[ebooks] Peter Selz: Sketches of a Life in Art by Paul J. Karlstrom in Arts-Photography

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Pomona College gave birth to a legendBy William J. Havlicek. PhDAs a Claremont University graduate I am well acquainted with our sister college Pomona and of its legendary role in Peter Selzs career.The sketches of his life include important events that transpired at Pomona. Berkeley and beyond. But the important thing is not onlythe context and its local lore but of Peter himself. Not a perfect man (and there are none) what stands out for me is his humanity andcompassion for the underdog. Having survived the holocaust he became well aware of how precarious life can be. It was this precious knowledgethat kept him in the arts and allowed him to understand the truth embodied in German Expressionist painting. Peter is one of those leaders in artwho reflect the moral call to tell the truth about the human condition. That condition is a universal reality for all humankind with its suffering.distancing and tendency to despair. All the same art that arises from that condition (such as German Expressionism) rivets the heart and reminds usas Peter Selz has repeatedly done of the soul that resonates in truth-telling. This book is important because it reminds us in yet another wayof why art is important and timeless. William J. Havlicek PhD0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Great readBy Barbara MaronThe author in telling Selzs fascinating life story has deeply broadened it with his knowledge of art. He also intertwines the story of antisemitism in this country prior to the WW II.Last year I heard Selz give a lecture on art and he said it was really all about spirituality. Karlstrom captures Selz so well in this book...a great read.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The Art of Yesterday -- Or Almost YesterdayBy Frederick JordanMark Rothko. Willem de Kooning. Max Beckmann--do these names sound familiar? If your remembrance of Art History 101 is a bit faulty. just buy a copy of this new book by Paul J. Karlstrom for a refresher course. like nothing you ever had in the classroom. It follows the life of Peter Selz. one of the gray eminences in the world of late 20th century art. He was not a maker of things but a historian. curator. teacher and critic of them. This fluent and seamless read carries the reader on a transatlantic and transcontinental journey as it traces Selz journey from his youth in Munich. his escape to New York in the mid-30s. and the establishment of his bona fides as a critic with a major publication on German Expressionist artists. But lest you think this a dry slide show of the "modern." Selz was a figure who was both iconoclastic and yet a thoroughgoing insider. capping the first part of his career with the sweet job of curator of modern painting at the Museum of Modern Art. Well. the story continues--he went to California and became director of the art museum at Berkeley. and he wound up championing California art (very un-New Yorkish) and artists. Eventually he left Cal. as he did MOMA. in circumstances that would liven up the dinner table. and continued (and continues) putting on exhibitions of underappreciated artists in the Bay Area. Karlstrom was the premier oral historian of art for the Smithsonian Institution and this biography draws on his skill as an interviewer. not just of Selz but of the numerous people Selz interacted with in his long and notable career. This is a book not just about the making of art. but about the selling of it. about museums and universities and galleries. and the enormously talented and driven people that inhabit that world. The author builds a stage portrait of one of the machers in that world. and at the same time slyly pulls the curtain back to show a bit of the scaffolding and the props all lying slightly awry.