David Anfam, scholar, gentleman, wordsmith and bon vivant, died last Wednesday (21 August) in London. His achievements in the field of art history are so long and comprehensive that it is difficult to comprehend that he was only 69 years old at the time of his death.
Personally, I cannot remember a time when I was not familiar with his work. His book on Abstract Expressionism for the Thames and Hudson World of Art The series became a staple since its first publication in 1990. In the years that followed, his continued explorations of 20th-century American art, from his Catalogue Raisonnée on Mark Rothko (1998)—which he wrote for nearly a decade—to his important work at the Clyfford Still Museum, both before and after its opening in 2011, cemented his reputation as a major figure in the field.
A graduate of the Courtauld Institute (his PhD under John Golding was on the work of Still), he was a scholar of the old school, rigorous and considered, with a love and respect for the written word that was always evident in his own extensive and varied output, as well as during his tenure as editor at Phaidon. He worked with numerous major institutions and galleries over his life, curating exhibitions such as the hugely ambitious survey of Abstract Expressionism held at the Royal Academy in London in 2016. He was a constant and loyal supporter and friend of the Rothko Museum in Daugavpils, Latvia, from its inception, and taught and lectured regularly.
David worked closely with artists, writing and curating for contemporaries such as Lynda Benglis and Bill Viola and most recently Piero Dorazio. He was enormously supportive of a younger generation of painters, myself included. He constantly and carefully looked out and checked in online when an artist’s work caught his attention. Likewise, he never hesitated to support the artists he supported when it mattered, and traveled extensively to that end until the end.
I was privileged to finally meet David just before the pandemic – a final studio visit before lockdown for both of us – and we stayed in touch during the strange year or so that followed. We were bonded by painting, of course, but also by our shared love of TS Eliot and then, less happily, our simultaneous cancer diagnosis during those isolated months.
In the studio, David presented himself as a dressily improbable but instantly likable figure, and his attention to my work was both generous and considered. The text he subsequently wrote for my exhibition at the Vigo Gallery last year was, when it came out, classic David – a learned and precise merging of countless cultural threads, the footnotes almost as long as the text and each of them wonderfully personal in tone.
David had become a keen copywriter in recent years – he seemed to enjoy the immediacy of this written dialogue, especially as his hearing deteriorated. Between our occasional dinners, I would receive brief updates on his travels – to his beloved Italy, New York, Mexico and, of course, Daugavpils. He sometimes seemed bewildered by both the current art market and the gallery scene, but he still took so much pleasure in people, good food, very specific white wines and an obsessive reorganization of his book collection.
He had a particular fondness for gemstones and painting on gemstones, and an almost childlike delight in all things James Bond. Yet despite his many interests and his numerous friends, David evidently deeply and daily missed his partner Fred, whose memory and support he often invoked.
At the beginning of summer, I had dinner with David for the last time. He had just returned from Venice, in good spirits, full of projects and, as always, very curious about his fellow guests and all aspects of their lives. His clever mind was constantly looking for connections within and between disciplines.
It is this curiosity and attentiveness, this gentleness and generosity of spirit, that will remain in my memory beyond the extraordinary work and writings that David leaves behind.
- David Anfam; born in London, United Kingdom, May 12, 1955; died in London, August 21, 2024
- Erin Lawlor is a London-based artist represented by Vigo Gallery
