Rebuilding Fine Arts, One Scholar at a Time

Harvard's Fine Arts Department is a concentration with a lot of possibilities and not a little ambition: the faculty hopes to appoint as many as 11 scholars in the next three years.

One of the oldest art history departments in America, Fine Arts was left short-handed when a large number of professors retired. The department lost five major figures over the course of three years, including Kingsley Professor of Fine Arts James S. Ackerman and Rockefeller Professor of Oriental Art John M. Rosenfield.

The task of reappointing scholars in areas as diverse as baroque, Japanese and medieval arts has enabled the department to reconsider its direction and purpose.

Under the guidance of Fine Arts Chair John K. Shearman, the department has made an ideological shift back to more traditional hiring practices. Rather than hiring a scholar based on ideology and methodology, the department has chosen to appoint by fields, which allows for more diversity of scholarship, he says.

"The ideal fine arts department is one that is not quite organized in the sense of a centralized method of study," says Shearman, who is also the Boardman professor of fine arts. "There is a danger in an intellectual climate where disciplines form antagonistic groups."

He says a problem arose in the past when areas of study were forced to "centralize" under a particular method. After World War II, Harvard identified itself with style criticism and connoisseurship, allowing art conservation and Spanish and medevial art studies to lapse.

Soon after, the study of art history from the a social and political perspective dominated, says Shearman. This too produced a strong counter-reaction, which created fields contemptuous of each other," he adds. Today, Shearman says he is looking to unite what has recently been a splintered field. "We must respect differences and variety," he says. "That is the right way of teaching. Pluralism is a positive."

Hiring scholars by area of expertise also allows the department to "reinvent the field," says Shearman.

The department has finished searches for senior scholars in Aegean prehistoric, Spanish and Western medieval arts. The department's nominations are now before ad-hoc committees, and it may take some time before the appointments are actually made. This year, searches will begin for senior professors in northern Renaissance and Japanese art and for a junior scholar in modern art. The junior slot was recently vacated by Associate Professor of Fine Arts Anna C. Chave, who was denied tenure.

Future Plans

Plans for next year call for an Islamic art scholar, a Chinese art historian and two junior professors in Baroque and Roman art.

Strengthening Ties

In addition to its internal growth, Fine Arts has looked to expand its reach throughout the Harvard community, in part by strengthening ties with the Graduate School of Design and with Harvard's museums. Courses are currently offered in conjunction with the Design School, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and the Fogg Museum.

In addition, the department is attempting to broaden its fields and offerings to attract minority students. "We are trying to overcome the rotten record art history has of attracting minorities," says Shearman. "The discipline as a whole has not convinced minorities they should take it."

Traditionally strong in Europe-American and Asian arts, the department is pushing to add Columbian, African-Oceanic, and eventually Afro-American art studies to the concentration.

Fine Arts would also like to incorporate photography and American art into the department. Shearman says he is hopeful that these curriculum changes will take place despite financial difficulties facing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "Harvard is not in a position where they can't reappoint or are in retrenchment," says Shearman. "They are not yet cutting academic programs."