Russell, 107
Lyon, E. Wilson, 36
Made in California (exhibition), 197
Magritte, René, 123
Malevich, Kazimir, 177
Malraux, André, 53, 60, 221n13
Marc, Franz, 146
Marck, Jan van der, 153
Mark Rothko (exhibition): insurance evaluations for paintings in, 168; in Paris, 53, 60, 221n13; reflections on, 72, 85–86; reviews of, 86–87; space for, 55
Mark Rothko Foundation, 165, 168, 243n49, 243n57
Marlborough Gallery: accountant of, 168; Botero’s Abu Ghraib series at, 183; lawsuit against, 165–66; McKee’s working at, 169, 243nn61–62
Marquis, Alice Goldfarb, 220n6, 220–21n8, 221n11
Marx, Karl, 8
Matisse, Henri, 174
Max, Peter, 82
Max Beckmann (exhibition), 72, 92–95, 218n14
McChesney, Mary Fuller, 154
McChesney, Robert, 154
McCray, Jim, 138
McCray, Porter, 52–53, 107, 108, 221n13
McLuhan, Marshall, 208
Melchert, Jim, 125
Mellon, Gertrude A., Fig. 14
Meridian Gallery, 182, 190–91, 203
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 198–200, 249n61
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 131, 207, 209
Middeldorf, Ulrich, 28–29, 173
Midonick, Millard L., 166
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 35, 40
Miller, Dorothy: exhibition series of, 79, 224n17; MoMA role of, 51, 56, 220–21n8; personal life of, 224–25n18; Selz’s departure and, 107; spirituality and, 174; Tinguely exhibition and, 78–79
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 198–99
MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), 225n24
MOCRA (Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis), 176
Modern, the. See Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
modernism: American rejection of European, 61–62; complexity of, recognized, 35; motion, speed, and change as defining, 81, 88, 126–27; multiplicity, diversity, and inclusionism in, xi; open-endedness of, 63–64
“Modernism Comes to Chicago” (Selz), 33
modernist art: Art Nouveau’s influence on, 82–85; art of the past in relation to, 93–94; Bauhaus-inspired curriculum in Chicago and, 30–31; creating museums for, 49–51, 220nn5–6; first two dissertations on, 29–30; Fulbright research in context of, 31–32; human/formal division in, 94–95; inclusive, expansive, and flexible view of, 63–64, 74–75, 86, 91; key job in, 48–49; mid-century attitudes toward, 28–29; MoMA’s canon of, xi, 49, 56, 72, 73, 99, 228n3; MoMA’s curatorial freedom and, 55–57; Oliveira’s tradition-derived, 193–94; Selz and de Kooning’s parallels in, 69–71; Selz’s individual view of, 46–47; Selz’s voice for, 200–205; semantics of, 34; ultrareactionary attitudes toward, 39–40; Warhol and Kentridge in context of, 207–8, 209. See also specific types (e.g., Abstract Expressionism)
Moeller, Achim, 181
Moholy-Nagy, László, 30, 32, 127, 218n17, 235n24. See also Institute of Design (ID, Chicago)
MoMA. See Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Monday Evening Concerts (West Hollywood), 43
Mondrian, Piet, 177
Monet, Claude, 52
Moreau, Gustave, 57
Morehouse, Bill, 154
Moses, Ed, 42
Moses, Grandma, 16
Motley, Archibald, Jr., 218n17
Mullen, Frances, 43
Muller, Martin, 181
Munich (Germany): army band and music in, 3; art museum visits in, 4–5, 205; birth and early childhood in, Fig. 4, 1–6, 197; Catholic schools’ expulsion of Jews, 2, 7; education and youth activities in, 6–10; Nazi parades and pageants in, 7–8, 9–10; remembered, 197; Selz’s departure from, 11; Selz’s later visit to, 68. See also Werkleute (Working People)
Musée National d’Art Moderne (Paris), 53
Musée Rodin (Paris), 91–92, 170
Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), 198, 199
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, MOCA), 225n24
Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA, St. Louis), 176
Museum of Folk Art (N.Y.C.), ix–x, xi–xii
