Background
He was born in Chicago, Illinois.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois.
Educated at Princeton and at the Institute for Art History in Berlin, he informally continued his studies at Bernard Berenson's villa, "I Tatti, " in Florence.
Upon returning to the United States in 1927, he joined the periodical International Studio as an art critic, soon moving on to The Antiquarian and to Fine Arts as editor from 1929 to 1934.
He then was a free-lance writer until he joined Art News as editor in 1936, and for the next twenty-nine years made that publication peculiarly his own.
Frankfurter served on the Executive Committee of the 1939 New York World's Fair and was policy control chief for psychological warfare, overseas branch, of the Office of War Information (1942 - 1945).
The French government made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for his services to French art. He served on the board of the Clark Art Museum at Williamstown, Massachussets, and informally advised many other notable art collectors.
During working hours he sought good art and good writing on the subject.
After hours he would go considerable distances to find good wines, victuals, and conversation. Editorially, Frankfurter favored giving a fair shake to out-of-fashion art forms, at the same time condemning stick-in-the-mud art policies.
He spoke up for quality as against quantity in art collections and exhibitions. In his efforts to preserve architectural landmarks and prevent such faceless new constructions as the New York Coliseum, he battled officialdom--especially as represented by New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.
Elitist by temperament, Frankfurter regarded artists as an unsung elite to be defended. He gave his deputy (and successor) Thomas B. Hess full scope to promote contemporary movements such as abstract expressionism, which he himself found less than exciting.
The Frankfurter-Hess team made Art News an important publication in its time--an era when most Americans regarded art as if it were a sissified and somehow fraudulent game.
Frankfurter was not writing, editing, or publishing for the ages, and he knew it. Yet, the sometimes obscure appreciations and occasional thunderclaps that emanated from his magazine were taken very seriously by those who cared about such things.
One reason for this was the high quality of the European contributors whom Frankfurter recruited. He brought Georges Salles, Jean Cassou, Andre Malraux, Kenneth Clark, Philip Hendy, John Pope-Hennesy, and Cyril Connolly to public notice in the United States.
His American list was not much less distinguished, for it included Henry McBride, Robert Beverly Hale, Agnes Mongan, Walter Pach, Aline Saarinen, John Rewald, and Elaine de Kooning.
While visiting Jerusalem for the inaugural ceremonies of the Israel Museum, Frankfurter died suddenly. In accordance with his final wish, his remains were interred in the Lutheran cemetery at Jerusalem.
The consensus at his funeral was that, friendship apart, the world had lost a particularly cogent, congenial, and chivalrous champion in the cause of art.
(Scuffing on front cover.)
(Softcover)
In accordance with his final wish, his remains were interred in the Lutheran cemetery at Jerusalem.
Frankfurter understood how to receive, and also how to give, delight, not just in art but in people as well, and in the "good things of life. " No mere austere ambition haunted Frankfurter. He carved no considerable niche in American culture. What he did accomplish was to radiate a generally sunny and even fructifying influence.
A plump, warm-eyed, and stubborn-jawed bulldog of a person (in his Savile Row clothes, Legion of Honor ribbon in the buttonhole), Frankfurter bustled, barked, and cajoled by turns.
Frankfurter married three times and was the father of three children.