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Martínez Caviró, Balbina

Full Name: Martínez Caviró, Balbina

Gender: female

Date Born: 1926

Date Died: 04 June 2019

Place Died: Madrid, Spain

Home Country/ies: Spain

Subject Area(s): ceramics (object genre), crafts (art genres), Mudéjar (architectural and decorative arts style), Mudéjar (culture), and Spanish (culture or style)

Institution(s): Complutense University of Madrid


Overview

Spanish professor, historian, and academic who concentrated in research regarding Mudejar art, ceramics, and the city of Toledo at large (La Virgen del Prado y la cerámica de Talavera de la Reina, La loza dorada). After graduating with a B.A. in History from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, she achieved a law degree there as well. She achieved her doctorate in history, also at the Complutense University, with a thesis covering Mudejar art from Toledo.

In 1972, Caviró was appointed director of the Museum of the Valencia Institute of Don Juan. She participated in, among other congresses, the I and II Mudejarism Symposiums (held in 1975 and 1981). Caviró was a correspondent of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Historical Sciences of Toledo beginning in 1975, and became a member of the International Association of Researchers the same year. The year 1975 also marked a time when she became Corresponding Academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Historical Sciences of Toledo. These positions complemented Caviró’s teaching career, and specialization in Mudejar crafts fields. Over the course of her career she received many recognitions, including membership in the Hispanic Society of America in 1979. She was a professor for the Complutense University and the Art and Culture Foundation. She has also taught for the San Pablo CEU University, the Association of Spanish University Women, the Bowling Green State University, the Club Maraya, and the Zayas Club. One of Caviró’s most significant publications was Conventos de Toledo: Toledo, castillo interior in 1990, a book that has become essential for the study of the heritage of Toledo monasteries which were threatened with closure.

Caviró was a profound researcher. In 2016, the Royal Association of Hidalgos of Spain awarded her the VI Hidalgos de España Prize in Genealogy, Heraldry and Nobility for Las “Magníficas Señoras” y Los Linajes Toledanos: VI Premio Hidalgos de España Sobre Heráldica, Genealogía y Nobiliaria (“The magnificent ladies and the lineages of Toledo)” She left an essential legacy of study on the convents of Toledo, the presence of Mudejar craft fields, and the memory of significant women from Toledo. As such, she lifted up women from Toledo, directed the bachelor’s degrees and doctoral theses of many students, and specialized in her own version of growth, a type that was conscious of craft and distinctively hers.


Selected Bibliography

  • Catálogo de cerámica española: Paterna, Aragón, Cataluña, cuerda seca, Talavera de la Reina, Alcora, Manises, Madrid. Instituto Valencia de Don Juan (1968);
  • “El arte mudéjar en el Convento toledano de Santa ta Isabel.” Al-Andalus, 36, Issue 1 (1971);
  • “Azulejos talaveranos del siglo XVI”. Archivo español de arte, 44, Issue 175 (1971);
  • “El arte mudéjar en el Monasterio de Santa Clara la Real de Toledo”. Archivo español de arte, 46, Issue 184 (1973);
  • Porcelanas del Buen Retiro: Escultura (Artes y Artistas). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1973;
  • “El arte mudéjar y los conventos toledanos.” Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1975), published, Mudéjar toledano. Palacios y conventos, Madrid, 1980;
  • Carpintería mudéjar toledana. Cuadernos de la Alhambra, 12 (1976);
  • “El arte mudéjar y el Salón de la Casa de Mesa.” Toletum, 8, 1977;
  • La Virgen del Prado y la cerámica de Talavera de la Reina. Narria, 9, 1978;
  • Mudéjar toledano: Palacios y conventos. Vocal Artes Gráficas (1980);
  • La loza dorada (Artes del tiempo y del espacio). Editora Nacional, 1982;
  • “Informe sobre el Monasterio de la Concepción.” Toletum, 22, 1988;
  • Conventos de Toledo: Toledo, castillo interior. Ediciones El Viso, 1990;
  • Cerámica hispanomusulmana andalusí y mudéjar. Ediciones El Viso, S.A (1991);
  • Cerámica de Talavera, CSIC, 2000;
  • Tres mujeres en la vida de El Greco. Caviró Pérez, 2013;
  • Las “Magníficas Señoras” y Los Linajes Toledanos: VI Premio Hidalgos de España Sobre Heráldica, Genealogía y Nobiliaria. Ediciones Hidalguía, 2018.

Sources



Contributors: Sophia Cetina


Citation

Sophia Cetina. "Martínez Caviró, Balbina." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/cavirob/.


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Spanish professor, historian, and academic who concentrated in research regarding Mudejar art, ceramics, and the city of Toledo at large (La Virgen del Prado y la cerámica de Talavera de la Reina, La loza dorada). After graduatin

Marisa, Volpi

Full Name: Volpi Orlandini, Marisa

Gender: female

Date Born: 19 August 1928

Date Died: 12 May 2015

Place Born: Macerata, Marches, Italy

Place Died: Rome, Lazio, Italy

Home Country/ies: Italy

Subject Area(s): avant-garde, Classical, Modern (style or period), and Roman (ancient Italian culture or period)

