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Kirk Varnedoe
Kirk Varnedoe, 57, a noted art historian and a faculty member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Historical Studies, died August 14 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York following a long battle with cancer.
Prior to his appointment to the Institute for Advanced Study in January 2002, he served for 13 years as chief curator of painting and sculpture at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Before joining MoMA in 1985, he was a tenured full professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He previously taught at Columbia Law School, Columbia University, Stanford University, and Williams College, and served as the Slade Professor of Art History at Oxford University, Christensen Visiting Lecturer at Stanford University, and the Mellon Professor at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Born in Savannah, Ga., John Kirk Train Varnedoe earned a bachelor's degree in 1967 from Williams College, and a doctorate in 1972 from Stanford University.
"Kirk Varnedoe's distinguished scholarly record is notable for its exceptional range and for its pioneering role in key areas," said Phillip A. Griffiths, director of the Institute for Advanced Study. "His work has repeatedly been at the forefront of the history of modern art, and his numerous publications have reshaped and opened up a variety of fields within art history."
Dr. Varnedoe organized more than a dozen major exhibitions, both for MoMA and for other institutions. His credits included, at MoMA, "Van Gogh's Postman: The Portraits of Joseph Roulin" (2001); "Open Ends: Eleven Exhibitions of Contemporary Art from 1960 to Now" (2001, with Paola Antonelli and Joshua Siegel); "Jackson Pollock" (1999, with Pepe Karmel); "Jasper Johns: A Retrospective" (1997); "Cy Twombly: A Retrospective" (1995); "High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture" (1990, with Adam Gopnick); "Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture and Design" (1986); and "ŒPrimitivism' in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern" (1984, with William Rubin).
His publications on European and North American art of the 19th and 20th centuries "display a gift not only for rethinking large movements and ideas," said Professor Glen Bowersock, an Institute faculty member, "but also for close analysis of individual works of art. His scholarship has been instrumental in bringing marginal and neglected artists into the center of debate and in opening or reshaping entire fields of inquiry."
His many contributions to the discipline of art history began in 1972, when after a three-year period of research in Paris, mainly on the drawings of Rodin, his doctoral dissertation provided not only the first sound chronology of Rodin's drawings, but also the first critical examination of the epidemic problem of forgeries of the later drawings. He succeeded in identifying the forgers, and provided the first criteria for discriminating between the authentic and inauthentic drawings.
After completing his doctoral work, he turned to a new question: the seemingly incongruous overlaps of Realism and Symbolism in European art after 1860. This research resulted in his influential reevaluation of the then little-known Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte.
A year of research in Paris in 1977-78 allowed him to turn his attention to the history of photography. In subsequent articles, he examined the question of the influence of photography on Impressionist painting, effectively countering many prevailing ideas about the impact of photography on Monet, Degas, Caillebotte, and others.
From 1984 to 1990, he made a series of contributions related to the political and ethical implications of western artists' engagement with non-western art. In 1984 he co-organized, with William Rubin, a MoMA exhibition, "Primitivism in 20th Century Art," which explored the expressive power of art created by cultures then called "primitive."
He was the author of Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture, and Design (1986), Northern Light: Nordic Painting at the Turn of the Century (1988), A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern (1990), High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture (1990), and a series of books on major North American painters of the post-War era, including Cy Twombly (1994), Jasper Johns (1996), and Jackson Pollock (1998). The book on Jackson Pollock, written with Pepe Karmel, was awarded the Alfred Barr Prize by the College Art Association as well as the Henry Allen Moe Prize awarded by the New York State Historical Association.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1993, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1984, a Knighthood of the Royal Order of Donnebroge (Denmark) in 1983 and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 1977, among other honors. He was also an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a Member of the American Philosophical Society, a trustee of the National Humanities Center, a member of the steering committee of The New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers, and the recipient of two honorary degrees.
He is survived by his wife, the sculptor Elyn Zimmerman.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Frank E. Campbell Home in Manhattan. A Memorial Service will be held in New York in September.
Armand Borel, 80, an internationally recognized mathematician whose work was fundamental to the development and formation of modern mathematics, died August 11 in Princeton. Prof. Borel was a professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1957.
Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, he received his diploma from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1947 and his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1952. He served as an assistant and professor (1955-57; 1983-86) at the Swiss Federal Institute. He went to the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris in 1949, and then to the University of Geneva as a Professor of Algebra in 1950. From 1952 to 1954 he was a member in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, and, in 1957, was appointed a professor. He became professor emeritus in 1993.
In 1991, he received the American Mathematical Society's Steele Prize for lifelong contributions to mathematics. The award citation noted that Prof. Borel's work "provided the empirical base for a great swath of modern mathematics, and his observations pointed out the structures and mechanisms that became central concerns of mathematical activity."