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York: anti-Semitism at, downplayed, 65–68, 106; canon of, xi, 49, 56, 72, 73, 99, 228n3; connections enabled by curating at, 64; Conner’s Box in, 236n32; creating identity of, 49–51, 220n6; decline of status, 98, 99–100, 105–6, 228n2, 250nn6–7; Fieldston School connections to, 19; film library of, 121, 234n11; fire at, 80; internal dynamics of, 52–54, 57–58, 107–8, 221n12; lack of friendliness among staff, 107–8, 231n28; market-driven influences on, 59–62; Pop Art symposium of, 101, 228n2; role in art world, 89, 97–98; Selz’s career at, summarized, 68–71; Selz’s departure from, 105, 106, 108–9, 117; Selz’s early involvement with, 22; Selz’s hiring and arrival at, 44, 46–47, 48–49, 51–52, 73, 221n11; Selz’s praise for colleagues at, 54–55; sexism at, 234n11; spirituality in art and, 173–74; trustees’ influences on, 53, 57, 58–59; Warhol painting purchased by, 209
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibitions: collections department separated from, 51; criticism of, 99–100, 105; curatorial freedom in, 55–57, 58; first three proposed by Selz, 72–73; implications of getting, 89; loans for Stieglitz Circle exhibition, 46; national and international divisions of, 52–54; proposed de Kooning show later cancelled, 69, 70–71; Selz’s main responsibilities for, 51; Selz’s provocative approach in, 81–82, 105; spaces of, 55
—exhibitions: Bauhaus 1919–1933, 219n22; Claude Monet, 52; The Family of Man, 59; Farm Security Administration photographs, 59; Fuller’s geodesic dome at, 80; High and Low, 230–31n25; Jackson Pollock, 55; Jean Dubuffet retrospective, 90; Mark-Tobey, 99; New American Painting, 59–60; New Horizons in American Art, 79; The Responsive Eye, 99; Sixteen Americans, 79, 224n17; Symbolists, 57, 58; Twelve Americans, 79
—exhibitions by Selz: Alberto Giacometti, 72, 92, 95–96; Art Nouveau, 73, 82–85, 228n3; The Art of Assemblage (with Seitz), 73, 88–89, 236n32; Auguste Rodin, 91–92, 170, 226–27n47; Emil Nolde, Fig. 14, 66–67, 91; Fifteen Polish Painters, 61; Futurism, 87–88; Max Beckmann, 72, 92–95, 218n14; U.S. Representation, 53–54; Venice Biennales, 56, 60–61; Peter Voulkos, 62; The Work of Jean Dubuffet, 55, 72, 89–91. See also Jean Tinguely (exhibition); Mark Rothko (exhibition); New Images of Man (exhibition)
museums: anti-Semitism of, 66–68, 106; architects of (1960s and 1970s), 119, 233n5; exhibition committees of, 56; exposure to diverse arts at, 137–38; faculty attitudes toward, 151; first interfaith, 176; responsibilities of, 59–60. See also artist-critic-curator-dealer nexus
music: Los Angeles midcentury scene, 42–43; minimalist, 125, 126; preferences and openness to new, vii–viii
Mync, Bogdon, 179
Nathan Oliveira (Selz), 156, 194–95, 241n15
Nauman, Bruce, 128
Nazism (National Socialist Party): anti-Semitic laws under, 2, 7, 9, 10; German American support for, 21, 216–17n28; Olympic Games and, 12; painters in Germany under, 32; postwar art exhibition on, 67–68; rise of, 2, 13; Selz’s later views on, 66–68; youthful encounters with, 7–8, 9–10; youth group of, 6
Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), 182, 198–99
New American Painting (exhibition), 59–60
New Americans (exhibition), 22
Newark Museum, 174
New Criterion (journal), 188
New Horizons in American Art (exhibition), 79
New Images of Man (exhibition): critical controversy and reviews of, 63, 75–78, 172, 222n32, 223n5, 223–24n6, 224n12, 248n29; current discussions about, 202; Francis’s work compared with, 191–92; New Realism compared with, 103–4; praise for, 190; preface to catalogue, 73–75, 181; reflections on, 72, 228n3; revisited in 2009–10, 201; Rothko’s work in context of, 86; significance of, 70, 158, 163, 170, 228n3; theologian’s interest in, 177
New Images of Man and Woman (exhibition), 181
Newman, Barnett, 162
