Full Name: Van Os, Henk
Other Names:
- Henk Van Os
Gender: male
Date Born: 28 February 1938
Place Born: Harderwijk, North Holland, Netherlands
Home Country/ies: Netherlands
Career(s): educators
Overview
Professor; museum director. Van Os studied history and art history at Groningen University between 1957 and 1964. From this university he received his doctor’s degree in 1969. His dissertation dealt with iconological problems in Sienese painting between 1300 and 1450. In 1974 he obtained the position of professor of the history of art and culture at Groningen University. From 1984 until 1989 he served as the Dean of the faculty of Letters. In 1989 he was appointed general director of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, a position he held until 1996. In that period he acted as host for his TV-program, Museumschatten (Museum Treasures). In 1994-1995 he organized the acclaimed exhibition “Gebed in schoonheid”, displaying art works of private devotion from 1300 to 1500. In 1996 he became professor at Amsterdam University, occupying the chair “Kunst en Samenleving” (Art and Society). He still holds this position today. Between 1996 and 2006 he hosted his weekly TV-program, Beeldenstorm.
Selected Bibliography
[dissertation:] Groningen, 1969, published in German as, Marias Demut und Verherrlichung in der sienesischen Malerei 1300-1450. The Hague: Staatsuitgeverij, 1969; The Early Venetian Paintings in Holland. Maarssen: G. Schwartz, 1978; and Bisanz-Prakken, Marian. The Florentine Paintings in Holland 1300-1500. Amsterdam: De Arbeiderspers/Netherlands Institute for Art History, 1974; Sienese Paintings in Holland. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1969; Vecchietta and the Sacristy of the Siena Hospital Church: a Study in Renaissance Religious Symbolism. New York: A. Schram, 1974; “Reassembling a Giovanni di Paolo triptych.” The Burlington Magazine 119 (1977): 191-192; “From Rome to Siena: the Altarpiece of San Stefano alle Lizza.” Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome 43, no. 8, (1981): 119 – 202; Studies in early Tuscan painting. London: Pindar, 1992; and Honée, Eugène, and Nieuwdorp, Hans, and Ridderbos, Bernhard. Gebed in schoonheid. Schatten van privé-devotie in Europa, 1300-1500. Zwolle: Waanders, 1994, English: The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994; Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum, 1400-1600. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Sources
Redactie UvAweb, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Contributors: Monique Daniels