Meyer Schapiro
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| - | Ever since the appearance of [[Meyer Schapiro]]'s essay on "Courbet and Popular Imagery" in 1941, we have been expanding our awareness of the popular arts. | + | '''Meyer Schapiro''' (September 23, 1904 – March 3, 1996) was an American 20th century [[art history|art historian]]. Schapiro was born in [[Šiauliai]], [[Lithuania]]. |
| + | ==Biography== | ||
| + | In 1907 his family immigrated to the United States, where he received his bachelors' and doctorate degrees from [[Columbia University]]. He began teaching in 1928 and became a full professor at Columbia in 1952. Schapiro was a proponent of [[modern art]], and published books on [[Van Gogh]] and [[Cezanne]] and various essays on modern art. He was a founder of ''[[Dissent (magazine)| Dissent]]'', along with [[Irving Howe]] and [[Michael Harrington]]. | ||
| + | From 1966–1967 Schapiro was the Norton professor at [[Harvard University]]. | ||
| + | Schapiro's discourse on [[artistic|style]] is often considered his greatest contribution to the study of art history. According to Schapiro, style refers to the [[Formalism (art)|formal qualities]] and visual characteristics of a piece of art. Schapiro demonstrated that style could be used not only as an identifier of a particular [[Art periods|period]] but also as a diagnostic tool. Style is indicative of the artist and the culture at large. It reflects the economic and social circumstances in which an artist works and breathes and reveals underlying cultural assumptions and normative values. On the other hand our own descriptions of form and style indicate our period, our concerns, and our biases; the way art historians of a particular age talk about style is also indicative of their cultural context. | ||
| - | Academic art was first criticised by Realist artists such as Gustave Courbet, as being based on clichés and representing fantasies and tales of ancient myth while real social concerns were being ignored. Impressionists, who were associated with loose brushstrokes, criticized the smooth finish of academic art. | + | === Marxist Art History === |
| - | As modern art and its avant-garde gained more power, academic art was further denigrated, and seen as sentimental, clichéd, conservative, non-innovative, bourgeois, and "styleless". The French referred derisively to the style of academic art as "art pompier" (pompier means fireman) alluding to the paintings of Jacques-Louis David (who was held in esteem by the academy) which often depicted soldiers wearing fireman-like helmets. The paintings were called "grande machines" which were said to have manufactured false emotion through contrivances and tricks. | + | Schapiro was, at points in his career, criticized for his approach to style because of its politically radical connotations. Schapiro himself wrote scholarly articles for a variety of socialist publications and endeavored to apply a novel Marxist method to the study of art history. In his most famous essay on [[Medieval]] [[Spanish art]], 'From [[Mozarabic art and architecture|Mozarabic]] to [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] in [[Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey|Silos]],' Schapiro demonstrated how the concurrent existence of two historical styles in one monastery was indicative of economic upheaval and class conflict. |
| - | This denigration of academic art reached its peak through the writings of art critic Clement Greenberg who stated that all academic art is "kitsch". | + | He died in [[New York City]] at the age of 91. |
| + | |||
| + | == Works == | ||
| + | |||
| + | * ''The Parma Ildefonsus'' (1964) | ||
| + | * ''Art Schools and Drawing from the Figure'' (1967) | ||
| + | * ''Words and pictures'' (1973) | ||
| + | * ''Selected papers'': | ||
| + | * Vol 1 ''Romanesque art'' (1977) | ||
| + | * Vol 2 ''Modern Art'' (1977) | ||
| + | * Vol 3 ''Late antique, early Christian and medieval art'' (1979) | ||
| + | * Vol 4 ''Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist and Society'' (1994) | ||
| + | |||
| + | * ''Romanesque Architectural Sculpture'' ([[Charles Eliot Norton Lectures]] delivered in 1967; published in 2006) | ||
| + | ** Reviewed in Willibald Sauerländer, "The Artist Historian" [[The New York Review of Books]] 54/11 (28 June 2007) : 55-57, 61-62. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | Subjects and objects Schapiro wrote about at length include: | ||
| + | |||
| + | *[[Joshua Roll]] | ||
| + | *[[Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos]] | ||
| + | *[[Castelseprio]] | ||
| + | *[[Ruthwell Cross]] | ||
| + | *The sculptures at [[Moissac]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | Columbia classmates include: | ||
| + | |||
| + | * [[Lionel Trilling]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | * [[Whittaker Chambers]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | * [[Herbert Solow]] | ||
| - | Other artists, such as the Symbolist painters and some of the Surrealists, were kinder to the tradition. As painters who sought to bring imaginary vistas to life, these artists were more willing to learn from a strongly representational tradition. Once the tradition had come to be looked on as old-fashioned, the allegorical nudes and theatrically posed figures struck some viewers as bizarre and dreamlike. | ||
| - | With the arrival of Postmodernism, academic art has been brought back into history books and discussion, though many postmodern art historians hold a bias against the "bourgeois" nature of the art. | ||
| - | <hr> | ||
| - | [[Villa Arpel]] | ||
| - | <hr> | ||
| - | *[[1929]] - ''[[Un chien andalou]]'' premiers in France | ||
| - | *[[1799]] - [[Alexander Pushkin]], Russian poet (d. [[1837]]) | ||
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Revision as of 11:04, 6 June 2009
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Meyer Schapiro (September 23, 1904 – March 3, 1996) was an American 20th century art historian. Schapiro was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania.
Contents |
Biography
In 1907 his family immigrated to the United States, where he received his bachelors' and doctorate degrees from Columbia University. He began teaching in 1928 and became a full professor at Columbia in 1952. Schapiro was a proponent of modern art, and published books on Van Gogh and Cezanne and various essays on modern art. He was a founder of Dissent, along with Irving Howe and Michael Harrington. From 1966–1967 Schapiro was the Norton professor at Harvard University.
Schapiro's discourse on style is often considered his greatest contribution to the study of art history. According to Schapiro, style refers to the formal qualities and visual characteristics of a piece of art. Schapiro demonstrated that style could be used not only as an identifier of a particular period but also as a diagnostic tool. Style is indicative of the artist and the culture at large. It reflects the economic and social circumstances in which an artist works and breathes and reveals underlying cultural assumptions and normative values. On the other hand our own descriptions of form and style indicate our period, our concerns, and our biases; the way art historians of a particular age talk about style is also indicative of their cultural context.
Marxist Art History
Schapiro was, at points in his career, criticized for his approach to style because of its politically radical connotations. Schapiro himself wrote scholarly articles for a variety of socialist publications and endeavored to apply a novel Marxist method to the study of art history. In his most famous essay on Medieval Spanish art, 'From Mozarabic to Romanesque in Silos,' Schapiro demonstrated how the concurrent existence of two historical styles in one monastery was indicative of economic upheaval and class conflict.
He died in New York City at the age of 91.
Works
- The Parma Ildefonsus (1964)
- Art Schools and Drawing from the Figure (1967)
- Words and pictures (1973)
- Selected papers:
- Vol 1 Romanesque art (1977)
- Vol 2 Modern Art (1977)
- Vol 3 Late antique, early Christian and medieval art (1979)
- Vol 4 Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist and Society (1994)
- Romanesque Architectural Sculpture (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures delivered in 1967; published in 2006)
- Reviewed in Willibald Sauerländer, "The Artist Historian" The New York Review of Books 54/11 (28 June 2007) : 55-57, 61-62.
See also
Subjects and objects Schapiro wrote about at length include:
- Joshua Roll
- Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos
- Castelseprio
- Ruthwell Cross
- The sculptures at Moissac
Columbia classmates include:
