Schoenberg, Arthur, 43
Schulze, Franz, 33
Schwitters, Kurt, 22
Scripps College, 39–40
Scull, Ethel (“Spike”), 98, 228n4
Scull, Robert C., 98, 228n4
sculpture: self-destructing (see Jean Tinguely); Selz’s critique of modernist, 184–85; significance of Giacometti’s, 95–96. See also assemblage; Chillida, Eduardo; kinetic art; Rodin, Auguste
Segal, George, 102
Seitz, Irma, 109
Seitz, William C.: arrival at MoMA, 51–52, 221n11; The Art of Assemblage exhibition, 73, 88–89, 236n32; Emil Nolde exhibition, 91; MoMA shows proposed by, 56; proposed de Kooning show and, 69, 70–71; The Responsive Eye exhibition, 99; Selz’s departure and, 106, 108; Selz’s relationship with, 69, 107, 109–10, 231n36; Warhol painting purchased for MoMA by, 209
Seldes, Lee, 165, 166–67, 169
Seligmann, Kurt, 21
Selz, Adolf, Fig. 4
Selz, Carole Schemmerling (fifth wife): at CAA reception, xi; characteristics of, 179, 180; circle of, 196, 245n4, 245n6; Crucifixion series unveiling and, 160; environmental concerns of, 180, 246n11; illustrations of, Figs. 21, 24, 25; marriage of, 178–80; on Peter’s character, 161; support and travel of, 180, 181, 185
Selz, Edgar (brother): family time with, 30; illustrations of, Figs. 4, 6; immigration to London and then U.S., 10, 13–14; outings with, 3, 4; on Peter as youth, 5; on Peter’s citizenship, 23
Selz, Edith (Drey) (mother): children of, 1–2; illustrations of, Figs. 4, 6, 8; immigration of, 13; Peter’s relationship with, 3, 4
Selz, Eugen (father): children of, 1–2; illustrations of, Figs. 4, 8; immigration of, 13; outings with, 3; Peter’s relationship with, 3; politics of, 9–10
Selz, Gabrielle (Gaby, daughter): birth of, 39; current whereabouts of, 110; on family relationships, 114–15, 232n50, 233n57; illustration of, Fig. 13; on Peter as “force of nature,” xi; on Peter’s creative life force, 203; Peter’s relationship with, 115, 179; on taped conversations, 232n37; on visits to museums with Peter, 115, 205, 232n49; work: “Rush,” 115, 232n47
Selz, Norma (second wife): Berkeley move of, 116; divorce from Peter, 114, 120; illustration of, Fig. 18; Italy trip with, 120; on marriage with Peter, 232n42; Peter’s affair with, 113–14; previous marriage, 113; reflections of, 234n7
Selz, Peter: approach to, xii–xiii; illustrations of, Figs. 1, 4–11, 13–18, 20–26; name of, 2, 23, 214n1
—career: anti-Semitism downplayed in, 65–68, 106; art tastes and interests as influences, 33–34; Bellagio Study Center residency, 182; Botero’s Abu Ghraib series and, 133–34, 246nn15–16; collaborations in, 83, 88–89, 91–92, 170, 226–27n47; curator to director shift in, 119; demonic and horrific in art and, 76, 175, 177, 223–24n6, 236n32; first art job, 21–22; first solo show at MoMA, 86; Fulbright research, 31–32; identity in, 199–200; key themes in, 126, 181, 182, 183–84, 186–87; later activities with art dealers and galleries, 181–82, 190–91, 201, 203; marginalized artists supported, 156, 158, 162–63, 241n16; nonobjective and representative approach combined in, 69–70; as nude model for Crucifixion series, 160; Pop Art symposium organized by, 101, 228n2; provocative approach in, 81–82; regional view in, 75, 118, 187; revising opinion during, 196–97, 206–7; Rothko estate trial and, 165–69, 243n59; Running Fence project director, 153–54, 185; self-confidence and connections in, 64; Southern California contribution of, 43–44; tributes to, 177, 181, 235n21, 247n28; as voice for modernist art, 200–205; “working with friends,” 155. See also art and politics connections; awards and honors; Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM]); “living the art life”; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Pomona College; UC-Berkeley art history department
