by Jon Lackman | 6 October 2010 | Americas, Awards
The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art has announced that this year its “Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History will be presented to William H. Gerdts.” Gerdts, a former curator and professor emeritus at CUNY Graduate Center, has published several books including The Color of Modernism: The American Fauves (1997), the three-volume Art Across America. Two Centuries of Regional Painting: 1710-1920 (1990), The Art of Henry Inman (1987), American Impressionism (1984), Masters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801-1930 (1981), and American Neo-Classic Sculpture: The Marble Resurrection (1973).
In a 2007 interview, Gerdts reflected on the low esteem that historians had for American art when he began studying it, and on the current state of the field:
[Bruce] Cole: So what’s the state of scholarship on American art today?
Gerdts: Well, I really don’t like art history anymore. Because I find that most art history that I read falls—this is obviously a generalization—into two categories. Either it’s repetition of what has been said over and over, but it’s for a different catalog or a different essay, or whatnot. And that’s boring.
Or it goes so far out of its way to try to reinterpret art history, usually in the most bizarre manner. This is really Jules Prown’s fault, although I think he started out very well, with great intentions, with his wanting to define American art within material culture and its political ramifications, and whatnot.
