Harvard Art Research Duo Honored with Prestigious CAA Award
Top CAA Honor Awarded to Harvard University Art Museums Is Third Since 1996
Reinforces Dedication to and Leadership in Teaching and Research
Cambridge, MA (February 22, 2002) – In recognition of their collaborative work, associate curators Ron Spronk and Harry Cooper were awarded the College Art Association/Heritage Preservation Joint Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation. The award was accepted at an evening ceremony on February 20, 2002 in Philadelphia. Ron Spronk is associate curator for Research, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, and Harry Cooper is associate curator of modern art, Fogg Art Museum.
The award is being presented for the 12th time and is given to those who have contributed to the understanding of art by applying knowledge and experience in conservation and art history. Spronk and Cooper gained international renown for their scholarship and research surrounding 2001's exhibition Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings, which focused on a series of 17 works created in Europe and reworked in America during the artist's final years. The project was the culmination of extensive technical research and provided valuable insight into Mondrian's working process.
"The Art Museums are thrilled to receive this level of recognition for Ron and Harry's collaborative research efforts," said James Cuno, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums. "As an institution dedicated to the teaching, research, and preservation of art, we are truly honored by this award's recognition of two of our curatorial and conservation specialists and their work."
"The CAA/Heritage Preservation Award is a wonderful recognition of the importance of technical studies for art history," said Spronk. "I am also very pleased that the award recognizes the crucial importance of collaborations in this field, in this case between a modernist and a technical art historian.
"I am delighted that our intensive work on the Mondrian exhibition is being recognized by the scholarly community," said Cooper. "The award is a welcome validation of the slightly crazy premise of our project - that the technical analysis of artworks can join hands with connoisseurship, digital imaging, traditional art history and postmodern theory to throw light on one of the most important painters of the modern era."
The CAA was founded in 1911 to promote excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts and in creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art while also facilitating the exchange of ideas and information among those interested in the field. The CAA committee for 2001 was chaired by Joyce Hill Stoner, University of Delaware, Winterthur, and included Frank Zuccari, The Art Institute of Chicago; Joe Fronek, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and James Coddington, Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Past CAA award winners from the Harvard University Art Museums include Henry W. Lie, Director of the Straus Center for Conservation, 1997 and Marjorie B. Cohn, Carl A Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, Fogg Art Museum, in 1996.
About the Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums are among the world's leading arts
institutions, with the Arthur M. Sackler, Busch-Reisinger, and Fogg art
museums, the Straus Center for Conservation, the Center for the Technical
Study of Modern Art, and the U.S. headquarters for the Archaeological
Exploration of Sardis, an excavation project in western Turkey. The 150,000
objects in the art museums' collections range in date from ancient times
to the present and come from Europe, North America, North Africa, the
Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Each museum also
has an active program of special exhibitions that promotes new scholarship
in its areas of focus.
The Harvard University Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. As an integral part of the Harvard community, the three Art Museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension to their areas of study. The public is welcome to experience the collections and exhibitions as well as to enjoy lectures, symposia, and other programs.
For more than a century, the Harvard University Art Museums have been the nation's premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars and are renowned for their role in the development of the discipline of art history in this country.
Location and Hours
The Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum are located at
32 Quincy Street in Cambridge. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located
next door at 485 Broadway. Each Museum is a short walk from the Harvard
Square MBTA station.
Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., and the Museums are closed on national holidays. Admission is $5; $4 for seniors; $3 for students; and free for those under 18 years of age. The Museums are free to everyone all day on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. until noon. The Harvard University Art Museums receive support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. More detailed information is available on the Internet at www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.
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