Irving Sandler

Irving Sandler
Born	(1925-07-22)July 22, 1925 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	June 2, 2018(2018-06-02) (aged 92) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Education	M.A. U. of Pennsylvania, 1950 Ph.D. New York University, 1976
Alma mater	Temple University, 1948
Occupation	Writer, educator, curator

Irving Sandler (July 22, 1925 – June 2, 2018) was an American art critic, art historian, and educator. He provided numerous first hand accounts of American art, beginning with abstract expressionism in the 1950s, where he managed the Tanager Gallery downtown and co-ordinated the New York artists' ZT 'Club' of the New York School from 1955 to its demise in 1962 as well as documenting numerous conversations from the Cedar Street Tavern and other artists venues. Sandler saw himself as an impartial observer of this period, as opposed to polemical advocates such as Clement Greenberg or Harold Rosenberg.

Biography

Sandler was raised in Philadelphia. He served with the U.S. Marine Corps for three years in the Second World War. He received a bachelor's degree from Temple University in 1948, and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950. He did some additional graduate work at Columbia University, but ultimately finished a doctoral degree at New York University much later, in 1976. He started writing art criticism at the behest of Thomas B. Hess for ARTNews in 1956, and was a senior critic there through 1962. He has taught at several universities, including the Pratt Institute, New York University, and the State University of New York at Purchase, where he was appointed a founding professor in the School of Art+Design (then called the Visual Arts Division) in 1972, and where he remained until his retirement.

Sandler curated several critically acclaimed^{[citation needed]} exhibitions including the "Concrete Expressionism Show" in 1965 at New York University, which featured the work of painters Al Held and Knox Martin and the sculptors Ronald Bladen, George Sugarman and David Weinrib, and "The Prospect Mountain Sculpture Show" in 1977. Many American artists were interviewed by Sandler, including first generation abstract expressionists such as Robert Motherwell, Willem DeKooning, Phillip Guston, and Franz Kline. in 1957 and later pop protagonists such as Tom Wesselmann in 1984. In the 1972 with Trudie Grace he co-founded Artists Space, which helped launch the careers of Judy Pfaff, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman amongst others.

As indicated in the bibliography below, Sandler authored several monographs on individual artists as well as a sweeping, four-volume survey of "postmodern art" (The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism (1970), The New York School: The Painters and Sculptors of the Fifties (1978), American Art of the 1960s (1988), and Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s (1996).). Robert Storr has described the history, "Narrative, untheoretical--at times antitheoretical--and unapologetically focused not just on what happened in the United States but principally on what happened in Manhattan, Sandler's surveys have been widely criticized but even more widely used, not least because they are readable and deeply informed by their author's unrivaled access to the artists and art-worldings about whom he writes." Sandler continues to write on art during his final years and was concerned with allowing certain aspects of New York painting to be reassessed, as with his work on Esteban Vicente (2007). In 2009 he published Abstract Expressionism and the American Experience: a Reevaluation.

Sandler died on June 2, 2018, at the age of 92.

