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Edward G. Leffingwell (December 3, 1941 – August 5, 2014), was an American art critic and curator, affiliated with MoMA/P.S.1 and Art in America[1] and associated with avant-garde art.[2][3]
Leffingwell was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, on December 3, 1941.[1] In the mid-1960s he moved to New York City and began associating with Max's Kansas City and the Warhol Factory crowd.[1] During the 1960s and 1970s he was involved with a variety of avant-garde art projects, including a 1968 film by sculptor John Chamberlain ("The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez").[1]
In the late 1970s Leffingwell left New York to take care of his mother, who was ill, and began to transition to a curatorial career in the arts.[1] He entered Youngstown State University, completing a B.A. in 1982, and went on in 1984 to earn an M.A. in art history from the University of Cincinnati.[1]
In 1985 he was hired by PS1, now affiliated with New York's Museum of Modern Art.[1]
Leffingwell organized a number of key exhibitions, including two while he was in school. His first exhibition, in 1983, was at the Butler: "Chinese Chance: An American Collection", which profiled the collection of Leffingwell's long-time associate, Mickey Ruskin, who had been one of the owners of Max's Kansas City.[1] His next major exhibition was at the University of Cincinnati, reviewing Lawrence Weiner, a conceptual artist.[1]
Over the next several years Leffingwell organized several significant shows. In New York, he developed a 20-year retrospective of sculptor John McCracken ("John McCracken: Heroic Stance") and a 1987 show of artist Michael Tracy ("Michael Tracy: Terminal Privileges").[4] In 1997 at P.S.1 he organized a retrospective of the work of artist and filmmaker Jack Smith[1][5] ("Jack Smith: Flaming Creature: His Amazing Life and Times").[3] He also organized a show on James Rosenquist,[5] and "About Place: Contemporary American Landscape" (1986).[3]
Leffingwell spent four years in Los Angeles, directing the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park from 1988 to 1992.[1] There he organized an exhibition of George Herms, and a proposed biennial show, LAX: The Los Angeles Exhibition, a contemporary art exhibition spanning seven to eight institutions.[1][2]
During this time Leffingwell became interested in and associated with Brazilian art and the São Paulo Art Biennial.[1] For that biennial, he organized a show on the painter Neil Williams, one of long-time friends and associates.[1]
Leffingwell wrote prolifically, penning hundreds of reviews and critical essays for Art in America, as well as contributing to scholarship on artist Lawrence Weiner, photographer Joe Deal,[2] artist Judith Murray,[3] Claude Monet and Jack Smith.[5]
Leffingwell died from cardiac arrest in Flushing, Queens, on August 5, 2014, at the age of 72, after suffering from Parkinson's disease.[1][3]
- Lawrence Weiner: AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE (1960-2007) (2007)
- From Vibrato to Legato: Judith Murray (2006)
- Mario Cravo Neto: Laroye (2002)
- Flaming Creature: The Life and Time of Jack Smith, Artist, Performer, Exotic Consultant (1997)
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