Institution(s): Sapienza University of Rome


Overview

Writer, art critic, curator, professor. While Volpi was born in Macerata to Dante and Matilde Andreani and spent almost her entire life living in Rome. She attended the Guilio Cesare high school in Rome while taking courses at the Accademia d’Arte drammatica Silvio d’Amico (Silvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts) where she became interested in the Italian Communist Party. In 1952, she graduated from the Università “La Sapienza” di Roma writing her M.A. in Philosophy entitled Il pensiero politico di Pellegrino Rossi (The political thought of Pellegrino Rossi). Following her graduation, she began working with Roberto Longhi specializing in the art of the Florentine region. In Florence, she befriended the art critic Carla Lonzi (1931-1982). Working with Longhi on Medieval and Modern Art History, she defended her thesis, Il percorso di Corrado Giaquinto in 1956. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Volpi taught art history and applied arts at the Istituto Statale d’Arte per l’Arredo and the Decorazione della Chiesa. She developed close relationships with Maria Teresa Benedetti (1929-), an art historian, and Giuseppe Uncini (1929-2008), an Italian sculptor. In 1966, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and travelled to the United States with her husband Ferdinando Orlandini (1926-1988). Throughout this trip, she met and collaborated with important art historians, critics and artists like De Kooning, Rothko and Rasuchenberg. She published important work including a book on Kandinsky in 1968 and Arte dopo il 1945 in 1969 following her return. Between 1969 and 1972, Volpi taught medieval, modern, and contemporary art at the University of Cagliari where she was colleagues with Corrado Maltese (1921-2001) and Italian art critic Gillo Dorfles (1910-2018). Her courses covered topics from Roman Classicism to American avant-garde and post-war art. Volpi then moved to Rome to teach Sociology of Art at the institute now called Università di Roma Tre until she earned a title as a professor. She was appointed to the chair of Contemporary Art at La Sapienza (Sapienza University of Rome) in 1982. Throughout the 1980s, she published several works on 19th century symbolist artists including Böcklin and De Chirico and works on Manet, Monet, Degas, and Morisot. Towards the end of her career she began writing fiction and short stories influenced by the biographical events and works of Romantic, Symbolist, and Impressionist artists. She was awarded the Premio Viareggio in 1986 and the Premio Vallombrosa in 1988. In 1993, she published an autobiographical novel entitled La casa di via Tolmino. Volpi taught at La Sapienza until 2003 with colleagues including Angiola Maria Romanini (1926-2002) and Maurizio Calvesi (1927-2020). In 2004, she was appointed Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art History. She died in Rome on May 13, 2015. From her fictional works to her formal art historical publications, Volpi demonstrated her ability to use different temporal views to construct a fluid narrative for her readers (Sbrilli).


Selected Bibliography

  • [complete bibliography:] on http://www.marisavolpi.it
  • L’Espressionismo. Catalogo Mostra Firenze, Palazzo Strozzi, Vallecchi, 1964;
  • Kandinsky, dall’art nouveau alla psicologia della forma, Lerici, Rome, 1968;
  • Arte dopo il 1945: Usa, Cappelli editore, Bologna, 1969;
  • Kandinsky e il Blaue Reiter. Collana Mensili d’arte, 31, Fabbri, Milan, 1970;
  • Nietzsche e De Chirico, in Scritti in onore di Giuliano Briganti, Rome, 1990;

Sources

  • “Biografia Marisa Volpi.” Accessed March 15, 2021.  http://www.marisavolpi.it/site/biografia/;
  • Bottai, Maria Stella. “Per Conoscere Marisa Volpi.” Predella Journal of Visual Arts, 2014, http://www.predella.it/index.php/component/content/article/51-issue-35/276-cornice-3-bottai-volpi.html;
  • Cecchetti, Maurizio. “Marisa Volpi La Ricerca Di Sé Fra Arte e Scrittura.” Avvenire.April 27, 2017;
  • Mattarella, Lea. “La scomparsa di Marisa Volpi Raccontò l’arte.” la Repubblica, May 5, 2015;
  • Scacco, Lorella. “Lo studio di Marisa Volpi. Arte, Critica, Scrittura.” art a part of cult(ure), May 11, 2017;
  • Ursino, Mario. Marisa Volpi, fra scrittura e lezioni istituzionali: un ricordo della grande studiosa nel convegno a due anni dalla scomparsa, 2017.


Contributors: Denise Shkurovich


Citation

Denise Shkurovich. "Marisa, Volpi." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/marisav/.


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Writer, art critic, curator, professor. While Volpi was born in Macerata to Dante and Matilde Andreani and spent almost her entire life living in Rome. She attended the Guilio Cesare high school in Rome while taking courses at the Accademia d’Arte

Howell, R’lene

Full Name: Howell, R'lene LaFleur

Other Names:

  • R'lene LaFleur Howell
  • Rlene LaFleur Howell
  • Rlene L. Howell
  • R'lene L. Howell
  • Rlene Howell Dahlberg

Gender: female

Date Born: 1926

Place Born: MI, USA

Home Country/ies: United States

Subject Area(s): decorative art (art genre) and Modern (style or period)

Institution(s): Metropolitan Museum of Art


Overview

American woman of letters; wrote art history; teacher; poet. R’lene LaFleur Howell was born in Michigan in 1926. She attended the University of Chicago for her doctorate; her dissertation was titled American Art in the Stream of Realism. She worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as an assistant, penning and article, “Craftsmanship in Wrought Iron” in 1950. As she published, the aspiring novelist Edward Dahlberg (1900-1977) courted her—calling her daily and dedicating works such as “The Parables” and The Flea of Sodom to her. On October 14th, 1950 Dahlberg published this tribute to R’lene, then divorcing his second wife Winifred to marry her. R’lene changed her name to Rlene H Dahlberg, dropping the apostrophe and taking her husband’s last name. Together, they moved throughout Majorca, Montpellier, and Torremolinos, eventually settling in Majorca. As Edward gained more recognition for his writings, R’lene continued to act as his editor. She then taught English at UCLA and Grover Cleveland High School, staying friends with Edward after they divorced in 1967. R’lene became a poet, author, and publisher at Pequod Press, publishing “Elsie John and Joey Martinez” in 1979 and penning Emma Goldman in 1983. Through her editorial work, she became a close friend of the writer Herbert Huncke (1915-1996)—a poet and author who coined the term “The Beat Generation.” Later on, R’lene became an English teacher in New York at Stuyvesant High School. An R’lene Howell Dahlberg scholarship was created to honor her.

