Peter Selz: Sketches of a Life in Art

"Throughout his career, when it comes to matters of art, Selz has been guided by intuition, instinct, and emotion. He feels his decisions about art and is guided by those feelings at least as much as by the mind." Karlstrom (Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists, 1920-1956) is the first to document art historian Peter Selz's long career, which includes the authorship of multiple books%E2%80%94such as Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond and German Expressionist Painting%E2%80%94as well as museum direction at MoMA and UC-Berkeley, teaching, and, even in retirement, serving on boards for galleries and curating exhibitions. A Jewish immigrant to the U.S. from pre-WWII Germany, Selz has an interesting personal and professional life%E2%80%94his love of change resulted in "a pattern: discarding the present wife%E2%80%94or job%E2%80%94and expectantly moving on to the next thing, often...with inadequate thought for ramifications and consequences." Karlstrom interviewed a large cast for this biography, including%E2%80%94in addition to Selz%E2%80%94ex-wives, former coworkers and students, and artists whom Selz influenced and inspired, and concludes that his legacy comes from his "fundamental and frequently contrary vision of how art best functions as a worthy metaphor for" what Selz deemed "significant human experience." Certain to be of interest to historians and students of art, Karlstrom's biography is a detailed, well-documented window into a remarkable man and his distinguished, varied career. 27 B&W Photos. (Jan.)