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An encompassing family history, animated by wry humor and exploration of family ephemera, reveals the impact of the Holocaust on two brothers' lives and how one, Richard Lindner, became a groundbreaking painter.
The Meeting traces the diverging paths of Arthur Lindner, twice incarcerated in German concentration camps, and his brother Richard, who was imprisoned by the French in 1939, then fled Nazi-occupied Europe to reach Manhattan. There he evolved from commercial artist to internationally-famous painter whose use of bold color and provocative iconography identified him as a leading creative figure of his era. His artwork features in major museum collections around the United States and throughout Europe, including MoMA, the Guggenheim, Tate, Pompidou, and others. Pop embraced Lindner, although he did not return the favor, even when his iconic status was confirmed not only by exhibitions and acquisitions, but by his appearance on the cover of the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“A dazzling memoir, beautifully written… a dance of tenderness, wryness, honesty, emotional and intellectual commitment.” —Michèle Roberts, author of The Looking Glass and Daughters of the House, shortlisted for the Booker Prize
"The Meeting is an incredibly satisfying journey of investigation. The heroic effort to assemble a family history, to reconstruct her uncle, Richard Lindner, like a scientist, at arms length, presenting a larger, more encompassing picture of who he was, not only for herself but for all of us. As a teacher, Richard encouraged his students to put down their pencils and really look at their subject. To really see what they were studying. As Elsbeth really looked at the remarkable histories and lives of her family, Elsbeth could see, appreciate, respect, and love what they were looking at, and gift it to us.” —Nancy Grossman
"In Elsbeth Lindner’s book about her Uncle Richard she paints as crisp a portrait with words as did her Uncle with paint and line. Like the writer, I lament Richard Lindner’s absence from the art-world’s center stage. Richard is among that bright band of painters that do not fit the art historians’ ‘isms’. He decried being boxed in by POP Art. He was an outlier—an outsider—like Stanley Spencer, Steinberg, Hieronymus Bosch, Frank Auerbach, Ray Johnson, Mae Wilson, Marisol ...... he was among the misfits, singularities, originals." —Jann Haworth
“One of the foremost figure painters of the second half of the century and the creator of a private mythology as compelling as any modern art… Famous the world over for his portrayals of fascinating and ferocious women.” —John Russell, New York Times
“No other ... artist presents us with the tragic absurdity of the human condition more forcefully than Lindner.” —Burt Chernow, Arts Magazine
“He was a marvelous artist, and a very sweet man. Only in the refuge of America could he have achieved what he did, and only in the horrible dislocations of European life could he have been formed as he was.” —Hilton Kramer, New York Times
“The razor-sharp quality of his technique, the almost abrasive glare of his light, and the startling nature of his pictorial content ultimately brought Lindner's pictures within the ambience of Pop art and, much to his surprise, the movement helped to catapult his name into the forefront of American art… The works he created will remain a disturbing and unique testament of an artist’s superb craftsmanship, originality and vision.” —John Gruen, ARTnews
Elsbeth Lindner has had a distinguished career in British publishing, notably with Methuen, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and The Women’s Press. She was a member of the Orange Prize management committee, editor of newbooks magazine and a 2021 Kirkus Prize for Fiction judge. Elsbeth Lindner presented on BBC Radio 4 National Arts Show and was selected as a featured speaker at Jewish Book Week, organized by the Jewish Book Council in London. She now lives in the United States.
Judith Zilczer, Curator Emerita of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, has organized more than two dozen exhibitions and published widely on modern and contemporary art. Her essays have appeared in Art Bulletin, American Art, Art Journal, Archives of American Art Journal, artibus et historiae, and The Oxford Art Journal. She is the recipient of the Award for Best Exhibition of Time-Based Art, International Association of Art Critics (2005) and the George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award of the Art Libraries Society of North America (2006). She is the author of The Noble Buyer: John Quinn Patron of the Avant-Garde (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978), Richard Lindner: Paintings and Watercolors, 1948-1977 (Prestel, 1996), Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900 (Thames and Hudson, 2005), and A Way of Living: The Art of Willem de Kooning (Phaidon, 2014, 2nd ed. 2017, 3rd ed. 2023). She serves on the editorial board of The Woman’s Art Journal.
Foreword by Judith Zilczer
1 · The Meeting
2 · Germany 1901–33
3 · France 1933–41
4 · Uprooted
5 · Elsbeth
6 · Arrival – 1940
7 · Evelyn and the Letters
8 · The 1950s
9 · The 1960s
10 · The 1970s
11 · Afterwards
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Plates