Robert E. Harrist Jr.

Robert E. Harrist Jr., a leading historian of the arts of China, has been named to the newly created Jane and Leopold Swergold Professorship in Chinese Art History in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia.

The Swergold Professorship was recently established by the gift of Jane and Leo Swergold, who are collectors of Chinese art. Leo Swergold is a 1962 graduate of Columbia College.

"Robert Harrist is a distinguished scholar who has made numerous contributions to the history of Chinese calligraphy and painting" said Provost Jonathan Cole. "Columbia is grateful for Jane and Leo Swergold's gift, which will enhance the University's century-old tradition in the study of China."

The Department of Art History and Archaeology works closely with the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALAC) to expand and deepen offerings in this field. The art history department pursues a dual mission, providing the most advanced graduate training and bringing the fruits of that training and research to nonspecialists through the general education curriculum of Columbia College. Columbia's programs in Chinese art are vastly enriched by the intellectual resources of EALAC, the East Asian Institute and Columbia's C.V. Starr East Asian Library, as well as by New York City's museums, galleries and private collections.

Harrist, a member of the Columbia faculty since 1997, is currently working on two books on the subject of calligraphy: one a general history of this art form and the other an exploration of monumental calligraphy, Reading Chinese Mountains: Calligraphy and the Experience of Landscape. His recent publications include The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection (Henry N. Abrams, 1999), a co-authored work with Wen C. Fong that accompanies the Elliott exhibition. He has also written Painting and Private Life in Eleventh-Century China: Mountain Villa by Li Gonglin (Princeton, 1998) and Power and Virtue: The Horse in Chinese Art (China Institute Gallery, 1997). His articles and essays cover such topics as Chinese gardens, theories of copying and replication, connoisseurship, and men's fashions in early 20th-century China.

Harrist came to Columbia from Oberlin College, where he had been associate professor of art and East Asian studies and director of the Program in East Asian Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Chinese art and archaeology in 1989 from Princeton University.

At Columbia, Harrist teaches the undergraduate Art Humanities course, "Masterpieces of Western Art," part of the Core Curriculum of Columbia College. He also offers introductory lectures and seminars on Chinese art that have attracted many students of Western art and non-majors as well as those with a serious professional interest in the field.

"The creation of the Swergold Professorship will help to assure Columbia's continued preeminence in the study of Chinese art," said David Rosand, the University's Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History. "In Bob Harrist, we have a truly wonderful first appointment to the position. Bob has significantly broadened the intellectual horizons of our students and, indeed, his colleagues, and he will set a high standard for all those who follow him."