Kurtz, Charles M. (Charles McMeen), 1855-1909

Charles M. Kurtz, first director of the Albright Art Gallery, played a prominent role as an administrator, patron, and promoter of the arts in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Kurtz first came to Buffalo, New York, in 1884 when, as general manager of the American Art Union, he helped organize an exhibition for the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. He served as art director for numerous expositions and art fairs, including the Southern Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky (1883-1886), the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1891-1893), the St. Louis Annual Expositions (1894-1899) and the United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900. He was offered the directorship of Buffalo's Pan American Exposition but was unable to accept due to poor health. In 1905, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy appointed Kurtz as the first director of the newly built Albright Art Gallery. During his tenure, he organized the inaugural loan exhibition, the first of many watercolor exhibitions, and the first annual American exhibition. He was also editor of the Academy's publications, Academy Notes and the Blue Book. In 1909, he assisted the Hispanic Society of America with their major exhibition on the artist, Joaquín Sorolla. Before the opening, Kurtz suddenly became very ill and died on March 21st.--Biographical information adapted from original Albright-Knox Art Gallery finding aid.

American art critic, editor, collector, dealer, and director of numerous arts organizations and expositions, such as the Southern Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky, 1883-86, the St. Louis Exposition, 1894-99, and the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (later the Albright Art Gallery), 1905-09.

Biographical/Historical Note

Charles M. Kurtz (1855-1909) was the director of the Albright Gallery and Buffalo Arts Academy from 1905-1909. He was also an art critic, collector, and art director of the St. Louis Exposition of 1894 and of other art fairs and expositions.

Charles M. Kurtz's name is known to many scholars and students of American art history. To some he is important for his critical writings, others are interested in his management of exhibitions for the Art Union and the American Art Association. Many are aware of him because of his publication of National Academy Notes, which continued for nine years. Still others are familiar with Kurtz in his role as an art administrator for late 19th century art exhibitions like those at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the St. Louis Fair, or for his accomplishments as the first director of the Albright Gallery in Buffalo, New York. Sometimes researchers have become familiar with his name through the sale catalogue for his considerable collection, which was sold at auction after his death in 1909. His career, which encompassed the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, touched on virtually every aspect of art in America during that period.

Born in 1853 to Davis Brook Kurtz (1826-1906), an attorney, and Julia Wilder, Charles Kurtz enjoyed a genteel upbringing. The Kurtz family originated in Darmstadt, Germany, and migrated to America in the eighteenth century. D.B. Kurtz, a leading member of the Lawrence County bar, was also a vice-president of the National Bank of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. As a local representative of many important railroad and business interests, he accumulated assets estimated at one million dollars by the time of his death, just three years before that of his son, Charles, the eldest of his five children. Unlike his brothers Louis, who also became an attorney, and Edward, a professor at Columbia University, Charles eschewed a professional career to enter the art world, as did his sisters Emily, an artist, and Catherine, a musician.

After his graduation from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, Kurtz visited the Centennial Exposition, held in 1876 in Philadelphia, before coming to New York to study art at the National Academy of Design. These two activities foreshadowed the direction that his career would eventually take. As the chronology indicates, his early efforts revolve around writing for a variety of publications, most notably, his own National Academy Notes . In 1881 he took what was to be the first of many trips abroad to survey the art scene in Europe. Later in his career, his fascination with foreign art and his own entrepeneurial interests led him to become an outspoken opponent of tariffs on imported art.

Kurtz's personal life changed significantly in 1884 when he met Julia Stephenson, a physician's daughter and fledging art student from Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Throughout their courtship and after their marriage the couple was frequently separated. Consequently, they wrote lengthy letters which document not only their personal relationship but also Kurtz's aspirations and activities in the art world.

With his appointment as one of Halsey C. Ives's (1847-1911) chief assistants of the Fine Arts Department of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1891, Charles Kurtz's career achieved international stature. Among the most notable European artists he introduced into this country through circulating exhibitions were the Glasgow School, the Danish School, the Hungarian artist, Mihaly Munkacsy, and the subject of his final exhibition, the Spanish artist, Sorolla.

Throughout his life, Kurtz was plagued by health problems and, in 1899, illness forced him to resign as Assistant Director of Fine Arts for the United States for the Paris Exposition of 1900. Throughout the following decade, his work was increasingly interrupted by ill health. His death in 1909 at the age of 54, while sudden, was not entirely unexpected. However it most certainly cut short a cosmopolitan career that encompassed virtually every aspect of the art world and the pertinent issues of the day.

Kurtz is remembered for his editorial work with the National Academy of Design; as Art Director for the Southern Exposition, 1883-1886, and the St. Louis Exposition, 1894-1899 (where he introduced the Glasgow School of Painting); and as Assistant Chief/Director for the World's Columbian Exposition, the 1900 Paris Exposition, and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He was also director of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy.