Milo Cleveland Beach presenting Freer Medal to Alexander C

Alexander Coburn Soper III (February 18, 1904 – January 13, 1993) was an American art historian who specialized in

Asian art The history of Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. The major regions of Asia include Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia. Central Asian art primarily c ...

. He was a longtime editor of the journal ''

Artibus Asiae ''Artibus Asiae'' is a biannual academic journal specialising in the arts and archaeology of Asia. Along with the '' Ostasiatische Zeitschrift'' (founded in 1912) it was one of the most successful journals in its field in the German-speaking part o ...

'' and professor at the

Institute of Fine Arts The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) of New York University is dedicated to graduate teaching and advanced research in the history of art, archaeology and the conservation and technology of works of art. It offers Master of Arts and Doctor of Philos ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. He won the

Charles Lang Freer Medal The Charles Lang Freer medal was established in 1956 by the Smithsonian Institution in honor of Charles Lang Freer, the founder of the Freer collection. The medal is conferred intermittently, honoring distinguished career contributions made by ...

in 1990.

Life and career

Alexander Soper was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on February 18, 1904. He graduated from

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

in 1925 with a bachelor's degree, and from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1929 with a master's degree in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. He lived in Japan for some time, before returning to Princeton and earning a Ph.D. in art history in 1944. He taught at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

, and then at the Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) for more than 30 years from 1960. After retiring from full-time teaching in the 1980s, he remained a doctoral adviser at IFA. Soper served as editor of the academic journal ''

'' from 1958 until his death in 1993. His scholarship covered the breath of Asian art, ranging from

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

and Japanese architecture to Indian Buddhist sculpture. In 1990, he became the ninth person to be awarded the

by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

.Soper, Alexander. (1990)
''A Case of Meaningful Magic.''
/ref>

Personal

Soper had a son, John, who lived in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

, and four grandchildren. He died at his home in Rosemont, Pennsylvania on January 13, 1993, at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soper, Alexander 1904 births 1993 deaths American art historians Hamilton College (New York) alumni Princeton University alumni Bryn Mawr College faculty New York University faculty Historians of East Asian art People from Chicago 20th-century American non-fiction writers Historians from New York (state) Historians from Illinois Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy