21 Facts About Meyer Schapiro

1.

Meyer Schapiro was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art.

2.

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.

3.

An active professor, lecturer, writer, and humanist, Meyer Schapiro maintained a long professional association with Columbia University in New York as a student, lecturer, and professor.

4.

Meir Meyer Schapiro was born in Siauliai, Lithuania on September 23,1904.

5.

Meyer Schapiro attended Public School 84 and then Boys High School in Brooklyn.

6.

Meyer Schapiro attended lectures on anthropology and economics at the Young People's Socialist League.

7.

Meyer Schapiro's professors included Mark Van Doren and Franz Boas.

8.

Dr Meyer Schapiro's research went far beyond the implications of Moissac itself.

9.

Meyer Schapiro lectured at New York University, the New School for Social Research, Harvard University as the Charles Norton Lecturer, and Oxford University as Slade Professor of Art.

10.

Meyer Schapiro was a visiting lecturer at the College de France in Paris in May 1974.

11.

Meyer Schapiro was a proponent of modern art, and published books on Van Gogh and Cezanne and various essays on modern art.

12.

Meyer Schapiro was a founder of Dissent, along with Irving Howe and Michael Harrington.

13.

Meyer Schapiro demonstrated that style could be used not only as an identifier of a particular period but as a diagnostic tool.

14.

Meyer Schapiro died in 1996 in New York at the age of 91 in the Greenwich Village house where he had lived since 1933.

15.

Meyer Schapiro was, at points in his career, criticized for his approach to style because of its politically radical connotations.

16.

Meyer 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.

17.

Meyer Schapiro was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and the American Philosophical Society.

18.

In 1973, Meyer Schapiro received an award by the Art Dealers Association of America.

19.

In 1975, Meyer Schapiro received the Alexander Hamilton Medal for distinguished service and accomplishment by the alumni of Columbia University.

20.

Meyer Schapiro had been a member since 1926: he was cited for seven decades of scholarship and teaching in the field of art history.

21.

In 1987, Meyer Schapiro exhibited 65 drawings and paintings from 1919 to 1979 in the Wallach Art Gallery in Schermerhorn Hall at Columbia.