WILLIAM GERDTS

Bill enjoyed my project, Panorama for a Small City: Histories of a Mass Medium

Bill & Abbie were generous in donating a set of the Winslow Homer Catalogue Raisonne while I was a Trustee at Museum of the White Mountains. We had great conversations about White Mountain Art History and they donated a Samuel Lancaster Gerry still life to MWM in 2018. I am disappointed that we never made time to accept their invitation to their home in NYC.

What a wonderful example of a life well lived!

We have lost a great man in Bill Gerdts. He was my admired friend for more than forty years. His prodigious intelligence and vast knowledge of American art enriched us all. His generosity as a teacher and mentor and his remarkable output of pubications in the field have left an enduring legacy.

I published this tribute to Bill on my CultureGrrl blog: https://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2020/04/covid-obit-william-gerdts-91-distinguished-scholar-of-american-art-my-tipster.html

My heartfelt condolences to Abigail and all Bill's family and friends. Allow me to add a tribute from one who had the good fortune of working with a significant component of Bill's legacy: the astonishing collection of 19th-century American paintings he built for the Newark Museum of Art in his formative years there from 1954-66.

When I took the Newark job, Bill invited me for a lunch and visit to his collection I won't soon forget, during which he regaled a young curator following in...

Dr. Gerdts was a towering figure in the history of American art. No one published as much as he did nor, I suspect lectured as much either. Visiting his and Abigail's Park Avenue apartment to use his research files and library was a privilege. The Gerdts's art collection was remarkable and included examples by dozens of artists, some fascinating and obscure, other famous and stunning. Viewing and discussing the collection with both Abbie and Bill was fabulous. A close colleague of my Ph.D....

I had the pleasure of working for Bill as a research assistant--there was never a better introduction to the New York Public Library--and taking seminars with him at the Graduate Center. Bill would stop in the midst of a lecture to throw out possible dissertation topics. It was during one of those classes that he put up a genre painting by George Henry Hall, stopped to take a breath, and announced with excitement, "now that would be an excellent topic--Americans in Spain. You have John Singer...

May God bless you and your family in this time of sorrow.

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to the Gerdts family. Dr. Gerdts reinforced my love of American art as well as teaching. He was the epitome of a scholar and a mench. His willingness to share his knowledge and excitement about an artist or a topic was inspirational. RIP Professor.