Acknowledgments

Livingston, Jane; Liguori, Andrea

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Acknowledgments

Jane Livingston and Andrea Liguori

Richard Diebenkorn: The Catalogue Raisonné (Volume 1: Essays and References)

This catalogue raisonné owes its existence to the lifelong stewardship of Richard Diebenkorn’s legacy by his wife, Phyllis Gilman Diebenkorn. Her acute memory and discernment have guided our efforts from their beginning to the present time. Phyllis’s children, Gretchen and Christopher; her son-in-law, Richard Grant; and her grandchildren, Phyllis Grant and Benjamin Grant, have...

Author

Jane Livingston and Andrea Liguori

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21744

Acknowledgments

Jane Livingston and Andrea Liguori

This catalogue raisonné owes its existence to the lifelong stewardship of Richard Diebenkorn’s legacy by his wife, Phyllis Gilman Diebenkorn. Her acute memory and discernment have guided our efforts from their beginning to the present time. Phyllis’s children, Gretchen and Christopher; her son-in-law, Richard Grant; and her grandchildren, Phyllis Grant and Benjamin Grant, have all to greater or lesser degrees also contributed to this work—but it must be said that Gretchen Diebenkorn Grant’s constant judgment calls, on matters great and small, have functioned as a court of final appeal for us all. Ben Grant sat down with his grandmother and recorded much of the invaluable historical material that is to be found in the chronology.

We want to acknowledge the long-term efforts of our Catalogue Raisonné Committee, composed of scholars, experts, and family members who met periodically over the entire course of the project to consider submissions for inclusion in this publication. The committee members were Christopher Diebenkorn, Gretchen Diebenkorn, Phyllis Diebenkorn, John Elderfield, Jane Livingston, Steven Nash, Gerald Nordland, and Lawrence Rubin.

Project manager Richard Grant provided photography, project coordination, and technical facilitation. In the project’s earlier days, Lisa Sargent undertook the research and documentation that Richard and Gretchen facilitated, and later she helped with the transition to the present team. Lisa’s and Gretchen’s information was based on the years of research on provenance provided by Linda Birke, who worked for the artist during the 1980s. Phyllis Diebenkorn’s secretary, Arlene Allsman, and researcher, Cassandra Richman, also contributed to the effort in the early years.

As editors, we want to especially thank three senior staff members who have made essential contributions. Carl Schmitz, the author of the bibliography and “Interviews and Statements by the Artist” section, also functioned as our primary image preparation expert; Rakia Faber, the project’s primary provenance researcher, handled photographic acquisition and rights, cataloguing, and copyediting responsibilities as well; and Daisy Murray Holman not only authored the chronology but also served as image preparer. Angela Doctor assisted in imaging, reporting, and research, as well as acting as the project’s financial administrator. Meredith George Van Dyke served as an able editor and researcher; Christina Boyd assisted with research and image preparation; and Michael Patrick Walker provided both imaging and research assistance. Jenny Spring procured rights and reproduction permissions for materials not by Richard Diebenkorn. In the 1990s Gerald Nordland accomplished some of the early groundwork for this project as its first editor, under the aegis of the Acquavella Gallery, contacting owners and updating provenance. Jerry has continued to provide access to his research, and generously shared the insights and recollections garnered in his long acquaintanceship with the artist.

We want to acknowledge the assistance over many years of the dealer Lawrence Rubin, who, during his tenure with the Knoedler Gallery and for years afterward, represented the artist with great care. He and his wife, Marina Schinz, also maintained a close relationship with Phyllis Diebenkorn. In more recent years the dealer John Van Doren has attentively represented the artist; we want to thank him; his partner, Dorsey Waxter; their associates both past and present, Emily Devoe, Georgia Franklin, and Sophia Jackson; and Ronald Greenberg and his associate, Courtney Meyer, of the Greenberg Gallery, Saint Louis.

Early and generous support for the catalogue raisonné came from foundations, art dealers, and private individuals. We are grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation, which provided a substantial grant. Other donors include Greenberg Van Doren Gallery; the Donald and Barbara Zucker Foundation; Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery; Paul Thiebaud Gallery; Lawrence Rubin; the Alfred and Diane Wilsey Philanthropic Fund; Leslie Feely Fine Art; the Broad Art Foundation; the Gerson and Barbara Bakar Philanthropic Fund; the Jewish Community Endowment Fund; John Berggruen Gallery; L. J. Cella III; the Pete G. Peterson Fund; Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock; the Ray Stark Trust; Joan Margot Smith; the Morgan Flagg Fund; and Elizabeth and Paul Wilson.

Laura Paulson and Sara Friedlander of Christie’s, New York, provided valuable assistance with early auction history and, along with their colleagues Ellanor Notides and Laura Nagle, steadfastly encouraged us in our efforts for more than a decade. Charles Moffett and Gabriela Palmieri of Sotheby’s, New York, with the assistance of Katherine Thorpe and Sheila Debrunner, endured countless research inquiries with a kindness for which we are grateful.

Kathan Brown and Valerie Wade of Crown Point Press have been longtime friends and supporters of Richard and Phyllis Diebenkorn, providing not only a lifetime of printmaking collaboration but an archival facility and expertise that continues to the present day. We thank their staff, Mari Andrews, Sasha Baguskas, and Stacie Scammell. We also want to thank Scott Atthowe and his staff at Atthowe Fine Art Services for their role in the storage and handling of Richard Diebenkorn’s paintings and drawings over decades.

