British artwork historian and famend curator David Anfam died on the age of 69 in London final Wednesday, August 21, as confirmed by the Clyfford Nonetheless Museum in Denver, Colorado. Greatest recognized for his scholarship on Summary Expressionism, Anfam lives on by means of his legacy in exhibitions and publications similar to his celebrated catalogue raisonné of Mark Rothko’s work.
Born in 1955, Anfam attended the Courtauld Institute of Artwork in London, the place he acquired a Bachelor’s diploma in Artwork Historical past and was admitted straight into the PhD program underneath the steerage and tutelage of artwork historian John Golding. Per Golding’s suggestion, Anfam centered his dissertation on Clyfford Nonetheless, one of many credited pioneers of Summary Expressionism who notoriously withdrew from the artwork market with a view to exert whole management over his artistic imaginative and prescient.
Although he was by no means capable of meet Nonetheless in particular person, Anfam was devoutly dedicated to the artist, ultimately changing into the senior consulting curator for the Denver museum devoted to Nonetheless’s property upon its 2011 opening after becoming a member of the challenge in 2007.
Hyperallergic critic John Yau, a longtime good friend of Anfam, mentioned that the late historian “began with no theories, and bought all of his data from speaking to individuals who knew the artist, from wanting on the artist’s work, from studying something and every little thing he may discover written by the artist.”
Yau particularly remembered an occasion by which the late artwork historian bodily copied certainly one of Nonetheless’s essays on Paul Cezanne held within the Archives of American Artwork by hand on file playing cards, since copying through Xerox wasn’t permitted on the time.
“On this, he was full of affection and generosity,” Yau advised Hyperallergic.
In 1998, Anfam printed his field-changing Rothko catalogue raisonné with Yale College Press. 9 years within the making and that includes over 830 recognized work by Rothko (400 of which had little to no earlier recognition) in addition to a 100-page introduction, Anfam’s publication swept the Mitchell Prize for the Historical past of Artwork in 2000 amid boundless accolades for its contemporary take and knowledgeable contextualization of Rothko’s work, life, and surrounding influences. Anfam went on to provide a listing raisonné for British artist Anish Kapoor in 2009, printed by Phaidon Press.
He’s additionally well-remembered for his first printed work, Summary Expressionism (1990), thought-about a strong foray into the editorial scape for condensing a profoundly complicated artwork motion into an approachable and introductory textual content. Along with authoring his personal books, Anfam has contributed catalogue essays for dozens of artists, together with Wayne Thiebaud, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Edward Hopper, Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollock, Larry Poons, Richard Pousette-Dart, Robert Rauschenberg, and Advert Reinhardt, amongst others. The late historian additionally contributed to Hyperallergic, with a 2020 assessment of Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Work on the Princeton College Artwork Museum.
Past the written phrase, Anfam was a public and educational lecturer, in addition to an esteemed curator. Notable exhibitions developed underneath Anfam embrace Mark Rothko: The Chapel Fee in Houston in 1996, Invoice Viola: Ocean And not using a Shore (2007) on the 52nd Venice Biennale, Summary Expressionism at London’s Royal Academy of Arts between 2016 and 2017, and Lynda Benglis: Within the Realm of the Senses in Athens between 2019 and 2020.
Yau underscored that Anfam’s legacy isn’t just his authentic writing about and devotion to Clyfford Nonetheless, but additionally his texts “about little-known and lesser-known figures, in addition to uncared for contemporaries.”
“He had an unlimited urge for food and at all times introduced the identical excessive commonplace of care and dedication to everybody whose work he wrote about,” Yau concluded.