New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), 182, 198–99
New Paintings of Common Objects (exhibition), 229n5
New Realism: definitions of, 230n21; exhibitions of, 101, 103–4; Neo-Dadism and Pop Art linked to, 228–29n5. See also Pop Art
New Realism, The (exhibition), 103–4
New Realists (exhibition), 101
New York: arrival in, 12–13; Beckmann’s milieu in, 94–95; high school and university education in, 18–19, 21, 27; Nazis and Germany support in, 21, 216–17n28; Selz family and social life in, Fig. 13, 109–17; Werkleute network in, 14–15, 17; World’s Fair (1939)in, 22
New York art scene: adaptation to, 18, 20; anti-Semitism in, downplayed, 65–68, 106; artist-critic-curator-dealer nexus in, 101–3; awareness of, 34–35; California art scene compared, 123–24; changes in 1960s, 60–61, 105–6; Dubuffet’s work known in, 89; immersion in, 19–21, 111–16; later association with galleries in, 181, 182; “snobbism,” centrism, and parochialism of, 61–63, 75, 118, 222n28
New Yorker (magazine), 78, 224n13
New York Review of Books, 101, 229–30n14
New York School of painting: contacts with, 35; Dubuffet and, 90; French attitude toward, 53; gestural painting as analogue to, 156, 240–41n14; narrative written for, 61–62; political ramifications of emerging, 60–61; “snobbism” and centrism surrounding, 61–62, 222n28; triumph at Venice Biennale, 60, 221–22n26. See also Abstract Expressionism; de Kooning, Willem; Kline, Franz; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Rothko, Mark
New York Times art reviews: Jean Tinguely exhibition, 80–81; Mark Rothko exhibition, 87; New Images of Man exhibition, 75–77, 223n5; Optical Art, 99; Martín Ramírez work, xi; The Work of Jean Dubuffet exhibition, 89–90
Nochlin, Linda, 159
Noland, Kenneth, 177
Nolde, Emil, Fig. 14, 66–67, 91
Non-Plussed, The, 33
Norman, Dorothy, 20
Novak, Barbara, 121
O’Doherty, Brian, 121
O’Farrell, Ursula, 203
Office of Strategic Services (OSS), 23, 24–25, 217n37
O’Hagan, Margaret Peterson, 159
Oldenburg, Claes, 102
“old fogies”: use of term, 101, 229n12
Oliveira, Nathan: in BAM collection, 142; MoMA exhibition of, 63; Selz’s monograph on, 156, 194–95, 241n15; Selz’s view of, 191, 193–94; work in New Images of Man exhibition, 75, 78, 202, 248n49
Ollman, Leah, 207
Olsen, Donald, 180
Olympic Games (1936), 12
Optical Art, 99
oral history, xii, 41, 106, 158, 200
OSS (Office of Strategic Services), 23, 24–25, 217n37
Ossorio, Alfonso, 74
Otis Art Institute, 62
Pacific Film Archive (PFA): administration’s attitude toward, 121–22, 234–35n14; founding and location of, 121–22, 125; significance of, 122–23; student’s view of, 151
Palestine, 10. See also Zionism
Palo Alto: later association with galleries in, 181
Panicali, Carla, 120
Paris (France): happiness of Peter and Thalia in, 111; loans for Auguste Rodin exhibition from, 91–92, 170; MoMA’s Rothko exhibition in, 53, 60, 221n13; MoMA’s U.S. Representation exhibition in, 53–54; Selz’s Fulbright research in, 31–32
Paris, Deborah. See Hertz, Deborah Paris (Debby)
Paris, Harold: circle of, 135–36, 187; on Funk, 129, 131, 132–33; illustration of, Fig. 18; work in Funk exhibition, 128, 130
Parkinson, Ariel, 162, 201–3, 208–9, 249n63
Partisan Review, 101
Pasadena Art Museum, 91, 145, 229n5
Paschke, Ed, 33
Pascin, Jules, 123
performance art: feminist concerns in, 241–42n26; at unveiling of Crucifixion series, 160. See also Wisdom, Norton (“The Artist”)
Perkins, Steve, viii
Perl, Jed, 98, 105, 223n5, 228n3
Perls, Frank, 42
Persian Gulf War (1990–91), 196–97
Peters, Richard, 147
Peter Selz Day, 201
Picasso, Pablo: Braque’s dispute with, 162; figurative work of, 208; works: Guernica, 73, 93, 183, 186
Piero della Francesca, 93, 120
Poland: abstract painting in, 61
political consciousness, 38. See also art and politics connections
