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In 1926 when matriculation into New Jersey Law School (later Rutgers University Law School) simply required “18 years of age” and “good moral character,” Sydney Leon Jacobs (1904-1996), a Jersey City High School graduate, began his study of law. After graduating cum laude in 1929, he practiced law in New Jersey for nearly fifty years. In 1993, he endowed the Jacobs/Mitnick American Art Fund with his daughter, Barbara Jacobs Mitnick. Dr. Mitnick earned her PhD in the Department of Art History at Rutgers in 1983 under the supervision of Professor Emeritus Matthew Baigell and went on to publish widely on American history painting. In 2007, Dr. Mitnick expanded the fund to support an annual lecture series named in memory of her father, who shared her love for the study of American history and culture. The lectures by distinguished scholars of American art are intended to promote the professional development of Rutgers students. We owe warm thanks to Barbara Mitnick for her generous support of the department.

Sidney Leon Jacobs as Law Clerk for Charles Hendickson, Jersey City. ca. 1929

In February 2008, Thomas Crow, Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York, inaugurated the series with his talk, “Screen Memories in the Art of Ed Ruscha: Los Angeles as a Pop City.” The second lecture will be delivered by Martin Berger, Professor of Art and Visual Culture at the University of California at Santa Cruz, on March 4, 2009, 4:30-6pm, in the Zimmerli Art Museum. A recipient of the American Culture Association's Cawelti Book Award in 2006, Professor Berger’s book, Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture (University of California Press), offered a new way of understanding a wide variety of visual media in relation to ideas about race in modern American culture. His lecture, “Civil Rights Photography and the Politics of Race in 1960s America,” will present new material related to his current book project on Civil Rights photography. Wanda Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History at Stanford University, will be our third distinguished speaker--save the date: November 3, 2009 (note the switch from winter to fall!).

We invite all alumni, students and friends of the department to attend Dr. Berger’s lecture and look forward to seeing you this at this event.

Department of Art History
Voorhees Hall
71 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Tel: 732-932-7041
Fax: 732-932-1261

Catherine Puglisi, Chairperson

Erik Thunø , Undergraduate Director

Susan Sidlauskas, Graduate Program Director

Cathy Pizzi, Department Administrator

Geralyn Colvil, Student Coordinator

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