Howell Dahlberg published comparatively little as an art historian. However, her meeting the nascent writer Francis “Frank” McCourt (1930-2009), through her husband, led her to become his advocate. McCourt’s publication of his famous Angela’s Ashes, 1996, was due in part to her championing it.


Selected Bibliography

  • [dissertation:]American art in the stream of realismUniversity of Chicago, 1948;
  • (as Howell) “Craftsmanship in Wrought Iron.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 9, no. 3 (1950): 83-86;
  • “The Colonial Style.” The Freeman. December 1, 1952;
  • (as Dahlberg). Emma Goldman. New York: Pequod Press;
  • and Aubrey Schwartz. 2001. Twelve from the cemetery of Soller: poems.

Sources

  • David, Lester. “Rariatrics . . . World’s Most Fabulous Hobby.” Mechanix Illustrated. August 1951;
  • DeFanti, Charles. The Wages of Expectation: a Biography of Edward Dahlberg. New York: New York University Press, 1978;
  • Maeroff, Gene I. “Stuyvesant Teacher End Boycott after Ultimatum.” The New York Times. October 8, 1981.


Contributors: Eleanor Ross


Citation

Eleanor Ross. "Howell, R’lene." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/howellr/.


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American woman of letters; wrote art history; teacher; poet. R’lene LaFleur Howell was born in Michigan in 1926. She attended the University of Chicago for her doctorate; her dissertation was titled American Art in the Stream of Realism. She

Garcia Vega, Blanca

Image Credit: Vallarte

Full Name: Garcia Vega, Blanca

Gender: female

Date Born: 04 September 1947

Place Born: Valladolid, alladolid, Castile-Leon, Spain

Home Country/ies: Spain

Subject Area(s): engravings (prints), European, prints (visual works), and Spanish (culture or style)

Institution(s): Universidad de Valladolid


Overview

Professor of Art History at the University of Valladolid with interests in Spanish and European engravings. Garcia Vega was born on September 4th, 1947, in Valladolid, Spain. In 1971, she received a bachelor’s in Philosophy and Letters. In 1982 she earned a doctorate in Art History at the University of Valladolid, where she began her tenure as an Art History professor. With research interests in European and Spanish engravings, as well as Oriental art, Garcia Vega won multiple awards during her time at Valladolid. In 1984, she received the Simancas Culture research award from the Madrid Mint Foundation and Museum of Art, and wrote her longest work on Spanish and European engravings, El Grabado Del Libro español, Siglos XV, XVI, XVII: Aportación a Su Estudio Con Los Fondos De Las Bibliotecas De Valladolid. She was a general member of the International association of Art Critics from 1987-1987 before she was promoted to General Secretary within the same organization. She was also a general member of the Artecampos Cultural Association (1997-2000), the Plastic Arts Panel at the Provincial Council of Valladolid (1999), the International Scientific Committee of the Florence Biennale (1999), and the Advisory Council of the Asia House of Barcelona (2003).

Throughout her tenure at the University of Valladolid, Garcia Vega expressed a desire to break through the male centric lens of Art History. In an obituary she wrote to Maria Teresa Ortega Coca on October 15th, 2018, she commended Teresa Ortega Coca for advocating for female dissemination and criticism of contemporary art from the beginning of their careers, a period that Garcia Vega described as “a man’s world”. Her passion for engravings shone through in her book, outlining the differences between the medium of print and photography, highlighting the historical value of engravings, and exploring the cultural context surrounding the works she explored

.


Selected Bibliography

  • “In Memoriam: María Teresa Ortega Coca (1930-2018).” BSAA arte, 2018, 9–12;
  • El Grabado Del Libro español, Siglos XV, XVI, XVII: Aportación a Su Estudio Con Los Fondos De Las Bibliotecas De Valladolid. Valladolid, Spain: Inst. Cultural Simancas, 1984.

Sources

  • García Vega, Blanca. “In Memoriam: María Teresa Ortega Coca (1930-2018).” BSAA arte, 2018, 9–12.


Contributors: Zahra Hassan


Citation

Zahra Hassan. "Garcia Vega, Blanca." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/garciavegab/.


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Professor of Art History at the University of Valladolid with interests in Spanish and European engravings. Garcia Vega was born on September 4th, 1947, in Valladolid, Spain. In 1971, she received a bachelor’s in Philosophy and Letters. In 1982 sh

du Gué Trapier, Elizabeth

Full Name: du Gué Trapier, Elizabeth

Gender: female

Date Born: 05 April 1893

Date Died: 15 October 1974

Place Born: Washington, DC, USA

Place Died: NJ, USA

Home Country/ies: United States

Subject Area(s): Spanish (culture or style)

Institution(s): Hispanic Society of New York


Overview

Expert in Spanish Art. Elizabeth du Gué Trapier was the granddaughter of Paul Trapier (1749-1778), a public official in South Carolina during the American Civil War. After attending college and traveling through Europe, Trapier worked in cataloguing at the Library of Congress of Washington. In 1918, she moved to New York and was selected by the founder, Archer Hilton Huntington (1870-1955), to work at the Hispanic Society. She was first named to be Conservadora de Pintura (Conserver of the Painting) at that institute and began publishing articles on Spanish medieval and modern painting. Her first book, Greco, was published in 1925, and in 1937 she was elected a corresponding member of the Hispanic Society. With the Museum of the Hispanic Society of New York, she published works on Urrabieta (1851-1904) and Martin Rico (1833-1908). From there, she published several other biographical books on Spanish art historians including Eugenio Lucas y Padilla, Velazquez, Ribera, Goya, and Valdez Leal. Her work on José de Ribera (1591-1652) consists of the most comprehensive study of the artist to date and is the first published in English. In 1948, Trapier was elected to serve as the first honorary Vice President of the Hispanic Society and later in 1953 became a part of its advisory department.  In 1968, she was awarded Spain’s Order of Civil Merit and also received the Hispanic Scoiety’s Sorolla Medal and the Mitre Medal throughout her career.

