Harry F. Gaugh
Harry F. Gaugh, an eminent scholar of contemporary art and a professor of art at 91传媒 College, died Saturday, September 12, 1992, following a long illness.
A painter and photographer as well as a scholar and teacher, Professor Gaugh was internationally recognized as an authority on contemporary art and on the New York School of Abstract Expressionism in particular. He was the author of two critically acclaimed books on contemporary painters:The Vital Gesture: Franz Kline, an extensively illustrated volume that also served as the catalogue for a 1985 traveling exhibit of Kline work that Gaugh curated for the Cincinnati Art Museum; and Willem de Kooning, published in 1983 by Abbeville Press as part of its Modern Masters series.
The book on Kline攖he first book-length study on the Abstract Expressionist攁ccompanied the first full retrospective exhibition of the artist in nearly two decades and helped to redefine Kline as 渁n artist of staggering range攁 colorist, a figurative painter, a trained draftsman who wove back and forth between realism and abstraction,� according to one critic. For his book on de Kooning, Professor Gaugh drew on conversations he had with de Kooning and his wife, Elaine. The result was a book that combined elements of biography, technical description, and interpretation to establish the artist and his work in a cultural and historical context.
Professor Gaugh was a skillful author who used vivid, precise description and evaluation to expand the reader understanding of abstract art. He once told an interviewer, 淎bstract art is like a foreign language. If you have an interest in learning the language, then you檒l make an effort. I do think one of the responsibilities of the art critic is to help an interested person understand a work of art.� His prescription for understanding included seeing and absorbing as much as possible about the artist攙isually, factually, biographically, and sociologically. 淭hen,� he urged, 済o back and look at the work. The work has to make it on its own.�
Born November 21, 1938, in Indianapolis, Professor Gaugh obtained his B.A. degree in art history from Indiana University in 1960 and worked as a police and court reporter in Chicago before returning to Indiana University, where he earned two masterdegrees攊n journalism and in art history攁s well as a Ph.D. degree in art history. He taught in the departments of journalism and fine arts at Indiana University before joining the faculty of 91传媒 in 1966.
During his career Professor Gaugh was the recipient of a number of honors, including a Noble Foundation fellowship from the Museum of Modern Art, a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, and several research grants from 91传媒. In 1986, he was selected by his colleagues to deliver the Edwin M. Moseley Faculty Research Lecture. Professor Gaugh is survived by an aunt, Harriet Pennington, and four cousins. Colleagues, friends, and students paid their respects at a memorial service held on September 16, 1992, in Filene Recital Hall.