Summary Information
Abstract
This collection encompasses the professional, personal, and artistic life of art
historian Meyer Schapiro.
At a Glance
Call No.: | MS#1121 |
Bib ID: | 7467251 View CLIO record |
Creator(s): | Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-1996. |
Title: | Meyer Schapiro
collection,
1919-2006.
|
Physical description: | 398 linear ft. (333 document boxes, 53 record storage
cartons, 23 small flat boxes (15 inch depth), 16 medium flat boxes (21 inch depth),
13 large flat boxes (31 inch depth), 73 index card boxes, 220 audiotape boxes, 6
glass plate negative boxes, and 2 objects)
|
Language(s): | Material is in English, French, and German.
|
Access: |
This collection has no restrictions. The following boxes are located off-site: [55-665,
672-686]. You will need to request this material from the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library at least two business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare
Book and Manuscript Library reading room. Boxes 1-54 from Series VIII: Works of art
remain on-site as do the glass plate negative boxes 666-671.
This collection has no restrictions.
More information » |
Arrangement
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in VIII series:
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Series I: Personal papers, 1919-2001
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Subseries: I.1: Awards, degrees, and prizes, 1959-1995
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Subseries: I.2: Biography files, 1927-2001
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Subseries: I.3: Dedications and eulogies, 1980-1996
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Subseries: I.4: Exhibitions, 1950, 1960-1989
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Subseries: I.5: Photographs, 1928-1990s
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Subseries: I.6: Private collection, 1961-1998
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Subseries: I.7: School records, 1919-1929
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Subseries: I.8: Travel notebooks, 1926-1974
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Series II: Correspondence, 1920s-2001
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Series III: Professional papers, 1929-1990
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Series IV: Writings, 1928-2009
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Series V: Research files, 1930s-1990s
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Series VI: Exhibition announcements, invitations, and press releases,
1920-2001
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Series VII: Sound and video recordings, 1952-1990s
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Series VIII: Works of art, 1920s-1980s
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Description
Scope and Content
The collection of art historian Meyer Schapiro contains a vast range of material
documenting the professor's personal, professional, and artistic life. The collection
encompasses Schapiro's early academic training to his rise as a prominent theorist and
historian of Medieval, Romanesque, Impressionist, and Modern art. His personal life is
documented through early school records, course notes from college, typescripts and
notes relating to his masters thesis and doctoral dissertation, and photographs and
notebooks from his travels abroad between 1927 through 1957. The collection also houses
an extensive set of Schapiro's own art work in various mediums that spans from the early
1920s through the 1980s.
Schapiro was at the center of many artistic and political debates from the 1930s through
the 1990s and his correspondence in the collection reflects his ongoing support of
academics, artists, and philosophers. This includes his efforts to aid German and Jewish
refugees of World War II.
Schapiro's professional activities as a professor and lecturer are strongly represented
in the collection. Materials include transcripts, outlines, research notes, and audio
recordings of his lectures, many of which formed the basis for his written corpus. Also
in the collection is Schapiro's extensive research notes on subject matter relating to
art, politics, and sociology that are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Included in the collection is a substantial array of Schapiro's published and
unpublished writings, including articles, essays, manuscripts, published works, reviews,
translations and poetry. Schapiro's intellectual curiosity necessitated his own constant
reappraisal of his professional written work. This includes editing, clarifying, and
expanding upon typescripts, outlines, and notes relating to lectures that he foresaw as
being published.
A constant source of support for Schapiro's professional and artistic output was his
wife, Lillian Milgram Schapiro. After Schapiro's death, she would work to complete
projects that Schapiro began and oversaw the management of his legacy. As a result,
material in the collection that post-dates Schapiro's death in 1996 was generated by
Lillian Milgram Schapiro and is noted throughout the finding aid.
Series I: Personal papers, 1919-2001
Materials in this series comprise records from Schapiro's personal and educational
life and also include documentation from notable milestones in his career.
Subseries: I.1: Awards, degrees, and prizes, 1959-1995
Records in this subseries reflect achievements that Schapiro was recognized for
in the form of awards, degrees, and prizes. This includes awards such as
Commandeur de l'Order des Arts et des Lettres from the French government,
honorary doctorates from various universities and colleges, and prizes such as
the CAA Special Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the College Art
Association of America. Materials include actual degrees and certificates,
correspondence relating to these achievements, and associated publicity
material. The subseries is divided further into sub-subseries by the following
title designations: Sub-Subseries: I.1.1: Awards, 1959-1995, Sub-Subseries:
I.1.2: Degrees, 1966-1988, Sub-Subseries: I.1.3: Prizes, 1979-1985
Subseries: I.2: Biography Files, 1927-2001
The bulk of this subseries includes Schapiro's collected articles and clippings
that referenced him. Schapiro continually collected such material beginning in
the late 1920s. Additionally, there are several of Schapiro's own
auto-biographical writings relating to key events in his life. Also included
are his daily diaries and biographies written by other scholars.
Subseries: I.3: Dedications and eulogies, 1980-1996
This subseries contains material pertaining to official recognitions bestowed
to Schapiro and eulogies either delivered by him to fellow friends and those
given during Schapiro's funeral. This subseries is divided into the following
categories to facilitate the retrieval of records: Sub-Subseries: I.3.1:
Dedications, 1980-1996, Sub-Subseries: I.3.2: Eulogies, 1996.
