PAULA HAYS HARPER (1930–2012)

Denise Grady reports in the New York Times that art historian Paula Hays Harper has passed away. According to Grady, Harper was known as “one of the first art historians to bring a feminist perspective to the study of painting and sculpture.” A coauthor of a biography on Camille Pissarro, Harper was a lecturer at the California Institute of the Arts, where she led the original class at the institute’s groundbreaking feminist art program—in collaboration with artists Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro—to organize “Womanhouse,” which at the time was one of the biggest exhibitions ever to feature art by and about women. Harper was also an art critic, writing for the Miami News and Art in America.