This dissertation focuses on the art historical praxis of one of the most significant Euro-American art historians of the 20th century, Meyer Schapiro (1904 1996). While Schapiro has most often been celebrated for his Marxist art history of the 1930s, his art historical explorations over the course of his career were part of an extended dialogue with his German-speaking colleagues regarding the crisis of meaning in art history.
In chapter one, I propose that Schapiro is concerned with what I have called the politics of style, the ways in which the definition of style has been implicated in racial and national politics since the disciplines institutionalization in the 19th century. In chapter two, I consider Schapiros earliest publications and establish his indebtedness to the German art historical tradition, particularly the work of Emanuel Löwy, Wilhelm Vöge and Heinrich Wölfflin. With the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 30s, racial and national characterizations of style became increasingly pernicious.
In chapters three and four, I explore Schapiros concern with fascism as it affects his art history and arises in his publications and personal correspondence including his discussions with Erwin Panofsky regarding iconology and with Otto Pächt of the New Vienna School regarding structural analysis (Strukturanalyse) and the belief in national constants. In chapter five I establish how Schapiros theorization of style as heterogeneous in his 1953 essay Style corresponds with reactions to racial and national essentialism by social scientists like cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict and modern artists. In chapter six, I consider Schapiros semiotics in relation to linguist Roman Jakobsons poetics and Panofskys iconology.
My reading emphasizes both the social historical situation from which Schapiro interprets art and how his personal background as a Jewish immigrant who grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn affects his interpretation. I contend that Schapiros experimentation was motivated by his desire to maintain a definition of style that recognized the unity of form and content without resorting to racial or national determinism. I conclude that Schapiros art historical struggle provides an important lesson for the contemporary interpreter of images.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12112007-110642 |
| Date | 28 January 2008 |
| Creators | Persinger, Cynthia |
| Contributors | Kirk Savage, Barbara McCloskey, Jonathan Arac, Terry Smith |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12112007-110642/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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