R. ERIC GUSTAFSON

R. ERIC GUSTAFSON
Robert Eric Gustafson-author, journalist, lecturer, curator, gallerist, and arts impresario-died on Wednesday, January 21, at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 90. His multifaceted career spanned more than six decades, encompassing theater, visual arts, writing, and event production.
A native New Yorker, Mr. Gustafson ("Eric") began his career in the art world in the auction rooms of Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York City. He went on to run art galleries in New York; Spoleto, Italy; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Later, Mr. Gustafson worked with museums to expand their holdings of original costume and scenic designs from opera, ballet, and theater. Among these institutions were the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and the Harvard Theatre Collection.
Mr. Gustafson also curated exhibitions of theatrical design in galleries and museums. Most notable were Designs for a Prima Donna, Dame Joan Sutherland, held at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 1980, and The Stage Is Set, presented at the Cooper Hewitt Museum (the National Museum of Design of the Smithsonian Institution) in 1978.
Frequently invited to lecture on art throughout the United States and in London and Paris, Mr. Gustafson also founded and operated the Apollo Muses Center for the Arts, based in Chester, New Jersey. From 1983 through 2007, the center presented more than 230 concerts, art exhibitions, and theater events at venues across the Mid-Atlantic region.
Mr. Gustafson's life revolved around theater and the fine arts, with strong ties to the upper strata of international cultural and social life, as reflected in several of his books: Cinderella Is a Man (1998), Last Guy Waltzing (2013), My Beloved Southwest (2017), and Kaleidoscope: Fragments of Memory (2020). His most recent publication was the memoir A Path Lit by Stars (2025).
His many European sojourns resulted in the monograph The Court Theaters of Europe (1982). Seventeen visits to India inspired 20 articles and additional books, including Expect the Unexpected (2009).
Born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1935, Mr. Gustafson graduated from Stuyvesant High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College in 1957, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in theater arts from Carnegie Mellon University in 1960.
His papers, spanning 1954–2017, are archived at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection documents his professional achievements, correspondence with artists such as Navajo painter R. C. Gorman, and his contributions to cultural preservation.
Mr. Gustafson is survived by his sister, Helen Marie Ligon of Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and many dear friends.
Donations in his memory to Española Humane Animal Shelter in Española, New Mexico, would be most welcome.
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