Subseries: I.4: Exhibitions, , 1950, 1960-1989
While Schapiro is well known for his art historical scholarship, he also
curated art exhibitions and exhibited art works he himself created. This
subseries includes materials from an exhibit he co-curated alongside Clement
Greenberg in 1950 at the Kootz Gallery titled "Talent 1950: 23 artists receive
a showing under the sponsorship of Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg." There
is also substantial material relating to the exhibition "Meyer Schapiro: works
of art, 1919-1970" held at Columbia University's Wallach Art Gallery which
showcased Schapiro's own art work. Consult Series VIII: Works of art,
1920s-1980s, for a full listing of works of art held in this collection.
Additionally, this subseries includes materials relating to exhibits were
portraits of Schapiro were included, where works of art dedicated to him were
exhibited, or where exhibitions in his honor were curated.
Subseries: I.5: Photographs, 1928-1990s
This subseries documents portrait photographs of Meyer Schapiro or those taken
by him. This subseries is divided into two sub-subseries which reflects this
arrangement. For photographs that were ordered, purchased, or collected for
research purposes by Schapiro, consult Series V: Research files, Subseries:
V.6: Reproductions. Photographs used or considered for use in publications are
housed with their respective titles in Series IV: Writings, Subseries: IV.5:
Publications.
Subseries: I.6: Private Collection, 1961-1998
Files in Subseries: I.6 document the management and administration of Meyer and
Lillian Milgram Schapiro’s private art collection, including lists, notes,
appraisals, condition reports, exhibition loan agreements, and gifts given to
assorted art and cultural institutions.
Subseries: I.7: School Records, 1919-1929
Material in subseries I.7 includes Schapiro's earliest records in the
collection, a 1919 student newsletter he edited for the Latin club at Boys High
school Brooklyn. The bulk of this subseries, however, is focused on Schapiro's
college days at Columbia University. This includes his student notes of college
courses, notes and typescripts for his 1926 master's thesis ("The sculptures of
Moissac"), and, finally, material focused on his doctoral dissertation which
was completed in 1929 ("The Romanesque sculpture of Moissac"). Schapiro was one
of the three first recipients to be awarded a masters degree in fine arts at
Columbia University and his doctoral dissertation was the first in fine arts
and archeology at the university. For further materials relating to Schapiro’s
doctoral dissertation, also consult Series V: Research files, Subseries: V.5
under the subject term Saint-Pierre (Abbey : Moissac, Tarn-et-Garonne, France).
Subseries: I.8: Travel notebooks, 1926-1990s
In 1926, Schapiro received a grant from the Carnegie Corporation to research
his doctoral dissertation on Romanesque sculpture. That trip, which lasted 15
months, provided Schapiro with first hand visual experience with architectural
works he had only known through reproductions and texts. This subseries
includes his complete travel notebooks and is organized by country and/or city.
Since these travel notebooks were compiled by Schapiro by region traveled, they
are occasionally not individual, discrete notebooks and are therefore described
by leave count and dimensions. In the event where an actual notebook is intact,
it will be described as such. Consult Series V: Research files, Subseries: V.5:
Research notes under the appropriate subject heading for other drawings and
notes created during Schapiro’s travels. Also consult Subseries: I.5:
Photographs, Sub-Subseries: I.5.2: Travel photographs for photographs taken
during his 1926 trip and that complement the notebooks in this subseries.
The 2007 publication
Meyer Schapiro abroad: letters to
Lillian and travel notebooks
reproduced several sheets of Schapiro's
travel notebooks from the years 1926 through 1927. Items in that publication
reproduced material in this subseries and also items from Series V: Research
files, Subseries: V.5: Research notes, especially for notes relating to
illuminated manuscripts.
In the 1980s and 1990s, several leaves were detached and placed on mats, these
are also arranged by country and/or city.
This subseries is arranged as follows: Sub-Subseries I.8.1: Notebooks,
1926-1974, Sub-Subseries I.8.2: Detached leaves and tourist maps, 1927-1947.
Series II : Correspondence, 1920s-2001
Schapiro was a central figure in many important circles that range from art
history, philosophy, architecture, sociology, science, and pedagogy. His reach is
evident with those he kept in correspondence with throughout his life. Series II
contains a substantial list of figures that are famous or well known in their
field and illustrates how active Schapiro was in his professional and personal
life.
Schapiro did not differentiate his correspondence files between the personal and
the professional. While he maintained and organized correspondence alphabetically
by an individual's last name, he did not organize to the individual level. For
example, files designated as "B" included material in several folders that span
seven decades. Each folder housed a variety of individuals with a last name
beginning with "B" or an institutional name that began with that letter.
To clarify and bring entities and constituents to the foreground, all
correspondence was systematically organized by individual or institution if they
were either noteworthy or if they maintained a high volume of correspondence with
Schapiro. For individuals and institutions not listed by name, consult the
"general" correspondence files alphabetically.
For Schapiro, materials in his correspondence files also served as subject files
for individuals. Schapiro would collect clippings, articles, and other printed
material relating to specific individual and file them with correspondence. These
items have remained intact and kept as Schapiro filed them with the individual's
last name in designated folders.
Individuals working for specific entities such as universities, museums, and other
institutions were also filed alphabetically according to either their last name or
by their affiliation depending on Schapiro's choosing. If an individual is not
listed in this series by last name, also consult institutions by name.
Correspondence that post-dates Schapiro’s death were generated by his wife Lillian
Milgram Schapiro and maintained in this series.
Correspondence found in other series of this collection was retained in their
original files to preserve the context of the records they are associated with.
When present, "correspondence" is indicated as a represented record type at the
file level to facilitate their retrieval.
