Alessandra Comini

Alessandra Comini (born November 24, 1934)^[1] is an American art historian and curator. She is University Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University.

Comini’s book Egon Schiele’s Portraits (1974) was nominated for a National Book Award (1975) and received the College Art Association’s Charles Rufus Morey Book Award (1976). Comini’s book The Changing Image of Beethoven: A Study in Mythmaking (1987) was a pioneer application of reception history to imagery. Proficient in music and languages as well as art history, Comini brought an interdisciplinary approach to her study of the arts in Austria and Germany at the turn of the 20th century, an approach particularly suited to the integrated art forms of fin-de-siècle Vienna.

In 1990 Comini was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria in recognition of her contributions to Germanic culture.

Early life and education

Alessandra Comini was born the daughter of Megan Laird and Raiberto Comini in Winona, Minnesota. Her earliest years were spent in Barcelona, Milan, and Dallas. Comini received her BA from Barnard College (1956), her MA from the University of California at Berkeley (1964), and her PhD "with distinction" from Columbia University (1969).

Academic career

While teaching at Columbia (1965–74) Comini was one of the founders of the Women’s Caucus for Art (1972). She taught at Southern Methodist University (1974-2005) and guest taught at the University of California, Berkeley (1967) and at Yale University (1973). Voted outstanding professor sixteen times by her students, Comini served as the Alfred Hodder Resident Humanist at Princeton University (1972-1973) and was named Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at Oxford University’s European Humanities Research Centre (1996).

Celebrated for her witty, erudite, and compelling public lectures, Comini has been in demand as a guest speaker nationally and internationally. As an interdisciplinary speaker, Comini lectured repeatedly at the Leipzig Gewandhaus symposia, The Santa Fe Opera, and for the Indianapolis and Dallas Symphony Orchestras.

In 2014 Comini turned to fiction writing and published five art history murder mystery novels in the Megan Crespi Series.^[2]

The Neue Galerie Museum for German and Austrian Art, New York, commissioned Comini to curate its blockbuster exhibition Egon Schiele’s Portraits (2014–15).^[3]

Honors and awards

• 1995 – Women’s Caucus for Art, Lifetime Achievement Award
• 1996 – United Methodist Church Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award
• 2002 – Texas Hall of Fame nomination
• 2005 – Comini Lecture Series established, Southern Methodist University
• 2010 – Medal of Honor, Veteran Feminists of America
• 2011 – Distinguished Alumna Award, Barnard College
• 2012 – International Symposium, Neulengbach, Austria, "Alessandra Comini und Neulengbach"^[4]

Selected publications

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Alessandra Comini, OCLC/WorldCat OCLC/WorldCat (retrieved June 21, 2016) encompasses about 200 works.

• Schiele in Prison, Greenwich, New York Graphic Society, 1973. ISBN 0-8212-0537-4
• Egon Schiele's Portraits, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1974, 1990. ISBN 0-520-01726-9 (new edition, 2014, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press ISBN 978-1-63293-012-5)
• Gustav Klimt, New York, George Braziller, 1975 (French, German, and Dutch editions; reissued 1986, 1990, 1994, 2001) ISBN 0-8076-0805-X
• Egon Schiele, New York, George Braziller, 1976 (Italian, French, German, and Dutch editions; reissued 1986, 1994, 2001) ISBN 0-8076-0819-X
• The Fantastic Art of Vienna, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1978. ISBN 0-394-50263-9 (new edition 2016, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press ISBN 978-1-63293-153-5)
• "The Visual Brahms: Idols and Images," Arts Magazine, 1979
• "The Age of Goethe Today: Of Plum Trees, Painters, Pianists, and Pamphleteers," Arts Magazine, 1988
• The Changing Image of Beethoven: A Study in Mythmaking, New York, Rizzoli, 1987, new edition 2008, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press ISBN 0-8478-0617-0
• "Gender or Genius? The Women Artists of German Expressionism," Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany, Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds., New York, Harper & Row, 1982. ISBN 0-06-430525-2
• "Nordic Luminism and the Scandinavian Response to Impressionism," World Impressionism, Norma Broude, ed., New York, H. N. Abrams, 1990. ISBN 0-8109-1774-2
• "Siegesallee und Salome," Kunst und Politik in den entscheidenden Jahren von Richard Strauss, Leipzig, Gewandhaus, 1991
• "Kollwitz in Context: The Formative Years," Käthe Kollwitz, Elizabeth Prelinger, ed., New Haven, Yale University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-300-05729-6
• "Violetta And Her Sisters," Violetta And Her Sisters: The Lady of the Camellias, Responses to the Myth, Nicholas John, ed., London, Faber and Faber, 1994. ISBN 0-571-16665-2
• "Toys in Freud’s Attic," Picturing Children: Construction of Childhood between Rousseau and Freud, Marilyn Brown, ed., Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 2002. ISBN 0-7546-0277-X
• In Passionate Pursuit—A Memoir, New York, George Braziller, Inc., 2004. ISBN 0-8076-1523-4 (new edition 2016, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press ISBN 978-1-63293-140-5)
• Egon Schiele: Portraits, Alessandra Comini ed., "Egon Schiele: Redefining Portraiture in the Age of Angst," Munich, Prestel, 2014. ISBN 978-3-7913-5419-4
• "The Two Gustavs: Klimt, Mahler, and Vienna’s Golden Decade, 1887-1907," Naturlauf: Scholarly Journals toward Gustav Mahler, Essays in Honour of Henry-Louis de La Grange for His 90th Birthday, Paul-André, ed., New York, Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2015. ISBN 978-1-43312530-0
• Killing for Klimt, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1-63293-025-5
• The Schiele Slaughters, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-63293-025-5
• The Kokoschka Capers, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-63293-077-4
• The Munch Murders, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press, 2016. ISBN 978-1-61139-448-1
• The Kollwitz Calamities, Santa Fe, Sunstone Press, 2016. ISBN 978-1-63293-157-3

External links

• "Alessandra Comini," Dictionary of Art Historians Dictionary of Art Historians, retrieved June 21, 2016
• "Alessandra Comini, The Changing Image of Beethoven: A Study in Mythmaking, Publishers Weekly, 1987
• "A lifetime of artistic insight," Lucie Lehmann-Barclay, Christian Science Monitor, October 12, 2004, retrieved June 21, 2016.
• "Alessandra Comini, Biography, In Passionate Pursuit—A Memoir," Booklist, Steve Paul, 2004, American Library Association, retrieved June 21, 2016.
• George Braziller, Encounters: My Life in Publishing [georgebraziller.com], New York, George Braziller, Inc. 2015. ISBN 978-0-8076-0016-0
• Official website
• www.megancrespi.com

References