Full Name: Posner, Donald
Other Names:
- Donald Posner
Gender: male
Date Born: 1931
Date Died: 2005
Place Born: New York, NY, USA
Place Died: New York, NY, USA
Home Country/ies: United States
Subject Area(s): museums (institutions)
Career(s): directors (administrators) and museum directors
Overview
Carracci scholar; Ailsa Mellon Bruce Professor of Fine Arts and deputy director, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1983-2002. Posner graduated from Queens College Phi Beta Kappa in 1956, writing his M.A. at Harvard University in 1957. He completed his dissertation at New York University in 1962 under Walter F. Friedländer on the topic of Annibale Carracci and immediately joined the faculty. He married fellow graduate student in art history Kathleen Weil-Garris the same year (later divorced). Posner was editor-in-Chief of the Art Bulletin between 1968-71 and art historian in residence, American Academy in Rome, 1968-1969. He revised and published his dissertation on Annibale Carracci in 1971. The following year he won the Charles Rufus Morey Award for Most Distinguished Work of Art Historical Scholarship from the College Art Association. In 1973 Posner wrote the volume on Watteau for the important Art in Context series of Viking Press. He was a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton in 1976. For the academic year 1978-79 he was appointed acting Director for Academic Affairs at the Institute of Fine Arts. He was named Deputy Director, Institute of Fine Arts, N. Y. U., in 1983, remaining until 2002 Posner was Chairman of the Art Bulletin Editorial Board from 1991- 1994.
Selected Bibliography
[dissertation:] The Roman Style of Annibale Carracci and His School. New York University, 1962; Annibale Carracci: A Study in the Reform of Italian Painting around 1590. 2 vols. London: Phaidon Press, 1971; and Held, Julius. 17th and 18th Century Art: Baroque Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1972; Watteau: A Lady at her Toilet. New York: The Penguin Press/Viking, 1973; Antoine Watteau. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Sources
IFA Faculty Directory Donald Posner. http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/ifa/faculty/posner.htm; [condolence announcement:] The New York Times August 17, 2005, p. 16.
Contributors: Lee Sorensen