David Solinger; Attorney Headed Whitney Museum of Art

David Solinger, 90, attorney and art collector who became president of New York’s Whitney Museum of Art. A third-generation New Yorker, Solinger was educated at Cornell University and Columbia University School of Law. As a lawyer, he represented artists, including Hans Hoffman and Franz Kline. He also became an expert on the developing field of advertising, radio and television law, and wrote and lectured widely on the subject. His avocation was clearly art. He took art classes and was an amateur painter. Solinger was elected a trustee of the Whitney Museum in 1961 and five years later became president--the first from outside the museum’s founding Whitney family. During his tenure, the museum grew into a major international institution. On Saturday in New York.