James S. Plaut

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James Sachs Plaut (born February 1, 1912 in Cincinnati , † January 1, 1996 in Boston ) is an American art historian and museum founder.

Life

The son of the affluent family of Jacob M. and Alice Plaut, geb. Sachs, graduated from Harvard University in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts. He was married to Mary E. Friedlander. From 1935 he taught art history at the university. He assisted the curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and left this house to found the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 1939 and to organize exhibitions of the works of Alexander Calder , Frank Lloyd Wright , Georges Rouault and Oskar Kokoschka . In 1940 he organized a Picasso retrospective.

In 1943, as the chief interrogator in the US Navy , he interrogated German submarine crews captured in north-west African waters . From November 1944 to April 1946 he worked with two other art historians and naval officers from the art theft investigation unit of the Office of Strategic Services on the return of looted art in Germany.

Decorated twice, he retired in April 1946 after four years of active service as Lieutenant Commander and again led the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, which he had founded. In 1948 he set up an exhibition of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier . In 1950 he exhibited the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch for the first time overseas . In 1953, modern painting from Israel was on view in Boston. In 1956 Plaut showed works by Francis Bacon , Marc Chagall , Alberto Giacometti , Franz Marc , Henry Moore and Egon Schiele in the exhibition "Expressionism, 1900–1955" .

He resigned as director of the institute in 1956 and from 1958 took care of the American pavilion at Expo 58 in Brussels. As Secretary General of the World Crafts Council , he promoted the marketing of handicrafts from the Third World. From 1967 to 1976 he advised the creation of industrial design in Israel. In 1976 he and his wife Mary founded “ Aid to Artisans ”, a network for artisans to promote innovation, sustainable growth and the common good.

Works

  • Steuben Glass, a monograph . H. Bittner, New York, 1948
  • with Octavio Paz: Oskar Kokoschka . Chanticleer Press for the Institute of Contemporary Art, New York, 1948
  • In Praise of Hands: Contemporary Crafts of the World . New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, 1974
  • with Paul N. Perrot: Steuben: Seventy Years of American Glassmaking . Praeger, New York, 1974

Web links

  • Plaut in the Dictionary of Art Historians
  • Obituary , New York Times, Jan 17, 1996, p. 17

Individual evidence

  1. ^ When modern and contemporary art broke up , The Boston Globe, July 28, 2013
  2. ^ Plaut at the Monuments Men Foundation
personal data
SURNAME Plaut, James S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plaut, James Sachs
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American art historian and museum founder
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Cincinnati
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1996
Place of death Boston