Philipp Pinchas Fehl (May 9, 1920 – September 11, 2000) was an Austrian born American artist and art historian.
Early life Fehl was born in Vienna, Austria, to Hugo Fehl and Friederike "Frieda" Fehl (née Beck - previous married name Singer). He was the cousin of the renowned ballet photographer Fred Fehl. His older cousin, Paul Eisler, attended Gymnasium, and Fehl determined that he also wanted this classical higher education for gifted students.
Fehl became a refugee in 1938, eventually emigrating to the United States in 1941. He became an artist, author and lecturer at several universities. He retired as professor emeritus from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1990. In the same year he and his wife the classicist Raina Fehl, initiated the Cicognara Project at the Vatican Library.
He was accepted and attended Bundes Real Gymnasium and continued to attend school after the Anschluß. After Matura, (graduation), he emigrated to England. He worked for a time in Birmingham as an apprentice commercial artist with the firm Stagg Displays before immigrating to the United States of America in 1940, becoming a citizen in 1943.
From 1940 to 1942, Fehl attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied painting. In 1943, he transferred to Stanford University, where he got his B.A. in Romance Languages. In 1948, Fehl received his M.A. in History of Art from Stanford University. Fehl was at the University of Chicago from 1948 to 1952. He was one of the graduate students participating in the Committee on Social Thought. In 1963 he received g a Ph.D. with a dissertation on "The Classical Monument: Reflections on the Connection Between Morality and Art in Greek and Roman Sculpture." In 1972 a version of this study was published by the New York University Press.
Career
Early work
From 1941 through 1942 he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fine Arts, Painting. In 1943 he enrolled in the US Army. From 1945 to 1946 he worked as instructor to the Office of the Provost Marshal General's re-educational program for German Prisoners of War at Camp Butner, North Carolina. In 1945 he married Raina Fehl daughter of the writer Erich Fritz Schweinburg, also born in Vienna. After his discharge from the Army, he and Raina were given appointments as interrogators at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal (1946–1947).
Through his work at the trials, he became well acquainted with a number of war criminals who had exercised direct influence on German art as well as others who committed crimes against humanity. He gives detailed descriptions of his work at the trials in the portion of his memoirs entitled "The Ghosts of Nuremberg", The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 229, no. 3, March 1972, 70–80.
He returned to Stanford University, taking a B.A. in Romance Languages, French, and an M.A. in History of Art. His Master's Thesis, "A Stylistic Analysis of Some Propaganda Posters of World War II", 1948, showed the existence, and defined the formal manifestations of the international "Blut und Boden" style which governed the propaganda art of countries confronting each other in World War II. In 1948 he moved back to Chicago, where he continued his studies at the University of Chicago in painting and graphic arts as well as history of art. At the University of Chicago, he was friends with the now renowned philosopher, Seth Benardete and the comedians Severn Darden, Elaine May and Mike Nichols. In 1963 he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago; Philipp Fehl was one of the graduate students participating in the Committee on Social Thought, and his thesis, The Classical Monument: Reflections on the Connection Between Morality and Art, was written under the committee's aegis (his thesis was partly published in 1972 as "The Classical Monument", see bibliography).
Teaching He and his work are discussed in the comic-philosophical novel Harmony Junction by Goddard Graves (2009, privately published).
While studying he also began to teach, 1949–1950 photography with the Youth Program of Temple Sinai, Chicago, 1951–1952 as director of The Bateman School, Chicago, 1951–1954 as a lecturer in art at University College, University of Chicago ("Experimental figure drawing according to 18th century methods") and 1951–1963 as an instructor in Home Studies, University of Chicago ("Elementary Figure Drawing in the Academic Tradition"). He started academic teaching in 1951 as a lecturer at the University of Chicago and, after holding a number of other academic appointments and receiving numerous honours (see list), retired in 1990 as Professor Emeritus from the University of Illinois.
He began to make pen and ink drawings of bird like characters (who closely resembled him physically) dressed in the peruke and trousers of the 18th century. He called these drawings "capricci". The bulk of these capricci are now preserved in the Exile's archives at the German National Library, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
University College, University of Chicago. Lecturer, 1951–1954. Department of Home Study, University of Chicago. Instructor (part-time), 1951–1963. University of Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri. Instructor, 1952–1954. University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Assistant Professor, later associate professor, 1954–1963. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Associate Professor, later Professor, 1963–1969. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Professor 1969 - 1990. Professor Emeritus, 1990-. Director, Summer Seminar for College Teachers, National Endowment for the Humanities, University of Illinois, 1978 and 1981. Visiting appointments at University of California, Berkeley, 1960, 1963; Brown University, 1967; Trinity College at Rome, Summer 1971; Tel Aviv University, Winter, 1982; The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Spring 1992. Central European University, Prague, Spring 1993.
