Join art historian and curator Magda Salvesen for a discussion of the complex and competitive art world through the distinctive lens of those who are left to deal with artists’ estates and the works they leave behind when they die.
The talk is part of the Shelter Island Public Library’s Friday Night Dialogues series and takes place at the library on August 19 at 7 PM. Use this link to register via the library’s online calendar.
About ‘Artists’ Estates’
Salvesen is co-editor with Diane Cousineau of “Artists’ Estates – Reputations in Trust” (Rutger’s University Press, 2005), featuring interviews that Salvesen conducted with heirs of well-known artists.
She comes to the subject with personal experience as the widow of painter Jon Schueler, a second-generation abstract expressionist, who died in 1992. Her talk promises a fascinating look into conflicts, goals, frustrations, and the emotional and financial strains that confront widows, companions, sons, and daughters following an artist’s death.
As curator and administrator of her husband’s estate, Salvesen says she was driven to ensure that his art would be appreciated by generations to come. She will speak about how living alongside his work reminded her of the imperative to create administrative order for his oils, watercolors, drawings, and prints.
“I had to find a way of bringing order to the vast amount of information held in my mind and stored in countless files and boxes, according to my own quirky methods, so that they would be accessible to the next person in charge,” she said.
The book explores well-known estates, including those of Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, Milton Avery, Romare Bearden, and David Smith, as well as the equally intriguing legacies of lesser-known artists.
“Together, the passionate testimonies of families and lovers, the measured voices of art professionals, and the more than eighty photographs offer an indispensable entre into the private and public worlds of art,” the publisher says in a synopsis.
“Artists’ Estates” wasn’t the first collaboration for Salvesen and Cousineau. In 1999, they oversaw the publication of Jon Schueler’s memoirs, “The Sound of Sleat: A Painter’s Life” (Picador USA).
About Magda Salvesen
Salvesen is a native of Scotland. She attended Sweet Briar College in Virginia and earned a master’s degree in French and English at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and an MA in the History of Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.
As an art historian, she spent a great deal of time studying works in estates throughout Britain and became interested in their landscapes and gardens. Traveling first throughout Europe and later around the world to visit gardens, she learned about a vast array of horticultural expressions and how they reflect both social history and advances in technology.
She is an adjunct lecturer on garden theory and history at New York University. She has also served on the Scottish Arts Council; Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility in NYC; as a lecturer at The New School and Bard College, and as a member of the board of directors of the Queens Botanical Garden.
Salvesen is the author of a guidebook, “Exploring Gardens & Green Spaces: From Connecticut to the Delaware Valley,” and co-directed a video about her husband’s work.
Friday Night Dialogues
Karen Kaier, a friend and collaborator, will introduce Salvesen.
Like all library programs, there is no fee to attend Friday Night Dialogues, but donations are gratefully accepted. See additional details in the library’s online calendar.
Next up: Journalists David Brown and Tom Junod talk about the Sounds of Shelter Island, August xx at 7 PM
Donald Regan is a trustee of the Shelter Island Public Library.