While she did not receive a formal education in art history, her numerous biographical works on Spanish artists earned her well-deserved recognition as a scholar of Spanish art and art history. Trapier’s contributions played a significant role in continuing Huntingon’s efforts of analyzing the Spanish arts and literature well after his death (De Pantorba).


Selected Bibliography

  • El Greco. New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1925;
  • Velázquez. Minnesota River School of Fine Art., 1927;
  • Eugenio Lucas y Padilla. New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1940;
  • Ribera in the Collection. New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1952;
  • Luis de Morales and Leonardesque Influences in Spain. New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1953;
  • Goya, a Study of His Portraits. New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1955;

Sources

  • Angulo Iniguez, Diego. “Miss Elizabeth du Gué Trapier. M. Paul Guinard.” Archivo Español de Arte 49, no. 194 (April 1, 1976): 245–46;
  • Darby, Delphine Fitz. Review of Review of Ribera, by Elizabeth du Gué Trapier. The Art Bulletin 35, no. 1 (1953): 68–74;
  • De Pantorba, Bernardino. Una gran hispanista norteamericana, Elizabeth Du Gué Trapier.New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1957;
  • “Elizabeth Trapier, 81, Dead; An Expert on Spanish Art.” New York Times. 1974;
  • Harris, Enriqueta. Review of Review of Ribera, by Elizabeth du Gué Trapier. The Burlington Magazine 95, no. 609 (1953): 401–401;
  • Proske, Beatrice Gilman. “Horatio Greenough’s ‘Bacchus.’” American Art Journal 6, no. 1 (1974): 35–38;


Contributors: Denise Shkurovich


Citation

Denise Shkurovich. "du Gué Trapier, Elizabeth." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/duguetrapiere/.


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Expert in Spanish Art. Elizabeth du Gué Trapier was the granddaughter of Paul Trapier (1749-1778), a public official in South Carolina during the American Civil War. After attending college and traveling through Europe, Trapier worked in catalogui

Churcher, Elizabeth Ann

Image Credit: National Portrait Gallery

Full Name: Churcher, Elizabeth Ann

Other Names:

  • Elizabeth Ann Dewar Cameron
  • Blockbuster Betty

Gender: female

Date Born: 31 January 1931

Date Died: 30 March 2015

Place Born: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Place Died: Wamboin, New South Wales, Australia

Home Country/ies: Australia

Subject Area(s): Abstract Expressionist, Australian, and Modern (style or period)

Career(s): directors (administrators) and museum directors

Institution(s): National Gallery of Australia and School of Art and Design at the Philip Institute of Technology (Australian National University)


Overview

Director of the National Gallery of Australia, 1990-1997. Elizabeth Ann Dewar Cameron was born to William Dewar Cameron (1893-1962), a Scotish immigrant and Vida Margaret Hutton (Cameron) (1894-1985). From 1938 to 1946, her maternal great-grandmother funded her to attend the private girl’s school, Somerville House. Churcher first became interested in art in 1939 when she went to the Queensland Art Gallery. She won several child-art contests through The Sunday Mail Child Art Contest. In her senior year at Somerville, her father fought to have her education end, believing “education spoiled a girl.” Her headmistress reduced Churcher’s fees with the stipulation she promise to spend a year or two after graduating teaching art classes there.  Pursuing a (studio) art career, she began exhibiting with the Younger Artists Group (YAS) of the Royal Queensland Art Society (RQAS) in 1948. Churcher became the chair of YAS the same year, which ultimately aided in her winning a travel scholarship to London. In London, she studied at the South West Essex Technical School with Stuart Ray and later, from 1953 to 1956, at the Royal College of Art. Churcher won the Princess of Wales Scholarship for the best female portfolio. During this time, Churcher met fellow artist Roy Churcher who was studying at Slade School of Fine Art and was soon married. She continued to win awards for her art.  In 1957, Churcher and her husband returned to Brisbane where they set up a studio and an art class. Yet, by the end of 1959, Churcher claimed she lost interest in painting. In 1971, Churcher began teaching at Kelvin Grove Teachers’ Training College where she remained for seven years. Her art writing began in 1972 as an art critic for the Australian. In 1973, she wrote a school textbook called Understanding Art that later won the London Times award in the category of information books. In 1975, Churcher returned to London with her family of five and completed an MA in Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London University. Her thesis was on how Alfred Barr’s exhibition policy at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in the 1930s and 1940s influenced the budding Abstract Expressionist movement. Her research brought her in contact with many contemporary artists.

When she returned to Melbourne in 1979, Churcher taught at the School of Art and Design at the Philip Institute of Technology. By 1982, she had become the Dean. In 1983, Churcher served as the Chair of the Visual Arts Board. The following year, she gained the position of the Deputy Chairman of the Art Council. She also published her work Molvig: The Lost Antipodean during this year. In 1987, Churcher was invited by Robert Holmes to apply for the position of Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australian in Canberra, making her the first female director of a state art gallery. In 1989, Churcher received the Australian Institute of Management Award for Women.

Upon the resignation of the Australian National Gallery founding director James Mollison in 1990, Churcher succeeded him again, as the first female director. In her early years as director, the galley struggled financially. Thanks to her efforts guiding exhibitions, profits soon rose. Previously, the gallery had only accepted exhibitions from other institutions, a practice Churcher would work to change. She started work raising funds for building for major temporary exhibitions, like the ones throughout her career as director. Two exhibitions that helped the gallery grow substantially were David Jaffe’s Rubens and The Italian Renaissance (1992) and Michael Lloyd’s Surrealism: Revolution by Night (1993). Her efforts to bring people from all across Australia to the National Gallery soon gave her the nickname “Blockbuster Betty.” She launched innovative exhibitions such as the 1994 titled Don’t Leave me this Way focusing on the HIV epidemic. Additionally, during her time as director, she changed the time of the museum from the Australian National Gallery to the National Gallery of Australia.

