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Meyer Schapiro

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Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox person Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian who developed new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works. An expert on early Christian, Medieval and modern art, he explored periods and movements with an eye toward their works' social, political and material constructions.

Credited with fundamentally changing the course of the art historical discipline, Schapiro's scholarly approach was dynamic and it engaged other scholars, philosophers and artists. An active professor, lecturer, student, writer and humanist, he maintained a long professional association with Columbia University in New York.

BackgroundEdit

Meir Schapiro was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania (then Governorate of Kaunas of the Russian Empire) on September 23, 1904. His ancestors were Talmudic scholars. His parents, Nathan Menachem Schapiro and Fanny Adelman Schapiro, were Lithuanian Jews.<ref name=nytobit> Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=theartstory> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1906, his father came to New York City and found a job as a Hebrew teacher at the Yitzcak Elchanan Yeshiva on the Lower East Side. Once secure, he sent for his family, who emigrated in 1907. The son's first name changed from "Meir" to "Meyer". He grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, where he was first exposed to art in evening classes taught by John Sloan at the Hebrew Educational Society.<ref name=nytobit /><ref name=ideas> Template:Cite journal</ref>

He attended Public School 84 and then Boys High School in Brooklyn. He attended lectures on anthropology and economics at the Young People's Socialist League. During summers, he worked as a Western Union delivery boy, a warehouse packer, an electrical-supply assembler and an adjustment clerk at Macy's.<ref name=nytobit />

EducationEdit

In 1920, Schapiro entered Columbia University as a 16-year-old Pulitzer and Regents scholar. His professors included Mark Van Doren and Franz Boas. Undergraduate classmates included Whittaker Chambers, Clifton Fadiman, Herbert Solow, Lionel Trilling, Henry Zolinsky and Louis Zukofsky, with many of whom he contributed to The Morningside literary magazine. In 1923, he traveled to Europe with Chambers and Zolinsky.<ref> 

 Template:Cite book</ref>  During his undergraduate days, he became known for his "Schapiric victory", by allegedly reducing an instructor to tears by means of dialectic logic.<ref>

Template:Cite news</ref> In 1924, he received his bachelor's degree with honors in art history and philosophy. Princeton University denied him admission for his doctorate, so he continued at Columbia and earned his doctoral degree in art history in 1929.<ref name=cuobit> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web

}}</ref> His professors at that time included Ernest DeWald. His dissertation, five years in the making, examined the cloister and portal of Moissac Abbey, built about A.D. 1100:

Dr. Schapiro's research went far beyond the implications of Moissac itself. Medieval church history, liturgy, theology, social history, illuminated manuscripts, folklore, epigraphy, the analysis of ornament and national characteristics (real or imagined) all were pressed into service and synthesized. As a result, what had been thought of as antiquarian artifacts were seen to have a completely different character. "A new sphere of artistic creation," Dr. Schapiro called it, "without religious content and imbued with values of spontaneity, individual fantasy, delight in color and movement, and the expression of feelings that anticipate modern art. This new art, on the margins of religious work, was accompanied by a conscious taste of the spectators for the beauty of workmanship, materials and artistic devices, apart from religious meanings."<ref name=nytobit />

(In 1975, he received his third degree from Columbia, an honorary doctor of letters.<ref name=cuobit />)

CareerEdit

AcademicsEdit

Schapiro spent his entire working career at Columbia. In 1928, he began teaching as a lecturer, before completing his dissertation. In 1936, he became assistant professor. In 1946, he became associate professor. In 1952, he became a full professor. In 1965, he was named University Professor. He became University Professor Emeritus in 1973. His final, weekly class at Columbia was "Theory and Methods of Investigation in Art."<ref name=nytobit />

He lectured at New York University (1932-1936), the New School for Social Research (1936-1952), Harvard University as the Charles Norton Lecturer (1966-1967) and Oxford University as Slade Professor of Art (1968). He was a visiting lecturer at the College de France in Paris in May 1974.<ref name=nytobit />

