Svetlana Alpers
Encyclopedia
Svetlana Leontief Alpers (born 1936) is an American artist, art historian and critic. She is a university professor and a consultant to both National Public Radio and the National Endowment for the Humanities
. She was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts
. Her father was Wassily Leontief
, a Nobel laureate in economics. She has 2 children, Benjamin Alpers (born in 1965) and Nicholas Alpers (born in 1968) and 4 grandchildren.
Alpers received her B.A. from Radcliffe College
in 1957 and a Ph.D. from Harvard
in 1965. She was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley from 1962 to 1998, where she is now Professor Emerita. She is a visiting critic at the NYU Institute of Fine Arts. Her specialty was 17th Century Dutch art
, although she has also worked on Tiepolo, Rembrandt, Rubens, Breugel, and Velazquez, among others.
In 2007 she collaborated with artists James Hyde and Barney Kulok on a project entitled Painting Then for Now. The project consists of 19 photographic prints based on the suite of three paintings by Giambattista Tiepolo that hang at the top of the main staircase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. The project was exhibited at David Krut Gallery, NY. Six of the prints were later acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY.
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
. She was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. Her father was Wassily Leontief
Wassily Leontief
Wassily Wassilyovich Leontief , was a Russian-American economist notable for his research on how changes in one economic sector may have an effect on other sectors. Leontief won the Nobel Committee's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1973, and three of his doctoral students have also...
, a Nobel laureate in economics. She has 2 children, Benjamin Alpers (born in 1965) and Nicholas Alpers (born in 1968) and 4 grandchildren.
Alpers received her B.A. from Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
in 1957 and a Ph.D. from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1965. She was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley from 1962 to 1998, where she is now Professor Emerita. She is a visiting critic at the NYU Institute of Fine Arts. Her specialty was 17th Century Dutch art
Art of the Low Countries
Art of the Low Countries is painting, sculpture, architecture, printmaking, and other forms of visual art produced in the Low Countries, and since the 19th century in Belgium and the Netherlands. It includes the traditions of Early Netherlandish painting and the Renaissance in the Low Countries...
, although she has also worked on Tiepolo, Rembrandt, Rubens, Breugel, and Velazquez, among others.
In 2007 she collaborated with artists James Hyde and Barney Kulok on a project entitled Painting Then for Now. The project consists of 19 photographic prints based on the suite of three paintings by Giambattista Tiepolo that hang at the top of the main staircase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. The project was exhibited at David Krut Gallery, NY. Six of the prints were later acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY.
Memberships and Distinctons
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, 1957-8
- Kathryn-McHale Fellowship, AAUW, 1961-2
- Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, 1972-3 - Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, 1975-6 - ACLS Fellowship, 1978–79
- Visiting Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Advanced StudyNetherlands Institute for Advanced StudyThe Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Wassenaar, the Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970...
(NIAS), WassenaarWassenaarWassenaar is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. A fairly affluent suburb of The Hague, Wassenaar lies 10 km north of that city on the N44 highway near the North Sea coast. It is part of the Haaglanden region...
, 1979 - Member, Institute for Advanced StudyInstitute for Advanced StudyThe Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
, PrincetonPrinceton, New JerseyPrinceton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, 1979–80 - Eugene-M.-Kayen-Prize 1983 for "The Art of Describing"
- Distinguished Teaching Award, Berkeley, 1986
- Visiting Scholar, Getty Research InstituteGetty Research InstituteThe Getty Research Institute , located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". A program of the J...
, California, 1987–88 - Director of Studies, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences SocialesÉcole des Hautes Études en Sciences SocialesThe École des hautes études en sciences sociales is a leading French institution for research and higher education, a Grand Établissement. Its mission is research and research training in the social sciences, including the relationship these latter maintain with the natural and life sciences...
, ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 1991 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, 1991 - Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, BerlinInstitute for Advanced Study, BerlinThe Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin in an interdisciplinary institute created 1981 in Berlin-Grunewald for studies in natural, social sciences for various research projects. It is a member of the group Some Institutes for Advanced Study....
, 1992–93 - Honorary Doctor, Courtauld Institute of ArtCourtauld Institute of ArtThe Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 2009
Writings (selection)
- The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Brussels/London, 1971.
- The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983
- Rembrandt's Enterprise: The Studio and the Market, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988
- TiepoloGiovanni Battista TiepoloGiovanni Battista Tiepolo , also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice...
and the Pictorial Intelligence, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994 (with Michael BaxandallMichael BaxandallMichael David Kighley Baxandall, FBA was a British-born art historian and a professor emeritus of Art History at University of California, Berkeley...
) - The Making of Rubens, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995.
- The Vexations of Art: Velazquez and Others, New Haven and London:: Yale University Press, 2005