Series III: Professional Papers, 1929-1990
Series III encompasses all records affiliated with Schapiro's academic and
professional life, this includes materials relating to lectures that were
delivered outside his formal academic appointments.
Subseries: III.1: Administrative Records, 1950s-1990s
Files in this subseries are representative of the daily administrative
functions of Schapiro's role as a professor, scholar, and academic. They
include requests for letters of recommendation, requests for interviews, and
other assorted office files that pertain to his academic position. This
includes materials for general courses, fellowship applications, and other
files directly related to his standing as a university professor.
Subseries: III.2: Courses, 1929-1977
While predominantly known as a professor at Columbia University, Schapiro also
taught courses at the New School for Social Research, New York University, and
other institutions. This subseries groups these course materials and is further
arranged by institution.
Subseries: III.3: Lectures, 1930s-1980s
Outside of his formal academic teaching, Schapiro was a prominent international
lecturer in art history and other related disciplines. Materials in this
subseries reflect his formal participation in a variety of academic and
non-academic settings as a professional lecturer, visiting scholar, or visiting
fellow. This includes material from Schapiro's 1967 Charles Eliot Norton
lectures at Harvard University and his 1968 lecture on Abstract art from the
Slade Lectures in the Fine Arts at Oxford University. Other prominent lectures
include "The unity of Picasso's art" delivered at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
in 1973 and the lecture "An experiment in the coherence of forms" given at the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the 1970s.
Several of these lectures have been recorded and are housed in Series VII:
Sound and video recording, Subseries: VII.2: Audiocassettes and audiotapes.
Those lectures that have been recorded will be indicated as such after the
lecture title in this sub-subseries. Additionally, these lectures are also
cross-referenced in Series VII, Subseries: VII.2.
To facilitate discovery and retrieval, this subseries is divided
chronologically by decade as follows: Sub-Subseries: III.3.1: 1930s,
Sub-Subseries: III.3.2: 1940s, Sub-Subseries: III.3.3: 1950s, Sub-Subseries:
III.3.4: 1960s, Sub-Subseries: III.3.5: 1970s, Sub-Subseries: III.3.6: 1980s.
Series IV: Writings
This series houses all of Schapiro's writings, from published articles, books, and
reviews, to unpublished manuscripts, essays, and translations. For writings that
were published during Schapiro's lifetime, the 1995 publication
Meyer Schapiro: the bibliography
compiled by Lillian
Milgram Schapiro was used throughout this series for consistency and to source
where articles and reviews first appeared. Information relating to all material
published posthumously and that post-dates the 1995 bibliography were retrieved
from the archival material itself.
Subseries: IV.1: Administrative records, 1960s-2003
Files in this subseries contain records that aided in the administrative
management of Schapiro's writings. The bulk of this material comprises lists of
published and unpublished writings.
Subseries: IV.2: Articles, 1929-1994
Schapiro began publishing articles focused on art and architecture as early as
1929, the year he completed his doctoral dissertation. By 1931, the journal Art
Bulletin published parts of his dissertation "The Romanesque Sculpture of
Moissac." Since those early years, Schapiro continually published articles in
newspapers, journals, and other serials throughout his life. This subseries
contains only those articles that have been published, for unpublished works,
consult Subseries: IV.3: Essays, Subseries: IV.4: Manuscripts, and Subseries:
IV.8: Translations and Poetry in this series. For publications, consult
Subseries: IV.5: Publications.
All bibliographic information in this subseries was retrieved from Lillian
Milgram Schapiro's 1995 publication
Meyer Schapiro: the
bibliography
published by George Braziller Inc. Bibliographic
information is provided for an article's original publication, consult the
published bibliography for information on reprinted versions.
To facilitate the discovery of records, this subseries is arranged
chronologically by decade as follows: Sub-Subseries: IV.2.1: 1929-1930s,
Sub-Subseries: IV.2.2: 1940s, Sub-Subseries: IV.2.3: 1950s, Sub-Subseries:
IV.2.4: 1960s, Sub-Subseries: IV.2.5: 1970s, Sub-Subseries: IV.2.6: 1980s.
Subseries: IV.3: Essays, 1930s-1990s
Writings in this subseries constitute work that has never been published. These
individual essays were originally housed with material found in Series V:
Research files, Subseries: V.5: Research notes. What differentiated these texts
from Schapiro's unorganized research notes is that he provided these essays
with a clear title heading, allowing them to be well defined individual texts.
Given their subject and title specificity, they have been organized
chronologically in this subseries to facilitate their discovery. These essays
are either in the format of prose or are prepared as outlines. Consult Series
V: Research files, Subseries: V.5: Research notes for related material and on
the arrangement of those records.
Subseries: IV.4: Manuscripts, 1930s-2002
Subseries IV.4 contains unpublished material that Schapiro wrote, organized,
and edited for intended publication. Among the titles included in this
subseries are "The content of modern art: studies in the painting of the end of
the nineteenth century from Manet to Munch," "Pablo Picasso's
Guernica,
" "The serpent with a woman's head in the
temptation of Eve: researches on the invention of an image," and "Relativity
and the interpretation of modern painting."
