LIVINGSTON, Jane S(helton) 1944-

PERSONAL: Born February 12, 1944, in Upland, CA; daughter of Leonard and Frances (Dundas) Shelton. Education: Pomona College, B.A., 1965; Harvard University, M.A., 1966.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Chronicle Books, 85 Second St., Sixth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105.

CAREER: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, curator of modern art, 1967-75; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, associate director and chief curator, 1975-89. Member of museum advisory panel of National Endowment for the Arts, 1976-79.

MEMBER: International Council of Museums, Association of American Museums, College Art Association of America, Artists Space (New York, NY; trustee), American Art Alliance.

AWARDS, HONORS: Decorated with Order of the Crown Belgium.

WRITINGS:

(With Maurice Tuckman) Art and Technology, Viking (New York, NY), 1970.

Ed McGowin's True Stories, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 1975.

M. Alvarez Bravo, David R. Godine (Boston, MA), 1976.

Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 1982.

Wisconsin Biennial, 1982, Madison Art Center (Madison, WI), 1982.

Ad Reinhardt, Seventeen Works, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 1984.

(Author of essay) Frances Fralin, editor, The Indelible Image: Photographs of War, 1846 to the Present, Abbeville Press (New York, NY), 1985.

(With Alan Fern and Michael Evans) People and Power: Portraits from the Federal Village, Abrams (New York, NY), 1985.

(With Robert Frank and others) Charles Pratt: Photographs, Aperture (Millerton, NY), 1985.

(With Rosalind E. Krauss) L'Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism, with an essay by Dawn Ades, Abbeville Press (New York, NY), 1985.

(With John Ashbery and others) Kitaj Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Samuel Beckett and others) Arikha, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1986.

(With John Beardsley) Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors, Abbeville Press (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Frances Fralin and Declan Haun) Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic, Thomasson-Grant (Charlottesville, VA), 1988.

Lee Miller, Photographer, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1989.

Thomas Chimes: The Hermes Cycle, Locks Art Publications (Philadelphia, PA), 1992.

The New York School: Photographs, 1936-1963, Stewart, Tabori & Chang (New York, NY), 1992.

(Adapter) Pierre Borhan, editor, Andre Kertesz: His Life and Work, Little Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.

(Author of essay) Mary Shanahan, editor, Evidence, 1944-1994 (Richard Avedon exhibit), Random House (New York, NY), 1994.

Oyvind Fahlstrom: die Installationen (exhibition catalog), Cantz (Ostfildern, Germany), 1995.

(Editor, with Dena Andre and Philip Brookman) Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry, photographs by Jim Goldberg, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.

Visions of Victory: A Century of Sports Photography, Pindar Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Author of essay) Eleanor Lanahan, editor, Zelda, an Illustrated Life: The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald, Abrams (New York, NY), 1996.

The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1997.

Strange but True: The Arizona Photographs of Allen Dutton, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 2001.

(With others) The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place, Tinwood Books (Atlanta, GA), 2002.

(With others) Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts, Tinwood Books (Atlanta, GA), 2002.

The Paintings of Joan Mitchell, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2002.

Richard Diebenkorn: Figurative Works on Paper, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Author of exhibition catalogs. Corresponding editor of Art in America, 1970—.

SIDELIGHTS: Curator, art expert, and author Jane S. Livingston is a writer of major books and exhibition catalogs on art and photography. In addition to her own books, Livingston has edited and contributed to the work of other writers and has adapted volumes considered key to the art world. Among her earliest published works is Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980, a catalog published in conjunction with an exhibition of African-American folk art that traveled across the United States in 1982 and 1983. Livingston's catalog features biographies and artwork for twenty African-American folk artists, including photographs, illustrations, and descriptions of their art.

In her next major effort, Livingston combined her interests in art and photography. Along with Rosalind Krauss and Dawn Ades, she studied the role photography played in the Surrealism movement, publishing her conclusions in a catalog for a traveling exhibition titled, L'Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism. "In this rich picture book," a reviewer for Publishers Weekly said, the authors "examine the very extensive role of photography (an unlikely medium on the face of it) in the surrealist movement…. A scholarly tour de force."

Moving away from photography temporarily, Livingston next turned her attention to realism. In Arikha, Livingston remarked that the work of this Israeli artist is "like the power of experienced life itself, in which subject matter is rarely, until later, the issue." Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors was also created to accentuate a traveling exhibition. This book includes essays, photographs, illustrations, and biographical sketches of thirty Hispanic artists.

In her first major offering as a solo writer, Lee Miller: A Photographer Rediscovered, Livingston "interweaves an informative, well-written text with full-page reproductions of [Miller's] photographs," noted Steven Hupp of the Library Journal. Fashion model, photographer, mother, and war correspondent Lee Miller's remarkable talent is presented in this "rich selection of her finest photographs," said Hupp, "one that will ensure Lee Miller's place among the great photographers of the twentieth century."

Livingston has continued to produce volume after volume of acclaimed and well-received books and catalogs, including Evidence, 1944-1994, which the publisher described as the "definitive account of the life and work of Richard Avedon." The New York School: Photographs, 1936-1963 displays the collective photographs of a loosely defined group of photographers who lived and worked in New York City during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Indelible Image: Photographs of War, 1946 to the Present is a collection of 135 select images of war. Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic is a retrospective of National Geographic's outstanding photojournalism over the past century.

Showing the dramatic range encompassed by Livingston's work, her next photographic collection represents a topic controversial in its artistic value. Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry was created as a result of a joint sponsorship between the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Hospice Foundation. The book was then edited by Livingston. Essays and biographical portfolios interspersed throughout the collected photographs make for an impressive book.

