British art historian and renowned curator David Anfam died last Wednesday, August 21, in London at the age of 69, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado confirmed. Anfam is best known for his research on abstract expressionism and his legacy lives on through exhibitions and publications such as his acclaimed catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Mark Rothko.
Anfam was born in 1955 and attended the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where he received a bachelor's degree in art history and was accepted directly into the PhD program under the guidance and tutelage of art historian John Golding. At Golding's suggestion, Anfam focused his dissertation on Clyfford Still, one of the recognized pioneers of Abstract Expressionism, who is known to have withdrew from the art market to exercise complete control over his creative vision.
Although he never managed to meet Still in person, Anfam was passionately committed to the artist, eventually becoming the senior consulting curator of the Denver museum dedicated to Still's estate when it opened in 2011, after joining the project in 2007.
Hyperallergic Critic John Yau, a longtime friend of Anfam, said that the late historian “started with no theories and got all his information from talking to people who knew the artist, from looking at the artist's works and from reading everything he could find written by the artist.”
Yau recalled in particular one case in which the late art historian copied one of Still's essays on Paul Cezanne, held in the Archives of American Art, by hand onto index cards, since photocopying was not permitted at the time.
“He was full of love and generosity,” said Yau Hyperallergic.
In 1998, Anfam published his groundbreaking catalogue raisonné of Rothko's work with Yale University Press. Nine years in the making and containing over 830 known paintings by Rothko (400 of which were previously little or unknown) and a 100-page introduction, the publication won the Mitchell Prize for Art History in 2000 and received widespread acclaim for its fresh perspective and in-depth contextualization of Rothko's work, life, and environmental influences. In 2009, Anfam wrote a catalogue raisonné for British artist Anish Kapoor, published by Phaidon Press.
He is also known for his first published work, Abstract Expressionism (1990) is considered a powerful foray into the editorial world, summarizing a deeply complex art movement in an accessible and introductory text. In addition to his own books, Anfam has written catalogue essays for dozens of artists, including Wayne Thiebaud, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Edward Hopper, Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollock, Larry Poons, Richard Pousette-Dart, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ad Reinhardt, to name a few. The late historian has also contributed to Hyperallergicwith a review of Cézanne: The rock and quarry paintings in the Princeton University Art Museum.
Beyond the written word, Anfam was a public and academic lecturer as well as a valued curator. Notable exhibitions developed under Anfam include Mark Rothko: The Chapel Commission in Houston in 1996, Bill Viola: Ocean without shores (2007) at the 52nd Venice Biennale, Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy of Arts in London between 2016 and 2017 and Lynda Benglis: In the realm of the senses in Athens between 2019 and 2020.
Yau stressed that Anfam's legacy consists not only of his original writings and his devotion to Clyfford Still, but also of his writings “about little-known and lesser-known figures and neglected contemporaries.”
“He had an enormous appetite and always approached everyone whose work he wrote about with the same high level of care and commitment,” Yau concluded.
