WALDMAN, Diane 1936-

PERSONAL: Born February 24, 1936, in New York NY; daughter of Robert and Beatrice Rose (Albert) Deleson; married Paul Waldman (an artist), 1957. Education: Hunter College (now Hunter College of the City University of New York), B.F.A., 1956; New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, M.A., 1965; Columbia University, supplementary studies in art history, 1961 and 1963; Institute of Fine Arts, Certificate in Museum Training, 1965.

ADDRESSES: Home—38 West 26th St., New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: Museum curator and author. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, staff member, 1965-67, assistant curator, 1967-69, associate curator, 1969-71, curator of exhibitions, 1971-81, director of exhibitions, 1981-82, deputy director, senior curator, 1982-1996; American Commissioner for the Biennale of Sydney, 1988. Member of the advisory board of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine. Organized exhibition of Laslo Maholy-Nagy for the Thirty-fifth Venice Biennale. Has also organized freelance exhibitions for the School of Visual Arts, exhibitions on winners of the Theodoron Awards, an exhibition on Selected Sculpture and Works on Paper from the Guggenheim Collection, and exhibitions in conjunction with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Centre National d'Art Moderne, Paris, the Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, Chiostro del Bramante, Rome, Kunst Museum, Wolfsburg, and the Miró, Barcelona.

MEMBER: American Association of Museums (museum accreditation committee), International Council of Museums, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (trustee), American Society of Safety Engineers.

WRITINGS:

(Contributor) Chryssa: Selected Works, 1955-1967, Pace Gallery (New York, NY), 1968.

Roy Lichtenstein: Drawings and Prints (monograph), Chelsea House (New York, NY), 1969.

Roy Lichtenstein, Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1969, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1971, G. Massotta (Milan, Italy), 1971, Rizzoli (New York, NY), 1993.

Carl Andre, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1970.

Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings, Collages, and Prints, New York Graphic Society (Greenwich, CT), 1971.

Robert Mangold, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1971.

Roy Lichtenstein (monograph), Thames & Hudson (London, England), 1971.

Robert Ryman, Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1972.

(Contributor) Roy Lichtenstein, edited by John Coplans, Praeger (New York, NY), 1972.

Max Ernst: A Retrospective, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1975.

Kenneth Noland: A Retrospective, Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1977.

Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: A Retrospective, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1978.

Willem de Kooning in East Hampton, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1978.

Anthony Caro, Abbeville Press (New York, NY), 1982.

Michael Singer, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1984.

(With Linda Schearer) Will Insley: The Opaque Civilization, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1984.

Enzo Cucchi, Guggenheim Museum/Rizzoli (New York, NY), 1986.

Jack Youngerman, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1986.

Emerging Artists, 1978-1986: Selections from the Exxon Series, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1987.

Willem de Kooning, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1988.

Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1992.

Mark Rothko in New York, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor and coauthor) Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1997.

Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2002.

EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Joseph Cornell, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1967, G. Braziller (New York, NY), 1977.

(With Robert Doty) Adolph Gottlieb, Praeger/Whitney Museum of Art/Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1968.

John Chamberlain: A Retrospective Exhibition, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1971.

British Art Now: An American Perspective: 1980 Exxon International Exhibition, Guggenheim Museum/American Federation of Arts (New York, NY), 1980.

Arshile Gorky, 1904-1948: A Retrospective, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1981.

Italian Art Now, an American Perspective: 1982 Exxon International Exhibition, Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1982.

New Perspectives in American Art: 1983 Exxon National Exhibition, Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1983.

Australian Visions: 1984 Exxon International Exhibition, Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1984.

Transformations in Sculpture: Four Decades of American and European Art, Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1985.

Jenny Holzer, Guggenheim Museum, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1989.

Roy Lichtenstein: Riflessi, title means "Roy Lichtenstein: Reflections," Electa (Milan, Italy), 1999.

Also author of Guggenheim International Exhibition, 1971 (survey), 1971, Twentieth-Century American Drawing: Three Avant-Garde Generations, 1976, and Charles Simonds (brochure), 1983. Contributor to periodicals such as Art International, Arts Magazine, Art News, Art Press, and Art in America.

SIDELIGHTS: Former deputy director and senior curator of the Guggenheim Museum, Diane Waldman is considered an expert in her field and has written several works on many different artists, including Max Ernst, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jenny Holzer, and Joseph Cornell. Waldman has also published multiple writings on the works of Roy Lichtenstein. Her extensive research on artist Joseph Cornell led to her further study what is termed the "found object," or scavenged collage art, which she examined in her 1992 publication Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object. Waldman's fascination with Cornell also led to the publication of her most reviewed and revered book, Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams.

