Edward G. Leffingwell

Background

Leffingwell was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, on December 3, 1941. In the late 1970s Leffingwell left New York to take care of his mother, who was ill, and began to transition to a curatorial career in the arts

Education

Youngstown State University. University of Cincinnati.

Career

In the mid-1960s he moved to New York City and began associating with Max"s Kansas City and the Warhol Factory crowd. During the 1960s and 1970s he was involved with a variety of avant-garde art projects, including a 1969 film by sculptor John Chamberlain ("The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez"). He entered Youngstown State University, completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1982, and went on in 1984 to earn an Master of Arts in art history from the University of Cincinnati.

In 1985 he was hired by PS1, now affiliated with New York"s Museum of Modern Artist

Leffingwell organized a number of key exhibitions, including two while he was in school. His next major exhibition was at the University of Cincinnati, reviewing Lawrence Weiner, a conceptual artist.

Over the next several years Leffingwell organized several significant shows. In New York, he developed a 20-year retrospective of sculptor John McCracken ("John McCracken: Heroic Stance") and a 1987 show of artist Michael Tracy ("Michael Tracy: Terminal Privileges").

In 1997 at Process Status 1 he organized a retrospective of the work of artist and filmmaker Jack Smith ("Jack Smith: Flaming Creature: His Amazing Life and Times").

He also organized a show on James Rosenquist, and "About Place: Contemporary American Landscape" (1986). Leffingwell spent four years in Los Angeles, directing the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park from 1988 to 1992. There he organized an exhibition of George Herms, and a proposed biennial show, LAX: The Los Angeles Exhibition, a contemporary art exhibition spanning seven to eight institutions.

During this time Leffingwell became interested in and associated with Brazilian art and the São Paulo Art Biennial.

Leffingwell wrote prolifically, penning hundreds of reviews and critical essays for Art in America, as well as contributing to scholarship on artist Lawrence Weiner, photographer Joe Deal, artist Judith Murray, Claude Monet and Jack Smith. Leffingwell died from cardiac arrest in Flushing, Queens, on August 5, 2014, at the age of 72, after suffering from Parkinson"s disease.

Lawrence Weiner: AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE (1960-2007) (2007)

From Vibrato to Legato: Judith Murray (2006)

Mario Cravo Neto: Laroye (2002)

Flaming Creature: The Life and Time of Jack Smith, Artist, Performer, Exotic Consultant (1997).

Connections

friends:

Neil Williams

associate:

Mickey Ruskin