Edit DeAk

DeAk was born Edit Deák in Budapest, Hungary, to Elvira (née Csutkai) and Béla Deák.

In 1968, DeAk escaped Communist Hungary in the trunk of a car into Yugoslavia. She and her husband, Péter Grósz, eventually came to New York City via Italy.

In 1972, DeAk received a B.A. in Art History from Columbia University.

After taking an art criticism class taught by Brian O'Doherty, DeAk, and two fellow Columbia students – Walter Robinson and Joshua Cohn – were invited to write for the publication Art in America, where O'Doherty was an editor. DeAk was initially puzzled that an established publication wanted to recruit "baby blood," though she, Robinson, and Cohn still wrote for Art in America.{{Cite web|url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-96223222/the-rite-stuff-on-art-rite|title=The Rite Stuff. (on Art-Rite)" by Frankel, David - Artforum International, Vol. 41, Issue 5, January 2003|website=|access-date=2018-10-17|archive-date=2018-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017123619/https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-96223222/the-rite-stuff-on-art-rite|url-status=dead}} However, DeAk and her cohorts eventually dreamed of starting their own magazine, and proposed ideas of printing a newspaper insert in Art in America. DeAk, Robinson, and Cohn later enrolled in the Whitney Independent Study Program, where the idea to publish a magazine resurfaced.{{Cite news|url=https://observer.com/2012/01/art-net-the-life-and-times-of-walter-robinson-01242012/|title=Art Net: The Life and Times of Walter Robinson|date=2012-01-24|work=Observer|access-date=2018-10-14|language=en-US}} Thus, the art magazine Art-Rite was founded in 1973.

In its conception, DeAk aimed for Art-Rite to have "a whole new tone and attitude," by addressing issues with humor and promoting unconventional forms of art, such as street art and performance art.{{Cite news|url=http://www.flatpackfilms.com/blog/2017/6/29/a-hungarian-in-new-york-the-life-of-edit-deak|title=A Hungarian in New York: the Life of Edit Deak|work=Flatpack Films|access-date=2018-10-14|language=en-US}} Furthermore, DeAk and her colleagues created a very symbiotic relationship between Art-Rite and the artistic community, as the magazines were freely given away, "in recognition of the community which nurtures it.”

In 1974, DeAk initiated a series dedicated to video, performance art, and readings at the Artists Space gallery, where she was working as a part-time assistant.

In 1976, while Art-Rite was still regularly published, DeAk, along with Robinson, Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Lucy Lippard, Pat Steir, Irena Von Zahn, Mimi Wheeler, and Robin White, founded the art space, organization, and publication company Printed Matter Inc.

DeAk wrote for many New York-based arts magazines. Through their connection and close association at Printed Matter, Inc, DeAk wrote articles for Artforum editor in chief, Ingrid Sischy, as well as for Interview, ZG, Art Random, among others.{{cite news|title=Edit deAk (1950–2017)|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/id=68942|work=Artforum|date=13 June 2017}}

At the age of 18, DeAk married an artist named Péter Grósz (born in 1947 in Hungary), who later was known as Peter Grass. They eventually divorced.

The penultimate decades of DeAk's life were plague with poor health heavy drug use. At the age of 68, DeAk died of pneumonia and acute respiratory stress syndrome-related complications in New York City.{{cite news|last1=Speegle|first1=Trey|title=#RIP: Art Critic, Edit DeAk|url=http://worldofwonder.net/rip-art-critic-edit-deak/|work=The WOW Report|date=9 June 2017}}

• {{cite book|editor1-last=DeAk|editor1-first=Edit|title=Domenico Bianchi, Gianni Dessì, Giuseppe Gallo|date=1989|publisher=Kyoto Shoin|location=Kyoto|isbn=978-4-763-68505-6|language=English, Italian, Japanese|oclc=758714266}} – Art Random, no. 15
• {{cite journal|last1=DeAk|first1=Edit|title=New York: Mel Bochner at Sonnabend|journal=Art in America|date=1974|volume=62.1974|issue=1|pages=100–102|isbn=9780991558575|issn=0004-3214|oclc=888754797}}
• {{cite news|last1=deAk|first1=Edit|title=New Again: Francesco Clemente|url=http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/new-again-francesco-clemente/|work=Interview Magazine|date=April 1982}}
• {{cite book|last1=DeAk|first1=Edit|last2=Smith|first2=Duncan|title=Motives – Exhibition catalog |date=1984|publisher=Albright-Knox Art Gallery|location=Buffalo, NY|oclc=950121822}} – Exhibition from February 28, 1984 to April 1, 1984
• {{cite news|last1=deAk|first1=Edit|title=25 Years of Stephen Sprouse|url=http://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/stephen-sprouse-debbie-harry-interview/#page3|work=Interview Magazine|date=September 1987}}

• Art-Rite

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• {{cite news|title=Franklin Furnace Artist File: Miscellaneous Uncataloged Material – Edit DeAk|url=http://arcade.nyarc.org:80/record=b695194~S8|work=Museum of Modern Art|isbn = 9780991558575|oclc=84523181|last1 = Robinson|first1 = Walter|last2 = Deak|first2 = Edit|year = 2019}}
• {{cite news|title=Art-Related Ephemera – Edit DeAk|url=http://primo.getty.edu/GRI:GETTY_ALMA21144733390001551|work=Getty Research Institute|date=1973|isbn=9780991558575|oclc=81330906|last1=Robinson|first1=Walter|last2=Deak|first2=Edit}}

• [https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/artist/382 Edit DeAk] at Printed Matter, Inc

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Category:1948 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States

Category:American art critics

Category:People from Budapest

Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York City