—characteristics: adaptability, 14, 18; atheism, 73, 174–76, 177; creative life force, 194–95, 203; curiosity, 37, 41, 110, 162, 177, 240n11; deficit in empathy for others, 156, 241n16; ego, x–xi, 199–200, 203; energy and empathy, 37, 186; enthusiasm for art, ix, 1, 4–6, 14, 139, 205; generosity and inclusiveness, 187–88; level of control, 171; loyalty to art and artists, 105, 155, 184, 195, 198; moral principles, 164–65; music preferences, viii; naïveté, 169; natural storyteller, 73, 153, 156, 171; openness, vii– viii, x, 18, 36, 41, 123–24, 150, 155, 173, 187, 195–96, 213n2, 240n11; pet peeve, 61–63; self-identity created, 5–6, 66; social conscience, 175–76; summarized, 148. See also art and politics connections; love and sexuality
—exhibitions. See exhibitions
—life: automobile of, 42; birth and early childhood, Fig. 4, 1–6, 197; brewery work, 19, 20, 21–22; daughters (see Selz, Gabrielle; Selz, Tanya); education, university-level, 19, 21, 26, 27–29; education and youth activities in Munich, 6–10; education in N.Y.C., 18–19, 21; existentialist interests, 74–75, 157; family home and issues in New York years, Fig. 13, 109–17; Fulbright research in Paris, 31–32; grandchildren, 179; immigration to U.S., 10, 11; military service, Fig. 10, 21, 23–26; outdoor activities, Fig. 7, 3, 5, 7, 23–24, 201, 202; personal appearance, ix, 97–98, 195; Regal Road home, 180, 192–93; Rosa (childhood nanny), Fig. 5, 3–4; spoken voice, 128; step-children (grown), 179; U.S. citizenship, 22–23. See also art and politics connections; “living the art life”; love and sexuality
—works: Art in Our Times, 144, 157, 236n32, 241n20, 245n1; Barbara Chase-Riboud (book and exhibition), 158, 159; Beyond the Mainstream, 184, 188, 196–97; “Modernism Comes to Chicago” (Selz), 33; Nathan Oliveira, 156, 194–95, 241n15; Rilke translations, 20; Sam Francis, 164, 191–92; “The Stars and Stripes” (Selz), 196–97. See also Art of Engagement; German Expressionist Painting
—writing: Andersen’s writing compared with, 170–71; German scholarship as influence on, 29; making time for, 112, 144; residency for Lindner catalogue writing, 182; Selz’s voice in, 200–205; struggle to find verbal language for nonverbal works, 86–87, 225–26n35; syncretizing subjects in, 127; theoretical foundation limited, 157
Selz, Tanya (daughter): birth of, 39; early relationship with parents, 114–15; illustration of, Fig. 13; Peter’s relationship with, 115, 179
Selz, Thalia (Cheronis) (first wife): career of, 32–33; family home and issues in New York years, Fig. 13, 109–17; illness and death of, 110; at Jean Tinguely exhibition, 80; marriage of, 30, 36, 39, 64; on MoMA job, 49; in Paris with Peter, 32; in Pomona’s milieu, 38–39; reconciliation attempts and, 233n57; taped conversations with Peter and, 110–16, 232n37
Selz, Thomas (nephew), 13, 30
Selz, Trudy (Wertheimer) (sister-in-law), 13, 30
Serra, Richard, 184, 202
SFMOMA. See San Francisco Museum of Art (now San Francisco Museum of Modern Art [SFMOMA])
Shaiken, Harley, 183
Shaw, Elizabeth, 231n27
Shaw, Richard, 125
Sheets, Millard, 39–40, 45
Sheppard, Carl, 41
Sherk, Bonnie, 125
Simon, Norton, 124, 141, 145–46
Simson, Otto Georg von, 28
Sinsabaugh, Art, 31
Siskind, Aaron, 31
Sixteen Americans (exhibition), 79, 224n17
Slant Step show, 128
Slive, Seymour, 36
Smith, David, 56, 184, 185, 202
Smith, Donna, 179, 245n6
Smith, Hassel, 179, 245n6, 246n10
Smith, Roberta, xi, 233n5
Smith-Andersen Gallery. See Kirkeby, Paula
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 174–75
Snyder, Gary, 125
Soby, James Thrall, 50–51, 55, 93, 224n12
Société Anonyme, 220n5
Society for Art, Religion, and Culture (ARC), 173–74
Society for Art Publications of the Americas, 190–91
Solomon, Alan, 60, 250n6
Southern California Art Historians, 40, 41
Southern California art scene: Hard Edge painting recognized in, 43–44; ignored by New York art scene, 75, 118; immersion in, 42–43; later association with galleries in, 181, 196; Pom