Pollock, Jackson: MoMA’s exhibition of, 55; Ossorio influenced by, 74; Selz’s introduction to, 33; Tobey as influence on, 222n28; work in New Images of Man exhibition, 63, 222n32
Pomodoro, Arnoldo, Fig. 18
Pomona College: Expressionism (arts festival) and, Fig. 12; happiness of Peter and Thalia at, 111; importance to Selz’s thinking, 36–39; murals at, 44–45; reflections on, 39, 42, 119; Scripps College classes and, 40; Selz’s departure from, 46–47, 48
—exhibitions by Selz: contemporary artists (1947), 34, 218n17; Leon Golub, 41; Greene and Greene (architects), 41; Stieglitz Circle, 45–47
Pop Art: Abstract Expressionism compared with, 105–6, 230n21; Art Nouveau’s influence on, 82–85; in BAM collection, 139; careers in, 230–31n25; definitions of, 101–2, 228–29n5; emergence of, 99–100, 228n2; market for, 98, 101, 102–3; MoMA’s symposium on, 101, 228n2; Selz’s objection to, 101, 102–3, 105, 157; Selz’s revised opinion of, 206–7, 209; Warhol and Kentridge in context of, 208
Porter, Fairfield, 223n5, 230–31n25
Powerhouse Gallery: discontinued use of, 238n68; exhibitions by Selz at, 123, 126–28; space of, 119; student’s view of exhibitions at, 150. See also Funk (exhibition)
Price, Lorna (now Dittmer), 203–4
Ramírez, Martín, xi
Ramos, Mel, 191
Ramparts (magazine), 67, 223n40
Rapoport, Sonia, 131
Rauschenberg, Robert: assemblage work of, 89, 130; collaboration of, 88; collectors of, 98; Venice Biennale prize for, 60, 250n6; work in Miller’s exhibition series, 224n17; work in MoMA exhibition in Paris, 54
Raven, Arlene, 158
Rawson, David, 179
Read, Herbert, 140
Realism: German (exhibition), 198–99; Selz’s view of, 103–4. See also New Realism
Reich, Steve, 125
Rembrandt van Rijn, 4, 5, 137, 194
Renaissance Society (University of Chicago), 34, 218n17
Renan, Sheldon, 121–22, 234n12, 239n78
Representations (journal), 152
Responsive Eye, The (exhibition), 99
Rewald, John, 57
Rheingold brewery (Bushwick), 19, 20, 21–22
Richardson, Brenda: at BAM opening, 125; BAM position of, 145; Funk exhibition and, 129, 134; Selz’s departure and, 146–48, 239n74, 239n77
Rickey, George, 127
Riegl, Alois, 29
Rinder, Lawrence, 139–40, 183, 237n43, 238n60
Robert Colescott (exhibition), 182
Rockefeller, Abby Aldrich, 49–51
Rockefeller, Mrs. John D., 3rd, Fig. 14
Rockefeller, Nelson, 53, 58–59
Rodia, Simon (Sam), 155
Rodin, Auguste, 91–92, 170, 226–27n47
“Roll over Beethoven” (song), 106
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 59
Rosenblum, Robert, 155, 171, 240n11
Rosenfeld, Michael, 181
Rosenquist, James, 100
Rosenthal, Rachel, 158
Rothko, Christopher, 120, 165, 167, 177
Rothko, Mark: California visit of, 121; changing attitudes toward, 105; circle of, 90; exhibition preparations of, 85–86; intentions regarding estate, 142, 165, 168, 169, 243n49; Italy trip with, Fig. 17, 120; nonobjective and figurative reconciled by, 105; philosophical paintings of, 162; proposed de Kooning show and, 70; red painting given to Selz, 120, 234n8; Selz’s view of, 130, 186; Symbolist context of work, 225–26n35; trial over estate of, 165–69. See also Mark Rothko (exhibition)
Rothko, Mary Alice Beistle (“Mell”), Fig. 17, 120, 165
Rothko Chapel (Houston), 112
Rousseau, Théodore, 137
Rubens, Peter Paul, 138–39, 140
Running Fence project (Christo and Jeanne-Claude), 153–54, 185
Rutberg, Jack, Fig. 22, 181, 196–97
Sachs, Paul, 50
Sacramento: later association with galleries in, 181; Tribute to Peter Selz exhibition at gallery in, 235n21, 247n28
Sakata, Barry, 181. See also b. sakata garo (gallery)
Sam Francis (book, Selz), 164, 191–92
Sam Francis (exhibition), 181
Sandler, Irving, 221–22n26, 222n28
Sandvig, Elizabeth, 37–39, 152
San Francisco: Chicano art venue in, 247n27; later association with galleries in, 131, 181, 182; sculpture commission of, 184–85; Selz’s impact on art scene of, 186–87. See also Bay Area art scene
