Reminiscences
If you would like to share a memory about David, or publish a condolence to this webpage, please make contact using the below form. Messages may be published (in full or part) unless stipulated otherwise. Thank you.
–Website Administration.
David's and my paths crossed so many times over the course of our careers, sometimes in ways that seemed counter-intuitive to my understanding of him as the premiere scholar in the field of Abstract Expressionism. In 2011 we worked together on the exhibition and publication "Dorothea Rockburne: In My Mind's Eye." We often "chatted" remotely about Clyfford Still and other artists of mutual interest. But I was completely surprised to learn of his interest in Photorealism--even shocked that he would find this work so compelling. It was an enormous pleasure to collaborate with him directly on the book "Rod Penner: Paintings, 1987-2022," published in 2023, as we shared our observations and dovetailed our manuscripts, making sure we didn't repeat or overlap. We emailed and talked frequently for more than a year during the months of COVID lockdown. It was during this project that he shared his health challenges, woven in amongst our discussions about Penner, Photorealism, American realism, and food. I admired David immensely, looked up to him for his brilliance and knowledge, and enjoyed a warm friendship. Certainly his professional legacy is secure, as he contributed so significantly to our understanding and appreciation of art history. But he was also a great friend and a terrific racounteur. One could not wish for a better dinner table companion. I will miss him.
Terrie
Sultan, US
I can't remember when I first met David, though I can easily recall our meetings in London, Berlin, Denver, and Los Angeles. His wit, erudition, knowledge of art, and spot on restaurant suggestions never failed to delight me. He invited me to join the advisory board of the Clyfford Still Museum Study Centre, and I was dazzled by his public lecture that helped to understand and appreciate the artist's work in a way I never had. David was a born teacher and communicator, in addition to being a superb scholar and critic. My wife and I once enjoyed a dinner with him and Fred in Berlin. It immediately became apparent how much they loved each other and how devastating his subsequent death was for David. Once I provided him with career advice and happily talked him out of accepting an academic position in a snake pit college. In recent years we were sporadically in contact. Our candid discussions of his poor health greatly concerned me. Yet I hoped we would one day meet again in person and continue to laugh, trade ideas, gossip, and mercilessly ridicule pomposity, ignorance, and poor taste. I miss him so much and embrace his family and circle of friends, who surely also feel similarly. My special thanks to the administrator of this memorial page. Nothing will ever take the sting out of losing David, though like the fine wines he so enjoyed, remembering him deserves to be shared and savored.
Edward Dimenberg, US
David Anfam leaves an unthinkable void once filled by his presence. He was one of the coolest people in the art world. Dedicated to detail, savvy, passionate, and wonderfully candid. Despite his fame and stature, he was willing to collaborate with, and encourage, lesser folks. We only met in the late 1990s but we corresponded intermittently; I'd give him a shout when I was in London, but he was always understandably overwhelmed. Our scholarship overlapped a little. We talked about holding a panel with Bill Agee on Hofmann sometime in 2024, and he was in touch when putting together the RCA show. He told me about the tougher things that happened in his life, especially in his career, which paralleled my own. He was a colleague and kindred spirit, a free wheel and a breath of fresh air always. I'm honored to have known him and will miss him awfully.
Tina
Dickey, US
David Anfam impressed me as a kindred spirit and I appreciate him for that. Last October 2023 we had a brief email correspondence about the painter Clyfford Still and art critic Clement Greenberg, who had been subjects in my undergraduate thesis on Abstract Expressionism at Loughborough College of Art in 1971-74. I had seen many of their paintings in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was able to share ideas about Still and Greenberg with David. His response was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. His perspective came from his own studies and research and mine from that of a painter. My sense was that David felt something about painting that went beyond factual knowledge and into the realm of the creative imagination in a drive to discover what made the Abstract Expressionists work as they did. I only wish we could have continued the discussion.
David
Poyser, UK
Here it's almost midnight and the night is darker than I thought, despite an almost full moon. I have known David for about 40 years, so we had a certain familiarity at least with our own histories. Life had been so challenging for him, yet he lived it with panache, elegance and enjoying its offerings (especially food and wine). I have learnt a lot from him. He gave us all insights from his culture, his passion for literature (especially poetry), music and of course Art. Lines are more hesitant tonight, colours more pale. In 2017, we started work on a film project with David, who had wanted to write his autobiography for some years. We filmed in Denver, then in Paris, then in London. Here is an introduction to this work, which I share here at the suggestion of a mutual friend.
Ron
Kenley, UK & FR
I first met David at a dinner in Switzerland while starting at Phaidon Press… My world had yet to be changed by art. I was struck by David’s humility and interest in helping people experience art… defining art and its place in peoples lives. Not simply a genius historian but also a tremendous wit that made every meeting memorable.
James
Whittaker, CAN
The sad news of David's passing away came to us as a total shock. I am one of 6 of his siblings. We all have a common Mother, Eileen Doreen (Weston). We have been in touch with David on Facebook and by E-mail. To all his friends and followers we send you on heartfelt sympathies and condolences as we share in your grief. May the beautiful soul of our brother David rest in eternal peace. Your messages and memories of our beloved David is a consolation to us. Yours in sorrow, Janice, Pauline, Derek, Gillian, Gloria and Trevor. Sad to say, Derek and Trevor have also passed away.
Gloria
Vanderhyde, AUS
I can’t believe David is gone. I think Richard Shone introduced us originally, when he was editing at the Burlington Magazine, and David and I both writing for it. David was working on his Rothko catalogue. We’d both been favoured students of John Golding at different times, David at the Courtauld in the ‘70s, me at the Royal College, mid ‘80s. I would sometimes visit David at his Phaidon office when he was a commissioning editor there. We’d try (vainly) to think of books I could write. A few times I went to David and Fred’s flat in King’s Cross. Their droll banter was a delight, Fred professing exasperation with ‘endless Ab Ex talk’; David affectionately mocking Fred’s mania for mediaeval dancing. They were funny, almost competitive, about each other’s deafness. They wore their eminence in their respective professional fields with equal lightness. Each supported the other staunchly through difficult dealings with institutions. Their devotion to each other and happiness together was palpable. Later on, David and I were both less in London, but met when we could and followed each other’s progress. I regret that changes of email accounts over the years have meant the loss of most of our correspondence. Sometime after John Golding died I wandered into the Courtauld Institute, and the lobby was strewn with his book collection, being sold off. I pulled out a Clyfford Still catalogue from the early ‘60s, with John’s signature, to send to David. He was by then deeply involved with Still Museum project in Denver. There was little that could adequately be said between us about Fred’s illness, and death at the end of 2016. But my own partner was by then suffering with motor neurone disease, so we both knew that we both knew… David’s huge achievements in scholarship and curating continued, and broadened in scope, right up to the present. He was always furiously busy — maybe taking refuge and comfort in work. But he was generous in faithfully applauding my own latest exhibition or piece of writing. For the last couple of years now, we were repeatedly trying to meet up, always thwarted at the last minute by work demands or by David’s medical treatments. And now it’s too late. But he leaves a great legacy and such a fond memory.