STEVEN LEIBER (1957–2012)

Steven Leiber, a San Francisco dealer and collector who taught at the California College of the Arts, has passed away after a long illness, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Author of the book Extra Art: A Survey of Artists’ Ephemera 1960–1999, he produced a number of dealer’s catalogs and is credited with appraising the General Idea Archive, the Art Metropole Archive, the Claes Oldenburg Archive, Oldenburg/van Bruggen Large-Scale Projects Archive, the Allan Kaprow Archive, and the Avalanche magazine archive.

In a remembrance posted on Public Collectors, an archive Leiber is credited with inspiring, Marc Fischer writes: “The depth of Steven’s collection was extraordinary, but much more amazing was his generosity in sharing it, and the exactitude with which he could recite critical details about seemingly any object. And if he didn’t have the facts in his head, he knew exactly where to find them and probably had reference materials on hand that could instantly put a question to rest. With Steven Leiber, I saw that it is one thing to look at a rare object in person and to have that tactile experience, but it becomes so much more when the collector can illuminate the ideas and history behind an object in great detail. Steve cared about the specifics of an artist’s work and ideas like no one else I have ever met.”