SocietyEdit

Schapiro partook in the First American Artists' Congress Against War and Fascism in 1935, which produced a petition signed by more than 300 artists including co-founders Stuart Davis, Adolph Dehn, William Gropper, Hugo Gellert, Saul Schary and Moses Soyer, as well as fellow artists Milton Avery, Ilya Bolotowsky, Alexander Calder, Adolph Gottlieb, Jack Kufeld, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, J. B. Neumann, Isamu Noguchi, Ben Shahn, Raphael Soyer, James Johnson Sweeney, Max Weber, George Biddle, Paul Cadmus, Philip Evergood, Lorser Feitelson and Lewis Mumford. Schapiro and Gottlieb publicly resigned within the month when the congress did not condemn the Soviet invasion of Finland.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Schapiro and other dissenters, including Mark Rothko, Gottlieb, Harris and Bolotowsky, condemned dictatorships in Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain and Japan and founded a Cultural Committee which became the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Schapiro was a proponent of modern art, on which he published essays alongside books on Van Gogh and Cézanne. 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. He said style refers to the formal qualities and visual characteristics of a piece of art, and demonstrated it could be used as an identifier of a particular period and 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.Template:Citation needed

Personal life and deathEdit

Schapiro's brother was financier Morris Schapiro.<ref name=nytobit/> His grand-nephew is artist Jacob Collins.

In 1931, Schapiro married pediatrician Lillian Milgram. They had two children, Miriam Schapiro Grosof and Ernest Schapiro.<ref name=nytobit/><ref name=cuobit />

He died in 1996 in New York at the age of 91 in the Greenwich Village house where he had lived since 1933.<ref name=nytobit />

ImpactEdit

ArtistsEdit

In the 1940s, when the Museum of Modern Art looked at purchasing Jackson Pollock's The She-Wolf (1943), Schapiro, as an acquisitions committee member, supported its acquisition.<ref name=notes> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the 1950s, Schapiro urged Willem de Kooning to finish painting Woman I (1950-1952).<ref name=notes />

Marxist art historyEdit

Schapiro was, at points in his career, criticized for his approach to style because of its politically radical connotations. He 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",<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Schapiro demonstrated how the concurrent existence of two historical styles in one monastery was indicative of economic upheaval and class conflict.

Schapiro's students include:

PortraitsEdit

Alice Neel painted his portrait in 1947<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and 1983.<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (Schapiro portrayed himself many times, including this young image.<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>)

AwardsEdit

Schapiro was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Philosophical Society.<ref name=cuobit />

In 1973, Schapiro received an award by the Art Dealers Association of America.<ref name=nytobit />

In 1974, for Schapiro's 70th birthday, a dozen leading artists made original lithographs, etchings and silk-screens, sold in an edition of 100, whose proceeds endowed the Meyer Schapiro Professorship of Art History in art history and archeology at Columbia. The contributors were: Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Liberman, Stanley William Hayter, Roy Lichtenstein, André Masson, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Saul Steinberg, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.<ref name=nytobit /><ref name=columbia250> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The artworks were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<ref name=cuobit /> In 1975, Schapiro received the Alexander Hamilton Medal for distinguished service and accomplishment by the alumni of Columbia University.<ref name=notes /> The same year, he received an honorary doctor of letters degree from the university.<ref name=cuobit />

In 1976, he was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.<ref name=notes />

In 1987, he was named a MacArthur Foundation fellow.<ref name=cuobit /> In 1995, his brother Morris donated $1 million to establish the Meyer Schapiro Professorship of Modern Art and Theory.<ref name=columbia250 />

In 1995, Schapiro received a special award for lifetime achievement from the College Art Association at its 83rd annual conference in San Antonio, Texas. He had been a member since 1926 and was cited for seven decades of scholarship and teaching in the field of art history: "Meyer Schapiro, we honor you for 70 years of unique scholarship and perception, for showing us the way in which art history enhances our understanding of human accomplishment."<ref name=columbia250 /><ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

