Modernist art historian, pioneer African arts scholar and director, Museum of Primitive Art, 1957-63. Goldwater was the son of Sigismund S. Goldwater (1873-1942), an M.D. and visionary commissioner of Hospitals in New York under Mayor La Guardia. Goldwater attended Columbia University, receiving his B. A. in 1929. He moved to Harvard for his graduate work, receiving his M.A. in 1931. Goldwater was one of the early art history students to study modern art at Harvard, at the time an area not considered worthy of graduate research. He joined the teaching staff of New York University in 1934.