Barbara J. Novak (born 1929) is an American art historian.[1][2] She was the Helen Goodhart Altschul Professor of Art History at Barnard College from 1958 to 1998.[1]
Barbara Novak | |
|---|---|
| Spouse | Brian O'Doherty |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (1974) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Art history |
| Institutions | |
Biography
editNovak was born in New York City in 1929.[2] She grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens and took art courses with Belle Icahn, mother of financier Carl Icahn.[2] She also studied at the Art Students League of New York and Parsons School of Design.[2]
Novak graduated from Barnard College in 1950 and attended Radcliffe College for graduate work.[3] She was trained under Rubens and Rembrandt scholar Julius S. Held at Barnard and under Jakob Rosenberg at Radcliffe.[4] She received a Fulbright fellowship in 1953 to pursue her dissertation on the Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole and Asher Durand.[1] Novak joined the Barnard College faculty in 1958.[1]
Novak published American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism and the American Experience in 1969.[1] Her second book, Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875, was described as "the most important contribution to the understanding of nineteenth-century American art that has been written in our generation" by John I. H. Baur of the Whitney Museum of American Art and was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times.[1][5] The book was also the National Book Award for Nonfiction finalist in 1982.[6]
Her most recent book Voyages of The Self: Pairs, Parallels, and Patterns in American Art and Literature was included in the Oxford University Press trilogy American Painting of the Nineteenth Century, Nature and Culture.[4]
Novak received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974.[7]
Personal life
editNovak married the Irish art critic Brian O'Doherty in 1960.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g admin (2018-02-21). "Novak, Barbara J." Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. Research Guide to the History of Western Art. Sources of Information in the Humanities, no. 2. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982, pp. 149-50; "Barbara Novak." Challenging Art: Artforum 1962-1974. Newman, Amy, ed. New York: Soho Press, 2000, p. 478. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
- ^ a b c d "Oral history interview with Barbara Novak, 2013 October 8-17 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
- ^ "Shaping the Future: Barnard Scholarship Dinner and Auction". Barnard College. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
- ^ a b Bell, Phong Bui and Adrienne Baxter (2007-04-02). "Barbara Novak with Adrienne Baxter Bell and Phong Bui". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
- ^ "Barnard Honors Barbara Novak at Art History Symposium on Oct. 2". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
- ^ "Barbara Novak". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
- ^ "Barbara Novak". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2022-05-24.