After her retirement in 1997, Churcher served as the adjunct professor for the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research National University for the Australian National University. She also worked as the presenter of art television series such as ABC’s “Take Five,”  “Proud Possessors,” “The Art of War,” and “Focus on John Olsen,” among others. In the last few years of her life, Churcher published Treasures of Canberra, and in 2011, she published her journeys to numerous art galleries as Notebooks. Melanoma and macular degeneration did not prevent a final, poignant personal trip to London and Madrid art museums one last time. Australian Notebooks, about the six major state galleries in Australia and a final notebook, The Forgotten Notebook. In 2015, a year after her husband died, Churcher died of lung cancer at age of 84.

From an early age, Churcher was aware of the limitations in being a woman. In an interview, she felt that “just about everything [she] wanted to do, [she] couldn’t do because [she] was a girl.”


Selected Bibliography

  • Understanding Art. Oxford: Rigby Publishing, 1973;
  • Molvig: The Lost Antipodean. Bristol: Allen Lane Penguin Books, 1984;
  • The Art of War. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2005;
  • Notebooks. Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2011;
  • Treasures of Canberra. Ultimo: Halstead Press, 2013;
  • Australian Notebook. Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2014;
  • The Forgotten Notebook. Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2015.

Sources



Contributors: Kerry Rork


Citation

Kerry Rork. "Churcher, Elizabeth Ann." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/churchere/.


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Director of the National Gallery of Australia, 1990-1997. Elizabeth Ann Dewar Cameron was born to William Dewar Cameron (1893-1962), a Scotish immigrant and Vida Margaret Hutton (Cameron) (1894-1985). From 1938 to 1946, her maternal great-grandmother

Brizio, Anna Maria

Image Credit: Wikidata

Full Name: Brizio, Anna Maria

Other Names:

  • A.M. Brizio

Gender: female

Date Born: 19 September 1902

Date Died: 01 August 1982

Place Born: Sale, Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy

Place Died: Rapallo, Genova, Liguria, IItaly

Home Country/ies: Italy

Subject Area(s): Italian (culture or style), Medieval (European), and Modern (style or period)

Institution(s): Università degli Studi di Milano and Università degli Studi di Torino


Overview

Italian art historian and Professor of medieval and modern art at University of Turin and University of Milan; Scholar of Leonardo da Vinci.

Anna Maria Brizio was born in 1902 in Sale d’Alessandria, Italy. Brizio attended the University of Turin along with fellow Italian historian and art critic, Lionello Venturi. Brizio received her A.B. in 1923 from the University of Turin with a thesis on Defendente Ferrari da Chivasso, at the time she was still focused on the classical painters of the past. After graduation, she attended the Graduate School of Art History at the University of Rome, founded by Lionello Venturi’s father, Adolfo Venturi. Venturi and Brizio eventually collaborated to organize the first exhibition of the Gualino collection in the Regia Pinacoteca di Torino in the 1930s. They also participated in research to support the publication of Italian paintings in America. Brizio’s participation in the “Gualino exhibition” sparked her interest in contemporary art. She found it important to evaluate 19thcentury art with an understanding of the history that underlines contemporary art, especially noting the Impressionist movement, which few in Italy had done.

She then began focusing on Italian painters of the Renaissance, starting with Gaudenzio Ferrari, and then turning her focus to Paolo Veronese. Brizio furthered her connection with the Venturi’s when she became a collaborator for their magazine, L’Arte. She was the editor of L’Arte from 1930 to 1938. Once the Venturis’ moved away from their magazine, Brizio began her project for U.T.E.T., an Italian publishing company, which was Ottocento Novecento. It was the last volume of the universal history of art series published by U.T.E.T, but was the first to be published in the late 1930s. It was also considered part of a nationalistic approach that highlighted Italian painting in the 19th century. In 1939 she published one of her most famous works, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century. This book addressed the fascist regime. Starting in 1946, she taught History of medieval and modern art at the University of Turin. While she taught at Turin she directed the Galleria Sabauda (1936-1947), organized exhibitions, and collaborated with the UTET Great Encyclopedic Dictionary. Her contributions to the UTET are considered some of her most important contributions to 20th century historical-artistic studies. Later, Brizio began to focus on Leonardo da Vinci, culminating in the Selected Writings of Leonardo da Vinci in 1952. Brizio transferred to the University of Milan to be the chair of Medieval and Modern Art in 1957. She was also an important scholar of Leonardo da Vinci, also editing Leonardo da Vinci’s “Treaty of Painting.” During this time, she was urged to publish a second edition of her Ottocento Novecento,  but she became more interested in abstract expressions and the relationship between art and human life. She retired in 1979 but remained as chair to the Corrente Foundation, which highlighted the period of time in art history when the Corrente Movement was developed. Brizio died August 1st, 1982 in Rapallo, Italy.


