http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/arts/design/01HAMI.html?ex=1081486800&en=95daa0c162b8c113&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
Williams College
George Heard Hamilton
George Heard Hamilton, Museum Director and Author, Dies at 93
By BEN SISARIO
Published: April 1, 2004
eorge Heard Hamilton, an authority on modern art who trained art historians and museum curators, died on Monday at a nursing home in Williamstown, Mass., his son, Richard, said. He was 93.
Mr. Hamilton taught at Yale and at Williams College and wrote a number of important books on modern art, including "Manet and His Critics" and "Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940," a survey that continues to be read by students. He was one of the first historians to recognize the importance of many modern artists, including Marcel Duchamp, with whom he maintained a long friendship.
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As the director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, he had a wide influence on art historians and curators.
Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. Hamilton spent the first half of his long career at Yale. He received all of his academic degrees at the university - his bachelor's in 1932, master's in 1934 and doctorate in 1942 - and taught there from 1936 to 1966. He also served as the associate director of the Yale University Art Gallery.
He began his association with Williams College as a visiting professor in 1963 and returned to Williamstown in 1966 as a professor at Williams and the director of the Clark Art Institute. The Clark, which was opened in 1955, doubled in size under Mr. Hamilton's leadership and became a major research center for art history. Among his contributions there were the founding of a graduate program in art history and museum studies, and the creation of a large research library.
Mr. Hamilton's first book, on medieval manuscripts, appeared in 1933. In 1954 he published both "Manet and His Critics" and "The Art and Architecture of Russia." Politics in the Stalin era kept Mr. Hamilton from visiting the Soviet Union to write his architecture book, but it became a standard survey and was well received by art historians. The book remains in print.
"Manet and His Critics" recounted how Manet's paintings were received in their time, and it has been called the first book to take contemporaneous art criticism into account as an essential part of the history of modern art.
"Painting and Sculpture in Europe," perhaps Mr. Hamilton's best-known work, was first published in 1967 and also remains a widely read survey.
Mr. Hamilton had a long association with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, serving as a trustee and as chairman of the museum's painting and sculpture committee. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958 and taught at Cambridge University in 1971 and 1972. He retired from Williams in 1975 and from the Clark two years later.
In addition to his son, of Edgartown, Mass., Mr. Hamilton is survived by his wife, Polly, who was one of his graduate students at Yale; a daughter, Jennet LaCasse, of North Palm Beach, Fla.; and two grandchildren.
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Williams College
George Heard Hamilton
George Heard Hamilton, Museum Director and Author, Dies at 93
By BEN SISARIO
Published: April 1, 2004
eorge Heard Hamilton, an authority on modern art who trained art historians and museum curators, died on Monday at a nursing home in Williamstown, Mass., his son, Richard, said. He was 93.
Mr. Hamilton taught at Yale and at Williams College and wrote a number of important books on modern art, including "Manet and His Critics" and "Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940," a survey that continues to be read by students. He was one of the first historians to recognize the importance of many modern artists, including Marcel Duchamp, with whom he maintained a long friendship.
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As the director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, he had a wide influence on art historians and curators.
Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. Hamilton spent the first half of his long career at Yale. He received all of his academic degrees at the university - his bachelor's in 1932, master's in 1934 and doctorate in 1942 - and taught there from 1936 to 1966. He also served as the associate director of the Yale University Art Gallery.
He began his association with Williams College as a visiting professor in 1963 and returned to Williamstown in 1966 as a professor at Williams and the director of the Clark Art Institute. The Clark, which was opened in 1955, doubled in size under Mr. Hamilton's leadership and became a major research center for art history. Among his contributions there were the founding of a graduate program in art history and museum studies, and the creation of a large research library.
Mr. Hamilton's first book, on medieval manuscripts, appeared in 1933. In 1954 he published both "Manet and His Critics" and "The Art and Architecture of Russia." Politics in the Stalin era kept Mr. Hamilton from visiting the Soviet Union to write his architecture book, but it became a standard survey and was well received by art historians. The book remains in print.
"Manet and His Critics" recounted how Manet's paintings were received in their time, and it has been called the first book to take contemporaneous art criticism into account as an essential part of the history of modern art.
"Painting and Sculpture in Europe," perhaps Mr. Hamilton's best-known work, was first published in 1967 and also remains a widely read survey.
Mr. Hamilton had a long association with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, serving as a trustee and as chairman of the museum's painting and sculpture committee. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958 and taught at Cambridge University in 1971 and 1972. He retired from Williams in 1975 and from the Clark two years later.
In addition to his son, of Edgartown, Mass., Mr. Hamilton is survived by his wife, Polly, who was one of his graduate students at Yale; a daughter, Jennet LaCasse, of North Palm Beach, Fla.; and two grandchildren.
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html