David M. Solinger (1906 – October 29, 1996) was a lawyer, art collector, and president of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Solinger was born in New York City in 1906, the son of Maurice Solinger, a meatpacking business executive.[1][2] After graduating from Cornell University and Columbia Law School, he worked as a senior partner at the Manhattan law firm Solinger and Gordon.[1] He was one of the first lawyers to develop a specialty in advertising, radio and television law and his clients included Louise Nevelson, Hans Hoffman, and Franz Kline.[1]
In 1961, he was elected a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art and in 1966 he succeeded Flora Whitney Miller as its president, the first that was not a member of the Whitney family.[1] While trustee he was instrumental in moving the museum to a new facility designed by Marcel Breuer; and in 1973, as president, in the opening of its first branch location in lower Manhattan.[1]
Solinger collected 20th century art and owned works by Klee, Dubuffet, Giacometti, Leger, Miro, Kline, de Kooning, Soulages and Kandinsky as well as a 1927 Picasso, donating many to local museums.[1]
Solinger was married twice. In 1937, he married Hope Alva Gimbel, the daughter of Bernard Gimbel; the couple had two daughters before divorcing in 1978: Faith Solinger Sommerfield and Lynn Solinger Stern Lang.[1][3][4] He remarried to Betty Ann Besch.[1] Solinger died at his home in Manhattan on October 29, 1996.[1]
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