Freyda Spira (MET), "William Ivins, Philip Hofer and the Art of the Book"

You are cordially invited to attend a Frances and Philip Hofer lecture

By Freyda Spira

Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints,

Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Ivins,

Philip Hofer and the Art of the Book

Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 5:30 p.m.

Lamont Library, Forum Room

Followed by a reception Houghton Library, Edison and Newman Room

(No R.S.V.P. required)

William Ivins asserted at the beginning of his tenure as founding curator of prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The print collection of a museum cannot be formed solely upon Yes and No answers to the question: Is it a work of art? Rather must it be, like the library of a professor of literature, composed of a corpus of prints in themselves distinctly works of art, filled out and illustrated by many prints which have only a technical historical importance.” Ivins’s lifelong devotion to the art of the book deeply influenced his own collecting practices across the vast range of printed matter. For Ivins, every work of art was a book, a physical thing and a container of ideas, to be seen, studied, and circulated. This lecture will explore how Ivins’s approach to books influenced the phenomenal and wide-ranging collecting practices of Philip Hofer.

For further information please contact Hope Mayo

at mayo@fas.harvard.edu or 617-495-2444