(Audio Commentary)

Richard Lindner

American (Hamburg, Germany, 1901-1978 New York, N.Y.)

"Redhead"

1982.002.002

Born to an American mother and a German father, Richard Lindner grew up in Nuremburg, where he studied music and art before becoming art director for a publishing house. Completely secular until the political triumph of the National Socialists, Lindner's primary identity suddenly was Jewish. He fled to Paris in 1933 where he worked as a commercial artist. In 1939, he was interned as a German refugee and after harrowing adventures finally arrived in New York in 1941. He was 40.

Initially supporting himself as an illustrator for Vogue and other glossy magazines, he gradually gained attention for his odd, stylish and sexually disquieting figures. By the 1950s and 1960s, his paintings of powerful and brilliantly decorated women, and to a lesser extent men, became pop art icons, although he did not seek that company. In 1966 and again in 1969, Lindner taught at Skowhegan, and he donated "Redhead" in 1970.

http://www.richardlindner.net/ The forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné; is being prepared by Claudia Loyall in cooperation with Anouk Papadiamandis, The Estate of Richard Lindner.

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