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Otto Kurz (1908-1975)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

C. M. Kauffmann
C. M. Kauffmann*
Affiliation:
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London WC2R 0RN, UK
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Abstract

Otto Kurz was justly renowned on three accounts, as a scholar, a librarian and a human being. His publications and lectures ranged from ancient and medieval Near Eastern art and culture to Italian baroque painting; he built up the internationally renowned library of the Warburg Institute after the war and, as a human being, he was a role model to those who knew him, devotedly dedicated to his family in difficult circumstances and generously helpful to all.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , 2013 , pp. 25 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2013

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References

1. Gombrich, E.H., “Otto Kurz. 1908 - 1975,” Proceedings of the British Academy, LXV (1979): 719-35.Google Scholar
Further biographical information can be found in two other publications by Gombrich, : “The Services to Scholarship of Otto Kurz,” in Tributes: interpreters of cultural tradition (Oxford: Phaidon, 1984), 235-50;Google Scholar
and Obituary, Kurz’s, Burlington Magazine, 118, no. 874 (January 1976): 29–30. The author has also drawn upon personal recollections, especially 1953-58. Many thanks are also due to Dr Jill Kraye, the Warburg’s current librarian, and Elayne Trapp, for bibliographical references and helpful discussions.Google Scholar
2. Anon. [Trapp, J.B.], Otto Kurz 1908-1915 [Warburg Institute memorial leaflet] ([London: Warburg Institute], 1975), 4–14.Google Scholar
3. Kurz, Otto, “A Mexican Amulet against Kidney Stones” in Science, Mediane and Sodety in the Renaissance: essays to honor Walter Pagel, ed. by Debus, Allen G. (London: Heinemann, 1972), 81–85.Google Scholar
4. For the history of the library see: Gombrich, E.H., Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography. With a Memoir on the History of the Library by F. Saxl, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Phaidon, 1986), 129-32;Google Scholar
Warburg, Eric M., “The transfer of the Warburg Institute to England in 1933”, Warburg Institute Annual Report, 1952-53,13–16.Google Scholar
5. Forster, Kurt W., “Introduction” in The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity: Contributions to the Cultural History of the European Renaissance, by Warburg, A.; trans. Britt, David (Los Angeles: Getty Research Center, 1999), 3 Google Scholar
6. Gombrich, E.H., “Otto Kurz. 1908 – 1975”: 730.Google Scholar
7. Kurz’s correspondence from 1933, Warburg Institute Archives. Many thanks for help are due to the archivist, Dr Claudia Wedepohl.Google Scholar
8. Author’s personal recollections.Google Scholar
9. Author’s personal recollections.Google Scholar
10. Gombrich, E.H., “Otto Kurz. 1908 – 1975”: 734.Google Scholar
11. Anon [Trapp, J.B.], Otto Kurz 1908-1915, 3.Google Scholar