Roy Moyer, Painter And Curator, 85
DGH
Roy Moyer, 85, a Painter and Curator, Dies
By STUART LAVIETES [New York Times]
Roy Moyer, a painter who helped bring works by other artists to
museums across the United States, died on April 6 at [2007] his home
in Manhattan [New York]. He was 85.
The cause was a heart attack, said his partner, Karl Lunde.
Trained as an art historian and concert pianist and self-taught as a
painter, Mr. Moyer was a longtime administrator at the American
Federation of Arts, which organizes exhibitions for travel across
America.
Among the shows he helped create was "Art and the Found Object," which
included works by Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp and Joseph
Cornell. Opening in 1960, it was one of the first shows to take this
art to a wider public.
After becoming director of the federation in 1963, he oversaw a 50th
anniversary re-creation of the ground-breaking 1913 Armory Show and
worked with the psychologist and art theorist Rudolf Arnheim on a
series of 19 films on visual perception.
As an artist, Mr. Moyer is known for landscapes, still lifes and genre
paintings. His works are in the collections of the Smithsonian
American Art Museum, the Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University and
other museums.
"His sensitivity as an artist made him an excellent curator," said
Virginia M. Mecklenburg, a senior curator at the Smithsonian American
Art Museum.
Leaving the American Federation of Arts in 1971, he was the chief of
art and design at Unicef until his retirement in 1986. He also served
on the executive committee of the National Council on the Arts and
Government, as vice president of the Architectural League of New York,
and as president of the American Society of Contemporary Painters.
Roy Moyer was born in 1921 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He graduated
from Columbia University, then served in the United States Army
infantry, fighting in North Africa and Italy. Returning to Columbia,
he earned a master's in English literature and did graduate work in
art history.
In addition to Mr. Lunde, he is survived by a brother, Harold, of
Slatington, Pennsylvania.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/arts/design/18moyer.html?ref=obituaries