Aaron Scharf (22 September 1922 – 21 January 1993) was an American-born British art historian who contributed in particular to the history of photography in which he had developed an interest while studying at the
Courtauld Institute
The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
.
[Jay, Bill (1993),]
Aaron Scharf:A verbal snapshot
. Creative Camera, April/May 1993. His investigation uncovered links between painting (and other artforms) and photography, and evidence for artists using photography for reference and other purposes, as well as the way photographers with aspirations as artists referred to painting in their work. He thus pioneered a new field of art history when
Pop Art and other movements in the 1960s were reincorporating the medium of photography (which developed separately since the 1930s, and which hitherto art historians in general treated separately from painting) and reference to popular photographic images, into mainstream artistic practice. Scharf popularised his study and discoveries with publication of his profusely illustrated hardback Penguin volume 'Art and Photography' (1968) and through his work at the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
in producing innovative thematic educational videos on the history of photography and its relation to society.
Early life
Scharf was born in America on 22 September 1922 to Irving Scharf and his wife, Jeanette Shack (Shackowitz)
a Jewish immigrant from
Volochysk
Volochysk ( uk, Волочиськ, yi, וואָלאָטשיסק) is a small city located on the left bank of the Zbruch River in Khmelnytskyi Raion, Khmelnytskyi Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Volochysk u ...
. He trained at Hancock College of Aeronautics in Los Angeles County in 1944 as a second lieutenant, where he gained his 'silver wings', qualifying to fly heavy aircraft. While at the College Scharf used his artistic talents to draw cartoons for the cadet publications.
During World War II he flew 46 missions as a bomber navigator and was award an Air Medal in November 1944, and later promoted to captain. His unit citations were awarded as a result of successful bombing missions over
Odertal and
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, and it was during his last mission to the latter that
flak
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...
knocked out three of their
B-24
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...
engines and his crew made a forced landing in Russia. Scharf was reported as saying that though “not one of our crew was wounded...many a time we were scared half to death. Some of us came back with graying hair.” From there a jeep convoy took them to Hungary, from where the British flew them out and after the German surrender they flew their B-24 home.
['Two decorated fliers return to Hancock where they started,' in '']Santa Maria Times
The ''Santa Maria Times'' is a daily American newspaper on California's Central Coast serving the cities of Santa Maria; Orcutt; Guadalupe; Nipomo; unincorporated parts of northern Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County. It ...
'', Friday, 20 July 1945, p.6 In his memoir of the war
Flak''(1996) published posthumously by Scharf’s widow, Marina, he recounts how he deliberately botched the targeting of Ravenna, Italy in a bombing raid.
After the war he spent some years as a painter and potter in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
and produced some commercial art illustration. He studied art and anthropology at the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
where he became engaged to a fellow student Annette Rose in 1946, whom he married on 8 September.
After receiving a master's degree in painting, he won critical acclaim for three paintings in a veterans' art award exhibition in 1951 in the art gallery of Santa Monica Library, and also showed lithographs at Kistler Studio In 1950 he married
Ruth Dunlap Bartlett (born 18 October 1921,
Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
, died 16 January 2009,
Highgate
Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross.
Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisat ...
). An accomplished actress, Ruth owned and ran ''The Beachcomber'', a small theatre on
Muscle Beach
Muscle Beach is the birthplace of the United States physical fitness boom, which started in 1934 with predominantly gymnastics activities on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Muscle Beach Venice is the contemporary title of the outdoor we ...
in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
.
Helena Stevens was her stage name. She was also a committed
communist and became the first to play the part of
Mother Courage
Mother Courage (German ''Mutter Courage'') is a character from a Grimmelshausen novel ''Lebensbeschreibung der Ertzbetrügerin und Landstörtzerin Courasche'' (''The Runagate Courage'') dating from around 1670. The character had played a cameo r ...
in an English-language production of the play of the same name by the German communist playwright
Bertolt Brecht. Her husband meantime, was refused work or study in American universities,
blacklisted because of his own
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
.
At the Courtauld
In 1956, Scharf and wife arrived in the UK as political refugees from
McCarthyism, with an invitation, provided by the communist academic (and spy)
Anthony Blunt, for Aaron to study at the
Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
in London providing their ostensible reason for leaving America.
Scharf’s doctoral thesis at the Courtauld was eventually published with revisions and additions as ''Art and Photography'' (Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1968), the expanded version of his ''Creative Photography ''(Studio Vista; New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold, London, 1965).
At the time of writing ''Creative Photography '' Scharf had attained his first academic post as head of the department of
history of art
The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visu ...
and complimentary studies at
Saint Martin's School of Art
Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of ...
.
"Art and Photography"
The book reveals the hitherto uncredited influence of photography on the creation of artistic images in painting. The emphasis is on the photograph as used in the service of painting, or imitating painted images. Scharf does not here give the same emphasis on photography as an artistic medium in itself as much as he did in ''Creative Photography, ''though he does recognise the greater acceptance of photography as art in chapters on the mid Twentieth Century.