Selected Bibliography

  • For the fourth centenary of the birth of Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese. Notes for a critical definition of Paolo Veronese’s style, L’arte. 1928;
  • Vercelli. Roma: Libreria dello stato. 1935;
  • The Catalog of Art and Antiquities of the city of Vercelli. 1935;
  • Nineteenth century Twentieth century. 1939;
  • Ottocento e Novecento, Torino, 1939;
  • Bibliographic note of recent Italian studies on topics of Spanish and Italian-Spanish painting , in Italy and Spain. Essays on the historical, philosophical and artistic relations between the two civilizations , edited by the National Institute for cultural relations with foreign countries, Le Monnier, Florence. 1941;
  • Painting in Piedmont from the Romanesque age to the sixteenth century. 1942;
  • The Selected Lives of Giorgio Vasari. 1948;
  • The Selected Writings of Leonardo da Vinci. 1952;
  • Il Trattato della Pittura di L., in Scritti di Storia dell’Arte in onore di Lionello Venturi, Roma, 1956;
  • Leonardo’s Treatise on Painting , De Luca, Rome 1956
  • [and Giovanni D’Enrico], in Atti e Memorie del Congresso di Varallo Sesia, Torino, 1960;
  • [and Maria Vittoria Brugnoli, André Chastel, and Ladislao Reti.] Leonardo the artist. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1980;
  • [and Reti, Ladislao, Emil M. Bührer, Augusto Marinoni, Maria Vittoria Brugnoli, Emanuel Winternitz, Ludwig H. Heydenreich, and Bern Dibner]. The unknown Leonardo. 1974;

Sources

  • Brizio, Anna Maria. Giornata Di Studio in Ricordo Di Anna Maria Brizio, 1902-1982, Nel Centenario Della Nascita: Atti. Sale: Associazione ex Allievi/e Istituto Sacro Cuore, 2002.
  • Leonardi, Miriam Giovanna. “Ottocento Novecento” Di Anna Maria Brizio. Varianti Critiche E Redazionali (1939-1944-1962).” Annali Della Scuola Normale Superiore Di Pisa. Classe Di Lettere E Filosofia 3, no. 2 (2011): 527-637; (article);
  • Lodovici, Sergio. Storici, teorici e critici delle arti figurative : 1800-1940. – Rome: Tosi, 1942. – (Enciclopedia biografica e bibliografica italiana ; 4);
  • Chi scrive : repertorio bio-bibliografico e per specializzazioni degli scrittori italiani. – 2. ed. aggiornata. – Milan: Ist. librario editoriale, 1962;
  • Dizionario generale degli autori italiani contemporanei. – Florence : Vallecchi, 1974. – 2 v;
  • Fra Rinascimento, manierismo e realtà: scritti di storia dell’arte in memoria di Anna Maria Brizio. – Florence: Giunti Barbèra, 1984;
  • Dizionario biografico delle donne lombarde 568 – 1968. – Milan : Baldini & Gastoldi, 1995;
  • Rosci, M. “Leonardo “filosofo”. Lomazzo e Borghini 1584: due linee di tradizione dei pensieri e precetti di Leonardo sull’arte in Fra Rinascimento Manierismo e Realtà. Scritti di storia dell’arte in memoria di Anna Maria Brizio;”


Contributors: Arden Schraff


Citation

Arden Schraff. "Brizio, Anna Maria." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/brizioa/.


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Italian art historian and Professor of medieval and modern art at University of Turin and University of Milan; Scholar of Leonardo da Vinci.

Anna Maria Brizio was born in 1902 in Sale d’Alessandria, Italy. Brizio attended the University of

Boothe, Louise Worthington

Full Name: Boothe, Louise Worthington

Other Names:

  • Louise W Boothe
  • Louise W. Boothe
  • Louise Worthington
  • Louise Boothe

Gender: female

Date Born: unknown

Date Died: April 1974

Place Died: Funchal, Ilha da, Madeira, Portugal

Home Country/ies: Canada and Switzerland

Subject Area(s): Moroccan


Overview

Scholar of Moorish and Moroccan art; librarian at the public library of Toronto. Boothe was also a member of the ALA (American Library Association) and served on its Adult Education Roundtable in the 1940s. During her life, she lived in Canada and Geneva, Switzerland.


Selected Bibliography

  • “Madame Rossignol.” The North American Review 228, no. 3 (1929): 367-75.;
  • “The evolution of Moorisch Art”. Gazette Des Beaux-Arts / Fondée Par Charles Blanc. 6: 113-122, 1945;
  • Luce, Stephen B., and Alexei Okladnikov. “Archaeological Digest.” American Journal of Archaeology 50, no. 3 (1946): 405-20. doi:10.2307/499462, 1946;
  • “The Medersas of Morocco”. Gazette Des Beaux-Arts / Fondée Par Charles Blanc. 5-36, 1950;
  • Venetian night. New York: Vantage Press, 1966;

Sources



Contributors: Eleanor Ross


Citation

Eleanor Ross. "Boothe, Louise Worthington." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/boothel/.


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Scholar of Moorish and Moroccan art; librarian at the public library of Toronto. Boothe was also a member of the ALA (American Library Association) and served on its Adult Education Roundtable in the 1940s. During her life, she lived in Canada and Ge

Bondil, Nathalie

Image Credit: Blooloop

Full Name: Bondil, Nathalie

Gender: female

Date Born: 19 February 1967

Place Born: Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Home Country/ies: Canada and France

Subject Area(s): Canadian and Québécois (culture or style)

Institution(s): Montreal Museum of Fine Arts


Overview

Director and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Arts. Nathalie Bondil was born in Barcelona on February 19th, 1967, and raised in Morocco. She obtained her degree in museology and art history with specializations in sculpture and 19th century to modern art from the École du Louvre in 1992, before matriculating to l’Institut national du patrimoine, a French academy that trains curators and conservators, in 1994. In 1996, she graduated with a diploma certifying her as a “conservateur du patrimoine” (heritage curator), with a specialization in art and civilization from 18th-20th century Europe. For two years following graduation, Bondil was a curator at Musée des Monuments français in Paris. There, Bondil was in charge of museography for galleries dedicated to the 17th-20th centuries.

