Walter Liedtke

Walter Liedtke
Born Walter Arthur Liedtke, Jr.
August 28, 1945
Newark, New Jersey US
Died February 3, 2015 (aged 69)
Valhalla, New York US
Residence Bedford Hills, New York
Nationality United States
Occupation Art historian, writer, curator
Years active 1974-2015

Walter Arthur Liedtke, Jr. (August 28, 1945 – February 3, 2015)[1] was an American art historian, writer and Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[2] He was known as "one of the world's leading scholars of Dutch and Flemish paintings."[1] He died in a 2015 Metro-North Valhalla train crash.[3]

Early life

Liedtke was born in Newark, New Jersey,[4] and grew up in Livingston, New Jersey.[4] Liedtke studied Art History, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 from Rutgers University in New Brunswick,New Jersey, a Master of Arts degree in 1969 at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.[5] Liedtke said that his interest in Dutch paintings because he was "very visual as a kid, maybe watching too much television."[6] He said that he's "very responsive to visual patterns rather than narrative structures."[6]

Career

Academia

Liedtke planned on a career in academia.[2] For two years Liedtke taught at the Florida State University, then at the University's villa in Florence. In 1974 he was working at the Courtauld Institute in London on his PhD dissertation, "Architectural painting in Delft, 1650-1675,"[7] in which he discussed work of Gerrit Houckgeest, Pieter Saenredam, Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet and Emmanuel de Witte.[8] From 1975 till 1979 he joined the faculty at Ohio State University.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

After receiving a Mellon Fellowship he began studying at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was appointed in 1980 as curator and would spend the rest of his career. He organized numerous exhibitions, wrote seven books, including several on Rembrandt and Vermeer, and produced catalogues of the Museum's Dutch and Flemish paintings.

Liedtke served as a curator of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for thirty-five years. Liedtke specialized in the paintings of Vermeer and the Delft School. "His 2001 show, “Vermeer and the Delft School” was the world’s most popular art exhibition that year, attracting 555,000 visitors during its three-month run."[9]

In a review of the exhibition catalogue art historian Sanford Schwartz noted Liedtke's complex interpretation of Vermeer:

There's a pleasing art-worldishness about Liedtke's Vermeer. He's not the empyrean figure whose every picture has a "moral" value, as some have seen him, and Liedtke's way of presenting great, innovative art as the product of a slow process of absorbing countless precedents, and of being crucially dependent on a community of like-minded connoisseurs and patrons, injects a needed realism into the sometimes nearly hagiographic writing about Vermeer. Given that he sees Vermeer as equally a sophisticate and a homebody, Liedtke's own writing, when he doesn't flood his pages with arcana about this or that modestly endowed Dutch artist, has a slyer, more amused and colloquial color than is generally encountered in scholarly art history.[10]

At the time of his death he was preparing a catalogue of the museum's collection of Spanish paintings of the 15th to 18th century.[11]

Most recently, he worked on "El Greco in New York," a collaborative project that was co-curated with Keith Christiansen,[12] with the Hispanic Society of America and the Frick Collection held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 4, 2014 to February 1, 2015.[13]

Honors

Personal life

Liedke was married to Nancy Liedke, a math teacher, artist, and equestrienne.[4] He commuted daily from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City to what he called "the countryside," Bedford Hills, New York in Westchester County.[6] He said that he thought there was something "Dutch" about the way he lived: the idyllic countryside, living in a 100 year old home, and his collections of Dutch 17th century paintings and engravings and his collection of Chinese porcelain of the 1600s.[6] Liedke described his lifestyle: "At the essential level I think what's the most Dutch about it is this constant return to immediate experience." This included cleaning out horse stalls at 6:30 in the morning, which led to a "matter-of-factness to daily life" that he saw as very Dutch.[6]

Death

Along with five others, Liedke died in the February 3, 2015 Metro-North[14] Valhalla train crash,[15][16] at the age of 69.[2][17] Thomas Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, described him as "one of the most distinguished scholars of Dutch and Flemish painting in the world."[2] Many in the art and museum community posted reflections and appreciation of Liedtke's work.[18][19] Memorial statements were widespread, and were both local[20] and international in scope.[4][21][22]

Works and publications

Chronological order by date

Monographs

Multimedia

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Campbell, Thomas P. (5 February 2015). "Walter Liedtke, Our Friend and Distinguished Colleague (1945–2015)". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Kennedy, Randy (4 February 2015). "Walter Liedtke, Curator at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dies at 69". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Tyler, Dana (4 February 2015). "Art Curator Among Those Killed In Valhalla Metro-North Accident" (TV program). CBS2 New York. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Dickey, Stephanie (February 2015). "In Memoriam: Walter A. Liedtke (1945-2015)". Historians of Netherlandish Art.
  5. ↑ Miller, Stephen (4 February 2015). "Walter Liedtke, Met Museum Curator, Vermeer Expert, Dies at 69". Bloomberg. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Liedtke, Walter (2011). "Connections: Living with Vermeer" (Multimedia presentation). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  7. ↑ Liedtke, Walter A. Jr. (1974). "Architectural Paintings in Delft: 1650-1675" (Thesis (PhD)). University of London (Courtauld Institute of Art). OCLC 272495491.
  8. ↑ Schwartz, Gary (7 February 2015). "The Young Walter Liedtke". The Schwartzlist. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Feldman, Harry (5 February 2015). "Walter Liedtke, 1945-2015". Art in America. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  10. ↑ Schwartz, Sanford (31 May 2001). "Camera Work". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  11. ↑ Jeromack, Paul (4 February 2015). "Walter Liedtke, Met’s curator of Dutch and Flemish paintings, killed in train crash". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  12. ↑ Rosenbaum, Lee (6 February 2015). ""Deep, Strong Opinions": Met Director Tom Campbell’s Remembrances of Curator Walter Liedtke". CultureGrrl: Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Walter Liedtke: 1945–2015". Apollo Magazine. 5 February 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Santora, Marc; Flegenheimer, Matt (4 February 2015). "Investigation Underway in Metro-North Train Crash". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  15. ↑ Chung, Jen (4 February 2015). "Cuomo Calls Fatal Metro-North Crash "As Gruesome As I Have Seen"". Gothamist. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  16. ↑ Celona, Larry; Harshbarger, Rebecca; Rosario, Frank; Cohen, Shawn (3 February 2015). "6 dead after Metro-North train collides with SUV". New York Post. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Martinez, Alanna (4 February 2015). "Met Museum Curator Walter Liedtke Killed in Metro-North Valhalla Train Crash". New York Observer. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  18. ↑ Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. (6 February 2015). "Walter Liedtke: A Reflection and Appreciation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  19. ↑ Rosenbaum, Lee (4 February 2015). "Walter Liedtke, Consummate Curator of Dutch and Flemish Painting, Dies in a Train Crash (with my late video at the Met)". CultureGrrl: Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  20. ↑ Lopate, Leonard (6 February 2015). "Tribute: Walter Liedtke" (Audio interviews). The Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC). Retrieved 4 April 2015. Includes 2009 interview on Vermeer and 2007 interview on Rembrandt
  21. ↑ Kloos, Robert (4 February 2015). "In Memoriam: Walter Liedtke, Curator of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art". Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  22. ↑ "HNA Remembers Walter Liedtke". Historians of Netherlandish Art. February 2015.

External links