Roberta Smith Explained

Roberta Smith
Birth Place:New York City, US
Occupation:Art critic
Education:Grinnell College
Period:1970s–present
Subject:Art

Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of The New York Times and a lecturer on contemporary art.[1] [2] She is the first woman to hold that position at the Times.[3] [4] [5]

Education and early life

Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas.[6] Smith studied at Grinnell College in Iowa. Her career in the arts started in 1968, while an undergraduate summer intern at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Career

In 1968-1969 she participated in the Art History/Museum Studies track of the Whitney Independent Study Program (ISP) where she met and developed an affinity for Donald Judd and became interested in minimal art.[7] [8] After graduation, she returned to New York City in 1971 to take a secretarial job at the Museum of Modern Art, followed by part-time assistant jobs to Judd in the early 1970s, and Paula Cooper for the first three years that she had her Paula Cooper Gallery, beginning in 1972.

While at the Paula Cooper Gallery Smith wrote exhibition reviews for Artforum, and subsequently for Art in America, the Village Voice and other publications. She has written and spoken about Judd on many occasions throughout her career, and upon his death in 1995, penned his New York Times obituary.[9] [10] [11]

Smith began writing for The New York Times in 1986, and became the newspaper's co-chief art critic in 2011.[12] She has written many essays for catalogues and monographs on contemporary artists, and wrote the featured essay in the 1975 Judd catalogue raisonné published by the National Gallery of Canada. She writes not only about contemporary art but about the visual arts in general, including decorative arts, popular and outsider art, design and architecture.

Smith is a longtime advocate for museums to be free and open to the public.[13] In 2012, she received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute.[14] In 2017, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago awarded Smith her second honorary doctorate.[15]

Awards and honors

Personal life

Smith married Jerry Saltz, senior art critic for New York magazine, in 1992. The couple live in an apartment in Greenwich Village.[19] [20]

Notes and References

  1. News: Roberta Smith. 2018-03-15. The New York Times. 2018-03-18. en-US. 0362-4331.
  2. Christopher Bolen, "Roberta Smith & Jerry Saltz", Interview magazine, undated.
  3. News: Roberta Smith and Holland Cotter Named Co-Chief Art Critics of The New York Times. 2011-09-14. Observer. 2018-03-18. en-US.
  4. http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/s/roberta_smith/index.html Articles in The New York Times
  5. http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/04/art/in-conversation-roberta-smith-with-irving-sandler Interview in the Brooklyn Rail
  6. Web site: Roberta Smith with Irving Sandler. Sandler. Irving. 2009-04-06. The Brooklyn Rail. en-US. 2019-09-11. I'm afraid this was especially true when I went to Grinnell [College in Grinnell, Iowa]. I wrote the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington to see about being in their summer intern program. They accepted me, although they were a bit startled to have someone come all the way from Kansas.
  7. Book: Art., Whitney Museum of American. Independent study program : 40 years : Whitney Museum of American Art, 1968-2008.. 2008. Whitney Museum of American Art. 9780874271584. 1st. New York. 262737522.
  8. Web site: Local History: Donald Judd Design Objects. Judd Foundation. en-US. 2019-01-18.
  9. News: Christie's Presale Show: Light and Space Enough to Really See Judd. Smith. Roberta. 2006-04-24. The New York Times. 2019-01-18. en-US. 0362-4331.
  10. News: ART; The World According to Judd. Smith. Roberta. 1995-02-26. The New York Times. 2019-01-18. en-US. 0362-4331.
  11. Web site: Roberta Smith with Jarrett Earnest. Stevens. Mary Clare. The Brooklyn Rail. 2019-01-18.
  12. News: From 'Vicious' to Celebratory: The Times's Reviews of Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party'. Pilat. Kasia. 2018-02-28. The New York Times. 2018-03-18. en-US. 0362-4331.
  13. News: The Met Should Be Open to All. The New Pay Policy Is a Mistake.. Cotter. Holland. 2018-01-04. The New York Times. 2019-01-18. Smith. Roberta. en-US. 0362-4331.
  14. Web site: Roberta Smith to Accept Honorary Doctorate, Holland Cotter at Work on Book. 2012-05-02. Observer. en. 2019-01-18.
  15. Web site: SAIC Announces its 2017 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Doctorate Recipients. School of the Art Institute of Chicago. en. 2019-01-18.
  16. Web site: Awards. The College Art Association. 11 October 2010.
  17. Web site: The Vera List Center for Arts and Politics Roberta Smith Criticism A Life Sentence. veralistcenter.org. en. 2018-03-18.
  18. News: Roberta Smith - American Academy. American Academy. 2018-03-18. en-US.
  19. Web site: Roberta Smith & Jerry Saltz. 2013-12-09. Interview Magazine. en-US. 2019-01-18.
  20. News: Jerry Saltz and the Future of the Critic-Artist artnet News. 2016-12-09. artnet News. 2018-03-18. en-US.

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