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Robert John Goldwater (1907-1973), a native New Yorker, studied art history at Columbia College (B.A., 1929), Harvard University (M.A., 1931), and New York University (Ph.D., 1937). Goldwater was a Carnegie Corporation Fellow, 1930-31, a Guggenheim Fellow, 1944-45, and a Fulbright Fellow in France, 1944-45. He was especially interested in primitive art, primitivism and symbolism in modern art, and the history of art criticism.
His teaching career began at New York University in 1934. Five years later, Goldwater moved to Queens College. In 1957, he joined the faculty of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where he remained until his death in 1973.
Goldwater wrote a large number of articles, books, and reviews on a variety of art topics. His books include: Primitivism in Modern Painting (1938), Artists on Art from the XIV to the XX Century (1945), Rufino Tamayo (1947), Modern Art in Your Life (1949), Vincent van Gogh (1954), Jacques Lipchitz (1954), Paul Gauguin (1957), Senufo Sculpture from West Africa (1964), Space and Dream (1968), What Is Modern Sculpture (1969), and Symbolism (1979).
From 1957-1963 Goldwater was Director of the Museum of Primitive Art, and for the next decade was Chairman of its administrative committee. In addition, Goldwater served as book review editor of the College Art Association's Art Bulletin from 1944-1947, and from 1947-1953 he was editor of the American Federation of Art's Magazine of Art.