''Art and Photography'' was widely and favourably reviewed. As early as 1969 ''Los Angeles Times'' art critic William Wilson was certain that it would "join standard texts on the subject" and in summary concluded that “Scharf, insists, in scholarly fashion, that photography has created a new situation we cannot call better or worse, only different, challenging. If the book proves anything, it is that art and photography are both art, interdependent, and yet so fundamentally different you can't really mistake one for the other.” It was welcomed in its most extended contemporary review in the ''
Art Journal'' by
Carl Chiarenza; "At long last a scholarly sourcebook has been published which attempts to organize the bewildering mass of documents relating to the interaction of photography and other media since 1839. Dr. Scharf's new book is absolutely indispensable to any research in the field; it will be the standard reference for a long time to come," and hailed by Marie Czach as "the definitive work on the subject of Art and Photography", while Ken Marantz declared it "carefully documented, appropriately illustrated, and readable...important, but the conclusion is particularly insightful..." Robert A. Sobieszek considered it "one of the most appealing books in the field to be published in a long while...the sheer ambition of the work's scope covers the subject with a density lacking until now." Earlier, Michael Webb likened the book to "an archaeological dig, laying bare a lost city on the evidence of an incoherent scatter of shards. Patiently the strata are revealed, the evidence accumulated, the fragments re-assembled."
''Art and Photography'' appears in
David Hockney
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
's painting ''My Parents'', 1977 (Tate, London) in which the painter's father is engrossed in reading the book; this is significant in indicating the connection between the Scharf's discoveries and the later
Hockney-Falco thesis.
At the time of publication, Scharf had become head of the History of Art and Complementary Studies Department at
St. Martin’s School of Art, London. The couple settled in
Hampstead.
Scharf’s peer, and also friend and frequent correspondent, was
Van Deren Coke, whose own studies into the links between art and photography were published as ''The Painter and the Photograph'' a year earlier than ''Creative Photography'', but without the same circulation and international reception, revised and enlarged from the 1964 catalogue issued under the same title for the exhibition curated by Van Deren Coke which toured the US in 1964 and 1965.
Scharf's articles on photo history were published in the 1968 issues of ''
Creative Camera
''Creative Camera'' (also known as "CC") was a British monthly/bi-monthly magazine devoted to fine art photography and documentary photography. The successor to the very different (hobbyist) magazine '' Camera Owner'' (which had started in 1964), ...
'' magazine in his column, and in ''
Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...
''
They reflected his eclectic interests in photography's history, including
spirit photography
Spirit photography (also called ghost photography) is a type of photography whose primary goal is to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities, especially in ghost hunting. It dates back to the late 19th century. The end of the Americ ...
and
Darwin's use of photography, to discussion of the engravings on the backs of
cartes-de-visite. Under the pressure of other work, he asked to be relieved of writing the ''Creative Camera'' column and ask that Van Deren Coke continue it, which he did until December 1969.
During this period, Scharf contributed th
entryon Henri Cartier-Bresson in the
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
. He had divorced Ruth, who went on to act for television and films, including
''Highlander'' (1986),
''The Lords of Discipline'' (1983) and ''The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story'' (1986). She died on 25 February 2009. He married Marina (née Betts).
Scharf's own art production consisted of
montages made from old photographs and/or 19th-century wood engravings, a selection of which were published by
Bill Jay in his last issue as editor of ''Creative Camera.'' Jay had seen and was intrigued by the artworks each time he picked up Scharf's copy for ''
Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...
'' from his residence near the editorial offices and he published them accompanied by the art historian's request that they be printed without a text; "No text this time! Give them no titles. Let them open up those little doors to mystery which
Redon
Redon (; ) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Geography
Redon borders the Morbihan and Loire-Atlantique departments.
It is situated at the junction of t ...
talks about"
Later life
In 1969 Aaron Scharf joined The
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
,
Milton Keynes, England, moving to
Deanshanger
Deanshanger () is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, west-northwest of Milton Keynes. In 2007 it was joined with the civil parish of Wicken to form Deanshanger ward, returning two councillors. The population of the civil pari ...
10 miles away. He stayed there, as Professor of Art History writing art history courses and pursuing personal research, until pressured out by other staff in 1982. Also in 1969, he visited the United States to deliver units on ''Photography in Modern Art'' and ''Seminar in Problems in the History of Photography'' for
Stanford University's 1969 Summer School. From August 1972 he was a member of the photography committee of the
Arts Council chaired by Barry Lane with
Tristram Powell
Tristram Roger Dymoke Powell'Powell of The Chantry' pedigree, Burke's Peerage website (born 25 April 1940) is an English television and film director, producer and screenwriter. His credits include ''American Friends'', episodes of series Foyle's ...
, a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
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