Schapiro continually revisited and reworked his previous writings, transcripts,
and research notes to compile these manuscripts. As a result, work on one
single manuscript could cross several decades and, after Schapiro's death,
would continue to be worked on by his wife Lillian Milgram Schapiro. In each
individual instance, original order created by Schapiro or his wife Lillian
Milgram Schapiro was maintained. Every effort was made to contextualize these
manuscripts by highlighting historical documentation contained elsewhere in the
collection to give these writings a fuller understanding. To that end, included
after each title are arrangement notes for how the manuscript is organized,
their organizational structure, and, if applicable, the rationale on the final
title chosen
Subseries: IV.5: Publications, 1928-2009
Subseries IV.5 contains material relating to all of Schapiro's work that were
published either in his lifetime or posthumously. This includes material from
all of his "Selected Writings" series published by George Braziller, Inc. a s
well as books that were published posthumously and edited and compiled by
Lillian Milgram Schapiro.
For articles and reviews that were reprinted in Schapiro's "Selected Writings"
series, consult Subseries: IV.2: Articles and Subseries: IV.6: Reviews where
they are filed.
While the bulk of the material dates after 1950, the earliest record in this
subseries is
Art in the contemporary world
a
1928 reprint of
An introduction to contemporary
civilization in the west: a syllabus.
Subseries: IV.6: Reviews,
1930-1972
Schapiro wrote reviews about books and exhibitions throughout his career. This
subseries contains all his reviews and are organized chronologically. For
consistency, bibliographic information was retrieved from Lillian Milgram
Schapiro's bibliography of 1995. Early in his career, Schapiro would
occasionally use the pseudonym John Kwait for publishing reviews. According to
Lillian Milgram Schapiro's bibliography, Kwait is Schapiro's maternal
grandmother's surname. File descriptions will indicate when the pseudonym has
been used.
(Early in his career, Schapiro would occasionally use the pseudonym John Kwait
for publishing reviews. According to Lillian Milgram Schapiro's published
bibliography on Schapiro's work, Kwait is Schapiro's maternal grandmother's
surname. File descriptions will indicate when the pseudonym has been used)
Subseries: IV.7: Scrapbooks, 1928-1966
The scrapbooks found in this subseries were compiled by Schapiro and include
articles and clippings of Schapiro's work written from eh 1930s to the 1960s.
The scrapbooks' titles mirror the volumes of his collected work published by
George Braziller and may have been the basis for the organization of those
publications.
Subseries: IV.8: Translations and poetry, 1930s-1943
Schapiro was a well known linguist and wrote several essays on language and
semiotics. It comes as no surprise then that he also translated texts,
predominantly those that are French. Of all his translations, only two were
formally published: the 1943 translation of Andre Masson's
Anatomy of My Universe,
of which Schapiro was not
credited; and "Three Texts on Science ("A Dream"); Wit and Common Sense; Genius
and Method (Lichtenberg, Diderot, Galiani)" published by
Anon
in 1973.
The bulk of this subseries, however, is dedicated to Schapiro's translations of
Charles Baudelaire's texts. Since there were very limited English translations
of Baudelaire's writings on art and culture at the time, Schapiro worked on
translating them beginning in the 1930s. According to files in this subseries,
there were plans to publish these translations, as Baudelaire's work in English
had yet to materialize, but that project was never realized.
Also included in this subseries is an extensive file of poems that Schapiro
wrote.
Series V: Research files, 1930s-1990s
Schapiro was fastidious about collecting research material and of creating and
collecting material for research purposes. Series V houses all of Schapiro's
research material he used on a personal and professional level.
Subseries: V.1: Administrative records, 1950s-1980s
This subseries contains administrative records relating to Schapiro's research
files.
Subseries: V.2: Articles and clippings, 1930s-1980s
The articles and clippings amassed in this subseries were collected by Schapiro
at his faculty office in Schermerhorn Hall at the Department of Art History and
Archeology at Columbia University, where they resided prior to being
transferred to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library in 2009 and 2010.
These files are organized alphabetically by author's last name or by subject
matter. Many of these articles and clippings are given as personalized copies
for Schapiro and include annotated notes and signatures by the authors.
Subseries: V.3: Bibliographies, 1930s-1960s
Schapiro maintained index cards filled with bibliographies related to art
historical periods, artists, and subjects. Material in this subseries comprises
the bulk of these bibliographies, which are unsorted. Also consult Subseries:
V.4: Research card files where bibliographies are also present and are
indicated as such.
Subseries: V.4: Research card files, 1930s-1980s
Schapiro took notes meticulously throughout his life, and this subseries
reflects his consistent habit of note taking. Schapiro organized these 4 x 6
index cards thematically by subject and all the contents in this subseries were
originally housed in metallic filing cabinets. All subjects titled in the
finding aid are Schapiro's own file headings found sequentially in the note
cards.
Since all material is organized as they were originally ordered by Schapiro,
material relating to a subject may run across boxes. As a result, all subject
terms in brackets are supplied when original headings lack the context from
which they are derived in earlier boxes or when file headings do not exist.
Subseries: V.5: Research notes, 1920s-1990s
Subseries: V.5 contains the heart of Schapiro's research files and includes
notes from a wide range of subjects. Although Schapiro was scrupulous about
creating research notes, he was less concerned with how the notes were stored
and filed. As a result, many of his research files contained a plethora of
material that was not related to each other in either content or subject. As a
result, material was organized and grouped according to the subject of the
contents. For notes relating to the illumination of books and manuscripts,
Schapiro organized material either by repository in which the codex is located
or by region from which it was created. Physical folders indicate manuscript
numbers which are represented in the file. Material related to illumination of
books and manuscripts were reproduced in the 2007 publication
Meyer Schapiro abroad: letters to Lillian and travel
notebooks.
Schapiro wrote many research notes that are interrelated with other subjects in
the collection. In this light, material in this subseries can be used in
conjunction with records in other series of this collection.
