Lindsay, Kenneth [Clement]

Date born:  1919

Place Born:  

Date died:

Place died:

Kandinsky scholar; Professor of art history at the State University of New York in Binghamton

Home Country:  

Sources: Coker, Rachel. "Documentary highlights work of Monuments Men."  Inside BU 28 no. 22 (March 1, 2007) http://inside.binghamton.edu/news/newspage.cgi?issue=2007mar01&id=1

Bibliography: edited and and Vergo, Peter. Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art.  2 vols. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1982

Lindsay grew up in a staunch Republican family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He initially studied chemistry and mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He also became fascinated by art history, but was discouraged from pursuing it by his father. He joined Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee as a chemist after graduation. After the outbreak of World War II, Lindsay enlisted in the Army Signal Corps.  He trained as a cryptographer outside Washington, DC, studying German and coding systems. Delayed because of a case of scarlet fever, Lindsay was deployed to London as a technical corporal. decoding messages, including D-Day, and guard duty in Paris.  Following V-E Day in 1945, Lindsay was assigned to become what was known as the "Monuments Men," soldiers assigned to document and repatriate art stolen by the Nazis.  He was deployed to the collection point in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Lindsay uncrated, among other famous works, the bust of Nefertiti (which belonged to German collections).  He remained with the monuments division after his initial tour.

He returned to the United States with the rank of sergeant in 1946 and graduate school in art history.  His master�s thesis was on the Hungarian Crown, masterpiece he had become familiar with during the war. Lindsay began teaching at Williams College, MA, in1950 and writing a dissertation on Kandinsky. It was at that time that he conceived of translating and compiling a book on Kandinsky's writings on art.  The following year he joined the faculty of the then Harpur College. Lindsay remained there, after the college became the State University of New York at Binghamton. He chaired the art history department for 17 years.  His students included Susan Stein, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and William M. Voelkle, a curator at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

Kandinsky's books had been previously translated, but many poorly and his articles existed in eleven different languages in obscure and archives.

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Milwaukee, WI; son of Kenneth C. (in business) and Karen (Eriksen) Lindsay; married Christine Charnstrom (a musician), October 18, 1947; children: Guy Martin, Jennifer Ellen Lindsay Church. Education: University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin--Madison), Ph.B., 1941, M.A., 1948, Ph.D., 1951. Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army, 1942-46, served in Signal Intelligence Division. Memberships: College Art Association of America. Addresses: Home: R.D. 7, Box 24, Binghamton, NY 13903. Office: Department of Art, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13901.

Career: Williams College, Williamstown, MA, instructor in art, 1950-51; State University of New York at Binghamton, assistant professor, 1951-57, associate professor, 1957-62, professor of art, 1962-83, professor emeritus, beginning 1983. Member of New York State Commission on the Arts, 1966-67.

Awards: Fulbright fellowship, 1949-50; grants from New York State Research Foundation, 1967-69, 1972, 1975.

WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:

(Editor with Peter Vergo) Kandinsky: Complete Writing on Art, Volume I: 1901-1921, Volume II: 1922-1943, G. K. Hall, 1982, Da Capo Press, (New York, NY), 1994.

(Edited by Susan Alyson Stein and George D. McKee) Album Amicorum Kenneth C. Lindsay: Essays on Art and Literature), Dept. of Art and Art History, State University of New York at Binghamton, (Binghamton, NY), 1990.

Contributor to journals, including Burlington, American Art Journal, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and Art Bulletin.

"Sidelights" Kenneth C. Lindsay told CA: "I began to think about the book on Kandinsky's writings on art during 1949 when I was immersed in preparing a dissertation on the Russian master. His major books, when translated, were often unreliably rendered, and many of his articles, which existed in eleven different languages, were available only in obscure and distant archives. It seemed a pity that Kandinsky's thought, with its insights into the act of painting and its welcome optimism, was not having the impact it deserved to have.