BibliographyEdit

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During the 1930s, Schapiro contributed to leftist publications including The Marxist Quarterly, The New Masses, The Partisan Review and The Nation.<ref name=notes />

BooksEdit

  • Vincent van Gogh. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1950 and reprints.
  • Paul Cézanne. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1952 and reprints.
  • The Parma Ildefonsus: A Romanesque Illuminated Manuscript from Cluny, and Related Works. New York: College Art Association of America, 1964.
  • Words and Pictures. On the Literal and the Symbolic in the Illustration of a Text. Approaches to Semiotics series 11, ed. Thomas A Sebeok. The Hague and Paris: Mouton, 1973.
  • Selected Papers I: Romanesque Art. New York: George Braziller, 1977.
    • Translations:
      • Italian, Romanica (Turin: Giulio Einaudi, 1982).
      • Spanish, Estudios sobre el Romanica (Madrid: Aliana Editorial, 1984).
      • German, Romanische Kunst Ausgewahlte Schriften (Cologne: Dumont Verlag, 1987).
  • Selected Papers II: Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries. New York: George Braziller, 1978, 1982.
    • Translations:
      • Swedish, Modern Konst-1800-talet och 1900-talet - Valda Studier, 1981
      • German, Moderne Kunst-19.und 20. Jahrhundert-Ausgewahlte Aufsatze (Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1982).
      • Italian, L'Arte Moderna (Turin: Giulio Einaudi Editore, n.d.).
      • Spanish, El Arte Moderno (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, S.A., 1988).
  • Selected Papers III: Late Antique, Early Christian, and Medieval Art. New York: George Braziller, 1979.
    • Translations:
      • Spanish, Estudios sobre el arte de la Antiguedad Tardia, el Cristianismo Primitivo y la Edad Media (Madrid: Aliana Editorial, 1987).
  • Style, Artiste et Societe, trans. Blaise Allan et. a. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1982.
  • The Romanesque Sculpture of Moissac. New York: George Braziller, 1985.(Reprint of Schapiro's dissertation originally published in Art Bulletin. Includes photographs by David Finn)
  • Selected Papers IV: Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist, and Society. George Brailler, 1994.
  • Mondrian: On the Humanity of Abstract Painting. New York; George Braziller, 1995.
  • Meyer Schapiro : the bibliography / compiled by Lillian Milgram Schapiro. New York : G. Braziller, 1995.
  • Words, Script, and Pictures: The Semiotics of Visual Language. New York: George Braziller, 1996.
  • Impressionism: Reflections and Perceptions. New York George Braziller, 1997.
  • A kind of rapture / Robert Bergman; introduction by Toni Morrison; afterword by Meyer Schapiro. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.
  • Worldview in Painting—Art and Society: Selected Papers, Vol. 5. New York: George Braziller, 1999.
  • The Unity of Picasso's Art. New York: George Braziller, 2000.
  • Meyer Schapiro : his painting, drawing, and sculpture. New York : Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, 2000.
  • Language of Forms: Lectures on Insular Manuscript Art. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 2005.
  • Romanesque architectural sculpture: The Charles Eliot Norton lectures. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
  • Meyer Schapiro abroad : letters to Lillian and travel notebooks. Los Angeles, Calif. : Getty Research Institute, c2009.

ArticlesEdit

Schapiro wrote some articles under assumed names.<ref name=Phelps33> 

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Critical studies and reviews of Schapiro's workEdit

Romanesque architectural sculpture

ArtworksEdit

In 1987, Schapiro exhibited 65 drawings and paintings from 1919 to 1979 in the Wallach Art Gallery in Schermerhorn Hall at Columbia. Subjects ranged from portraiture, landscapes, family, war horrors and abstraction. Included were a self-portrait at age 16 and two portraits of friend Whittaker Chambers.<ref name=nytobit /><ref name=cuobit />

See alsoEdit

Subjects and objects Schapiro wrote about at length include:

Columbia classmates include:

LiteratureEdit

C. Oliver O'Donnell: Meyer Schapiro's Critical Debates. Art Through a Modern American Mind, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, 2019, Template:ISBN

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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