Sam Hunter
Sam Hunter (January 5, 1923 – July 27, 2014) was an American historian of modern art.[1] He was emeritus professor of art history at Princeton University. Art Historian, Author, Museum Director, Professor, Curator.
Life
A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, Hunter graduated from Williams College in 1943. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1943-46, rising to the rank of lieutenant junior grade and receiving five battle stars.[2]
Sam Hunter began his professional art career in 1947, when he joined The New York Times as an art critic for a two and a half year stint. He studied at the American Academy in Rome and the University of Florence through the Hubbard Hutchinson Fellowship earning a certificate of studies in 1951. While in Florence he studied with Bernard Berenson at I Tatti and with Roberto Longhi. He spent a year as an editor with art publisher Harry N. Abrams Inc. before serving as editor of Arts Magazine.
He was an author, an Emeritus professor of art history at Princeton University, director of the Jewish Museum, founding director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Director of The Poses Institute of Fine Arts, acting director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and a visiting professor at the Clark Art Institute at Williams College, Harvard University and various other institutions of higher learning. While associate curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he organized the first major museum exhibition of the work of Jackson Pollock.
He penned monographs, exhibition catalogues, articles, wrote the original book on the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and contributed to textbooks and various treatments of modern art that are used at universities all over the world. In addition to curating many museum and gallery exhibitions, Hunter has written on Francis Bacon, Tom Wesselmann, George Segal, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Isamu Noguchi, Larry Rivers, Alex Katz, Tony Rosenthal, Jean Dubuffet, Hans Hofmann and many other contemporary and modern masters.
Hunter's early photographs of Francis Bacon and his studio, taken in London in 1950, were most recently seen in the 2008/9 Francis Bacon exhibition that originated at the Tate Modern in London, went to the Prado in Barcelona and ended at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and that were used in the accompanying exhibition catalogue.
Sam Hunter, art historian, is known as one of the pioneers of 20th Century Art History who helped to create and build the field of art history as we know it today, along with his contemporary colleagues, art historians Thomas Hess, Harold Rosenberg, Clement Greenberg, and Dore Ashton, among others. In addition, Professor Hunter forged long term friendships and associations with many well known artists, museum directors, art critics, curators, dealers, collectors and other academics and authors of the twentieth century, from the mid-1940's, some of which endured into the early 21st century.
Hunter died aged 91 in Princeton, New Jersey on July 27, 2014.[3][4][5][6]
Works
- Larry Rivers, 1965
- American art since 1945, in Will Grohmann, ed., New art around the world; painting and sculpture, 1966
- American art of the 20th century, 1970
- Modern art: painting, sculpture, architecture, 1976
- George Segal, 1984
References
- ↑ Hunter, Sam, Dictionary of Art Historians. Accessed 9 June 2013.
- ↑ Sam Hunter, Rose Art Museum's first director, dies
- ↑ Sam Hunter, Rose Art Museum's first director, dies
- ↑ Smith, Roberta (2014-08-25). "Sam Hunter, Curator and Museum Founder, Dies at 91". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
- ↑ Davies, Sally Yard, Hugh M. "Sally Yard and Hugh M. Davies on Sam Hunter (1923–2014)". artforum.com. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
- ↑ "Princeton University - Samuel Hunter, authority on 20th-century art and 'profound' mentor, dies". webcache.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
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