Eye of the Sixties

Praise for Eye of the Sixties

In Eye of the Sixties, Judith Stein pulled together years of research and interviews with the late Bellamy’s closest friends and associates, as well as the artists who adorned his walls. Through this biography, Stein traces the outward reach of the counterculture through one of its most important arbiters."
— The New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2016

"Ms. Stein’s evocative portrait of Bellamy recreates in stunning, touching and often humorous detail the chaotic, creative, still bohemian art scenes of Provincetown, Mass., in the ‘50s, and New York in the ‘60s.”
— Barbara Rose, The New York Times, July 24, 2016

"Eye of the Sixties doubles as a smart primer to the action-packed postwar art world. It tells new stories about stars and highlights the contributions of people who have been long forgotten. It is an essential piece of scholarship."
— Andrew Russeth, Artnews, July 27, 2016

Eye of the Sixties is "an exemplary work of journalism and research . . . Stein’s attentive approach successfully bridges art’s journalistic and scholarly cultures, itself an important accomplishment when much art publishing cleaves to one or the other tribe . . . By sheer force of research and reporting, the book is sure to be a resource for future art-historical work on the decade."
-- Mostafa Heddaya, The Art Newspaper, September 2, 2016

"Eye of the Sixties is indispensable reading for lovers of art from an era that changed everything. Stein’s ability to capture the changes in this world, and the cast of characters who brought them about, is remarkable."
— Jedd Beaudoin, Spectrum Culture

Eye of the Sixties is an “infectious biography . . .  Shot through with verve, bearing years of research lightly, Stein’s book is the first to give this rare, inscrutable figure his proper due.” 
-- James Miller, Brooklyn Rail, November 2016

Stein’s “engross­ing, impressively researched, consistently readable, and often entertaining tale restores a crucial figure to his rightful place in the annals of postwar American art.”
-- Lilly Wei, Art in America, November 2016

“[The early sixties are] such an interesting moment to think about identity, and the ways that having a different heritage shapes how people see themselves and how they grow and what they're passionate about. . . .you really worked to connect the dots on this topic.”
— Dawn Chan, Interview with Judith Stein, Bookforum

“It was poignant and sad to put down this fascinating book. She depicts a too brief window when art really mattered.  Stein has fleshed out a biography of a remarkable trickster, coyote and shadow catcher.”
— Charles Giuliano, Berkshire Fine Arts

“Stein’s biography stunningly fills in several yawning gaps of art history circa the early 1960s. . . future writers will follow the trails she blazes here. . . Each page contains nuggets of original research that are pure gold.”
-- Timothy Francis Barry, Artcritical, August 17th, 2016

"In rescuing Bellamy from obscurity, Stein constructs an alternative history of New York’s mid-century art . . . Her descriptions are fresh enough to cast new light on works that have already been critiqued to death . . . She anchors Eye of the Sixties in a deep understanding of the connections between artists, movements and even art forms."
— Judy Berman, The Guardian, July 28, 2016

"Stein’s compellingly intimate portrait of a creative, passionate, and essential advocate for pop art, minimalism, and conceptual art doubles as a fresh and dynamic chronicle of a historic artistic revolution."
— Donna Seaman, starred review, Booklist

"This is a must for anyone interested in the creative revolution of the Sixties."
— Rebecca Kluberdanz, starred review, The Library Journal 

“We all owe a debt to Judith E. Stein. Her biography of Richard Bellamy,  Eye of the Sixties, retells the story many of us know and reminds us why we set out on our journey in the first place. The book is not academic, but a readable, worldly narrative of the art world by someone who knows and loves it.”
— Dave Hickey, author of Air Guitar

“In this colorful, meticulously researched, and captivating volume, Judith E. Stein perfectly captures the circus that was the art world of the sixties, in which Richard Bellamy was an inadvertent but essential ringmaster.”
— Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director, Whitney Museum of American Art

“Richard Bellamy was one of a kind: a legendary art dealer who was contrary, impractical, and self-effacing, with a keen eye for the artistically vital and unexpected. The artists he showed at his transformative Green Gallery define the canonical American art movements of the sixties. In Judith E. Stein’s meticulously researched and magnetically animated biography, we see this formative moment in American art through Bellamy’s eyes.”
— Michael Brenson, author of Acts of Engagement