San Francisco Art Institute, 247n27
San Francisco Museum of Art (now San Francisco Museum of Modern Art [SFMOMA]): Abstract Expressionism exhibition, 240–41n14; Emil Nolde exhibition (from MoMA), 91; competition concerns of, 119; film archive rejected by, 121; symposium at, 189; visits with step-granddaughter to, 204, 205; William Kent-ridge exhibition, 207–8, 209
San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, The (Landauer), 156, 240–41n14
San Jose Museum of Art, 156, 241n15
Saturday Review (magazine), 76, 77
Savio, Mario, 119, 233n3. See also Free Speech Movement
Savoldo, Giovanni Girolamo, 139, 140
Scanlan’s Magazine, 67
Schapiro, Meyer, 52, 84–85, 169
Schapiro, Miriam, 158
Schemmerling, Carole. See Selz, Carole Schemmerling (fifth wife)
Schemmerling, Kryssa (stepdaughter), 179
Schemmler, Oskar, 182
Scheyer, Galka, 145
Schiele, Egon, 16
Schjeldahl, Peter, 77–78, 224n13
Schlesinger, Norma. See Selz, Norma (second wife)
Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl, 32
Schneemann, Carolee, 157
Schoenberg, Arthur, 43
Schulze, Franz, 33
Schwitters, Kurt, 22
Scull, Ethel (“Spike”), 98, 228n4
sculpture: self-destructing (see Jean Tinguely); Selz’s critique of modernist, 184–85; significance of Giacometti’s, 95–96. See also assemblage; Chillida, Eduardo; kinetic art; Rodin, Auguste
Segal, George, 102
Seitz, Irma, 109
Seitz, William C.: arrival at MoMA, 51–52, 221n11; The Art of Assemblage exhibition, 73, 88–89, 236n32; Emil Nolde exhibition, 91; MoMA shows proposed by, 56; proposed de Kooning show and, 69, 70–71; The Responsive Eye exhibition, 99; Selz’s departure and, 106, 108; Selz’s relationship with, 69, 107, 109–10, 231n36; Warhol painting purchased for MoMA by, 209
Seligmann, Kurt, 21
Selz, Adolf, Fig. 4
Selz, Carole Schemmerling (fifth wife): at CAA reception, xi; characteristics of, 179, 180; circle of, 196, 245n4, 245n6; Crucifixion series unveiling and, 160; environmental concerns of, 180, 246n11; illustrations of, Figs. 21, 24, 25; marriage of, 178–80; on Peter’s character, 161; support and travel of, 180, 181, 185
Selz, Edgar (brother): family time with, 30; illustrations of, Figs. 4, 6; immigration to London and then U.S., 10, 13–14; outings with, 3, 4; on Peter as youth, 5; on Peter’s citizenship, 23
Selz, Edith (Drey) (mother): children of, 1–2; illustrations of, Figs. 4, 6, 8; immigration of, 13; Peter’s relationship with, 3, 4
Selz, Eugen (father): children of, 1–2; illustrations of, Figs. 4, 8; immigration of, 13; outings with, 3; Peter’s relationship with, 3; politics of, 9–10
Selz, Gabrielle (Gaby, daughter): birth of, 39; current whereabouts of, 110; on family relationships, 114–15, 232n50, 233n57; illustration of, Fig. 13; on Peter as “force of nature,” xi; on Peter’s creative life force, 203; Peter’s relationship with, 115, 179; on taped conversations, 232n37; on visits to museums with Peter, 115, 205, 232n49; work: “Rush,” 115, 232n47
Selz, Norma (second wife): Berkeley move of, 116; divorce from Peter, 114, 120; illustration of, Fig. 18; Italy trip with, 120; on marriage with Peter, 232n42; Peter’s affair with, 113–14; previous marriage, 113; reflections of, 234n7
Selz, Peter: approach to, xii–xiii; illustrations of, Figs. 1, 4–11, 13–18, 20–26; name of, 2, 23, 214n1
