John White (art historian)

John Edward Clement Twarowski White, CBE (b. 1924) is an English former art historian and was formerly the head of the Department of History of Art at the University College London (UCL).[1] In 1992 he was made an Honorary Fellow of UCL.[2] He is also the author of a number of books on Medieval and Renaissance art, as well as on the artist Duccio of Siena.

White went straight from Ampleforth School to the Royal Air Force, where he became a Spitfire flying instructor based in Canada. After the war he came back to the United Kingdom and became a student of Anthony Blunt at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and who was keeper of the Queen's art collection and subsequently exposed as a Russian spy. White has a number of mentions in Blunt's biography.

White went from the Courtauld Institute of Art to Cambridge and then on to an academic career which included the Art History department at Johns Hopkins University. Alexander White visiting professor University of Chicago, 1958; Pilkington professor of history of art University of Manchester and director of Whitworth Art Gallery 1959-66, Ferens visiting professor of fine art University of Hull 19961-62; Chairman Art Advisory Panel NW Museum and Art Gallery Services 1966-66; professor of history of art and chairman Department of History of Art Johns Hopkins University Baltimore 1977-71;UCL: Durning-Lawrence professor of history of art UCL 1971-90, vi

White is also a poet with a number of volumes to his credit, including a book of English poems translated into Japanese and published in Japan called The Breath in the Flute. Although not a Buddhist, he has had a long association with a Buddhist temple, Shogyoji, a Shin Buddhist (Pure Land) Temple in southern Japan, as well as a branch of the temple, Three Wheels, in London.

In his later years, White is a glider pilot, having taken up gliding 50 years after he last piloted a Spitfire. He flies at Dunstable and holds the diamond certificate for glider pilots, having completed 500 km and 25.000 in altitude (he achieved this after his 80th birthday). He resides in London.

Selected works

Notes

  1. ^ History of Art Degree Program Prospectus 2010 - University College London. "The History of Art Department has evolved in this century from the establishment of the Durning-Lawrence Professorship in 1926; this was originally attached to the Slade School of Fine Art. The Chair was held in succession by Tancred Borenius, Rudolph Wittkower and Sir Ernst Gombrich. In the early 1960s, with the addition of new members of staff, a separate History of Art Department was created under Leopold Ettlinger. Under the leadership of Professor John White, Professor David Bindman and Professor Helen Weston, this has grown over the years to become a department of 14 full-time teaching staff together with part-time lecturers and academically related staff who also do some teaching."
  2. ^ Honorary Fellows of University College London. "Professor John Edward Clement Twarowski WHITE, CBE, MA, PhD; Emeritus (Durning-Lawrence); Professor of History of Art, UCL; Dean of the Faculty of Arts, UCL, 1976-79; Vice-Provost, UCL, 1984-88 and subsequently Pro-Provost for External Affairs. [1992]."