Unlike Subseries: V.4, files in Subseries V.5 are organized by subject headings
that are derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings based on the
contents of the records housed in the files. In the event that Schapiro’s own
subject heading are too unique to be mapped to a Library of Congress Subject
Heading, his own titles were utilized.
Series VI: Exhibition announcements, invitations, and press releases,
1920-2001
Alongside Schapiro's academic background in Medieval and Romanesque art, he was
very passionate about art of his contemporary time and of maintaining close
relationships with working artists. Schapiro was a central figure in the art
community of New York City since the 1930s and he visited art galleries and
exhibitions throughout his life. Series VI is a collection of exhibition
announcements, invitations, and press releases from New York City galleries that
were sent to Schapiro and collected by him starting from 1920. After his death,
Schapiro's wife, Lillian Milgram Schapiro, continued to receive and collect these
materials until 2001.
These collection exhibition announcements and invitations give a micro-history of
New York City through the lens of the art gallery. Items in this series record who
owned galleries, where their spaces were located, which artists were exhibited
across time, and what art works were shown.
Prior to being integrated into this collection in 2009, these materials were
maintained in filing cabinets and housed at Columbia University's Visual Media
Center located in Schermerhorn Hall.
The original filing structure organized by Schapiro was maintained, which grouped
an artist's last name in alphabetic and chronologic batches. Group exhibitions
were filed in their own groupings chronologically. To facilitate retrieval of
archival material, all files were consolidated following a consistent alphabetic
pattern and subdivided into the following subseries: Subseries: VI.1: 1920-1942,
Subseries: VI.2: A-E, 1943-2001, Subseries: VI.3: F-L, 1943-2001, Subseries: VI.4:
M-R, 1943-2001, Subseries: VI.5: S-Z, 1943-2001, Subseries: VI.6: Group
exhibitions, 1945-2001, Subseries: VI.7: Oversize, 1930s-1990s.
Series VII: Sound and video recordings, 1952-1990s
Series VII chiefly houses a substantial set Schapiro's recorded lectures from the
1950s through the 1980s. It also includes a video recording created in 1988 by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art which incorporates sound from Schapiro's lecture "The
unity of Picasso's art" with images from the museum's permanent collection.
Subseries: VII.1: Administrative records, 1985-1990s
The administrative records housed in this subseries are related to the sound
recordings found in Subseries VII.2. Prior to Columbia University's
custodianship of Schapiro's sound recordings of his lectures, he donated his
collection of audiotapes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The records in this
subseries document the history of the museum's custodianship of the recordings
in the form of correspondence, inventories and lists that were generated by the
Office of Film and Television of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is also
a small volume of records relating to the video recording "The unity of
Picasso's art" which is housed in Subseries: VII.3.
Subseries: VII.2: Audiocassettes and Audiotapes, 1952-1982
Known for his vivid and lively lectures, these sound recordings document
Schapiro's lectures that were delivered from 1952 to 1982. These recordings
also demonstrate Schapiro's extemporaneous style and pedagogical method and add
an aural dimension to the archival documents relating to Schapiro's lectures in
Series III of this collection.
Prior to being housed at Columbia University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
held custody of these sound recordings. During their custodianship, the museum
reformatted the audio into audiocassettes to facilitate access to the material.
This subseries includes both one set of the duplicated audiocassettes created
by the museum and the original audiotapes.
For lecture titles, locations, and dates, both the inventories created by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1980s and the archival material housed in
Series III: Professional papers, Subseries: III.3: Lectures were used against
each other to fact check annotations found on the audiotape reels. The data
used in this subseries reflects a systemization that incorporates elements from
all primary sources and remains consistent with descriptive data relating to
lectures found in Series III. For instances where the sound recording is the
only record in the collection, titles were supplied from actual boxes holding
the audio tape reels.
All sound recordings in this subseries that contain archival material in Series
III are indicated after the lecture's title and are also cross-referenced with
lecture material in Series III.
Preservation notes following the title of the recordings were retrieved from
the inventories and condition reports the Metropolitan Museum of Art created in
the 1980s. Unless otherwise noted, all sound tape reels are the standard ¼ inch
width and sound cassettes are 3 7/8 x 2 1/2 inch.
Series VIII: Works of art, 1920s-1980s
Schapiro began his artistic practice early in his life when, in his teens, he
attended evening art classes taught by artist John Sloan at the Hebrew Settlement
House. Schapiro would continually sketch, draw, paint, and sculpt throughout his
life, and this series houses the single largest collection of his works of art.
Included in this collection are prints, drawings paintings, sculptures, printing
plates, linoleum printing blocks, and sketchbooks from the 1920s through the
1980s. They include images he created at Columbia University, during his trips
abroad in Europe and the Near East, portraits of his wife Lillian Milgram
Schapiro, and friends, such as Whittaker Chambers.
For Schapiro, the practice of art and the academic pursuit of the art historical
discipline were two sides of the same token. Many of his drawings and paintings
reflect his interest in issues of form, content, and visual perception, issues
pertinent to his writings on art theory.
In 1987, 65 of Schapiro's art works were displayed in the exhibition "Meyer
Schapiro: Works of Art, 1919-1979" at Columbia University's Miriam and Ira D.
Wallach Art Gallery. Consult Series I: Personal papers, Subseries: I.4:
Exhibitions for records relating to that exhibition.
