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| Christopher Robin Finch (Polaroid portrait by Chuck Close) | |
Christopher Robin Finch, author of more than 30 books, art critic and painter, died on April 1. He was 82.
While attending the Chelsea Art School in London, he became friendly with other young British painters, and began to write critical essays on their work, which soon appeared regularly in such publications as British Vogue, Art International, and Art & Artists. Recognized for his writings about such British Pop artists as David Hockney and Richard Hamilton, he later also wrote about contemporary American artists including Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine and Ed Ruscha. This period culminated in the publication of two collections of essays, Pop Art: Object & Image and Image as Language: Aspects of British Art 1950-1968, as well as a monograph devoted to the paintings of Patrick Caulfield.
In 1968, Finch became associate curator of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn., where he wrote for and edited Design Quarterly and curated several major cutting-edge exhibitions. From there he moved to New York, contributing articles to Arts, Art News, Art in America and other periodicals.
In the mid-'70s, Finch began writing a series of books on popular culture that included the bestsellers The Art of Walt Disney, Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland, Norman Rockwell's America, Of Muppets & Men, Jim Henson: The Works, Gone Hollywood: The Movie Colony in the Golden Age (co-written with his wife, Linda Rosenkrantz), Beer: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best and Highways to Heaven: The Auto Biography of America. His passion for both animation and special effects were reflected in The CG Story: Computer-Generated Animation and Special Effects: The Making of Movie Magic. Later books on fine art included three volumes devoted to the history of watercolor painting, and two volumes on the artist Chuck Close: a monograph on the work and a biography.
In 2013, he began publishing mysteries that were set in and around the New York art world and counterculture scene of the '60s: Good Girl, Bad Girl was the first in a projected series featuring private eye Alex Novalis, which was followed by The Girl from Nowhere.