Madlyn Millner Kahr (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Madlyn Millner; 1913–2004) was an American art historian and educator. She specialized in the study of 16th–17th century painting of Dutch, Spanish, and Venetian origins, and
feminist art history. Kahr was
professor emeritus at the
University of California, San Diego. She authored the books, ''Velázquez: The Art of Painting'' (1976), and ''Dutch Painting In The Seventeenth Century'' (1982).
Early life and education
Madlyn Millner was born on June 30, 1913, in New Jersey, U.S.. She studied at
Barnard College in New York City, and received a B.A. degree in 1933.
While attending undergrad, she served as the editor of
Barnard Bulletin, the school newspaper.
Kahr followed with further study at
New York University 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 Philoso ...
where she received a M.A. degree and PhD.
Her
dissertation was titled, ''The Book Of Esther In Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art'' (1968, New York University).
In 1936, she married psychiatrist Sidney Kahr, they had two children.
Career
Kahr was a professor at the
University of California, San Diego, starting in 1976.
She also made watercolor paintings, and in 1980 she participated in a UCSD faculty group exhibition. Kahr also taught at
Manhattanville College,
Columbia University,
CUNY Queens College, and
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
.
She wrote on artists, including
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
, Vermeer, and Velázquez; and also wrote about female archetypes in art, such as
Delilah, and
Danaë
In Greek mythology, Danaë (, ; ; , ) was an Argive princess and mother of the hero Perseus by Zeus. She was credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium during the Bronze Age.
Family
Danae was the daughter and only child of King Acris ...
. In the book ''Feminism And Art History'' (1982), the chapter ''Delilah'' by Kahr used an
iconographic approach when reviewing male artists' treatment of the
Delilah theme in their work, which demonstrated stereotypes of women.
She was a member of the
Women's Caucus for Art in 1979.
In advanced age she lived at Epoch Assisted Living in
Providence, Rhode Island; where died on February 24, 2004, at the age of 90.
Bibliography
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See also
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Women in the art history field
Women were professionally active in the academic discipline of art history in the nineteenth century and participated in the important shift early in the century that began involving an "emphatically corporeal visual subject", with Vernon Lee as a ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahr, Madlyn M.
1913 births
2004 deaths
American art historians
American women art critics
American art critics
Barnard College alumni
Columbia University faculty
Manhattanville University faculty
New York University Institute of Fine Arts alumni
Queens College, City University of New York faculty
Stanford University faculty
University of California, San Diego faculty