Leo Steinberg, Art Historian, Dies at 90

Reported in the NYTimes
by Ken Johnson
March 14, 2011

Leo Steinberg, one of the most brilliant, influential and controversial art historians of the last half of the 20th century, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 90. Mr. Steinberg was an inspirational lecturer, a writer of striking eloquence and an adventurous scholar and critic who loved to challenge the art world’s reigning orthodoxies. Though trained in the study of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, he wrote as insightfully about modern art as he did about the old masters.

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Reported in Art in America

Leo Steinberg, 1920-2011

by Stephanie Cash
03/15/11

Leo Steinberg, a giant among art historians, died on Sunday in Manhattan, age 90. At the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) awards ceremony last night, MoMA curator John Elderfield told this anecdote:



"Years ago I ran into Leo on the street, and he asked, ‘How do you like my coat?' I said, ‘I think this is a trick question.' Leo replied, ‘It is a trick question; this is Alfred Barr's overcoat.'" 



According to Elderfield, when offered artwork by the estate of Barr, MoMA's founding director, the one thing Steinberg wanted was the coat, not an impressive memento of Barr's intellect and stature. This story perhaps demonstrates the importance the anecdote-loving Steinberg placed not only on the big picture but on its details . . .

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