For all other administrative records relating to Schapiro's works of art,
Subseries: VIII.1: Administrative records, 1980s-1990s
The works of art in this series are divided by medium to facilitate discovery of
the material as follows: Subseries: VIII.2: Prints and drawings, 1920s-1980s,
Subseries: VIII.3: Paintings, 1930s-1980s, Subseries: VIII.4: Sculptures and
printing plates, 1930s-1980s, Subseries: VIII.5: Linoleum printing blocks, circa
1930s-1960s, Subseries: VIII.6: Sketchbooks, 1960s.
Subseries VIII.5: Linoleum printing blocks, circa
1930s-1960s
Box 50 contains the original Linoleum printing blocks for the prints found in
box 24 and box 25.
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Using the Collection
Partially Offsite
Access Restrictions
This collection has no restrictions. The following boxes are located off-site: [55-665,
672-686]. You will need to request this material from the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library at least two business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare
Book and Manuscript Library reading room. Boxes 1-54 from Series VIII: Works of art
remain on-site as do the glass plate negative boxes 666-671.
This collection has no restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material
from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University
Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to
publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission
rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Meyer Schapiro Collection; Box and
Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Related Material
Meyer
Schapiro letters and manuscripts of Whittaker Chambers and James Thomas Farrell,
1923-1991,
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
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About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries. Rare Book and
Manuscript Library; machine readable finding aid created by Columbia University
Libraries Digital Library Program Division
Processing Information
Papers processed 2009-2010 Farris Wahbeh
Finding aid written 2009-2010 Farris Wahbeh
Machine readable finding aid generated from MARC-AMC source via XSLT conversion
May 26, 2010
Finding aid written in English.
2010-05-26
xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz
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Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.
Subjects
Heading | CUL Archives: Portal | CUL Collections: CLIO | Nat'l / Int'l Archives: ArchiveGRID |
---|
Art--History. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
Columbia University--Faculty. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
Columbia University.--Dept. of Art History and
Archeology. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-1996 | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-1996--Bibliography. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-1996--Correspondence. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-1996--Notebooks, sketchbooks,
etc. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
World War, 1939-1945--Europe. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
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History / Biographical Note
Biographical Note
Meyer Schapiro was a preeminent American art historian known
for forging new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary
approach to the study of works of art. An expert on early Christian, Medieval, and
Modern art, Schapiro explored art historical periods and movements with a keen eye
towards the social, political, and the material construction of art works. 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, writer, and humanist, Schapiro maintained a long professional
association with Columbia University as a student, lecturer, and professor.
1904-1919: Childhood and early education
Meyer Schapiro was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania on September 23, 1904 to a Jewish family
that immigrated to the United States in 1907, when Schapiro was three years old. Meyer
was the second of four children (Morris, 1903; Meyer, 1904; Mary, 1906; and Jacob 1911)
to the parents Menahem (Nathan) and Fayge (Fannie) Schapiro.
Prior to moving to the United States, Schapiro's father Nathan was a child of the
Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) movement in Lithuania. Nathan lost interest in religious
studies and become, by his own account, a politically active free thinker that
disassociated with religion and migrated towards an engagement with the secular world.
These philosophical traits where transmitted to his son, Meyer, who actively engaged in
a wide range of artistic, educational, and political pursuits in his early age.
The Schapiro family moved to the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, where Schapiro
attended Public School 84 and/or 85 and graduated from the Boys High School, where he
graduated and where one of his activities was to be involved in the Latin club.
Schapiro's political and artistic pursuits at this time included being active with the
Young People's Socialist League and attending evening art classes taught by painter John
Sloan at the Hebrew Settlement Home.
1920-1929: Columbia University and Schapiro's college years:
Schapiro entered Columbia College in 1920 at the age of 16 with three scholarships, the
Columbia, the Pulitzer, and the New York State Regents. He graduated with a bachelor of
arts in 1924. His course load included a wide variety of classes on literature,
anthropology, philosophy, mathematics, and art history and was influenced by his
professors Franz Boas and John Dewey. Two of his roommates in his college years would
continue to be his friends throughout his life, Clifton (Kip) Fadiman and Whittaker
Chambers.
Schapiro would continue his graduate work at Columbia University, where he completed his
master's thesis "The sculptures of Moissac" in 1926. As a graduate student at Columbia,
Schapiro worked with Professor Ernest DeWald and took many of his classes, as evidenced
by his course notes in his archival collection. During his college years, Schapiro was
influenced by the art historian A. Kingsley Porter and, through his knowledge of
Yiddish, learned French and German and became acquainted with the work of Wilhelm Vöge
and Alois Riegl.
To complete research for his doctoral dissertation, Schapiro traveled for the first time
to Europe and the Near East in 1926 through 1927 on a grant awarded by the Carnegie
Corporation. This period of his life is documented in the Getty publication,
Meyer Schapiro abroad: letters to Lillian
and travel
notebooks.
Schapiro completed his doctoral dissertation "The Romanesque sculpture of Moissac" in
1929 and his PhD was the fist in fine arts and archeology awarded by Columbia
University. In 1931, Selections of his dissertation were published in the journal
The Art Bulletin
to critical praise because of his
methodology of synthesizing diverse ideas to reinterpret the artistic production of the
Romanesque. While Schapiro completed his academic work in 1929, he would not be
conferred his doctoral degree until 1935 due to administrative bureaucracy. Schapiro's
academic success at Columbia was unparalleled, and he was appointed to the faculty of
fine arts in 1928, the same year he was married to Lillian Milgram Schapiro, a
pediatrician who graduated from New York University and specialized on childhood
tuberculosis.