Following this, Guy Cogeval, the then director of the Montreal Museum of Arts (MMFA), hired Bondil in 1999 to curate European art from the 19th to mid 20th century, prompting her move from France to Canada. Only a year passed before she was promoted to MMFA’s chief curator, which expanded her responsibilities to include managing every curatorial department. In 2007, she became the first female director of the MMFA, simultaneously managing the museum and continuing her role as chief curator for another thirteen years. During her time as director, she was widely credited for elevating the MMFA to the international stage. In 2008, Bondil organized ¡Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today, the largest Cuban art exhibit to date, featuring over 400 pieces from the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Fototeca de Cuba in Havana. For this exhibit, the French government awarded Bondil the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, meant to distinguish individuals who contribute significantly to the advancement of the arts. That year, Bondil also introduced fashion to the museum, hosting a forty year retrospective on fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Paul Gaultier from May 29th through Sept. 28th, an event later presented to 12 additional cities worldwide.

In 2011, Bondil established music as a new medium within the museum by converting a nearby church into a 462 person concert hall, and received the Insignia of Merit from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the Université de Montréal. Bondil held several music focused exhibitions, notably Warhol Live (2008), and We Want Miles: Miles Davis vs. Jazz (2010). In 2013, MMFA surpassed 1 million visitors, making it the first Canadian museum to do so. That year, Bondil was appointed Vice Chair of the Canada Council of Arts, and was bestowed an honorary doctorate from McGill University. In 2015, she received another honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal. Bondil received the Medal of the National Assembly in 2016 in addition to being crowned with the Prix Femmes d’affaires du Québec (2017). Bondil was the Vice President of Programming for the Société des célébrations, a committee in charge of celebrating Montreal’s 375th birthday, in 2017. In 2018, Bondil received the Peter Herrndorf Prize for Leadership in the Arts. On October 9th, 2019, French Minister of Culture Franck Riester presented Bondil the Legion of Honor, the highest French distinction. Bondil sat on the COVID-19 Task Force Committee of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization and Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s Covid-19 impact committee, where she led public discussions on the impact of Coronavirus on the arts in Canada. Bondil was also a board member of the Council for Canadian American Relations, Association of Art Museum Directors, the French Regional & American Museum Exchange, the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization, the Fonderie Darling, and Liberte. In 2020, Bondil refused to endorse the advancement of Mary-Dailey Desmarais, a wealthy and donor-connected curator to a new position of Chief Curator. Bondil’s resistance to Desmarais’s promotion sparked accusations from other members of the museum that Bondil created a hostile work environment, and she was dismissed in July of the same year.

Bondil, making history as the first female director at the Montreal Museum of Art, was widely credited with lifting the museum onto the international stage. Bondil doubled MMFA attendance from six hundred thousand to over 1.3 million annual visitors. Through her introduction of non-traditional music and fashion exhibits, as well as an emphasis on opening the museum to world cultures through her exhibitions ¡Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today, and Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon, Bondil established herself as an innovative and internationally-focused curator. She describes the museum as “a visual encyclopedia”, which helps people behave not like robots, but like humans. In 2020, following her sudden departure from MMFA, Nathalie Roy, minister of culture and communications for the province of Quebec, declared “the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is Nathalie Bondil!”


Selected Bibliography

  • Bondil, Nathalie, and Sophie Biass-Fabiani. Metamorphoses: in Rodin’s Studio. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2015;
  • Bondil, Nathalie, Hémery Axel, Montiége Samuel, and Benjamin-Constant.Benjamin-Constant: Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2014;
  • Bondil, Nathalie. Cuba: Art and History from 1868 to Today. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2009;
  • Bondil, Nathalie, Biass-Fabiani, Sophie. Métamorphoses: dans l’atelier de Rodin. Montreal: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, 1985;
  • Bondil, Nathalie, Pimentel, Victor, Walter Alva, and Luis Eduardo Wuffarden. Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2012;

Sources



Contributors: Zahra Hassan


Citation

Zahra Hassan. "Bondil, Nathalie." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/bondiln/.


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Search for materials by & about this art historian:

Director and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Arts. Nathalie Bondil was born in Barcelona on February 19th, 1967, and raised in Morocco. She obtained her degree in museology and art history with specializations in sculpture and 19th century

Banti, Anna

Image Credit: rtveaudio

Full Name: Lopresti Longhi, Lucia

Other Names:

  • Lucia Longhi
  • Lucia Lopresti Longhi
  • Lucia Lopresti

Gender: female

Date Born: 27 June 1895

Date Died: 02 September 1985

Place Born: Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Place Died: Ronchi dei Legionari, Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

Home Country/ies: Italy

Subject Area(s): film (discipline)


Overview

Author, art scholar, cinema critic, and translator; wife pupil of the art historian Roberto Longhi. Banti was born Lucia Lopresti. Her father, a lawyer for the railways, Luigi-Vincenzo, was an avid literature enthusiast and her mother was Gemma Benin, both of them of Calabrian background. She attended the Liceo Tasso di Roma (a lyceum or high school), where in 1914 she encountered the young art historian (and future husband) Roberto Longhi. She continued to study art history at the University in Rome under the eminent Adolfo Venturi, who had also been Longhi’s mentor. Venturi supervised her thesis on the seventeenth-century artist and dealer Marco Boschini (1602–1681). A subsequent 1919 essay by her on Boschini in Venturi’s own publication, L’Arte, was noted favorably the the art philosopher Benedetto Croce (1856-1952). She married Longhi in 1924. By 1930 she had adopted the pseudonym “Anna Banti”, the name of a beloved relative, to distinguish herself from her husband. Her first article under that name, “Barbara e la morte”, was expanded into a book in 1937.