Selected works

• Irving Sandler (1956). "Essay". New York: The Tanager Gallery. 
• Goosen, E. C.; Goldwater, Robert; Sandler, Irving (1959). Three American Sculptors: Ferber, Hare, Lassaw. Grove Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=m38FAAAAMAAJ. 
• Irving Sandler (1959). Joan Mitchell, School of New York: Some Younger Artists. New York: Grove Press. 
• Irving Sanler (1959). "Ibram Lassaw". New York: Grove Press. 
• Irving Sandler (1959). "Introduction". New York: Tanager Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1962). "Paul Burlin". New York: American Federation of Arts. 
• Irving Sandler (1963). "Al Held". New York: Jewish Museum. 
• Irving Sandler (1963). "James Brooks and the abstract inscape". New York: Art Foundation. OCLC 54034429. 
• Irving Sandler (1964). "George Sugarman". New York: Jewish Museum. 
• Irving Sandler (1965). Concrete Expressionism. New York: New York University Art Collection. 
• Irving Sandler (1966). Two Decades of American Painting. Museum of Modern Art. 
• Irving Sandler (1966). "Interview with Paul Brach, May 5, 1962". New York: New York University Art Collection. 
• Irving Sandler (1967). "Gesture and Non-Gesture in Recent Sculpture". Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 
• Irving Sandler (1967). Sculpture in Environment. New York: NYC Administration of Recreation. 
• Irving Sandler (1968). "Gesture and Non-Gesture in Recent Sculpture". In Gregory Battcock. New York: E.P.Dutton. 
• Irving Sandler (1969). "Introduction". New York: New York State Council on the Arts and the State University of New York. 
• Irving Sandler (1970). Amerikanischer Abstrakter Expressionismus. Herrsching Ammersee: Pawlak Verlag. 
• David W. Ecker; Jerome J. Hausman; Irving Sandler (1970). Conference on Art Criticism and Art Education. New York: New York University. 
• Irving Sandler (May 1971). "George Sugarman". 
• Irving Sandler (1971). "Introduction". New York: New York University. 
• Irving Sandler (1972). "Abstract Expressionism". New York: Praeger Publishers. 
• Irving Sandler (1973). "New Ways of Teaching Art History". New York: E.P. Dutton. 
• Irving Sandler (1973). "Interview". New York: Lerner-Heller Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1974). "1946–1960". New York: Harry N. Abrams. 
• Irving Sandler (1975). "Foreword". Bradley Walker Tomlin: A Retrospective View. Hempstead, New York: Emily Lowe Gallery. 
• Irving Sander (1976). "Paintings 1947–1952". New York: Andre Emmerich Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1976). "Conversation with Irving Sandler". Swarthmore, Pa.: Ava Books. 
• Irving Sandler (1977). "New York Schooled in the Fifties". London: The Saatchi Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1977). The triumph of American painting : a history of abstract expressionism. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-430075-7. OCLC 16378551. 
• "Introduction". New York: Icon Editions: Harper & Row. 1977. 
• Irving Sandler (1977). "Adolph Gottlieb". New York: Andre Emmerich Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1977). "The American Years". United Kingdom: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. 
• Irving Sandler (1978). The New York School: The Painters and Sculptors of the Fifties. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 174–195. ISBN 0-06-438505-1. 
• Irving Sandler (September 1978). Abe Ajay/Selections 1964-1978. Purchase, N.Y.: Neuberger Museum. 
• Irving Sandler (1978). "Introduction". Purchase, NY: Neuberger Museum. 
• Irving Sandler (1978). "Foreword". New York: Neuberger Museum. 
• Irving Sandler (1978). "The Line: As Form and Metaphor". San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 
• Irving Sandler (1979). "Artists Space". Purchase, N.Y.: Neuberger Museums. 
• Irving Sandler (1979). "Art as Auto-Image". Hampshire College. 
• Irving Sandler (1979). Alex Katz. New York: Hudson Hills. 
• Irving Sanler (1979). "Introduction". Lake George, NY: Lake George Arts Project. 
• Irving Sandler (1979). "Abstract Expressionism". Reno, NV: Sierra Nevada Museum of Art. 
• Irving Sandler (1979). "Introduction". Purchase, NY: Neuberger Museum. 
