Richard Ettinghausen
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Richard Ettinghausen (February 5, 1906 – April 2, 1979) Princeton, New Jersey was a German-American historian of Islamic art and chief curator of the Freer Gallery.


Education

Ettinghausen was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt in 1931 in
Islamic history The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims r ...
and art history.


Career

From 1929 to 1931, he worked on the Islamic collection of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin under the direction of Ernst Kühnel and the collector/archaeologist Friedrich Sarre. In 1934, due to the rise of the Nazis, he immigrated first to Great Britain and then to the United States, where he joined the staff of
Arthur Upham Pope Arthur Upham Pope (February 7, 1881 – September 3, 1969) was an American scholar, art historian, and architecture historian. He was an expert on historical Persian art, and he was the editor of the ''Survey of Persian Art'' (1939). Pope was also ...
at the Institute of Persian Art and Archaeology in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
. From 1937 to 1938, he taught his first class at the Institute of Fine Art, New York University. In 1938 he was appointed an associate professor at the University of Michigan. In 1944, Ettinghausen left Michigan to join the Freer Gallery. The following year he married the
art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
Elisabeth Sgalitzer Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
. He also lectured at Princeton University. In 1961 he was appointed chief curator of the Freer. During his tenure at the Freer, he built the collection into one of the finest collections on Islamic art in the world. He wrote a book "Arab Painting: Treasures of Asia, Vol IV" published by Editions d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva in 1962. In 1966, Ettinghausen left the Freer to become Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Islamic Art at the Institute of Fine Art, New York University. Together with the Middle East historian R. Bayly Winder he founded the
Kevorkian Center Kevorkian (Կևորկյան) is an Armenian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Armen V. Kevorkian, American-Armenian visual effects supervisor and television director * François Kevorkian (born 1954), French-born, U.S.-based DJ, p ...
the same year at NYU. Three years later, he also became the Consultative Chairman of the Islamic Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the Metropolitan, he was instrumental in installing the galleries to their sensitive arrangement. His text, with Oleg Grabar, ''The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250'' in the ''Pelican History of Art'' series, appeared posthumously in 1987. Ettinghausen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974 and the American Philosophical Society in 1976. Both a Jew and an avid Islamicist, his ties to Israel found expression in his promotion of the establishment of a
museum for Islamic art The Museum for Islamic Art (formerly known as the L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art) (Hebrew: מוזיאון ל. א. מאיר לאמנות האסלאם; Arabic: معهد ل. أ. مئير للفن الإسلامي) is a museum in Jerusalem, esta ...
in Jerusalem. Ettinghausen died of cancer in Mercer, New Jersey. The library in the Kevorkian Center is named in his honor.


Posthumous

After his death, Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi acquired Ettinghausen's private library. These works were then donated to the newly built House of Wisdom in Sharjah.


See also

* Islamic art *
Madiha Omar Madiha Umar (1908 – 2005 in Aleppo) ( ar, مديحة عمر) was an Iraqi artist who was known for incorporating calligraphy with abstract art. She is generally perceived as the first Arab artist to have done this. Therefore, she is seen as ...


References


External links


Dictionary of Art HistoriansRichard Ettinghausen
entry i
Encyclopaedia Iranica


Bibliography

*Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. Modern Perspectives in Western Art History: An Anthology of 20th-Century Writings on the Visual Arts. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971, p. 89 *Porada, Edith. "Richard Ettinghausen." Yearbook of the American Philosophical Society 1979 pp. 58–61 *Cook, Joan. "Richard Ettinghausen, Teacher, A Leading Islamic Art Authority, Planned Turkish Exhibition, Taught at Princeton." New York Times April 3, 1979, p. C18 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ettinghausen, Richard German art historians Historians of Islamic art Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy Jewish historians 1906 births 1979 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States University of Michigan faculty 20th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Members of the American Philosophical Society