Karl Katz (October 22, 1929 - November 8, 2017) was an art historian, curator and museum director. Among the many positions he held over his lifetime, Katz was director of the
Bezalel National Museum
In Exodus 31:1-6 and chapters 36 to 39, Bezalel, Bezaleel, or Betzalel ( he, בְּצַלְאֵל, ''Bəṣalʼēl''), was the chief artisan of the Tabernacle and was in charge of building the Ark of the Covenant, assisted by Oholiab. The secti ...
- which later became The
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
in Jerusalem. He also held positions at the
Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area.
List of Jewish museums
Notable Jewish museums include:
*Albania
** Solomon Museum, Berat
*Australia
** Jewish Muse ...
and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
Career
Karl Katz, sometimes spelled Carl, was born in 1929. His parents were Maurice Katz and Rose (née Lefkowitz). He graduated from
Midwood High School
Midwood High School is a high school located at 2839 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, administered by the New York City Department of Education. It has an enrollment of 3,938 students. Its H-shaped building, with six Ionic order, Ionic co ...
in Brooklyn and then began studying at
Long Island University
Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...
, but soon moved to
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. There he completed a bachelor's degree in art history and Semitic studies and a master's degree in art history and archaeology. He finished his Doctoral dissertation on early Hebrew texts from Yemen, but he failed to do the doctorate because he did not fulfill the prerequisites for the required language skills. He refused to learn German so soon after the Holocaust. One of his mentors who greatly influenced the path he took was
Meyer Schapiro
Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...
.
![Bezalel museum stuff](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Bezalel_museum_stuff.jpg)
Katz worked in 1953 as an art educator during the exhibition "From the Land of the Bible" at the
Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. He then joined the Bezalel National Museum as a curator, a forerunner of the Israel Museum. In 1969 he returned to New York and became director of the
Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area.
List of Jewish museums
Notable Jewish museums include:
*Albania
** Solomon Museum, Berat
*Australia
** Jewish Muse ...
. In 1971 he went to the Metropolitan Museum as head of the Department of Special Projects. In 1980 he became head of the department he created for film and television. He was also one of the planners of
The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot
ANU - Museum of the Jewish People, formerly the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, is located in Tel Aviv, Israel, at the center of the Tel Aviv University campus in Ramat Aviv.
ANU - Museum of the Jewish People is an institution ...
.
In 1992 he founded "Muse", a non-profit company for documentaries in the field of art.
In the early 1970s, Katz met the photographer
Cornell Capa
Cornell Capa (born Kornél Friedmann; April 10, 1918 – May 23, 2008) was a Hungarian American photographer, member of Magnum Photos, photo curator, and the younger brother of photo-journalist and war photographer Robert Capa. Graduating from Imr ...
in an exhibition and persuaded him to put his International Center of Photography into a museum. It opened in 1974. For many years Katz was the deputy chairman of the museum curatorium.
Katz was married to Elizabeth Segal, whom he married in 1978. The couple had a son, Jonathan.
Publications (selection)
* Yehiel Shemi. Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem 1957
* Modern Israel Painting. London 1958
* with Penuel Kahane, Magen Broshi: From the beginning: four millennia Holy Land in the most modern museum in the world. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1968
* The exhibitionist: living museum, loving museum. Overlook Press, New York 2016
[Renee Ghert-Zand, Unabashed ‘Exhibitionist’s new memoir unveils his days and nights in the museu]
The Times of Israel, 12 March 2017
Filmography (selection)
* 1983: La Belle Epoque (1890-1914)
* 1984: In a Brilliant Light: Van Gogh in Arles
* 1989: Merchants and Masterpieces
* 1990: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Public Park of America
* 1992: Art on Film, Program 1: Balance
* 1992: Art on Film, Program 2: Sense
* 1992: Art on Film, Program 3: Form
* 1992: Art on Film, Program 4: Voice
* 1992: Art on Film, Program 5: Subject & Expert
* 1993: Degenerate Art
* 1997: Tashilham
* 1998: Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress
* 2003: Hans Hofmann: Artist / Teacher, Teacher / Artist
* 2006: Who Gets to Call It Art?
* 2007: The Rich Their Own Photographers
* 2007: Robert Indiana: American Dreamer
* 2008: Herb & Dorothy
* 2012: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
References
External links
*
* Sam Roberts: Karl Katz, Museum Director in New York and Israel, Dies at 88, New York Times, November 10, 201
link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Karl
1929 births
Israeli art historians
American art historians
American emigrants to Israel
American film producers
Directors of museums in the United States
2017 deaths