Peter Schjeldahl


Peter Schjeldahl is an American art critic, poet, and educator.

Early life and education

Schjeldahl was born in Fargo, North Dakota, the son of Gilmore and Charlene Hanson Schjeldahl. His father, son of a railroad worker, was the inventor of the airsickness bag. He grew up in small towns throughout Minnesota, and attended Carleton College and The New School.
He began his professional writing career as a reporter in 1962 at The Jersey Journal, in Jersey City and in Minnesota and Iowa.

Art critic

In 1964 he traveled to Paris for a year before settling in New York City in 1965. Since moving to New York he has worked as an art critic for ARTnews, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and 7 Days. In 1998 he joined The New Yorker where he is currently the head art critic. His writings have also appeared in Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. During his career Schjeldahl has written several books of poetry as well as art criticism. He taught at Harvard University in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies for four years as well.

Poet

Schjeldahl's poetry falls in line with many of the characteristic themes and styles of the New York School. As a contemporary postmodern poet, Schjeldahl believed that poetry should be enjoyed and understood by all readers. In an interview with the Virginia Commonwealth University's Blackbird Schjeldahl commented on how "there are no rewards in being obscure or abstruse or overbearing"
His poetry succeeds without a great deal of complexity in language usage or style while maintaining seriousness and poignancy. Schjeldahl's poetry often addresses common experiences or familiar events. In his poem “My Generation” he opens: "Vietnam/ Drugs/ Civil Rights/ Rock/ Watergate/ / Are the blows of history/ That have left my generation/ Its peculiar battered silhouette." Schjeldahl fuels his poetry with historical and biographical context, allowing audiences to relate more intimately to his subject.
In an interview with Blackbird, Schjeldahl stated, "writing things that people want to read is my bread and butter".

Awards

Schjeldahl was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1995. In 1980 he received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism by the College Art Association. The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute named Peter Schjeldahl the winner of the 2008 Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing. The prize was established in 2006 to recognize writers who advance public appreciation of visual art in a way that "is grounded in scholarship yet appeals to a broad range of audiences." It comes with a $25,000 honorarium and an award designed by architect Tadao Ando.
Carleton College bestowed an honorary degree, a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, to Schjeldahl as part of their commencement exercises on June 13, 2015.

Personal life

Schjeldahl married and later divorced a woman whom he publicly referred to as "L." He currently resides in New York. He is married to Donnie Brooke Alderson, a former actress. They have one child, Ada Calhoun Schjeldahl, who writes under the name Ada Calhoun.
In 2019, Schjeldahl was diagnosed with lung cancer.