ona’s milieu in, 36–39; ultrareactionary art views and responses to, 39–41. See also Los Angeles; Pomona College
Spafford, Michael, 37–39, 41, 152
Spiegel, Norma, 113–14. See also Selz, Norma (second wife)
Sprengel, Bernhard, 66
Staempfli, George, 80
Stamos, Theodoros, 165–66, 167, 168
Starr, Kevin, 223n40
“Stars and Stripes, The” (Selz), 196–97
Steinberg, Leo, 49, 101, 208, 228n2
Steinitz, Beate (“Batz”), 15, 22
Steinitz, Kate, 22, 41
Stella, Frank, 105, 208, 224n17, 230–31n25
Stewart, Andrew, 239n78
Stich, Sidra, 150–51, 240n2
Stieglitz, Alfred, 19–20, 45–47
Stieglitz Circle (exhibition), 45–47
Stiles, Kristine: role in Selz’s publications, 157, 204, 241n20; on Selz as teacher, 155, 156–57, 161
St. Louis (Mo.): Max Beckmann exhibition in, 94
St. Louis University, Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, 176
Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 43
Stravinsky, Igor, 43
students: California bohemian lifestyle and, 135–36; females as, 155–58, 240n13, 241n16; as (later) museum directors, 150–51, 152–53; long-term relationships with, 154–55; making time for, 144–45, 146, 148; on Selz as teacher, 37, 155–58, 189–90; Selz’s appeal to, 150, 152, 155; on Selz’s openness, viii, x, 150; on Selz’s style, 150–51; Sheets’s reactionary vs. Selz’s modernist ideas about art and, 40; theological seminary students as, 175–76. See also teaching
Stuttgart (Germany): architecture of, 180, 245–46n9
Sullivan, Mary, 49–50
Surrealism: in BAM collection, 139; contact with artists in, 21, 123; figuration after, 63–64, 73; Giacometti’s work in, 95–96; Peggy Guggenheim’s collection of, 142; in New Americans exhibition, 22; scholarship on, 28, 190, 240n2
Symbolism: Art Nouveau and, 83–84; exhibition of, 57, 58; Oliveira and, 193; Rothko’s work in context of, 225–26n35
Symposium on Pop Art, A (MoMA), 101, 228n2
Sypher, Wylie, 90
Tasende Gallery, 181
Taylor, Joshua, 29, 174–75
teaching: in Chicago, 30–31, 32–33, 35; on living fully in relation to art, ix; making time for, 144–45, 146, 148; on museum work and art history, 150–51, 152–53; nontheoretical vs. traditional approaches in, 151–52; object-oriented and artist-focused approach to, 149–50; students’ reflections on, 37, 155–58, 189–90; teaching assistant in, 150–51; tenured position in, 119, 148, 149. See also students
Temko, Alan, 179
Temko, Becky, 179
Temple of Man (gathering place), 245n4
Thiebaud, Wayne, 229n5
Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, 140
Tillich, Paul: on art and the spiritual, 163; background of, 73–74, 223n3; preface to catalogue for New Images of Man, 73–75, 174
Tillim, Sidney, 99–100, 228–29n5, 230n21
Time (magazine), 128
Tinguely, Jean: in BAM collection, 140; New York visit of, 78; works: Black Knight, 140; Cyclops, 180. See also Jean Tinguely (exhibition)
Titian, 4
Tobey, Mark, 60–61, 99, 222n28
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 42, 83
Tribute to Peter Selz (exhibition), 235n21, 247n28
Trilling, Diana, 109
Trilling, Lionel, 109
Tullis, Garner, Fig. 20
Twelve Americans (exhibition), 79
Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (exhibition), 183
Twice a Year (journal), 20
University Art Museum (UAM). See Berkeley Art Museum (BAM)
University of California Arts Club, 156
University of California at Berkeley: anti-war, antiestablishment counterculture of, 119, 124–26, 133, 233n3; bohemian lifestyle of, 135–36; Botero’s Abu Ghraib series at, 183; crackdown on protesters at, 140, 145–46; film library rejected by, 121–22, 234–35n14; gallery of, 119; research library of, 22; Rothko’s summer professorship at, 121; Selz’s relationship with administrators at, 138–39, 141–48. See also Berkeley Art Museum (BAM, formerly University Art Museum [UAM]); UC-Berkeley art history department