We have benefited inestimably from the experience of other recent catalogue raisonné scholars. In particular we would like to acknowledge Jack Flam, Morgan Spangle, and Katy Rogers of the Dedalus Foundation and the Robert Motherwell catalogue raisonné; Jack Cowart of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation; Suzi Villiger of the Hans Hofmann catalogue raisonné; and Ani Boyajian of the Stuart Davis and Manierre Dawson catalogues raisonnés.

Many galleries and their staffs have provided information about many transactions involving Diebenkorn work over several decades. We are especially grateful to John and Gretchen Berggruen and their John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, staff, Sheila Halley and Morgann Trumbull; Leslie Feely and her staff at Leslie Feely Fine Art, New York; Alexander Jarolim, formerly of Leslie Feely Fine Art; Melissa de Medeiros at Knoedler & Company, New York; James Corcoran and Tracy Lew at James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles; Manny Silverman and Linda Hooper at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles; David Robinson and Tara Reddi at Marlborough Gallery, New York; Peter Goulds and Kimberly Davis at L.A. Louver, Santa Monica; Jean Edmonson and the late Duncan MacGuigan at Acquavella Gallery, New York; Patsy Tompkins at James Goodman Gallery, New York; Glenna and the late Charlie Campbell, San Francisco; Michael Hackett, Francis Mill, and John Obrecht at Hackett Mill, San Francisco; and the late Paul LeBaron Thiebaud, San Francisco.

Dozens of museums have cooperated with us in our quest for information of many kinds, and helped us by facilitating new photography. We have had a special relationship with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco from the outset of the project. Our gratitude goes to Harry Parker, director from 1987 to 2005, and his administrative assistant, Lauren Ito; director of publications Leslie Dutcher; and those who preceded her, Ann Karlstrom and Karen Levine. We also want to thank Colin Bailey, the museum’s director from 2013 to 2015, and the late John Buchanan, director from 2005 to 2011. For assistance in object and image research, we thank Mark Pascale at the Art Institute of Chicago; Laura Fleischmann at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Sarah Bancroft, Anna-Marie Sanchez, and Fatima Manalili at the Orange County Museum of Art; Timothy Anglin Burgard and Emma Acker at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Elizabeth Tufts-Browne at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; and Connie Wolf and Hilarie Faberman at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University. For their cooperation in several areas we thank our friends and colleagues at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: director Neal Benezra; curators Janet Bishop and Sarah Roberts; and Susan Backman, Sriba Kwadjovie, John Morris, Peter Samis, and Peggy Tran-Le.

We have received special assistance from individuals at the following libraries, archives, and art bookstore: Barbara Rominski, head of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Library and Archives; Marisa Bourgoin at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art; Jeff Gunderson of the San Francisco Art Institute; Jane Glover at the Katharine Hanrahan American Art Study Center, de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Kathryn Wayne at the Art History/Classics Library, History of Art Department, University of California, Berkeley; Cindy Abel Morris at the Bunting Visual Resource Library, University of New Mexico; Ellen Knight at the University of Arizona Library; Karen Schneider at the Phillips Collection Library, Washington, D.C.; the University of California, Santa Barbara Arts Library; the Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Getty Research Library, Los Angeles; the Frick Art Reference Library, New York; the Research Libraries, New York Public Library; and Adrienne Fish, 871 Fine Arts, San Francisco.

The Santa Cruz Island Foundation in Carpinteria, California, has cooperated at every step. We thank director Marla Daily, registrar Peggy Dahl, and their colleague at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Cherie Summers.

To the many private collectors who have responded to our queries, we offer our gratitude; to those who have allowed our invasions to photograph works, we are doubly thankful.

Several independent art scholars, collections curators, art consultants, and private dealers and their staffs have been especially helpful. We are grateful to Nancy Boas, San Francisco; Ronnie Meyerson, New Jersey; Ann Cook, New York; Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher, New York and Los Angeles; Leah Levy of the Jay DeFeo Trust, Berkeley; Jason Linetzky and Karen Saracino of the Anderson Collection, Palo Alto, California; and Mary Zlot, San Francisco.

A significant project doing new conservation evaluation and restoration on Richard Diebenkorn paintings has been initiated by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. We thank Jay Kreuger and Ana Alba for their dedicated efforts on this undertaking. We also want to acknowledge conservators James Bernstein, San Francisco; Karin Breuer and Debra Evans, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Anita Noennig Paper Conservation, Oakland; and Harriet Stratis, the Art Institute of Chicago.

For his early instruction in the rarefied art of photographing paintings large and small, we thank Steven Sloman; and for his extended collaboration in the process of bringing our photographs into the form in which they appear on these pages, we thank Lou Prestia.

We wish to express our unstinting admiration and thanks to our colleagues at Yale University Press: Patricia Fidler, publisher, Art and Architecture; Kate Zanzucchi, managing editor, Art and Architecture; and Sarah Henry, associate design and production manager, Art and Architecture. We consider ourselves especially fortunate to be printing these volumes with master printer Massimo Tonolli and his colleagues at Trifolio in Verona, Italy. Finally, we thank our designer, the redoubtable Katy Homans; typesetter Tina Henderson; copyeditor Miranda Ottewell; proofreader John Mordecai; and indexer Kathleen Friello.

Our families and loved ones, who endured our many long absences and long hours throughout the creation of these volumes, are owed a final nod. To Gretchen Grant, the late Lisle Carter, Jeremy Cohen, Matthew Suazo, Michael Patrick Walker, Charles Van Dyke, Jackson and Oliver Paddock, and Celeste Heike: we are mindful of your patience.

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