Strange but True: The Arizona Photographs of Allen Dutton is a companion volume for Dutton's first solo exhibition at a major museum, an immense project comprising thousands of images taken over almost two decades. In two separate volumes, Livingston presents the masterful and stunning folk creations of the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama. The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place and its sister volume Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts illustrate in print the visual exhibition that toured the United States.

The Paintings of Joan Mitchell is another exhibition catalog published to accompany a traveling exhibition of the artist's work. Mitchell, considered a foremost abstract expressionist in American art, expresses dislike for the public's propensity to pigeonhole her as either an artist or as a woman. "Using Mitchell's journals and correspondence, Livingston follows the evolution of Mitchell's painting and discusses her technique, which showed more concern with color than with the integrity of the medium," commented Sandra Rothenberg in a review for the Library Journal.

Livingston has taken part in two books featuring American painter Richard Diebenkorn, who has been most often associated with California. Diebenkorn has been known for his characteristic style, modernist, bright palette, and thick brushwork. He shocked the art world when he abruptly shifted to representational art, but his eventual return to the abstract is seen in a series of paintings titled Ocean Park. The first book which involved Livingston is titled The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, a catalog accompanying a traveling exhibit of his work. It is characterized as "a comprehensive catalog … intended to enhance understanding of his devotion to modernism and the influences upon his accomplishments," said Joan Levin of the Library Journal.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

American Reference Books Annual, 1983, review of Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980, p. 386.

Art in America, November, 1989, Brian Wallis, "Can a Crippled Corcoran Survive?," p. 41.

Bloomsbury Review, March, 1993, review of The New York School: Photographs, 1936-1963, p. 92; July, 1998, review of The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, p. 4.

Booklist, November 15, 1988, review of Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic, p. 529; September 1, 1989, review of Lee Miller, Photographer, p. 23; February 1, 1993, review of The New York School, p. 964; December 18, 1993, review of Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980, p. 1042; November 1, 1997, Donna Seaman, review of The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, p. 445; September 1, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of The Paintings of Joan Mitchell, p. 38.

Bookman's Weekly, October 31, 1988, review of Odyssey, p. 1678; March 22, 1993, review of The New York School, p. 1220.

Bookwatch, February, 1993, review of The New York School, p. 4.

Burlington, December, 1997, review of The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, p. 900.

Business Week, December 12, 1988, review of Odyssey, p. 133.

Choice, March, 1989, review of Odyssey, p. 1145; March, 1993, review of The New York School, p. 1136.

Christian Science Monitor, December 18, 1992, review of The New York School, p. 11.

Entertainment Weekly, January 29, 1993, review of The New York School, p. 53.

Hungry Mind Review, November, 1989, review of Lee Miller, Photographer, p. 9; winter, 1997, review of The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, p. 14.

Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide, September, 1989, review of Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980, p. 51.

Library Journal, November 15, 1985, review of The Indelible Image, p. 89; December, 1988, review of Odyssey, p. 100; January, 1989, review of Odyssey, p. 44; September 1, 1989, review of Lee Miller, Photographer, p. 188; October, 1989, review of Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980, p. 23; December 6, 1992, review of The New York School, p. 41; January, 1998, Joan Levin, review of The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, p. 95; September 15, 2002, Sandra Rothenberg, review of The Paintings of Joan Mitchell, p. 58; October 15, 2003, Ellen Bates, review of Richard Diebenkorn: Figurative Works on Paper, p. 65.

Maclean's, December 12, 1988, review of Odyssey, p. 61.

New Republic, February 3, 1986, Richard Howard, review of L'Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism, p. 33; June 13, 1994, Jed Perl, review of Richard Avedon: Evidence, 1944-1994, p. 33.

New Statesman, July 22, 1994, review of Odyssey, p. 43.

New York, December 14, 1992, review of The New York School, p. 92.

New York Times, March 21, 1982, review of Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980, p. 31; December 8, 1985, Andy Grundberg, review of L'Amour fou, p. 24; September 14, 1989, Barbara Gamarekian, "Curator of Mapplethorpe Resigns Posts at Corcoran," p. B3.

New York Times Book Review, July 30, 1989, review of Lee Miller, Photographer, p. 17; December 6, 1992, review of The New York School, p. 20; December 8, 2002, Christopher Benfey, "Art," review of The Paintings of Joan Mitchell, p. 20.

Petersen's Photographic, March, 1989, review of Odyssey, p. 78.

PSA Journal, July, 1988, Daniel H. deCournoyer, review of L'Amour fou, p. 10.

Publishers Weekly, 1985, review of The Indelible Image, p. 412; April 18, 1994, review of Evidence, 1944-1994, p. 52; May 6, 1996, review of Zelda, an Illustrated Life: The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald, p. 63.

Reference and Research Book News, December, 1991, review of The New York School, p. 38.

School Library Journal, October, 1996, Barbara Hawkins, review of Zelda, p. 166.

Times Literary Supplement, March 19, 1993, review of The New York School, p. 9.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), December 4, 1988, review of Odyssey, p. 5; December 6, 1992, review of The New York School, p. 3.

Utne Reader, July, 1991, review of Lee Miller, Photographer, p. 132.

Village Voice Literary Supplement, November, 1992, review of The New York School, p. 21.

Washington Post, December 14, 1992, Jo Ann Lewis, "Portrait of a Curator: Life after the Corcoran" (interview), p. B1.

West Coast Review of Books, 1989, review of Odyssey, p. 59.

Women's Review of Books, October, 1989, review of Lee Miller, Photographer, p. 7.

online

University of California Press, http://www.ucpress.edu/ (November 22, 2003), "Jane Livingston."*