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Notes in the History of Art.
http://www.jstor.org
RobertV. Sten-
The portalsand cloistersof Moissac are them the TLS or the NYRB, and generally
betterthanwhatcan be said of them.To playing the role of informedmiddlemanin
be withthemis to be happyindeed.And theirpursuitof knowledge.My interlocutors
to studytheirdetails is to live in perpet- included Saul Bellow, Daniel Boorstin,
ual discoveryand pride. Lerone Bennett, Mircea Eliade, Roman
- Meyer Schapiro,in a letterto his Jakobson,Octavio Paz, and a hostof less fa-
wife,Dr. Lillian Milgram (1929) mous but equally impressive writersand
scholars.Such easy acquaintancewithgreat
Even thoughmy only advanced degree is a mindswas a bit like thatof a bartenderwith
Masterof Fine Artsin PaintingfromtheArt his "regulars."Since therewere few bars in
Instituteof Chicago, I considermyselffairly the neighborhoods in which I plied my
well educated.In today's world,however, I trade,my chance to listenwas increasedby
would no longerbe eligible formanyof the thelack of competition,while thequalityof
academic and museumjobs thatI was lucky thetalk was enhanced by greatersobriety.
enough to get before the tyrannyof the Precocious exposureto such literatecom-
Ph.D. became nearlyabsolute.In explaining pany emboldened me to seek it out laterin
how and where I learned whateverI have life. While an undergraduate,I attendeda
managed to learn, the third volume of lectureby a youngarthistorianthenteaching
Maxim Gorky's memoirs comes to mind. at the University of Pennsylvania- Leo
Gorkyironicallyentitledhis account of his Steinberg.His talk,directfromthepages of
early life My Universities.Following My a yet-to-be-published collection of his es-
Childhood and the equally ironic My Ap- says, Other Criteria: Confrontationswith
prenticeship,it tells of his trainingin the Twentieth-Century (1972), was on Pablo
Art
school of hardknocksin czaristRussia. My Picasso's reinterpretations of Eugne Dela-
upbringingwas not as harsh,but my intel- croix's paintingLes Femmes d'Alger. I at-
lectualcomingof age, in manyrespects,was tended because, even thoughI was young
comparablyhaphazard. Thus, "My univer- and ignorant,I was Picasso-mad. While still
sities" largely consisted of the bookstores in myteens,I had lived fora yearin France.
and libraries where I was employed, my For nightson end duringthatyear,I pored
minimal wages paying for the studio art over cheap littlepocketreproductionsof Pi-
classes that were my primaryobject. My casso's work- some in garishpostcardcol-
seminars and tutorialswere the extended ors, others in delicious photogravuregri-
conversationsI engaged in withpatronsin saille. I read everythingI could about him.
the course of doing routinebusiness with In a desperateattemptto make at least visual
them:locating and orderingbooks, selling contact with my hero, I hitchhikedto the
south of France and found my way to the cause the speaker or writerand the public
master'svilla,La Californie,onlyto discover shared the experience of thatwork- or at
thathe had long since decamped to a remote least sharedtheexperienceof havinglooked
castle in Mougins. My infatuationwithPi- withthatappetiteand attentiveness to com-
casso was equivalent to the kind of crush parable works. This can no longer be as-
my contemporarieshad on rock stars,the sumed in an era whendirectobservationhas
cruxof thatfixationbeingtheartist'spersona been replaced by the "close" readingof re-
ratherthantheessence of his art. productionsand texts based on reproduc-
Leo Steinbergchangedthat- suddenly- tions, and when "strong misreadings" of
radically. It is no exaggerationto say that WalterBenjamin and a host of speculative
Leo opened myeyes to thepoeticsof picture thinkersruminating on thedisappearanceof
making- or, in the case of Les Femmes "aura" serve as an alibi fordisregardingthe
d'Alger, pictorial restructuring. His thesis nuances embedded in the originalimage or
was that Picasso had remade Delacroix's artifact.(Like Marx, Freud,and manyof the
composition in the course of the twenty- seminal theoristsof the twentiethcentury,
fourpaintingshe based upon it and that,in Benjamin shouldnotbe blamed forthemis-
theprocess,he had reconfigured theoriginal uses to whichhis essays have been put,much
syntax of Cubism thathe had invented with less the willfulmisunderstanding theyhave
Braque into an infinitelypliable, inherently given rise to.)
reversiblespatial mesh the likes of which That said, Leo did enjoy special access to
had neverbeforeexisted in Westernpaint- manyof thethingshe focused on, in partic-
ing. Leo's argumentdid not issue froma ularto Picasso's Les Femmesd'Alger.Even-
theoryabout the historical imperativesof tually,so did I. The seriesof fifteencanvases
themedium,nordid it engendersuch a the- was initiallyboughtas a block by New York
ory.Neitherwas it a commentaryon thees- collectorsVictorand Sally Ganz. Some were
tablishedliteratureof Picasso (althoughin sold offin shortorder,othersmoregradually.
Leo's studies of Michelangelo, debater's A core group of fourpaintingsin the series
points scored against careless scholarship remainedin theirhands untiltheirdeathsin
was a chief source of pleasure for him). 1987 and 1997, respectively.For decades,
Rather,Leo's largerconclusionsand smaller these paintingshung in a small red-walled
digressions derived fromintense, scrupu- sittingroom on the second floor of their
lous, prolonged, and repeated scrutinyof apartmenton Gracie Square. Guests could
theworksof artunderdiscussion. Sustained lingerforhours and in total comfort,reaf-
looking was the predicateforthought - its firmingMatisse's conceptthata good paint-
driving force and itsfuelrather than a means ing should be like thearmchairintowhicha
of perfunctory ratification
of receivedideas tiredman of the world happily sinks at the
about thingsothershad seen and reported end of theday.
on. In Matisse's conceit,such a businessman
Once upon a time,one could expect such would thenturnhis attentionfromtherealm
sustainedlooking to be the verifiablebasis of moneymakingto higher aesthetic con-
for any art historian'sthinkingor writing cerns and apply the same measure of con-
about topics thatmatteredto him or herbe- centrationto the subtletiesof art thathad,
company the love of art dare not speak its gender-bending mysticalbait-fisherman and
name. seasonal painterForrestBess?
Among arthistorians,Leo had his admir- By contrast,a live, mutuallyinvigorating
ers. But he, in turn,admired relative few. currentpassed between Leo and Meyer,as
Feuds are endemic to the field,and, gifted it does when polar opposite come together.
withboth a sharp pen and a sharp tongue, Meyer's turnof minddirectedLeo to many
he had a knackformakingthemostof them, aspects of critical discourse that Leo es-
as Rubin learned. One senior colleague he chewed- chiefly,Marx and semiotics.But,
deeply respectedwas Meyer Schapiro,who like Leo, Meyer was groundedin the con-
late in life also found an audience for his tentmenthe foundin looking and the reve-
morphingideas among paintersand sculp- lationsthataccumulatedfromsustainingthe
torsat the Studio School at a timewhen art effort.Winningintramural argumentscomes
historiansof modernarthonoredhimmostly in a poor thirdto these enduringrewards.
by ignoring him, except when "second- To stressthatpoint,I began thistestimonial
guessing"or "correcting"his earlywritings. withan epigraphfromMeyer,who was also
How manywho quoted Schapiro in articles amongtheextramural professorsof "myuni-
about artof the 1930s to the 1950s have ex- versities."But it is fromLeo thatI learned
pressedanysympathy forhis supportof Bob themostand to whom I will always be most
Thompson and GandyBrodie or anycurios- indebted.
ity about his long correspondencewiththe