Deborah Kahn

Deborah Kahn is an academic specialising in European Medieval art and architecture. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, she studied for her MA and Ph.D at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Working for George Zarnecki she helped organise the 1984 Hayward Gallery Exhibition, ''English Romanesque Art 1066 - 1200''. She later acted as a consultant on sculpture and conservation to Canterbury and Lincoln Cathedrals.

Deborah Kahn
Academic background
Alma materThe Courtauld Institute of Art
Doctoral advisorGeorge Zarnecki
Academic work
DisciplineHistory of Art
Sub-disciplineMedieval studies, Romanesque art

She became Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Art History at Columbia University from 1986-1987. She went on to work at Princeton University between 1989-1991, before joining Boston University in 1996, where she is currently Associate Professor, Department of Art History, with tenure. She is the author of two books, as well as numerous articles and conference papers.

Her next book, ''The Politics of Sanctity'', is due to be published in 2021.

Scholarship

Kahn studied for both her M.A. and PhD at the Courtauld Institute, completing in 1982 with a thesis "Romanesque Architecture Sculpture in Kent".[1] She studied with George Zarnecki, and her method of study focused more on contextual considerations combined with the formalist approaches that Zarnecki was known for.[2]

During her time at the Courtauld, she along with many other academics, contributed photographs to the Conway Library, an archive of historical architectural images, which is in the process of being digitised.[3]

In 1984 she worked for Zarnecki as Chief Research Officer and Administrator for his Hayward Gallery exhibition ''English Romanesque Art 1066 - 1200''. This was recognised as the greatest collection of early medieval English art ever brought at that time into this country, it was in many respects the crowning achievement of George’s career.[4] The Catalogue remains a widely used reference document.[5]

''Canterbury Cathedral and its Romanesque Sculpture'' was published in 1991. Contemporary scholarly reviews tended to praise the book, which built on the theories of George Zarnecki rather than challenging them, best summarised by Jill Franklin in the Burlington Review as '' a careful, unpretentious and conventional study of one of the major ensembles of English romanesque architecture''.[6] No equivalent major study has been published to date. Whilst there have been several articles analysing specific detail, their references would indicate that her book remains a core foundation for any subsequent research on the subject.

Historians have both questioned Kahn's work, and continued to build on it:

  • In an otherwise positive review in 1998 - '' In one of the best books of its kind, Deborah Kahn has presented a wealth of material on Canterbury without becoming lost in the isolation of her subject''[7] - John James contended she should have commented in more detail on the historical events which disrupted the building programme in the mid 12th century.
  • In developing Zarnecki's arguments, she draws parallels between the patterns of capital carving and the contemporary decoration in manuscripts. In 2017, Richard Gameson challenged this as an assumption in his essay ''The Romanesque Crypt Capitals of Canterbury Cathedral''.[8]
  • Kahn had challenged the arguments in Francis Woodman's book published in 1981, ''The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral''.[9] In particular, they disagreed about the provenance of a group of finely carved fragments discovered in the 1970s. Fragments continue to be unearthed, resulting in fresh research and insights. Most recently, in 2019 Carolyn Marino Malone published ''Twelfth Century Sculptural Finds at Canterbury Cathedral''.[10] She supports Kahn's arguments, but suggests minor revisions to the dates of construction.[11]

Professional service
  • Chief Research Officer and Administrator for the Arts Council of Great Britain Hayward Gallery Exhibition, ''English Romanesque Art 1066 - 1200'' (exhibition held 1984)
  • Consultant on Medieval Sculpture for the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral 1982 - 1988
  • Consultant on Medieval Sculpture for the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral 1986 - 1988
  • Contributing Editor to the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in the British Isles (position funded by the British Academy in London).[12]

Honours and awards

Kahn was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1984.[13] She was awarded a Mellon Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City between 1987 - 1988.

Books
  • Canterbury Cathedral and its Romanesque Sculpture, London, Harvey Miller Press/University of Texas Press, 1991
  • The Romanesque Frieze and its Spectator, (editor), London, Harvey Miller Press/Oxford University Press, 1992

References
  1. Glass, Dorothy F. (1994). International Census of Doctoral Dissertations in Medieval Art, 1982-93. International Center of Medieval Art. p. 18.
  2. Rudolph, Conrad (2019-05-07). A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe. John Wiley & Sons. p. 446. ISBN 978-1-119-07772-5.
  3. "Who made the Conway Library?". Digital Media. 2020-06-30. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  4. Crossley, Paul (2008). "Obituary". British Academy Journal.
  5. English Romanesque Art 1066 - 1200. Hayward Gallery. 1984.
  6. Franklin, Jill (1992). "Review: Canterbury Cathedral and its Romanesque Sculpture". The Burlington Review.
  7. James, John (1998). "Review: Canterbury Cathedral and its Romanesque Sculpture". Parergon, the Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 16 (1).
  8. Gameson, Richard (2017). "The Romanesque Crypt Capitals of Canterbury Cathedral". Kent Archaeological Journal.
  9. Woodman, Francis (1981). The Architectural history of Canterbury Cathedral.
  10. Malone, Carolyn Marino (2019). Twelfth Century Sculptural Finds at Canterbury Cathedral. ISBN 978-1789252309.
  11. Samuel, Mark (2020). "Review: Twelfth Century Sculptural finds at Canterbury Cathedral". Current Archaeology. 363.
  12. "Supporters of CRSBI - CRSBI". www.crsbi.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  13. "Dr Deborah Kahn". Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
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