His mathematical work centered on the theory of Lie groups. Because of the increasingly important place of this theory in the whole of mathematics, Prof. Borel's work came to influence some of the most important developments of contemporary mathematics. His first great achievement was to apply to Lie groups and homogenous spaces the techniques of algebraic topology developed by Leray, Cartan, and Steenrod. In 1992, he received the International Balzan Prize for Mathematics "for his fundamental contributions to the theory of Lie groups, algebraic groups and arithmetic groups, and for his indefatigable action in favor of high quality in mathematical research and of the propagation of new ideas."
He served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago, and as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, the University of Paris, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Yale University, and Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. In 1972, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva, and in 1978 was awarded the Brouwer Medal of the Dutch Mathematical Society.
A member of numerous scientific societies, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1987. He was also a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the French Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and Academia Europaea; and was an Honorary Fellow of the Tata Institute for Advanced Study.
A music lover, Prof. Borel initiated a concert series at the Institute in 1985, and directed the program through 1992. He also loved nature and wildlife, and until his recent illness was an active hiker.
He is survived by his wife, Gabrielle; and two daughters, Dominique Borel and Anne Borel, both of New York City.
Private funeral arrangements were handled by the Kimble Funeral Home.
Memorial contributions may be sent to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Ala. 36104; the Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington Va. 22203; or Public Citizen, 1600 20th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
Charles B. ("Chiz") Anderson, 85, of Princeton, died August 17.
Born in Sewickley, Pa., he attended Sewickley Academy, The Kent School, and Princeton University, Class of 1940. While at Princeton, he was president of Tiger Inn and the Nassau Club. He was a lifelong supporter of the University.
During World War II, he served with distinction as a forward air observer with the First Armored Division in the North African Theatre and in Italy. He was awarded the Silver Star for heroism during the Battle of Anzio.
Following military service, he served as president of Roxbury Carpet Co., Framingham, Mass., before returning to Princeton University to work in the Development and Planning Office. He retired from RBC Dain Rauscher in December, 2000. He served on the board of directors of Westminster Choir College.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Marian ("Miney"); four daughters, Lainey Anderson of Cambridge, Mass., Cynthia Anderson of Sausalito, Calif., Meg Ryan of Seattle, Wash., and Christine Anderson of Princeton Junction; a son, Duncan of Cary, N.C.; a sister, Allison Vulte of Coronado, Calif.; and eight grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. on Sunday, August 24 at Princeton University Chapel, with The Rev. Sue Anne Steffey Morrow officiating. A reception will follow at 6 p.m. at Windrows, 2000 Windrows Drive.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Westminster Choir College, 101 Walnut Lane, Princeton 08540.
Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home.
Henry Hemmendinger, 88, of Princeton, died August 16 at home. He was a widely recognized authority on color science.
Born in Bernardsville, he studied at Harvard and Princeton Universities. He received a Ph.D. in astronomy from Princeton in 1939 under the direction of Henry Norris Russell.
His career as a physicist working in color measurement, specification, and control spanned the last half-century, first in a partnership, Davidson and Hemmendinger, and later as a consultant operating Hemmendinger Color Lab from his home. He was a member of international committees and the recipient of numerous honors, most recently the Godlove Award of the lnter-Society Color Council.
In addition to his scientific work he was a passionate gardener who created a small oasis at his home. He was interested in plant propagation and worked with a local garden club on the cultivation of the rare blue gentian flower.
He was predeceased by his first wife Miriam; a daughter, Carol Selikowitz; and his long-time companion Sylvia Crane. He is survived by two sons, David of Schenectady, N.Y., and Mark of Mill Valley, Calif.; two brothers; and five grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service at his home at 2 p.m. on September 6.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Center for Constitutional Rights, 666 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10012; or The Nature Conservancy, 425 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Va. 22203.
Catherine Lightfoot Holland, 91, of Chesapeake, Va., died August 14 at Georgian Manor Assisted Living Facility in Chesapeake. She lived in Princeton from 1993 to 1998.
Born in Richmond, Va., one of 12 children, she moved with her family to Philadelphia in 1915. She left Princeton in 1998 to live in Virginia with her son and daughter-in-law.
She was a cook, seamstress and crafter until failing eyesight and declining health intervened. Her skills were evident in the sweaters, afghans, tablecloths and bedspreads she gave her friends and relatives.
She served in the Nurses' Guild and sang in church choirs. In Princeton she was a member of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, where she was active in the weekly Bible study and prayer group, and the Chime Choir.
Wife of the late Robert Holland Sr., she is survived by two sons, Robert Jr. of Chesapeake, Va., and Donald of Philadelphia; a daughter, Barbara Cooper of Princeton; three grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, August 23, at New Hope Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to New Hope Baptist Church, 4260 Pughsville Road, Suffolk, Va.
Miriam Steinberg Riskin, 82, of Princeton, died of cancer on August 14 at home.
Before moving to Princeton she was a teacher of Spanish in Highland Park and Great Neck, N.Y., and a resident of Rumson.
She is survived by two sons, Steven of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Kenneth of Newport, Ore.; a brother, Malcolm of Princeton; and three grandchildren.
