Photo via Vanity Fair
American author and journalist Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. died in New York City on Monday, May 14 at the age of 88, reports ARTnews and many other publications.
Wolfe began as a newspaper reporter in the 1950s and gained national attention after publishing books such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers in the 1960s. His first fiction novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, was made into a successful film, as was his book about the Mercury Seven astronauts, The Right Stuff.
Wolfe also wrote about art and architecture in his books The Painted Word and From Bauhaus to Our House. In The Painted Word, he critiqued some contemporary artists but, more so, it was a critique of art critics, stating that unlike the world of literature, the art world was controlled by an insular circle of rich collectors, museums and critics.