The 1993 edition of Waldman's Roy Lichtenstein was published to accompany a Guggenheim retrospective on the pop artist. The book contains 280 color reproductions of a wide span of Lichtenstein's work, which Waldman supplements with "an informative text showing his growth and artistic influences," according to an Antioch Review contributor. This contributor also commended Waldman's insightful comparisons of Lichtenstein's comic-book art to the works of artists such as René Magritte and Max Ernst, which show readers how "Lichtenstein made modern influences accessible." A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that because Waldman places "the 'found' image[s] alongside Lichtenstein's oil painting[s]," readers are able to discern "how the artist distills the image, changing the particular into the archetypal." Waldman's next writing to receive critical attention was a retrospective of the works of American minimalist painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly. Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective displays the artist's abstractions, varying his innovative use of color with mediums such as steel and aluminum. Booklist reviewer Donna Seaman praised Waldman for her establishment of the "critical and historical context for Kelly's life and work," as well as for "identifying his influences, tracing the evolution of his unique perceptions of space and form and chronicling the mixed responses to his radical yet wonderfully meditative creations." Library Journal's Susan M. Olcott stated that the work is "an important addition to any collection dealing with 20th-century art."

Waldman has maintained a career-long artistic fascination with the reclusive and "relatively unknown"—as stated by Waldman—artist Joseph Cornell. As a graduate student she wrote a thesis on the artist, and as a result, became one of his closest friends. Waldman is considered the first person to do an in-depth study of Cornell's art. Her 2002 publication Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams examines the artist behind the Surrealist-like art, which has no clear predecessor. Cornell had no formal artistic training and is best known for his "box art," which he comprised from scavenged bits of refuse he found throughout New York City. Cornell's box art nostalgically displays broken bits of things of the past, what Robert Hughes in American Visions called "the strata of repressed memory, a jumble of elements waiting to be grafted and mated to one another." In Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams, Waldman pays homage to the artist she revered with a display of his work and an examination of the oddities that comprised his character. In New Statesman, contributor Nicola Upson described the book as "a timely refocusing of the interest in Cornell away from the myths of his life and back on his work." Upson also remarked that while "Waldman is not a stylish writer" and "her meticulous dissection of Cornell's work can at times obscure its most consistent feature—a simple joy in creativity. . . . Waldman is particularly good at conveying the technical virtuosity of Cornell's work." Upson felt the book "reaffirms [Cornell's] important place in contemporary art history." Seaman voiced that Waldman "brings a wealth of long-brewing insights to this gorgeous volume, which boasts not only Waldman's lucid and expert commentary on Cornell's intriguing influences, but also some of the finest color reproductions of his work ever published."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Hughes, Robert, American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America, Knopf (New York, NY), 1997.

Waldman, Diane, Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2002.

PERIODICALS

Anitoch Review, winter, 1995, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 123.

Booklist, April 15, 1990, review of Jenny Holzer, p. 1599; December 15, 1992, review of Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object, p. 708; September 1, 1997, Donna Seaman, review of Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective, p. 47; August, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams, p. 1909.

Book World, December 6, 1992, review of Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object, p. 13.

Burlington magazine, January, 1997, review of Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective, p. 68.

Choice, June, 1990, review of Jenny Holzer, p. 1671; February, 1993, review of Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object, p. 955; June, 1994, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 1571.

Entertainment Weekly, December 10, 1993, Rebecca Ascher-Walsh, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 66.

Library Journal, September 15, 1993, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 39; February 15, 1994, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 158; September 1, 1997, Susan M. Olcott, review of Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective, p. 178.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, December 6, 1992, review of Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object, p. 31; December 8, 1996, review of Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective, p. 29.

New Statesman, June 3, 2002, Nicola Upson, "The Enchanter," review of Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams, pp. 52-53.

New York Magazine, December 14, 1992, review of Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object, p. 93; September 13, 1993, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 100.

New York Review of Books, December 16, 1993, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 4.

New York Times, November 29, 1993, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. C18.

New York Times Book Review, June 21, 1981; January 19, 1993, review of Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object, p. 20; December 26, 1993, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 15.

Publishers Weekly, February 9, 1990, Penny Kaganoff, review of Jenny Holzer, pp. 56-57; June 28, 1993, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 71; December 20, 1993, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 60.

Times Literary Supplement, June 4, 1982.

Wilson Library Bulletin, June, 1994, review of Roy Lichtenstein, p. 33.

ONLINE

Art Archive Web site,http://www.artarchive.com/ (February 10, 2004), "Joseph Cornell."

Boston.com: Arts and Entertainment,http://www.boston.com/ae/ (September 22, 2002), David Rollow, "They Defied Convention: Artists Cornell and Dickinson Escaped Being Pigeonholed," review of Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams.

Guggenheim Museum Web site,http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/ (February 10, 2004), "Biography: Ellsworth Kelly."

New York Times Online,http://www.nytimes.com/ (August 18, 2002), Hilarie M. Sheets, "Books in Brief: Nonfiction: All Things in Their Boxes," review of Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams.

NY Arts Magazine Web site,http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/ (November 25, 2002), "Kinetic Poetry of Ordinary Things: Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams by Diane Waldman."

Old Print Shop Web site,http://www.oldprintshop.com/ (February 10, 2004), "Diane Waldman."