Acknowledgments

Grundberg, Andy

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Acknowledgments

Andy Grundberg

Description: How Photography Became Contemporary Art: Inside an Artistic Revolution from Pop to...

How Photography Became Contemporary Art: Inside an Artistic Revolution from Pop to the Digital Age

~First, thanks to all the artists whose work I discuss; they have provided the material that shapes my narrative as well as a central reason my life has been so full and rewarding. Also, to the critics, writers, and editors of my generation who have endeavored to explain why art matters and which art matters more than most. I am blessed to have experienced firsthand...

Author

Andy Grundberg

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21719

Acknowledgments

First, thanks to all the artists whose work I discuss; they have provided the material that shapes my narrative as well as a central reason my life has been so full and rewarding. Also, to the critics, writers, and editors of my generation who have endeavored to explain why art matters and which art matters more than most. I am blessed to have experienced firsthand such a disputatious and energetic era in the history of art, thanks to you.

This book includes my own recollections, which lack the fabled veracity of still photographs, so I have relied on my peers and on much recent scholarship to confirm as many of them as possible. Among the many individuals who supplied their own memories of the period to supplement mine, and who submitted to my interrogations in person, I am indebted to Janet Borden, Roger Bruce, Charles Hagen, Marvin Heiferman, Harold Jones, Jane Livingston, Lisa Spellman, Carol Squiers, Charles Stainback, Helene Winer, and Ealan Wingate. Deborah Bell, Philippe Garner, Michael Klein, Rosalind Krauss, Laurence Miller, and others also supplied key details when asked. Joan Simon supplied valuable feedback on some early drafts.

I have benefited over the years from the support of colleagues, editors, and friends far too numerous to mention, but here are a few: at Art in America, Elizabeth C. Baker and Joan Simon; at the Soho Weekly News, Gerald Marzorati; at the New York Times, Eva Hoffman, Michael Kimmelman, William McDonald, Marilyn Minden, Claiborne Ray, Constance Rosenblum, Le Anne Schreiber, Jack Schwartz, and Rebecca Sinkler; at the Washington Post, John Pancake. My faculty colleagues at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, especially Dorothea Dietrich, Frank DiPerna, Muriel Hasbun, and Susan Sterner, helped inspire me to develop and expand the course that was the basis for this book.

Julia Scully, former editor of Modern Photography, was my most important influence at the start of my career; she introduced me to a world of photography I might never have known and to writing about it with passion and compassion. Art historians Rosalind Krauss, Robert Rosenblum, and Irving Sandler I got to know but briefly in my years in New York, but their sagacity and openness to new art set a standard for art writing I deeply admire. In the photography world, in addition to those already mentioned, I am fortunate to have shared my formative years as a critic with gallerists of exquisite visual refinement, including Bonni Benrubi, Evelyne Daitz, Jeffrey Fraenkel, Peter MacGill, Marcuse Pfeifer, Julie Saul, Daniel Wolf, and Virginia Zabriskie—some of whom sadly are not here to share in my memories. They, along with many talented museum curators, made my decision to take up reviewing seem wise.

Thanks to the George Washington University, which, after absorbing the Corcoran College, saw fit to make me an emeritus professor and thus entitle me during my research to use its extensive library resources, online and in the stacks at the Gelman Library, and to Marisa Bourgoin of the Archives of American Art, who helped me navigate its rich collections of artist and gallery archives. Helene Winer let me browse in the gallery records at Metro Pictures.

Many artists, artist estates, and galleries generously cooperated in supplying images for the book, and many went so far as to allow me permission to reproduce artwork without paying their usual reproduction fees. To them, sincere thanks for helping to make this book richly illustrated and economically feasible. For their cooperation and assistance with multiple requests, I am especially indebted to Lisa Ballard at the Artists Rights Society, Catherine Belloy of Marian Goodman Gallery, Jane Crawford and the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, and the William Wegman Studio. And a special thank you to Louise Lawler, who provided the perfect picture for the book’s cover, producing a new art object in the process.

At Yale University Press, my editor, Katherine Boller, has kept me from my worst excesses and shepherded me through drafts and readers’ reports. I also thank Sarah Henry, Raychel Rapazza, and Kate Zanzucchi. Copy editor Alison Hagge efficiently fixed my grammatical lapses and corrected my facts, and proofreader Julia Ridley Smith and indexer Krister Swartz supplied much needed finishing touches. (Despite their due diligence, any errors that remain to be discovered are entirely mine.) Jeff Wincapaw made the book as beautiful as it is, and Dan Cohen rounded up the illustrations and their permissions. I take great pleasure knowing that the Press is nurturing such a high standard of publishing. And I owe a true debt to my agent, Martha Millard, and Lord Literistics, who placed me in such good hands. Martha’s enduring faith in me as an author even after a long fallow period is truly remarkable, and appreciated.

And to Merry Foresta, who insisted that I write this book. She not only gladly suffered through three years of my self-induced preoccupation with my past, but also provided valuable guidance and feedback all along the way.

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