# Eugene Goossen > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Eugene_Goossen > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Eugene_Goossen.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Goossen > Source revision: 1316045861 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American art critic and historian}} {{For|similarly named people|Eugène Goossens (disambiguation)}} '''Eugene C. Goossen''' (August 6, 1920 – July 14, 1997) was an American art critic and art historian who organized more than 60 art exhibitions, wrote essays for catalogues in addition to books on the subject. He was on the faculty of [Hunter College](/source/Hunter_College), where he headed the art department. Goossen was born in 1920 in [Gloversville, New York](/source/Gloversville%2C_New_York). He attended [Hamilton College](/source/Hamilton_College), the [Corcoran School of Fine Arts](/source/Corcoran_School_of_the_Arts_and_Design), the [Sorbonne](/source/University_of_Paris) and earned his undergraduate degree at the [New School for Social Research](/source/The_New_School), where he earned a bachelor's degree. He was the art and theater critic for ''[The Monterey Peninsula and Herald](/source/The_Monterey_County_Herald)''.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} He moved to [Bennington College](/source/Bennington_College) in 1958, where he also served as director of exhibitions. He was hired by Hunter College in 1961 and also taught at the [CUNY Graduate Center](/source/CUNY_Graduate_Center).Dobryznski, Judith H. [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/17/arts/eugene-goossen-76-art-critic.html "Eugene Goossen, 76, Art Critic"], ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'', July 17, 1997. Accessed July 25, 2010. Goossen was responsible for organizing dozens of art exhibitions at galleries and museums around the United States. He oversaw a 1969 retrospective of works by [Helen Frankenthaler](/source/Helen_Frankenthaler) at the [Whitney Museum of American Art](/source/Whitney_Museum_of_American_Art) and those by [Ellsworth Kelly](/source/Ellsworth_Kelly) in an exhibition at the [Museum of Modern Art](/source/Museum_of_Modern_Art). In addition to essays in catalogues, Goossen's wrote several art books, including ''The Art of the Real'', ''Stuart Davis'' and ''Ellsworth Kelly''. In a review of the 1968 exhibition ''Art of the Real'' he organized as guest director at the Museum of Modern Art, [John Canaday](/source/John_Canaday) of ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' said that Goossen's essay about the exhibit was "probably the clearest definition yet of the goals and justification of a school of art that is usually written about with maximum pretentiousness".[Canaday, John](/source/John_Canaday). [https://www.nytimes.com/1968/07/03/archives/art-the-search-for-ultimate-purity-at-modern-museum-art-of-the-real.html "Art: The Search for Ultimate Purity; At Modern Museum, 'Art of the Real'"], ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'', July 3, 1968. Accessed July 25, 2010. Goossen saw works by the abstract painter [Doug Ohlson](/source/Doug_Ohlson) as depicting "yellowish pink and green dawns, blue noons, and red-orange sunsets that swiftly slide from purple to black".[Smith, Roberta](/source/Roberta_Smith). [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/arts/design/25ohlson.html "Doug Ohlson, Painter of Vivid Abstracts, Dies at 73"], ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'', July 23, 2010. Accessed July 24, 2010. ''The New York Times'' called Goossen "the leading expert" on the work of the visual sculptor [Tony Smith](/source/Tony_Smith_(sculptor)). Goossen called Smith "the most important sculptor to appear in the second half of the 20th century" whose importance was not fully appreciated at the time but would be as the years passed.Shirey, David L. [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/29/nyregion/art-bold-geometric-planes-a-tribute-to-einstein.html "Art; Bold Geometric Planes—a Tribute to Einstein"], ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'', November 29, 1981. Accessed July 25, 2010. He was recognized as a [Guggenheim Fellow in 1971](/source/List_of_Guggenheim_Fellowships_awarded_in_1971) and was the recipient of the Critics' Award in 1975 from the [National Endowment for the Arts](/source/National_Endowment_for_the_Arts). A resident of [Buskirk, New York](/source/Buskirk%2C_New_York), Goossen died at age 76 on July 14, 1997, at [Southwestern Vermont Medical Center](/source/Southwestern_Vermont_Medical_Center) in [Bennington, Vermont](/source/Bennington%2C_Vermont). The cause of death was [pneumonia](/source/pneumonia), which he suffered after a long illness.{{cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/news/artnetnews/artnetnews7-21-97.asp|title=artnet news – Eugene C. Goossen, 1921–1997|website=[artnet](/source/artnet)|date=July 21, 1997|access-date=28 June 2022}} He was survived by his wife, [Patricia Johanson](/source/Patricia_Johanson), an [environmental sculptor](/source/environmental_sculptor) best known for her large-scale art projects that create habitats for humans, as well as by two children from his first marriage and three sons from his second. ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Goossen, Eugene}} Category:1920 births Category:1997 deaths Category:American art critics Category:American art historians Category:Bennington College faculty Category:Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Vermont Category:Hamilton College (New York) alumni Category:Hunter College faculty Category:People from Gloversville, New York Category:People from Hoosick, New York Category:The New School alumni Category:University of Paris alumni Category:20th-century American historians Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Journalists from New York (state) Category:20th-century American journalists Category:American expatriates in France Category:Historians from New York (state) Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American male journalists --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Eugene Goossen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Goossen) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Goossen?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.