Art
James Beck, Gadfly
(1930-2007)

James Beck, the art historian and longtime Columbia University professor, died at the age of 77 over the Memorial Day weekend. He was the art world’s professional irritant, best remembered for his protracted campaign during the 1980s to halt the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel, a cause to which he rallied not only fellow Renaissance specialists but a roster of contemporary art stars as well.
I felt at the time, and still do, that Beck was flat-out wrong, that his stance ignored Michelangelo’s entrenched belief in buon fresco technique (which allowed for a bare minimum of a secco overpainting—the very thing that Beck claimed was being erased by the cleaning), and that his attitude toward the Italian restoration team was more than a little condescending. Beck lost that one but was never out of the game. He soon came back swinging over the restoration of Jacopo della Quercia’s Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto (later conceded to be the disaster that Beck tried to prevent), Leonardo’s Last Supper and Michelangelo’s David, to name three of his more high-profile targets.
There are those who will remember Beck as a passionate advocate of unpopular causes, and just as many who will continue to regard him as a publicity-hungry hothead. These views are beside the point. He had the erudition, persuasiveness and guts to blow the whistle on our impulse to burnish our cultural heritage until it’s clean, shiny and odor-free. Refurbish a monument, so the thinking goes, and tourist dollars will follow—a concept no different from real estate development. Beck, however stridently, raised our awareness of how ruinous this path can be. We didn’t need him to be right; we just needed him to be there.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

Francis M. Naumann’s Mentors: The Making of an Art Historian
By Robert R. ShaneFEB 2020 | Art Books
An art historians memoir looks at the role of academic and artistic mentors through the lens of Duchamps readymade, exploring the ways in which we chose to adopt the characteristics and ideas of our influencers.

Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel
By Jonathan FinebergNOV 2021 | ArtSeen
That the unforgettably beautiful 18-year-old who modeled for Renoirs 1883 Dance at Bougival (in Bostons MFA) should turn out to be one of the great painters of the early 20th century is a puzzle designed to baffle any art historian of my generation.
Larry Day
By Conor LauesenDEC 21-JAN 22 | ArtSeen
Body Language: The Art of Larry Day celebrates the centenary year of Larry Day (192198), a visual maestro and brooding intellectual figure in post-war American art. Curated by British art historian David Bindman, the show is at a trio of Philadelphia sites.
Pure Meshuggah: Anti-Semitism Invades Art History
By Francis M. NaumannOCT 2021 | Art
In my four decades working in New York as an art historian, teacher and art dealer, I never imagined that racist politics and white supremacist viewpoints could contaminate my profession.