William Ivins Jr.
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William Mills Ivins Jr. (1881–1961) was curator of the department of prints at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
,
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, from its founding in 1916 until 1946, when he was succeeded by
A. Hyatt Mayor Alpheus Hyatt Mayor (1901–1980) was an American art historian and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a leading figure in the study of prints, both old master prints and popular prints. Biography Early life A. Hyatt Mayor's father ...
. The son of William Mills Ivins Sr. (1851–1915), a
public utility A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...
lawyer who had been the 1905 Republican candidate for
Mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...
, Ivins studied at
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
and the
University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...
before graduating in
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
from
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in 1907. After nine years' legal practice, he was asked to take on the conservation and interpretation of the Met's print collection. He built up the remarkable collections that can be seen there today, and he wrote many prefaces to exhibition catalogues, as well as other, occasional pieces which were later collected and published. His best-known book is ''Prints and Visual Communication'' (
MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...
, 1969, (first published 1953 by
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
)), and his ''How Prints Look'' (1943, revised edition 1987) remains in print. He was influential on
Philip Hofer ''Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten'' ("Good Times, Bad Times"), often abbreviated ''GZSZ'', is a long-running German television soap opera, first broadcast on RTL in 1992. The programme concerns the lives of a fictional neighborhood in Germany's ...
, curator of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts,
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at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.Duroselle-Melish, Caroline. “Containers of Ideas”: The Collection of Printmaking Artifacts of Philip Hofer." ''Harvard Library Bulletin'' 24 (Spring 2013): 45-65.


See also

*
Visual communication Visual communication is the use of visual elements to convey ideas and information which include (but are not limited to) signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, advertising, animation, and electronic resourc ...


References


External links


ObituaryWilliam Mills Ivins papers at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivins, William Jr. 1881 births 1961 deaths American art critics American art curators Harvard College alumni Columbia Law School alumni American art historians 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni American male non-fiction writers Members of the Men's League