In 1907 he moved to the United States to become the first curator of the department of decorative arts in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. After returning to Europe to serve in the German Army in World War I, Valentiner later was appointed to other positions in the US. From the mid-1920s, he strongly influenced the development of museum administration in the United States.
He served as director of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan, from 1924 to 1945. Valentiner became a naturalized US citizen about 1930 and lived in the country for nearly half his life in total. During the early 1930s, he commissioned Mexican artist Diego Rivera to create a 27-panel mural series about Detroit industry for an interior court of the museum, and gained the patronage of Edsel Ford for the project. While controversial in content, the work attracted thousands of new visitors and led to the museum being granted a larger budget by the city.
Valentiner is especially known for his writings on Flemish and Dutch painting.[1]
At the start of World War I, Valentiner returned to Germany to serve in the army. After service at the front in 1916, he was appointed to the general staff in Berlin.
Following the end of the war, Valentiner was offered a position in Detroit, Michigan, where he served for more than two decades. He became a naturalized American citizen around 1930 and lived in the United States for the remainder of his life.
Detroit
From 1924-1945 he was appointed first as advisor and then Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, one of the cultural institutions that expanded during the city's boom years. The museum was founded as the Detroit Museum of Art in 1885, and was renamed Detroit Institute of Arts in 1919.[3] Under his leadership the museum developed into one of the leading art institutions in the United States. His acquisitions and exhibitions in Detroit were products of his wide-ranging scholarship. He was a friend of Edsel Ford and conducted private seminars on the history of art for Ford's family.
He commissioned Mexican artist Diego Rivera to create a series of murals after having seen his work in San Francisco, California. He convinced Ford to be a patron and underwrite the cost of the murals. Titled Detroit Industry, they were revolutionary in content for Detroit at the time and generated considerable local controversy.
Valentiner developed an expert staff of curators, a vision of an encyclopedic collection, and the museum as a resource for the city, the state, and the Midwest. In 1945 he had to resign from his post in Detroit due to a city age restriction in the civil service.
In 1955 Valentiner was appointed as the first Director of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, the capital. He held this position until his death in September 1958.[4][5]
Works
Wilhelm Valentiner published:
Rembrandt auf der Lateinschule, Jahrbuch der preußischen Kunstsammlungen 27 (1906)
Rembrandt: wiedergefundene Gemälde, 1910-1922, in 128 Abbildungen (1923)
Frans Hals, des Meisters Gemälde in 322 Abbildungen, Zweite, Neu Bearbeitete Auflage, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart, Berlin, und Leipzig, 1923
Frans Hals paintings in America, 1936
The Origins of Modern Sculpture, 1946
Rembrandt and Spinoza: A Study of the Spiritual Conflicts in Seventeenth-Century Holland, London: Phaidon Press (1957)
References
^The Passionate Eye: The Life of William Valentiner, by Margaret Stearns, Wayne University Press,1980
^"Harry Bertoia". Comune di Pordenone (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-05-24.
^Peck, William (1991). The Detroit Institute of Arts: A brief history. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts and Wayne State University Press. ISBN9780895581365.
^The Passionate Eye: The Life of William Valentiner by Margaret Stearns, Wayne University Press,1980
^The Detroit Institute of Arts: a Brief History by William H. Peck, Wayne University Press, 1991