Horst W. Janson

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Horst W. Janson (as the author mostly HW Janson , also Peter Janson , full name Horst Woldemar Janson ; born October 4, 1913 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire , † September 30, 1982 ) was a German-American art historian , curator and university professor.

Life

Janson was born in St. Petersburg. His parents were originally from Scandinavia. The October Revolution caused the family to move to Germany in 1917. In Hamburg, Janson attended the Wilhelm Gymnasium , which he graduated from high school in 1932. He studied in Munich in 1932 and in Hamburg from 1933, with Erwin Panofsky until his emigration. Janson was hostile to National Socialism and changed his first name Horst to Peter in response to the Horst Wessel song . For political reasons he emigrated to the USA in 1935 with the support of Alfred Barr and continued his studies at Harvard University ; the parents and a brother who died in 1943 stayed behind in Germany.

At Harvard University, Janson took his master's degree in 1938. There he was from 1936 to 1937 assistant at the Fine Arts Department, at the Worcester Art Museum from 1936 to 1938 an adjunct professor and lecturer, and from 1938 to 1941 lecturer at Iowa State University . In 1941 he married Dora Heineberg. In the same year, in 1941, Janson was appointed assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis . With the dissertation The Sculptured Works of Michelozzo di Bartolommeo Janson received his doctorate in 1941 or 1942. His son Anthony was born in 1943; in the same year, Janson received US citizenship.

At Washington University he was a member of the Art Collection Committee, which in 1945 set itself the task of redesigning the extensive art collection. Janson had been the curator of the collections since 1944; he was the driving force behind the selection and purchase of modern art. The university auctioned works that did not fit into the collection. The works sold included Frederic Remington's Dash fort he Timber from 1889 as the most profitable at $ 23,000 , as well as other works from the 19th century by artists such as Rosa Bonheur , Dwight William Tryon or Horatio Walker .

With the purchase of more than 40 graphics, paintings and sculptures, mostly at Janson's suggestion, the Art Collection Committee founded the first collection of modern art at the University of St. Louis in 1945/46. This included works by Georges Braque , Theo van Doesburg , Max Ernst and Joan Miró . American representatives of Abstract Expressionism such as Jackson Pollock rejected Janson, and he also renounced works of the German New Objectivity . In 1949 Janson moved to New York University , where he taught at the Institute of Fine Arts.

Janson has published a large number of articles on the Renaissance and modern art, including in the Magazine of Art . His main work was the book History of Art published in 1962 , which had a circulation of 2.5 million copies by 1982 and was published in 14 languages. In 1978 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Janson died on September 30, 1982 while on a train from Zurich to Milan.

Aftermath

The exhibition "Exile and Modernity - HW Janson and the Washington University Collection in St. Louis" was shown in Germany in 2005/2006. The exhibition venues were the Opel villas in Rüsselsheim , the Angermuseum in Erfurt, the St. Annen art gallery in Lübeck and the Museum of New Art in Freiburg. The exhibition included works by artists such as Max Beckmann, Lyonel Feininger and Jean Hélion to Jackson Pollock .

literature

  • Ingrid Erhardt (Ed.): Exile and Modernity - HW Janson and the collection of Washington University in St. Louis . Heidelberg 2004 ISBN 3-89904-139-9
  • Janson, Horst Woldemar , in: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical manual of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism. Part 1: A – K. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 332-338.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm-Gymnasium Hamburg, 1881-1981 . Höwer Verlag, Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-922995-00-4 , p. 288. (Abitur class "Easter 1932 / Class IAd 2 (Lüssenhop)")
  2. ↑ Biography on Dictionary of Art Historians (English)
personal data
SURNAME Janson, Horst W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Janson, HW; Janson, Peter; Janson, Horst Woldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American art historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1982