Henry Geldzahler

Belgian American art curator (1935–1994)

Henry Geldzahler (July 9, 1935 – August 16, 1994) was a Belgian born American curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a historian and critic of modern art. He is best known for his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as New York City Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, and for his social role in the art world with a close relationship with contemporary artists. He has been described as "the most powerful and controversial art curator alive" and the art critic of The New Yorker magazine Calvin Tomkins said ‘If you were involved in any way in the [cultural] world, you met Henry.’

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Geldzahler's Jewish family emigrated to the United States in 1940. He graduated from Yale University in 1957, where he was a member of Manuscript Society. After graduating from Yale, he began work on a doctorate in art history at Harvard University, but he left graduate school in 1960. His time at the Met is most known for his landmark 1969 exhibition, New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940 1970, which included his favorite contemporary work and became the talk of the town. It was the Museum's first exhibition of contemporary American art and marked both the inauguration of the newly established department of Contemporary Arts and the 100th anniversary of the Museum. The exhibition featured 408 works in 35 galleries, by 43 artists including Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella, David Smith, Jasper Johns, Mark Rothko, Warhol, and Robert Rauschenberg. "My guiding principles in deciding which artists to include in the exhibition have been the extent to which their work has commanded critical attention or significantly deflected the course of recent art", said Geldzahler in the press release of the exhibition. He was then appointed the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for New York City by Mayor Edward I. Koch. As an openly gay man who was part of the Koch administration and the conservative Metropolitan Museum of Art, Geldzahler contributed significant time and effort to AIDS related causes. After leaving his New York City government cultural post, he continued to write on art, and acted as an independent curator, working at the alternative space P. S. 1 and the austere high modernist Dia Art Foundation.

Geldzahler died of liver cancer on August 16, 1994, at his home in Southampton, New York. He was 59 years old. He is buried in Green River Cemetery in Springs, New York.

Geldzahler is the subject of a documentary film called Who Gets to Call It Art? (2006) by Peter Rosen. He is depicted in portraits by several of his artist friends, including a famous 1969 double portrait by David Hockney of Geldzahler with his then partner, painter Christopher Scott. Other artists made his portrait such as Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Alice Neel, and the sculptor George Segal "There are lots of pictures of Henry. He didn’t have many mirrors in his home. He knew what he looked like just by asking people to make portraits of him.’ Hockney said. He appeared, as himself, in the 1974 David Hockney biopic, A Bigger Splash. In the song "Forever Changed" of their 1990 album Songs for Drella, Lou Reed and John Cale, speaking and singing in the first person, as Andy Warhol, mention Geldzahler as one of the people who'd "seen [Warhol] through."