One of her husband’s students in Bologna where he taught was the young (future film director) Pier Paolo Passolini (1922-1975). Passolini and Banti became close friends. A book by Banti, Itinerario di Paolina, appeared in 1937, During WWII, Banti continued to write novels, clearly propaganda for Fascism and American motives. The most prominent of these, Sette Lune (Seven Moons) was issued in 1941. As the war progressed, Banti transcribed a novel to a screenplay romance film called Sissignora (Yes, Madam) in 1942. The following year Pasolini wrote an evaluative article on her, terming her work “Mannerist”, meaning her writings focused on re-enactment of painting. While the war still ensued, Banti turned to researching a historical novel about the female baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. The first draft, however, was destroyed during Allied bombing in 1944 and she was forced to rewrite the manuscript. It was published after the war, 1947, as Artemisa. It became her most important book, popularizing a heretofore obscure painter.

The post-war years saw Banti and her husband founding Paragone, a journal for art and literature in 1950; her husband was editor. The same year she published her translation of Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room which resulted in the popularization of Woolf in Italy. Banti also translated French authors such as Colette. Her most feminist publication were her collected short stories, Le donne muoiono (The Women Die) which appeared in 1951. Banti returned to art history; brief biographies of artists followed, Fra Angelico and) Lorenzo Lotto (both 1953), Diego Velásquez (1955), Claude Monet (1956) as well as others into the 1960s. In addition she maintained a log-running cinema column in the magazine L’approdo letterario. After Longhi’s death in 1970, Banti assumed the editorship of Paragone until 1985 when she divided the editorship between art and literature, the former to Mina Gregori (b. 1924).

Banti’s Artemisia claims importance because the novel format introduced the then obscure artist to a wide public. Her husband had written a 1916 article on the painter, followed by a brief discussion by Hermann Voss in his Die Malerei Des Barock In Rom of 1924. Like many of Banti’s novels it has autobiographical similarities. An early feminist, Banti treated the obscure artist–remembered mostly for the documents of her rape trial–in what would emerge after the 1970s as a watermark for feminist studies. In the novel Gentileschi is nourished by the influential Genoan noblewoman, Pietra Spinola. Writing Artemesia Banti struggled between her identities as art historian and creative writer. Overshadowed as an art historian by husband she came to terms with in her semi-autobiographical novels, the last of which Un grido lacernate, (A piercing cry, 1981) discussed in semi-fictional form her relationship with Longhi (Pireddu).

Banti championed Pasolini his whole life. She published his personal journal, Il Ferrobedò, which later became the first chapter of his future bestseller Ragazzi di vita (Street Kids) in 1955. He praised her focus on the emancipated women and use of realism along with naturalism. Her husband’s teachings led her to have an eye for specific illuminating details and precision of color and the understanding of various art figures and their historical significance.


Selected Bibliography

  • [complete bibliography:] Ghilardi, Margherita. Anna Banti (Lucia Lopresti Longhi) (1895 -1985) La Vita (website)  http://www.cristinacampo.it/public/anna%20banti.pdf;
  • La monache cantano. Rome: Tuminelli, 1942;
  • Le donne muoiono. Milan: Mondadori, 1951;
  • Noi credevamo. Milan: Mondadori, 1967;
  • La camicia bruciato. Milan: Mondadori, 1973;
  • Artemisia. Florence: Sansoni, 1947. English, Artemisia. Lincoln NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1988;
  • Un grido lacerante. Milan: Rizzoli, 1981.
  • Romanzi e racconti: a cura e con un saggio introduttivo di Fausta Garavini. Milan: Mondadori, 2013;

Sources

  • Biagini, Enza. “Banti, Anna”.  Dizionario critico della letteratura italiana 2nd. ed. 2 (1986);
  • Heller, Deborah. “History, Art, and Fiction in Anna Banti’s Artemisia” in Aricáo, Santo L., ed. Contemporary Women Writers in Italy : A Modern Renaissance. University of Massachusetts Press, 1990, pp. 45–62;
  • Ballaro, Beverly. “Anna Banti (Lucia Lopresti Longhi 1895-1985)”. in, Russel, Rinaldina, ed. Italian Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook. Westport CT: Greenwood, 1994, pp.35-40; [full article: https://books.google.com/books?id=AxDbPQrjs64C&pg=PA35&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false]
  • Carù, Paola. “Uno sgurado actuo dalla storia: Anna Banti’s Historical Writings.” in Marotti, Maria Ornella and Gabriella Brooke, eds. Gendering Italian Fiction: Feminist Revisions of Italian History. Madison NJ: Fairleigh Dickson University Press, 1999, p. 87-101;
  • Pireddu, Nicoletta. “Modernism Misunderstood: Anna Banti Translates Virginia Woolf.” Comparative Literature 56, no. 1, 2004: 54–76;
  • Papini, Maria Carla. “Anna Banti al cinema.” Antologia Vieusseux33 (2005): 115-124, http://digital.casalini.it/10.1400/85304;
  • Banti, Anna. Romanzi e racconti: a cura e con un saggio introduttivo di Fausta Garavini. Milan: Mondadori, 2013;
  • Daughtery, Britiany. Between Historical Truth and Story-Telling: The Twentieth-Century Fabrication of “Artemisia. Dissertation, University of Nebraska, 2015. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=artstudents;
  • “L’imperturbable sagesse des femmes émancipées: Pasolini et Anna Banti.” Poetiche: rivista di letteratura 18, no. 1 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1400/249914;
  • Mirabile, Andrea. “‘Lorenzo Lotto’ Di Anna Banti: Fra Longhi e Berenson.” Italica 93, no. 2 (2016): 262–273;


Contributors: Arden Schraff


Citation

Arden Schraff. "Banti, Anna." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/bantia/.


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Search for materials by & about this art historian:

Author, art scholar, cinema critic, and translator; wife pupil of the art historian Roberto Longhi. Banti was born Lucia Lopresti. Her father, a lawyer for the railways, Luigi-Vincenzo, was an avid literature enthusiast and her mother was Gemma Benin