—career: anti-Semitism downplayed in, 65–68, 106; art tastes and interests as influences, 33–34; Bellagio Study Center residency, 182; Botero’s Abu Ghraib series and, 133–34, 246nn15–16; collaborations in, 83, 88–89, 91–92, 170, 226–27n47; curator to director shift in, 119; demonic and horrific in art and, 76, 175, 177, 223–24n6, 236n32; first art job, 21–22; first solo show at MoMA, 86; Fulbright research, 31–32; identity in, 199–200; key themes in, 126, 181, 182, 183–84, 186–87; later activities with art dealers and galleries, 181–82, 190–91, 201, 203; marginalized artists supported, 156, 158, 162–63, 241n16; nonobjective and representative approach combined in, 69–70; as nude model for Crucifixion series, 160; Pop Art symposium organized by, 101, 228n2; provocative approach in, 81–82; regional view in, 75, 118, 187; revising opinion during, 196–97, 206–7; Rothko estate trial and, 165–69, 243n59; Running Fence project director, 153–54, 185; self-confidence and connections in, 64; Southern California contribution of, 43–44; tributes to, 177, 181, 235n21, 247n28; as voice for modernist art, 200–205; “working with friends,” 155. See also art and politics connections; awards and honors; Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM]); “living the art life”; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Pomona College; UC-Berkeley art history department
—characteristics: adaptability, 14, 18; atheism, 73, 174–76, 177; creative life force, 194–95, 203; curiosity, 37, 41, 110, 162, 177, 240n11; deficit in empathy for others, 156, 241n16; ego, x–xi, 199–200, 203; energy and empathy, 37, 186; enthusiasm for art, ix, 1, 4–6, 14, 139, 205; generosity and inclusiveness, 187–88; level of control, 171; loyalty to art and artists, 105, 155, 184, 195, 198; moral principles, 164–65; music preferences, viii; naïveté, 169; natural storyteller, 73, 153, 156, 171; openness, vii– viii, x, 18, 36, 41, 123–24, 150, 155, 173, 187, 195–96, 213n2, 240n11; pet peeve, 61–63; self-identity created, 5–6, 66; social conscience, 175–76; summarized, 148. See also art and politics connections; love and sexuality
—exhibitions. See exhibitions
—life: automobile of, 42; birth and early childhood, Fig. 4, 1–6, 197; brewery work, 19, 20, 21–22; daughters (see Selz, Gabrielle; Selz, Tanya); education, university-level, 19, 21, 26, 27–29; education and youth activities in Munich, 6–10; education in N.Y.C., 18–19, 21; existentialist interests, 74–75, 157; family home and issues in New York years, Fig. 13, 109–17; Fulbright research in Paris, 31–32; grandchildren, 179; immigration to U.S., 10, 11; military service, Fig. 10, 21, 23–26; outdoor activities, Fig. 7, 3, 5, 7, 23–24, 201, 202; personal appearance, ix, 97–98, 195; Regal Road home, 180, 192–93; Rosa (childhood nanny), Fig. 5, 3–4; spoken voice, 128; step-children (grown), 179; U.S. citizenship, 22–23. See also art and politics connections; “living the art life”; love and sexuality
—works: Art in Our Times, 144, 157, 236n32, 241n20, 245n1; Barbara Chase-Riboud (book and exhibition), 158, 159; Beyond the Mainstream, 184, 188, 196–97; “Modernism Comes to Chicago” (Selz), 33; Nathan Oliveira, 156, 194–95, 241n15; Rilke translations, 20; Sam Francis, 164, 191–92; “The Stars and Stripes” (Selz), 196–97. See also Art of Engagement; German Expressionist Painting
—writing: Andersen’s writing compared with, 170–71; German scholarship as influence on, 29; making time for, 112, 144; residency for Lindner catalogue writing, 182; Selz’s voice in, 200–205; struggle to find verbal language for nonverbal works, 86–87, 225–26n35; syncretizing subjects in, 127; theoretical foundation limited, 157
Selz, Tanya (daughter): birth of, 39; early relationship with parents, 114–15; illustration of, Fig. 13; Peter’s relationship with, 115, 179
Selz, Thalia (Cheronis) (first wife): career of, 32–33; family home and issues in New York years, Fig. 13, 109–17; illness and death of, 110; at Jean Tinguely exhibition, 80; marriage of, 30, 36, 39, 64; on MoMA job, 49; in Paris with Peter, 32; in Pomona’s milieu, 38–39; reconciliation attempts and, 233n57; taped conversations with Peter and, 110–16, 232n37
Selz, Trudy (Wertheimer) (sister-in-law), 13, 30