1930-1949: The cultivation of Schapiro's professional life and the pre-war political
horizon:
Schapiro's professional and scholarly life began to ascend as soon as earned his
doctorate. His writings and reviews began to appear throughout journals, magazines, and
newspapers. Schapiro's critique of historians using schematic approaches to
understanding art and its production began in the early 1930s, such as his review of
La Stylistique Ornamentale dans la Sculpture Romane
by
Jurgis Baltrusaitis.
In 1933, Schapiro moved with his wife, Lillian Milgram Schapiro, to the Greenwich
Village neighborhood in New York City, where he would reside until his death in 1996.
Schapiro would continue to engage with politics, such as participating in the first
American Artists' Congress in 1936, where he delivered the paper "The Social Bases of
Art." But he was adamant of not reducing art to a disciplinary schema. As he writes in
the aforementioned article, he sought not to "reduce art to economics or sociology or
politics." He would continue to publish in political magazines such as
The Marxist Quarterly,
where he published "The Nature of
Abstract Art," yet another critique on his friend Alfred H. Barr, Jr.'s exhibition
"Cubism and Abstract Art."
In the 1930s, Schapiro visited Europe twice, once in 1931 and the other in 1939. He
would meet and become acquaintances with many individuals associated with the Vienna
School of art history, such as Ernst Gombrich, Emil Kaufmann, Otto Pächt, Hans Sedlmayr,
and Fritz Saxl. Schapiro broke off his communication with Sedlmayr in the mid-1930s due
to his increasing anti-Semitism. At the urging of his friend Theodor Adorno, Schapiro
met with Walter Benjamin in 1939 in Paris, several months before the philosopher's
death.
Throughout the years proceeding and following World War II, Schapiro was a consistent
point of contact for refugees fleeing the hostile and repressive climate of Germany and
Russia. He was a point of contact for many German and Jewish academics, philosophers,
and artists fleeing Europe for the United States and he was a vocal critic of repressive
regimes, such as Nazism and Fascism. After the atrocities committed under Stalin,
Schapiro became disillusioned with politics, yet he continued his admiration for the
political and maintained correspondence with political figures such as Leon Trotsky.
In 1936, Schapiro would be promoted to Assistant Professor at Columbia University and,
by 1948, he would become an Associate Professor at the university.
Schapiro had an admiration for artists and continually sought to nurture their
intellectual acuity through his lectures. Many artists have credited Schapiro with
developing their historical and philosophical understanding of art history, especially
at Columbia University, where students such as Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell
and Ad Reinhardt attended his courses.
That Schapiro was a practicing artist himself added to his interest in being in constant
dialogue with artists. As Wolf Kahn once noted, "For Meyer Schapiro art making and art
history have always appeared as intrinsically related. What brings them together is
seeing."
Throughout 1930s and 1940s, Schapiro was also a lecturer at New York University, New
School for Social Research, and the Pierpont Morgan Library. Many artists became aware
of his lectures, teaching methodologies, and philosophies through those venues, such as
Alice Neel, Barnett Newman, Gordon Onslow-Ford, and Frank Stella.
1950-1979: Schapiro's continued rise as a prominent American art historian:
Starting in the 1950s, Schapiro's professional career became ever more active. In April
1950, he was invited by the gallery owner Samuel Kootz to co-curate with art critic
Clement Greenberg the exhibition "Talent 1950: 23 artists receive a showing under the
sponsorship of Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg." He first books were also published
in that decade,
Vincent van Gogh
in 1950 and
Paul Cézanne
in 1952. His theories on style, form, content,
and abstraction continued to be developed, and he became an ongoing advocate of Modern
art.
While the end of World War II and the on-going anti-Communism in the United States were
sources of disillusionment for the political left in the late 1940s and early 1950s,
several New York intellectuals, including Schapiro and Irving Howe, founded the
political magazine
Dissent.
Schapiro continued to teach at Columbia University and in 1952 he was promoted to
Professor and in 1965 became a University Professor, the second such honor bestowed to a
faculty member at Columbia at the time. His students in the 1950s and 1960s at Columbia
and other institutions include several prominent artists, such as Allen Ginsberg, Donald
Judd, Allan Kaprow, and Jack Kerouac.
Throughout the 1960s, Schapiro became a highly regarded fellow, visiting professor, and
guest lecturer, both in the United States and Europe. In 1961, he delivered the Patten
lectures at Indiana University which was devoted to Impressionism. Schapiro was a Fellow
at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences from 1962 to 1963 at
Stanford University. In 1965, he delivered the Weil Lecture at the Frank L. Weil
Institute at Hebrew Union College. In 1966, Schapiro was the Charles Eliot Norton
Professor at Harvard University, where he delivered the now published lectures on
Romanesque architectural sculpture. At Oxford University, he was the Slade Professor in
1968. In that capacity, he delivered the Slade Lectures in the Fine Arts that was
focused on Abstract art.
His work in both Romanesque and Modern art continued to be published in the 1960s. In
1964, the College Art Association of America published Schapiro's
The Parma Ildefonsus: A Romanesque Illuminated Manuscript from Cluny, and Related
Works.
Schapiro's most famous published work of that decade, however, was the
1968 article "The Still Life as Personal Object" which rejected Martin Heidegger's
philosophical interpretation of a painting by Vincent van Gogh that depicted a pair of
shoes. Schapiro's article became a touchstone for the study of iconographical
interpretation, semiotics, and art history.
In 1966, Schapiro received two recognitions: an honorary degree from the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America and the Brandeis Commission Award for Notable
Achievement from Brandeis University.
