George Ashley (1925 - September 9, 1991)

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George Ashley, an arts administrator who worked with many of the leading figures of the New York avant-garde performance world, died on September 9, 1991, at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 66 years old.

He died of AIDS, said Rosemary Quinn of Performing Artservices, an arts management organization he joined 13 years ago.

Some of the artists for whom Mr. Ashley helped create press campaigns were Richard Foreman, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Robert Ashley, Trisha Brown, David Gordon, Lucinda Childs, Molissa Fenley, Karole Armitage and the Mabou Mines company.

Before joining Artservices, where he was responsible for publicity for all the clients, he was an administrator of Robert Wilson's Byrd Hoffman Foundation for seven years, including one year as its president. During that period, he was also a dancer and actor in all of Mr. Wilson's productions. As a tour manager, he led Mr. Wilson's troupe on five tours to South America, Europe and the Middle East.

From 1961-69 he was secretary and treasurer of the Bread and Puppet Theater, in which he also performed as a puppeteer.

He was in the Army in 1944-45 and was imprisoned by the Germans.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/14/obituaries/george-ashley-dies-arts-administrator-and-performer-66.html

Further Readings:

Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American Avant-Garde (Yale Publications in the History of Art) by Mr. Jonathan Weinberg
Paperback: 280 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300062540
ISBN-13: 978-0300062540
Amazon: Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American Avant-Garde

Focusing on the art of Charles Demuth, and his friend and fellow member of the Steiglitz Circle, Marsden Hartley, this book aims to show the many ways in which the homosexual culture of the years between the wars informs their work and that of other artists.