UC-Berkeley art history department: BAM and faculty of, Fig. 18, 41, 138, 143–44; conservatism of, 151–52; Selz and Chipp as modernists in, 152, 217–18n8; Selz’s friends in, 186; Selz’s tenured position in, 119, 148, 149; sexism of, 159. See also art history; students; teaching
University of California Press, 152, 204, 213n6
University of California Regents: administrative and budget changes, 141, 143, 145; Guggenheim proposal accepted by, 141; responses to student activism, 140, 145–46
University of Chicago: contemporary art exhibition of, 34, 218n17; political participation at, 38; students at, 27–29, 173, 174
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 30
U.S. Representation (exhibition), 53–54
Valentin, Curt, 20, 28
Valentiner, William, 28
Valley Curtain project (Christo and Jeanne-Claude), 153
Van Gogh, Vincent, 197
Varnedoe, Kirk, 230–31n25
Vedova, Emilio, Fig. 18
Venice (Italy): proposed study center at, 140–42; Selz’s visit to, 67
Venice Biennales, 56, 60, 250n6
Vietnam War, 24, 133
Villa, Carlos, 186–87, 188
Visionary Art of Morris Graves, The (exhibition), 182
Voulkos, Peter: at BAM opening, 125; circle of, 135–36, 187; foundry assistant of, 150; illustration of, Fig. 18; Selz’s support for, 62, 156; work in Funk exhibition, 123, 128, 130
Wagner, Ronald, 119
Walden, Herwarth, 35–36
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), 198
Wallace, William, 213n6
Warhol, Andy: collectors of, 98; Conner compared with, 130; instant art history of, 100; Pop Art of, 101–2, 104; reconsideration of work, 209, 250n8; retrospective on, 207, 209; scholarship on, 101, 229–30n14
Warhol Live (exhibition), 207, 209
Watts Towers (Rodia), 155
WCA (Women’s Caucus for Art), 158, 159–60
Weber, Max, 34, 46
Weihnacht, Douglas, 224n16
Weil, Paul (half-brother), 1–2, 10
Weitz, Eric D., 215n23
Werkleute (Working People): activities of, 6, 7; centrality for Selz, 113; reading and discussions in, 7–8; role in adapting to New York City, 14–15, 17; sexuality and, 16
Wertheimer, Trudy (later, Selz, sister-inlaw), 13, 30
Wesselmann, Tom, 100
Wessels, Glenn, 138
West East Bag (WEB), 158–60
Westermann, H. C., 33, 78
Whisky a Go Go (club), vii–viii, 150, 213n2
Whitney Museum, 46, 233n5
Wight, Frederick, 41
Wiley, William T.: in BAM collection, 142; at BAM opening, 125; circle of, viii; on Funk, 131, 132; Slant Step show and, 128; work in Funk exhibition, 128
William Kentridge (exhibition), 207–8, 209
Williams, Joanna, 144
Wind Combs (Chillida), 185
Wingler, Hans Maria, 67, 223n41
Winston, Donald, 44–45
Winston, Elizabeth, 45
Wisdom, Ireland, viii
Wisdom, Norton (“The Artist”): on BAM, 126, 150; performance work of, vii; on Selz, viii, x, 150; on X (band), 213n2
Wisdom, Robin, viii
With, Karl, 41
Witkin, Jerome, 198
Wittkower, Rudolf, 168
women: discrimination against, 158–60, 234n11, 242n27; key role in creating MoMA, 49–51, 220n6; as muse, 194–95; Selz’s reputation around, 155–56, 157, 164. See also feminism
Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA), 158, 159–60
Woolf, Virginia, 242n39
Work of Jean Dubuffet, The (exhibition), 55, 72, 89–91
Works Progress Admin
istration (WPA), 79, 225n18
World’s Fair (1939), 22
World War II: GI Bill for veterans of, 26, 27; Selz’s military service during, Fig. 10, 21, 23–26
Worringer, Wilhelm, 29
Wright, David, 239n78
X (band), 213n2
Yates, Peter, 43
Yonker, Dolores (third wife), 245n1
youth groups. See Werkleute (Working People)
Yunkers, Adja, 195
Zajac, Jack, 40
Zane, Sharon, 106, 107, 221n12
Zelnik, Reginald E., 233n3
Zionism, 6, 7, 10, 15, 17, 113
Text:
10/14 Palatino
Display:
Bauer Bodoni, Univers Condensed Light 47
Compositor:
BookMatters, Berkeley
Indexer:
Margie Towery
Printer and binder:
Sheridan Books, Inc.
Peter Selz Page 37
