Zurcher, Bernard 1953-

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ZURCHER, Bernard 1953-

PERSONAL:

Born September 13, 1953, in Algiers, Algeria; son of René (an engineer) and Thérèse Zurcher; married Gwenolée de Beauregard, June 27, 1981. Education: Studied medicine at Salpetrière Hospital, Paris, 1973-74; Sorbonne, M.A. (cum laude), 1978; earned highest degree at the Ecole du Louvre, 1984.

ADDRESSES:

Office—c/o Galerie Zurcher, 56 rue Chapon, 75003 Paris, France.

CAREER:

Author, art historian, and curator. Jeu de Paume and Orangerie Galleries, Paris, France, assistant curator, 1978; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, assistant curator, 1979-84; Ecole du Louvre, Paris, lecturer, 1981-85; Galerie G (contemporary art gallery), Paris, managing director, beginning 1986; Galerie Zurcher, Paris, cofounder and director, 1992—.

MEMBER:

Art Galleries Committee (vice president), Congres interprofessionnel de l'art contemporain (vice president).

WRITINGS:

Renoir, Hazan (Paris, France), 1979.

Modigliani, Hazan (Paris, France), 1980.

(Author of foreword; and translator with wife, Gwenolée Zurcher) Elisabeth van Gogh: Personal Recollections of Vincent van Gogh, Hazan (Paris, France), 1982.

Vincent van Gogh: Art, Life, and Letters, translated from the French by Helga Harrison, Rizzoli Books (New York, NY), 1985.

Jean-Paul Huftier, Zurcher & Guilbert (Paris, France), 1986.

Paul Kallos: L'Architecte des transparences, Galerie J. Barbier (Paris, France), 1988.

Georges Braque, vie et oeuvre, [France], translation by Simon Nye published as Georges Braque, Life and Work, Rizzoli Books (New York, NY), 1988.

Les Fauves, Hazan (Paris, France), 1995.

Contributor to Dictionary of Abstract Art, Hazan (Paris, France), 1980; Dictionary of Modern Art, Hazan (Paris, France), 1980; and Dictionary of Art and Artists, Hazan (Paris, France), 1982.

SIDELIGHTS:

French author and art historian Bernard Zurcher was born in Algeria in 1953. He initially studied medicine at the Salpetrière Hospital in Paris, then turned his attention to the history of modern art, achieving a master's degree from the Sorbonne in 1978 and continuing his education at the Ecole du Louvre. He has worked as an assistant curator at the Jeu de Paume and Orangerie Galleries and the Palais de Tokyo, both in Paris, and as a lecturer at the Ecole du Louvre. After serving as managing director of Galerie G, a contemporary art gallery, he founded Gallery Zurcher with his wife, Gwenolée, in 1992 for the purpose of showcasing emerging French artists.

Zurcher has written widely on the subject of art history. He has contributed to a series of dictionaries covering abstract and modern art and artists, as well as writing individual volumes on Renoir, Modigliani, Jean-Paul Huftier, and Vincent van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh: Art, Life, and Letters, in which Zurcher examines the artist's life and work through an interpretation of his letters, was mentioned by Chicago Tribune Book World reviewer Alan G. Artner as one of the outstanding art books of the season. A reviewer for Time called the book a "sensitive picture biography." Zurcher also wrote the foreword for Elisabeth van Gogh: Personal Recollections of Vincent van Gogh, for which he served as translator with his wife.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books, November, 1989, review of Vincent van Gogh: Art, Life, and Letters, p. 8.

Chicago Tribune Book World, December 1, 1985, Alan G. Artner, "Here Are Season's Outstanding Books on Photography and Art," p. 6.

Choice, June, 1989, review of Georges Braque, Life and Work, p. 1674.

Library Journal, February 1, 1986, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 75; September 15, 1988, review of Georges Braque, p. 39; March 15, 1989, review of Georges Braque, p. 71.

New York Times Book Review, February 9, 1986, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 16.

Publishers Weekly, January 20, 1989, review of Georges Braque, p. 132.

Time, December 16, 1985, review of Vincent van Gogh, p. 87.