From Publishers Weekly
A collection of pieces on the art world by the late Geldzahler, the first curator of 20th-century art at New York's Metropolitan Museum and a champion of artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Longtime curator of 20th-century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the earliest and most vital champion of pop art, and friend and adviser to the majority of Sixties and Seventies art-world geniuses, Geldzahler is one of this country's most enduring art experts. Arguably, the veneration now accorded the artists examined here (Warhol, Rauschenberg, Kelly, de Kooning, Hockney, Bourgeois, Lichtenstein, Neel, and Basquiat) is largely due to his early cognizance and intuition. Culled from the past 30 years, these essays and interviews construct an accessible and astute summation of art in the second half of this century. This is not objective, aesthetic scholarship but a first-person account from the man who was there. Geldzahler's expertise is eclipsed only by his enthusiasm. Though some of the observations are repeated in more than one essay, and the book lacks the cohesive thesis that its title suggests, the writing is so shrewd and ardent as to render this historical and theoretical time capsule indispensable. Highly recommended.Doug McClemont, New YorkCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Geldzahler, an ebullient man given to bow ties and extravagant shirts, is a veritable captain of culture. He was the first curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's twentieth-century art department, a position he resigned to become Mayor Koch's cultural affairs commissioner. Confident and blessed with a strong sense of history and art's continuity and value, Geldzahler stimulated interest in and appreciation of a host of pioneering artists, from Andy Warhol to Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and George Segal. Not only does Geldzahler have a keen eye for art, but he also has the heart for it, responding with unfailing receptivity and profound pleasure. And he can even write about it with clarity, enthusiasm, and generosity. Three decades' worth of his scintillating and revealing essays, memoirs, and interviews are collected here, each a fine example of his crisp prose and energetic response to a wide spectrum of modern art. The roster of artists he discusses or speaks with includes David Hockney, Sandro Chia, Alice Neel, Isamu Noguchi, Keith Haring, and Louise Bourgeois. Donna Seaman

From Kirkus Reviews
When New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art decided that, in addition to all those clunky suits of medieval armor and stodgy Egyptian sarcophagi, it might make sense to admit, say, some pictures of soup cans and other contemporary works into its hallowed galleries, it called upon Henry Geldzahler. Geldzahler, in fact, went on to play a major role in the institutionalization of what had previously been artistic heresy. Among the figures he talks with and about in this collage of interviews and essays from the 1960s to the present are Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Roy Lichtenstein. He also elaborates on the mechanics of acquiring a museum collection and describes his first viewing of the work of Francesco Clemente, which literally knocked him off his feet. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
This is Geldzahler's (longtime curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) written legacy, a collection of essays, interviews, and talks covering three turbulent decades in which he and the artists he championed defined what was new and important in contemporary art. Foreword by David Hockney.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For the past 35 years, Henry Geldzahler, controversial first curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Twentieth Century Art, has been at the center of America's lively and vital art scene. Making It New is the first collection of his essays, interviews and talks, and includes work that has never been published. His style is disarmingly intimate, insightful and amusing. In this generous selection of writings Henry Geldzahler is always an enchanting guide to a world of innovative artistic activity. He is master of a particularly informal interview style which allows artists as diverse as Frank Stella, Alice Neel and Louise Bourgeois to reveal fresh insights to their methods and intentions. His essays on photography, on "The Sixties" and his commencement address remind us of Calvin Tompkins' comment in "The Scene" that Henry Geldzahler's effect (as teacher) was phenomenal. "Students...were mesmerized by his brilliant, amusing perception on every imaginable subject." These extraordinary writings are filled with high spirits, humor, literary charm and skillful connoisseurship.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Geldzahler was the Metropolitan Museum of Art's curator of contemporary arts from 1966 to 1977, then served as New York City Commissioner of Cultural Affairs until 1982, and is currently curator of the DIA Center for the Arts in Bridgehampton, N.Y. He has spent his career attempting to bring new art to the public, and this mission is obvious in the 36 articles, interviews and lectures collected here. Written during the past 30 years, they present Geldzahler's thoughts on the work of Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Rauschenberg, and many others and demonstrate his excitement for each new style as it came along, from Pop and Happenings in the '60s to the most offbeat art of the '90s. Even if one disagrees with his assessments of such artists as Francesco Clemente, Keith Haring or Jean-Michel Basquiat, one has to appreciate a critic who, in response to an exhibition of glass works by Dale Chihuly, can state: ``. . . as if color itself were floating in the air. It is an elevating experience. It makes you walk a bit lighter for the rest of the day.'' (May)

Library Journal