Mentors: The Making of an Art Historian

By Francis M. NaumannMay 2019.208 pages with 7 illustrations by Kathleen Gilje$24.95 | 9780999754467 A surprising and revealing memoir populated with art historians, art influencers, and the former lover of Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood. Francis M. Naumann, a distinguished expert on Dada and Marcel Duchamp reflects upon his mentors, including Leo Steinberg, John Rewald, and perhaps his greatest influence: the artist and former lover of Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood. Naumann’s close friendship with Wood, who was many decades his senior, continued until the end of her life at age 105. She not only set Naumann upon a course of original research that would define him, but also provided a moral platform and an artist’s view on what an art historian could be. The chapters involving Naumann’s mentors in the field of art history are no less engaging: strong personalities all, each taught Naumann either by positive or negative example and assisted in the development of his scholarship and origi