The who is who

Bosc d’Anjou posted a photo:

David Hockney (b.1937) – Henry and Raymond (1979). In the artist’s collection. Shown at the temporary exhibition “David Hockney 25” at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, April-August 2025.

Belgian-born Henry Geldzahler (1935-1994) was for a time “the king of the New York Art world”, particularly through his work as curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and later the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for New York City under Mayor Edward I Koch’s first administration in 1978-1982. Starting as a Curator of American Art at the Museum in 1960 he managed to push the conservative museum towards modern art and in fact becoming the Museum’s first Curator of 20th Century Art. In 1969 he curated the Museum’s gigantic exhibition “New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970”, occupying 35 galleries and showing over 400 works by 43 artists. It was one of the main events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Museum. Geldzahler’s influence on contemporary American art was further amplified by his role as the United States Commissioner for the Venice Biennale in 1966, selecting the American artists to be exhibited. But perhaps even more influential in the long run was his role as the first director of the visual arts program of the National Endowment for the Arts, where he initiated a program of museum grants for the purchase of art made by living American artists An openly gay man, David Hockney and Andy Warhol were among his closest friends.

Geldzahler is shown in conversation with Raymond Foye (b. 1957), a writer and editor at the time with City Lights Books of San Francisco. After moving to New York the following year, he came to edit over a dozen publications with David Hockney.