• Irving Sandler (1979). "The Sculpture of Richard Stankiewicz". Troy: University Art Gallery SUNY Albany. 
• Irving Sandler (1980). "Al Held: 1959–1961". New York: Andre Emmerich Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1980). "Interview with Rosalind Bengelsdorf Browne". New York: Washburn Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1981). "George Sugarman and Construction Sculpture in the 1960s". Omaha, Nebraska: Joslyn Art Museum. 
• Irving Sandler (1981). "Alex Katz 1957–1959". New York: Robert Miller Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1981). "The School of Art at Yale: The Collective Reminiscences of Twenty Distinguished Alumni". New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1981). "Provincetown in the Fifties: A Memoir". Provincetown: Provincetown Art Association. 
• Irving Sandler (1982). Concepts in Construction: 1910–1980. New York: Independent Curators Incorporated. 
• Irving Sandler (1982). Al Held: 1954–1959. New York: Robert Miller. 
• Irving Sandler (1982). "Statement". New York: P.S. 1. 
• Irving Sandler (1982). Philip Pearlstein. New York: Alpine. 
• Irving Sandler (1982). Concepts in Construction: 1910–1980. New York: Independent Curators Incorporated. 
• Irving Sandler (1982). "Essay". New York: ACA Galleries. 
• Irving Sandler (1982). "Douglas Davis: The Drawings". Warsaw: Muzeum Sztuki. 
• Irving Sandler (1983). Mark Rothko: Paintings 1948–1969. New York: Pace Gallery Publications. 
• Irving Sandler (1985). Al Held. New York: Hudson Hills. 
• Irving Sandler and Amy Newman, ed (1986). Introduction, Defining Modern Art: Selected Writings of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.. New York: Harry N. Abrams. 
• Irving Sandler (1987). Introduction, The Empire State Collection: Art for the Public. New York: Harry N. Abrams. 
• Irving Sandler (October 1988). American Art of the 1960s. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 978-0-06-438507-7. 
• Irving Sandler (1991). Brower Hatcher: Structures. New York: Center for International Contemporary Arts. 
• Irving Sandler (1993). Roy Neuberger: Patron of the Arts. Purchase, N.Y: State University of New York at Purchase. 
• Irving Sandler (1993). "Agnes Martin Interviewed by Irving Sandler," Agnes Martin: Paintings and Drawings 1977–1991. London: Serpentine Gallery. 
• Irving Sandler (1996). Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s. New York: IconEditions. ISBN 0-06-438509-4. 
• Irving Sandler (1999). Stephen Antonakos. Hudson Hills Press. ISBN 978-1-55595-164-1. 
• Irving Sandler (March 1999). Natvar Bhavsar: Painting and the Reality of Color. Fine Art Publishing. ISBN 90-5704-061-1. 
• Irving Sandler (2003). A Sweeper-up After Artists: A Memoir. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23813-4. 
• Irving Sandler (December 2003). Judy Pfaff. Hudson Hills Press. ISBN 978-1-55595-222-8.  Introduction by Russell Panczenko.
• Irving Sandler (January 2005). "Deconstructive Constructivist". pp. 111–115. 
• Irving Sandler (2006). From Avant-Garde to Pluralism: An On-The-Spot History. Hard Press Editions. ISBN 978-1-889097-68-8.  A collection of Sandler's writings spanning six decades.
• Irving Sandler (2006). From Avant-Garde to Pluralism: An On-The-Spot History. Lenox, Mass.: Hard Press Editions. 
• Irving Sandler (2009). Abstract Expressionism and the American Experience: a Reevaluation. Hudson Hills Press. ISBN 978-1-55595-311-9. https://archive.org/details/abstractexpressi00sand.  Foreword by Raphael Rubinstein.
• Irving Sandler (2010). The Collector As Patron in the Twentieth Century. New York: Knoedler Gallery. 

External links

• Fendrich, Laurie (July 10, 2011). "Scene It All". http://chronicle.com/article/Irving-Sandler-Scene-It-All/128144/. Retrieved 2016-04-15. 
• Irving Sandler papers, ca. 1950-2000. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.
• [1] Irving Sandler in conversation with Roberta Smith for the Brooklyn Rail, April 2009.
• [2] Irving Sandler interview with Phong Bui in front of a live audience for Art International Radio, November 2013.
• [3] Irving Sandler in conversation with Jerry Saltz for the Brooklyn Rail, September 2008.