Today we’d like to introduce you to Edward Goldman.
Hi Edward, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in St. Petersburg, then called Leningrad, in the former Soviet Union. St. Petersburg is the city that Peter the Great, Russian Emperor, built, inspired by the canals and bridges of Amsterdam and Venice. My mother loved to tell a story about me when I was just four or five years old. While on a family stroll through St. Petersburg, it began pouring rain. We ran into the nearest building, which happened to be the entrance to the Hermitage Museum, a famous encyclopedic museum which originated during the reign of Russian Empress Catherine the Great in the late 18th century. We stayed in the museum for a couple of hours until the rain finally stopped.
The next week, my mom said to me, “You’ve been a good boy the last few days, so do you want to choose where we go on our walk?”. According to my mother, little Edward said “let’s go to the place where naked men and women are standing!” What I meant was the famous collection of Greek and Roman sculptures in the Hermitage museum which we had seen. From that point on, I have always loved looking at art. As a teenager I started to go to the Hermitage on my own, and I fell in love with the collection of the Rembrandt paintings. After attending university, I started to work at the Hermitage Museum’s educational department in 1969, taking people on tours to enjoy the collections of one of the most famous museums in the world. I left the Hermitage in 1977 shortly before my family immigrated to America in 1978.
For more than 30 years, I have been an art critic and host of “Art Talk,” a former weekly program which aired prime-time Tuesday evenings during All Things Considered on LA’s largest NPR affiliate, KCRW 89.9 FM. I also contributed weekly art reports to the Huffington Post.
My approach to art reporting has always been fearless and fun, which made me a popular on-air presence, offering my unique “accent” on art. I share impassioned views on what I see and experience in galleries and museums and at cultural events throughout Los Angeles, a city I consider to be one of the greatest art hubs in the world.
In 2005, I began leading a seminar at Otis College of Art and Design on the Los Angeles art scene. Rather than lecture students, I opted to take them around the city, visiting galleries, museums, private collections, and studios of working artists. The seminar became so popular that I ended up launching my own regular series of classes, “The Fine Art of Art Collecting with Edward Goldman”. Through these classes, participants have privileged access to experiencing art and engaging in informal, spirited conversations about art and culture with gallery owners, collectors, artists and more.
When my show on KCRW came to an end in 2019, I started my own newsletter, “Art Matters. With Edward Goldman”. This newsletter is a place for me to share my opinions on Los Angeles exhibitions and cultural events that readers ought to not miss.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has not always been smooth for me. When I first moved to America, I worried that my thick Russian accent would make it hard for people to understand me. I was lucky to meet Ruth Seymour, then famous general manager of KCRW, soon after moving to Los Angeles. Ruth told me that in spite of my less than perfect English, I have a peculiar funny way of talking about art, and she wants her audience to hear my stories. I protested at first, I was too nervous to speak on air with my imperfect English. Ruth told me that the imperfection of my English is not an issue, because I had a message that she wanted me to share. She would always remind me, “perfect is the enemy of the good”. Ever since then, I have been delivering my perfectly imperfect message to my audience, whether on the radio or in my Art Classes or Newsletter.
As you know, we’re big fans of Edward Goldman Fine Arts. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I am proud to offer a series of Classes for Art Aficionados in Los Angeles. Each session starts at 10:30am at the Le Great Outdoor at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, with friendly introductions paired with a cup of coffee.
We visit a few galleries at Bergamot Station, and then enjoy a delicious lunch on the terrace before we board our chartered bus for the afternoon.
I take my Class to various artistic hotspots around LA, including a number of galleries, artist studios, and private collectors’ homes, before returning to Bergamot Station around 3:30pm.
Each Class session is unique, giving participants the opportunity to connect with local artists and galleries, and engage in exciting conversation about art. My long history in Los Angeles has enabled me to develop relationships with many creative and interesting people, who I am eager to introduce to anyone who wants to learn more about art.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
As a teenager, I would often go to the Hermitage Museum on my own and join a Museum tour group. One day, a woman giving the tour noticed me and asked me my name. She told me she’d seen me many times before at her tours, and so she introduced me to the group of school boys and girls who the museum mentored. She took me under her wing, and I was given the chance to meet with the curators for all different collections. I even got to go to the Museum’s storage facilities where we could look at, smell and sometimes even touch ancient or renaissance artworks. This mentorship led to more opportunities for me, and eventually landed me a job in the educational department at the Hermitage. My advice for young artists and art lovers is to discover something that appeals to you in our city’s huge art scene, whether it’s at a museum or one of the dozens of contemporary galleries operating right now. Find out who curated the collections you are drawn to, or who the director of the gallery is. Don’t be afraid to present yourself and say that you would like to learn more. These people can be very generous in suggesting what else you should see and where you can learn more about what interests you. Go to gallery openings and art talks whenever you can, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!
Pricing:
- The Fine Art of Art Collecting with Edward Goldman costs $150 per session.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.edwardgoldman.com
- Instagram: @russianedward
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edwardgoldman
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-goldman-62400613/
