An indepth discuss about Kurt Seligmann with the authors of the book Kurt Seligmann- First Message from the Spirit World of the Object and the respected curator Peter Selz. Moderated by Kendy Genovese with introduction by Rowland Weinstein.
Stephan E. Hauser holds a Doctor of Art History and is the author of Kurt Seligmann, 1900 -1962: Leben und Werk, an exhaustive 470-page monograph of the artist's life and work. He likewise curated a comprehensive Kurt Seligmann retrospective exhibition at Kunsthaus Zug in 1997 and is considered the foremost expert on the artist. Dr. Hauser has additionally authored Feininger and Tobey, Years of Friendship, 1944-1956: the complete correspondence as well as Underwater Above Water, about video art.
Martica Sawin is a critic, author, curator and art historian. She was the Art History Department Chair at Parsons School of Design from 1967-1995. From 1988 to 1994 she was also the Reviews Editor of The Art Journal. Her publications include Surrealism in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School; Masson en Amérique; Roberto Matta: early years; monographs on Nell Blaine, Robert De Niro (unpublished), Alan Gussow, Wolf Kahn, Gordon Onslow Ford, Brian Rutenberg, Wolfgang Paalen, and Yves Tanguy, to name a few. Martica curated the groundbreaking exhibition Surrealism in Exile at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.
Sawin credits the impetus and creation of her much-respected book & exhibition Surrealism in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School to the papers and records of Kurt Seligmann she was given access to by Seligmann's widow. She recounts, "It was in the boxes of mildewed and mouse-eaten papers I found under his barn that the story of the exodus and the years of exile began to unfold."
Stephen Robeson Miller is the the acknowledged expert on Kay Sage and a highly respected curator, author, and academic. He most recently released his long anticipated and meticulously researched chronology of Sage's life to coincide with his celebrated exhibition, Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy, at the Katonah Museum of Art and further venues. Stephen created The Stephen Robeson Miller Research Papers about Kay Sage now held at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and is currently working on the Kay Sage catalogue raisonne.
In Stephen's research, he came to know and befriend Kurt Seligmann's widow Arlette. He was a contributing author to The Impossible Landscapes of Nat Herz and Kurt Seligmann and now acts as an adviser to the Seligmann Center for the Arts.
Peter Selz is the former Chief Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He was the founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum, establishing its impressive collection from scratch. He is professor emeritus at University of California, Berkeley. His art historical credentials span seven decades. Like our other authors, Peter feels that Seligmann has been overlooked and underappreciated. He looks forward to contributing his insights on the artist and his work to give Seligmann the attention he deserves.