Schapiro's intellectual interest in semiotics and its relation to visual representation
was made apparent in the 1973 publication
Words and Pictures: On
the Literal and the Symbolic in the Illustration of a Text.
By the early 1970s, Schapiro's influence in the field of art history began to be
recognized in various forms at Columbia University. By 1973, he was promoted to the
position of University Professor Emeritus. In 1975, he received an honorary doctorate
from the university and also accepted the Alexander Hamilton Medal awarded by the
Columbia College Alumni Association.
In 1974, a committee was formed to establish a chair in art history at Columbia
University in Schapiro's honor. The group, who included George Jaffin, Barnett Newman,
and William Rubin amongst others, was known as the Committee to Endow a Chair in Honor
of Meyer Schapiro, and organized several artists to create original prints in an edition
of 100 for a portfolio to raise funds for the position. Artists who contributed included
Stanley William Hayter, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Liberman, Roy
Lichtensetein, André Masson, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg,
Saul Steinberg, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol.
Schapiro taught his last Columbia University course, which focused on Romanesque
sculpture, in 1977.
By the late 1970s he was awarded several prestigious awards. The National Institute of
Arts and Letters gave Schapiro the "Distinguished work in the arts" award in 1976. In
1977, the country of France bestowed its highest honor, the Commandeur de l'Order des
Arts et des Lettres, to Schapiro.
At this time, Schapiro began to assemble his writings from the 1930s in order to publish
them as collected volumes. The publishing firm George Braziller, Inc began to this
project in 1977 with the first volume
Selected Papers I:
Romanesque Art.
In 1978, the second volume
Selected
Papers II: Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries
was published and, by 1979,
Schapiro's third volume of collected papers,
Selected Papers III:
Late Antique, Early Christian, and Medieval Art,
was released.
1980-1996: The final years and continued legacy:
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Schapiro would continue to lecture on the two art
periods he was an expert on: Romanesque and Modern art. In 1979, his lecture "
Hiberno-Saxon art: experiment with forms" was given at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
and in 1980 he delivered the lecture "The unity of Picasso's art" at Columbia
University.
In 1987, Rainer Crone and Elizabeth Ferrer curated the exhibition "Meyer Schaipro: Works
of Art, 1919-1979" at Columbia University's Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery. For
the first time, the public was able to view 65 works of art that Schapiro had created
and finally introduced Schapiro to the public as a draftsman and painter. The exhibition
also included a publication with essays by Thomas B. Hess and Wolf Kahn.
Throughout the 1980s, Schapiro, with the support of his wife Lillian Milgram Schapiro,
focused on organizing and editing published and unpublished material and compiling these
as sources for future publication. In many instances, these manuscripts were never
published and included titles such as "Pablo Picasso's
Guernica,
" "The serpent with a woman's head in the temptation of Eve:
researches on the invention of an image," "Sigmund Freud's
Gradiva,
" "Words in pictures: the perspectives of the viewer and the
reader," "Relativity and the interpretation of modern painting," "Vico on the visual
arts," and "Wolvinius Magister Phaber: the crowning of an artist in the early Middle
Ages."
One further volume of his collected work was published during Schapiro's lifetime, the
1994 release of
Selected Papers IV: Theory and Philosophy of Art:
Style, Artist, and Society.
In 1995,
Mondrian: On the
Humanity of Abstract Painting
was published. In the same year, Schapiro's
authoritative bibliography was issued by George Braziller, Inc., which was compiled by
Lillian Milgram Schapiro.
In 1994, the Brooklyn Museum named its West Wing the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing
in honor of Schapiro and his brother, the financier and philanthropist Morris A.
Schapiro. In the same year, a special symposium titled "The significance of Meyer
Schapiro: a symposium in honor of his 90th birthday" was held at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. Speakers in the program included David Rosand, Linda Nochlin, Theodore Reff,
John Plummer, Linda Seidel, Michael Taussig, and Henri Zerner. Artists, such as Louise
Bourgeois, Allan Kaprow, and George Segal also spoke at the symposium.
Meyer Schapiro passed away in his Greenwich Village home on March 3, 1996. He was
survived by his wife, Lillian Milgram Schapiro, a daughter, Miriam Schapiro Grosof, and
a son, Ernest Schapiro.
After his death, Lillian Milgram Schapiro would continue her husband's efforts in
editing and compiling material for publication with the help of Schapiro's long time
assistant Robin Sands, her nephew Daniel Esterman, and publisher George Braziller. With
her efforts, the following books were published posthumously:
Words, Script, and Pictures: The Semiotics of Visual Language
(1996);
Impressionism: Reflections and Perceptions
(1997);
Worldview in Painting—Art and Society: Selected Papers, Vol.
5
(1999);
The Unity of Picasso’s Art
(2000);
Meyer Schapiro : his painting, drawing, and sculpture
(2000);
Language of Forms: Lectures on Insular Manuscript
Art
(2005); and
Romanesque architectural sculpture:
The Charles Eliot Norton lectures
(2006).
Lillian Milgram Schapiro passed away on August 6, 2006 and, two years later, the Getty
Research Institute published
Meyer Schapiro abroad : letters to
Lillian and travel notebooks.
The book focused on Meyer's correspondence with
Lillian Milgram Schapiro as he traveled across Europe and the Near East from 1926
through 1927.
Schapiro's scholarly legacy in the fields of early Christian, Medieval, Romanesque, and
Modern art historical studies, and his role in shaping the landscape of art historical
scholarship both in the United States and internationally, continues to be of
intellectual and philosophical interest to historians and artists alike.
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