George Alexander Kubler (26 July 1912 - 3 October 1996) was an American

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

and among the foremost scholars on the art of

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

America and Ibero-American Art.

Biography

Kubler was born in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, but most of his early education was in Europe. He attended high school at

Western Reserve Academy , motto_translation = Light and Truth , address = 115 College Street , city = Hudson , state = Ohio , zipcode = 44236-2999 , country = Unite ...

, a private, coeducational boarding school in Hudson,

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. He then went to

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

, where he earned an A.B. (1934), A.M. (1936) and Ph.D. degree (1940), the latter two under guidance of

Henri Focillon Henri Focillon (7 September 1881 – 3 March 1943) was a French art historian. He was the son of the printmaker Victor-Louis Focillon. He was Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Professor of Art History at the University of Lyon, at t ...

. From 1938 onwards, Kubler was a member of the Yale University faculty and was the first Robert Lehman Professor (1964-1975),

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a tenured faculty member considered the best in his or her field. It is akin to the rank of university professor at other universities. The appointment, made by the ...

of the History of Art (1975-1983) and after his retirement, a senior resident scholar. He received several awards, including three

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

s, an

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

Grant-in-Aid for research in Mexico and the

Order of the Aztec Eagle The Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle ( es, Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca) forms part of the Mexican Honours System and is the highest Mexican order awarded to foreigners in the country. History It was created by decree on December 29, 1933 ...

by the Mexican Government. He also was honored with several visiting lectureships and honorary degrees and was appointed the 1985-86 Kress Professor at the Center for Advanced Studies at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

in Washington, D.C. He was a member of both the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He was awarded the William Clyde DeVane Medal in 1991. Kubler's major theoretical work, The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things was a major influence on Esther Pasztory,

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...

, Ad Reinhardt, and Robert Morris, among others.Wood, P. (2006). Reality Check. In ''Oxford Art Journal'', 29(2), pp. 291-296. He also had a hand in the definition of "Portuguese plain architecture", naming this architectural period in light of his direct knowledge of a set of plain, simple buildings with almost no ornaments dating from the 16th century.

Works

Books

* ''Mexican architecture of the sixteenth century''. 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press 1948. * ''The Tovar Calendar'' (with

Charles Gibson Charles deWolf Gibson (born March 9, 1943) is an American broadcast television anchor, journalist and podcaster. Gibson was a host of ''Good Morning America'' from 1987 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2006, and the anchor of ''World News with Char ...

. Mem. Connecticut Aca. Arts and Sci., vol. 11. New Haven 1951. * ''The art and architecture of ancient America: the Mexican, Maya, and Andean Peoples''. New York: Penguin 1962. * ''The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things''. New Haven: Yale University Press 1962.

Articles

*"Population movements in Mexico, 1520-1600." ''Hispanic American Historical Review'', vol. 22(1942): 606-43 *"The Cycle of life and death in metropolitan Aztec Culture." ''Gazette des Beaux Arts'', 23(1943): 257-68. *"Chichen-Itza y Tula." Estudios de Cultura Maya, 1:(1961) 47-80. *"The iconography of the art of Teotihuacan: the pre-Columbian collection, Dumbarton Oaks. ''Studies in Pre-Columbiain Art and Archeologyl, no. 4. Washington, D.C. 1967.

References

External links

* George Alexander Kubler papers (MS 843). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

* Robert Horvitz
"A Talk with George Kubler"
''Artforum Magazine,'' October 1973, pages 32–34 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kubler, George 1912 births 1996 deaths American art historians American Mesoamericanists Yale University alumni Historians of Mexico Historians of Mesoamerican art 20th-century Mesoamericanists People from Hollywood, Los Angeles 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Western Reserve Academy alumni Yale Sterling Professors Historians from California American male non-fiction writers Members of the American Philosophical Society