SOBIESZEK, Robert A. 1943-2005

(Robert Allan Sobieszek)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born March 11, 1943, in Chicago, IL; died of cancer July 15, 2005, in Los Angeles, CA. Museum curator and author. Sobieszek was best known as the former curator of photography at the George Eastman House and curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He studied photography and design at the Illinois Institute of Technology before earning a B.F.A. at the University of Illinois in 1965. Sobieszek then earned a master's degree in philosophy and art history from Stanford University in 1969, and another master's from Columbia University in 1981. He joined the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House staff in 1968 as a curatorial assistant, rising to the position of curator in 1971. While curator there, he was in charge of a collection of over four hundred thousand photos at the nation's oldest museum for photography, and distinguished himself by championing the works of Josiah Joseph Hawes and Albert Sands Southworth before they were recognized as the first American masters of photography. By organizing many exhibitions over the years, he also promoted the photographs of other notables, ranging from William Burroughs to David Hockney. Sobieszek decided to take the position as head of the LACMA photography museum in 1990 because he felt that Los Angeles was becoming the nation's most important center for artistic photography. Over the course of almost four decades, he edited and wrote numerous books on photography, including Masterpieces of Photography: From the George Eastman House Collections (1985), Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts (1996), and One Man's Eye: Photographs from the Alan Siegel Collection (2000).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, July 16, 2005, p. B16.

ONLINE

PDN Online, http://pdnonline.com/ (July 20, 2005).