Available From UC Press

This absorbing biography, often conveyed through Peter Selz’s own words, traces the journey of a Jewish-German immigrant from Hitler’s Munich to the United States and on to an important career as a pioneer historian of modern art. Paul J. Karlstrom illuminates key historical and cultural events of the twentieth-century as he describes Selz’s extraordinary career—from Chicago’s Institute of Design (New Bauhaus), to New York’s Museum of Modern Art during the transformative 1960s, and as founding director of the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley. Karlstrom sheds light on the controversial viewpoints that at times isolated Selz from his colleagues but nonetheless affirmed his conviction that significant art was always an expression of deep human experience. The book also links Selz’s long life story—featuring close relationships with such major art figures as Mark Rothko, Dore Ashton, Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, and Christo—with his personal commitment to political engagement.

Paul J. Karlstrom, former West Coast Regional Director of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, is the editor of On the Edge of America: California Modernist Art, 1900–1950 (UC Press) and a co-editor of Asian American Art: A History, 1860–1970. He is coauthor of Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists, 1920–1956 and author of Raimonds Staprans: Art of Tranquility and Turbulence.

“Peter Selz's experience and energy in the art world have led to important and challenging museum shows, and his work with Jeanne-Claude and me helped realize the Running Fence in 1976. I am happy his story is being told in this book.”

—Christo



“The extraordinary career of one of the most energetic and, above all, creative figures in twentieth century art history is deftly described in this essential book.”—Dore Ashton, author of A Fable of Modern Art



“In Sketches of a Life in Art, it's clear that Peter Selz uniquely sees painting as if from within the artist himself, not as an outside observer (as when he describes the ‘internal look’ of a Mark Rothko painting). And a moving Life it is.”—Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Laureate of San Francisco and author of How to Paint Sunlight



“Engaging and delightful, this book offers its readers a succession of alternative histories of modern and contemporary art, ranging from George Grosz to William Kentridge, looping back to bring in Robert Rauschenberg and Sam Francis, among many others. All reimagined in Peter Selz's ambitious curatorial imagination to delve into the moment and discover. . .classical tradition. Perhaps only Paul Karlstrom, with forty years behind him using oral history to recover the hidden stories of twentieth-century art, could have followed the mirrors and mazes of Peter Selz's career and told a story both clear and amazing. Readers will share the delight that Karlstrom discovers in his subject.”—Richard Candida Smith, author of The Modern Moves West: California Artists and Democratic Culture in the Twentieth Century