by Jon Lackman | 8 September 2009 | Uncategorized
We return from hiatus to continuing controversy over the Muhammad cartoons, this time triggered by the decision Yale University Press made to remove them from Jytte Klausen’s new book, “The Cartoons that Shook the World.”
In other news, Harvard has recently tenured one East Asian art scholar and two American art scholars:
Former Associate Professor of History and Art and Architecture Jennifer L. Roberts was appointed full professor in the department effective July 1, marking the second tenure in just one year of an American art historian within the historically Eurocentric department.
According to the Telegraph, “A newly discovered catalogue of artworks stolen by Nazis compiled for Adolf Hitler could help unravel the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of lost materpieces seized during the Second World War.” And Der Spiegel interviewed art historian Birgit Schwarz “about why Adolf Hitler saw himself as a genius and how his obsession with art affected his political views”:
In my opinion, people have underestimated the notion that Hitler considered himself an artist, in fact, an artistic genius, and that much can be deduced from this self-image, this overheated artist’s ego. However, this has hardly played a role in the research to date. That’s the starting point, from my perspective, because it can help us gain a better understanding of Hitler as a person, as well as his system of power.
According to Reuters, the Musée d’Orsay is closing in November for a year-long renovation and sending its treasures on tour to San Francisco, Nashville, Madrid, Canberra and Tokyo. The renovation is part of a larger overhaul being undertaken by museum president Guy Cogeval:
Cogeval said he was determined to shake up a curatorial torpor that had set in. He dragged works out of storage that had never before been seen, painted walls of certain galleries dramatic shades of purple, red and olive green, and — “the unthinkable!” — began double-hanging paintings.
