Milton Esterow (born July 28, 1928) is an American art journalist.

Early work as a journalist

Growing up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, he attended

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

and started writing for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' while still a student. Milton worked there for decades as a prolific writer, devoted mainly to the drama department and film reviews. In the early 1960s, he discovered a niche in the area of cultural news, bringing an investigative style to a part of newspaper journalism that had previously been devoted to reviews of exhibits and biographical profiles of important personalities. His 1966 book ''The Art Stealers: A History of Certain Fabulous Art Thefts'' was an important milestone in his professional development. In a review, Stuart Fleming called it "absorbing" and "excellently researched".

ARTnews

Milton and Judith Esterow owned America's oldest continually published art magazine ''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...

'' from 1972 to 2014. While the monthly was devoted to the American art scene in general, Milton Esterow invented a new style of investigative journalism in the art world and doubled the magazine's circulation. He is considered to be an innovator in this field, especially as regards art theft and the restitution of works taken illegally during World War II. Milton Esterow worked as a writer, publisher, and editor-in-chief of the periodical for 42 years; his life's work was to make the periodical the world’s largest circulated arts magazine. He aimed to "humanize" the art world and offer writing that was accessible to a wider audience, especially in an era of American history that saw art becoming more accessible to a larger audience. Scholarly articles with footnotes, common in the magazine before 1972, ceased to appear, while Esterow gave more coverage to personalities and the developments of the art market. He also published full-length art books "that tell the reader in language he or she can understand what the artist is all about and get away from the gobbledegook." Esterow hobnobbed with famous figures in the art world, including

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

, and

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

. Famous ARTnews covers have featured

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. The annual feature listing the "world's top 200 art collectors" was accepted by many in the art world as a prestigious ranking. Others criticized the magazine's method of polling in order to determine "Ten Best Living Artists".

Awards

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...

for cultural reporting, awarded twice *

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

*EMIPS Art Award, given by the association of New York County Lawyers, 2008 *College Art Association Award

Book Collection

Esterow donated his collection of art books to Brooklyn College Library.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esterow, Milton 1928 births Brooklyn College alumni The New York Times people American magazine publishers (people) George Polk Award recipients American investigative journalists American theater critics American film critics American art collectors Nazi-looted art Living people