SFMOMA. See San Francisco Museum of Art (now San Francisco Museum of Modern Art [SFMOMA])
Shaiken, Harley, 183
Shaw, Richard, 125
Sheppard, Carl, 41
Sherk, Bonnie, 125
Simon, Norton, 124, 141, 145–46
Simson, Otto Georg von, 28
Sinsabaugh, Art, 31
Siskind, Aaron, 31
Sixteen Americans (exhibition), 79, 224n17
Slant Step show, 128
Slive, Seymour, 36
Smith, David, 56, 184, 185, 202
Smith, Hassel, 179, 245n6, 246n10
Smith-Andersen Gallery. See Kirkeby, Paula
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 174–75
Snyder, Gary, 125
Soby, James Thrall, 50–51, 55, 93, 224n12
Society for Art, Religion, and Culture (ARC), 173–74
Society for Art Publications of the Americas, 190–91
Southern California Art Historians, 40, 41
Southern California art scene: Hard Edge painting recognized in, 43–44; ignored by New York art scene, 75, 118; immersion in, 42–43; later association with galleries in, 181, 196; Pomona’s milieu in, 36–39; ultrareactionary art views and responses to, 39–41. See also Los Angeles; Pomona College
Spafford, Michael, 37–39, 41, 152
Spiegel, Norma, 113–14. See also Selz, Norma (second wife)
Sprengel, Bernhard, 66
Staempfli, George, 80
Stamos, Theodoros, 165–66, 167, 168
“Stars and Stripes, The” (Selz), 196–97
Steinberg, Leo, 49, 101, 208, 228n2
Steinitz, Beate (“Batz”), 15, 22
Stella, Frank, 105, 208, 224n17, 230–31n25
Stieglitz, Alfred, 19–20, 45–47
Stieglitz Circle (exhibition), 45–47
Stiles, Kristine: role in Selz’s publications, 157, 204, 241n20; on Selz as teacher, 155, 156–57, 161
St. Louis (Mo.): Max Beckmann exhibition in, 94
St. Louis University, Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, 176
Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 43
Stravinsky, Igor, 43
students: California bohemian lifestyle and, 135–36; females as, 155–58, 240n13, 241n16; as (later) museum directors, 150–51, 152–53; long-term relationships with, 154–55; making time for, 144–45, 146, 148; on Selz as teacher, 37, 155–58, 189–90; Selz’s appeal to, 150, 152, 155; on Selz’s openness, viii, x, 150; on Selz’s style, 150–51; Sheets’s reactionary vs. Selz’s modernist ideas about art and, 40; theological seminary students as, 175–76. See also teaching
Stuttgart (Germany): architecture of, 180, 245–46n9
Surrealism: in BAM collection, 139; contact with artists in, 21, 123; figuration after, 63–64, 73; Giacometti’s work in, 95–96; Peggy Guggenheim’s collection of, 142; in New Americans exhibition, 22; scholarship on, 28, 190, 240n2
Symbolism: Art Nouveau and, 83–84; exhibition of, 57, 58; Oliveira and, 193; Rothko’s work in context of, 225–26n35
Symposium on Pop Art, A (MoMA), 101, 228n2
Sypher, Wylie, 90
Tasende Gallery, 181
teaching: in Chicago, 30–31, 32–33, 35; on living fully in relation to art, ix; making time for, 144–45, 146, 148; on museum work and art history, 150–51, 152–53; nontheoretical vs. traditional approaches in, 151–52; object-oriented and artist-focused approach to, 149–50; students’ reflections on, 37, 155–58, 189–90; teaching assistant in, 150–51; tenured position in, 119, 148, 149. See also students
Temko, Alan, 179
Temko, Becky, 179
Temple of Man (gathering place), 245n4
Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, 140
Tillich, Paul: on art and the spiritual, 163; background of, 73–74, 223n3; preface to catalogue for New Images of Man, 73–75, 174
Tillim, Sidney, 99–100, 228–29n5, 230n21
Time (magazine), 128
Tinguely, Jean: in BAM collection, 140; New York visit of, 78; works: Black Knight, 140; Cyclops, 180. See also Jean Tinguely (exhibition)
Titian, 4
Tobey, Mark, 60–61, 99, 222n28
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 42, 83
Tribute to Peter Selz (exhibition), 235n21, 247n28
Trilling, Diana, 109
Trilling, Lionel, 109
Tullis, Garner, Fig. 20
Twelve Americans (exhibition), 79
Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (exhibition), 183
Twice a Year (journal), 20
University Art Museum (UAM). See Berkeley Art Museum (BAM)
University of California Arts Club, 156
University of California at Berkeley: anti-war, antiestablishment counterculture of, 119, 124–26, 133, 233n3; bohemian lifestyle of, 135–36; Botero’s Abu Ghraib series at, 183; crackdown on protesters at, 140, 145–46; film library rejected by, 121–22, 234–35n14; gallery of, 119; research library of, 22; Rothko’s summer professorship at, 121; Selz’s relationship with administrators at, 138–39, 141–48. See also Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM]); UC-Berkeley art history department
UC-Berkeley art history department: BAM and faculty of, Fig. 18, 41, 138, 143–44; conservatism of, 151–52; Selz and Chipp as modernists in, 152, 217–18n8; Selz’s friends in, 186; Selz’s tenured position in, 119, 148, 149; sexism of, 159. See also art history; students; teaching
University of California Press, 152, 204, 213n6
University of California Regents: administrative and budget changes, 141, 143, 145; Guggenheim proposal accepted by, 141; responses to student activism, 140, 145–46
University of Chicago: contemporary art exhibition of, 34, 218n17; political participation at, 38; students at, 27–29, 173, 174
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 30
U.S. Representation (exhibition), 53–54
Valentiner, William, 28
Valley Curtain project (Christo and Jeanne-Claude), 153
Van Gogh, Vincent, 197
Vedova, Emilio, Fig. 18
Venice (Italy): proposed study center at, 140–42; Selz’s visit to, 67
Venice Biennales, 56, 60, 250n6
Visionary Art of Morris Graves, The (exhibition), 182
Voulkos, Peter: at BAM opening, 125; circle of, 135–36, 187; foundry assistant of, 150; illustration of, Fig. 18; Selz’s support for, 62, 156; work in Funk exhibition, 123, 128, 130
Wagner, Ronald, 119
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), 198
Warhol, Andy: collectors of, 98; Conner compared with, 130; instant art history of, 100; Pop Art of, 101–2, 104; reconsideration of work, 209, 250n8; retrospective on, 207, 209; scholarship on, 101, 229–30n14
Warhol Live (exhibition), 207, 209
Watts Towers (Rodia), 155
WCA (Women’s Caucus for Art), 158, 159–60
Weil, Paul (half-brother), 1–2, 10
Werkleute (Working People): activities of, 6, 7; centrality for Selz, 113; reading and discussions in, 7–8; role in adapting to New York City, 14–15, 17; sexuality and, 16
Wertheimer, Trudy (later, Selz, sister-inlaw), 13, 30
Wesselmann, Tom, 100
Wessels, Glenn, 138
Whisky a Go Go (club), vii–viii, 150, 213n2
Wight, Frederick, 41
Wiley, William T.: in BAM collection, 142; at BAM opening, 125; circle of, viii; on Funk, 131, 132; Slant Step show and, 128; work in Funk exhibition, 128
William Kentridge (exhibition), 207–8, 209
Williams, Joanna, 144
Wind Combs (Chillida), 185
Wingler, Hans Maria, 67, 223n41
Winston, Elizabeth, 45
Wisdom, Ireland, viii
Wisdom, Norton (“The Artist”): on BAM, 126, 150; performance work of, vii; on Selz, viii, x, 150; on X (band), 213n2
Wisdom, Robin, viii
With, Karl, 41
Witkin, Jerome, 198
Wittkower, Rudolf, 168
women: discrimination against, 158–60, 234n11, 242n27; key role in creating MoMA, 49–51, 220n6; as muse, 194–95; Selz’s reputation around, 155–56, 157, 164. See also feminism
Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA), 158, 159–60
Work of Jean Dubuffet, The (exhibition), 55, 72, 89–91
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 79, 225n18
World’s Fair (1939), 22
World War II: GI Bill for veterans of, 26, 27; Selz’s military service during, Fig. 10, 21, 23–26
Worringer, Wilhelm, 29
Yates, Peter, 43
Yonker, Dolores (third wife), 245n1
youth groups. See Werkleute (Working People)
Yunkers, Adja, 195
Zajac, Jack, 40