Calvin Tomkins, Who Chronicled Generations of Vanguard Artists, Dies at 100
Calvin Tomkins, a longtime New Yorker writer known for influential profiles of modern and contemporary artists, died on Friday at age 100, according to New Yorker editor David Remnick. Tomkins joined the magazine’s staff in 1960 and spent more than 60 years reporting on the art world, producing work Remnick likened to Giorgio Vasari’s artist chronicles; a six-volume, 1,640-page compilation of Tomkins’s writings was published in 2019. Tomkins traced his path into art writing to a 1959 Newsweek assignment to interview Marcel Duchamp at the King Cole Bar in Midtown Manhattan, an encounter he later described as the start of a decades-long “conversation” with artists. Born December 17, 1925, Tomkins grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, and said in a 2020 interview that writing helped him express himself despite a serious childhood stutter.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and Biennale Blowups