Making it new

the long version

For the past 35 years, Henry Geldzahler, controversial first curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Twentieth Century Art, has been at the center of America's lively and vital art scene. Making It New is the first collection of his essays, interviews and talks, and includes work that has never been published. His style is disarmingly intimate, insightful and amusing. In this generous selection of writings Henry Geldzahler is always an enchanting guide to a world of innovative artistic activity. He is master of a particularly informal interview style which allows artists as diverse as Frank Stella, Alice Neel and Louise Bourgeois to reveal fresh insights to their methods and intentions. His essays on photography, on "The Sixties" and his commencement address remind us of Calvin Tompkins' comment in "The Scene" that Henry Geldzahler's effect (as teacher) was phenomenal. "Students...were mesmerized by his brilliant, amusing perception on every imaginable subject." These extraordinary writings are filled with high spirits, humor, literary charm and skillful connoisseurship.