Honors
1952: Belgian-American Educational Foundation, Fellow, Brussels Art Seminar 1952–1953: Warburg Institute of the University of London, Research Fellow 1963–2000: Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, Associate 1967–1968: American Academy in Rome, Art Historian in Residence 1977–1978: National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellow 1970–2000: University of Illinois, Center for Advanced Study – Associate (1970–1971, 1981–82, 1989–90) 1990–2000: University of Illinois, Center for Advanced Study – Resident Associate
Offices 1965–1969: American Council of Learned Societies, Committee for Awards in the Humanities 1966–1969: Committee for the Administration of the Medieval and Renaissance Institute of Duke University and the University of North Carolina 1965–1968: The Art Bulletin, Editor for Book Reviews 1967–1971: College Art Association of America, Board of Directors 1973–1975: American Institute of Archaeology f/k/a Central Illinois Archaeological Society, President 1975–1977: American Institute of Archaeology f/k/a Central Illinois Archaeological Society, Board of Directors 1975–1977: The Dunlap Society (Washington, D.C.), Advisory Council 1976–1978: Institute of International Education (New York), Selection Committee for Kress Fellows 1976–1978: Midwest Art History Society, Publication Committee 1975–2000: Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Advisory Council 1977- : NEH Division of Public Programs, Board of Reviewers for grant proposals 1997–2000: International Survey of Jewish Monuments, President and Advisory Council 1980–1983: Midwest Medieval Society of America, Board of Directors 1983–1996: Dictionary of the History of Classical Archaeology (ed. Nancy de Grummond), Consultant editor 1968–1991: College Art Association of America, Art Bulletin Committee 1982–1990: American Academy in Rome, Advisory Council 1986–2000: Committee for the Advancement of Early Studies, Ball State University, Advisory Council 1987–2000: Director, The Leopoldo Cicognara Program at the University of Illinois Library, dedicated to the study and promulgation of literary sources in the history of art
Membership in Learned Societies College Art Association of America, Renaissance Society of America, South Eastern Renaissance Society, Central Renaissance Society, American Society for Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Midwest Art History Society, Midwest Medieval Society of America, International Survey of Jewish Monuments. Honorary Associate, Centro Studi Monopolis: Arte e Cultura, Monopoli, Puglia, 1984–2000. Corresponding Member, Ateneo Veneto, Venice, 1988–2000. Corresponding Member, Braunschweigische Wissenschafliche Gesellschaft, Klasse für Geisteswissenschaften, 1992-.
Listed in Directory of American Scholars Who's Who in American Art Who's Who in Austria Dictionary of International Biography The Writers Directory Who's Who in the Midwest International Authors and Writers Who's Who Who's Who in Europe Who's Who in Society
Personal life Fehl was married to classicist Raina Fehl. He and Raina were married for 54 years. The Fehls lived primarily in Rome from 1990 until his death in 2000. He is buried at Prima Porta in Rome. Raina died in 2009. They had two daughters, Katharine "Kathy" Fehl" and Caroline "Lynn" Coulston.
Art Capricci – Pen and Ink
Oils
Publications of works of art Carolina Quarterly, Winter 1966, 21–27. Sample Copy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1968: "Series", 5 pages. Lillabulero, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, VII, 1969, 86, 96, 100. The Bird (serigraph and original pen and ink drawings), Finial Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1970. Capricci, selection and introduction by Wilfried Skreiner, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, 1971. Also Published in German, same title. Voyages, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, IV, 1971, nos. 1–2, 39, 63, 67; nos. 3–4, 64, 65, 85, 89, 163; V, 1973–1974, nos. 1–4, 109. Au Verso (St. John's College, Santa Fe, New Mexico), 1972, "Aging", 10 pages. North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin, XII, 1975, no. 4; 11. Archaeological News, IV, 1975, no. 1; 7, 11. Polity, Summer 1977, title page. Birds of a Feather (with an introduction by Maurice Cope), University of Illinois Press, Champaign, Illinois, 1991.
Critiques and reproduction of drawings in newspapers Daily Tar Heel, The Courier, The News-Gazette, Kleine Zeitung, Kultur, William and Mary News, The Cavalier Daily, Illini Week. The Carolina Quarterly, Lillibulero
Exhibitions
Solo shows Art Gallery of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1968, 1970. Neue Galerie am Joanneum, Graz, "Capricci," 1971. Roberts Gallery, London, 1971. Galerie im Stock, Vienna, Austria, 1973. Folger Shakespeare Library (Ann Hathaway Gallery), Washington D.C. "Birds on Crutches," 1973. Peoria Art Guild, Peoria, Illinois, "Birds of a Feather," 1975. University of Illinois (Department of Art and Design), 1969, 1974. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1977. Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, "New Capricci," 1979. Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass., "New Capricci," 1979. Società Dante Alighieri, Venice, Italy, 1980–81. Department of Art, Tel Aviv University, 1982. Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, 1982. Kunsthistorisches Institut, Universität Kiel, 1983. Gallery ?Nature's Table?, Urbana, Illinois, 1984. University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia, April–June 1986 (a retrospective exhibition of Capricci: "A Poet's Progress"). Catalogue essay by Paul Barolsky. University of Delaware Perkins Student Center Gallery, A Poet's Progress," April 1987. Hallside Gallery at the University of Utah, Department of Medical Illustration, Salt Lake City, "Capricci," October–November, 1987. Gallery ?Nature's Table?, Urbana, Illinois, "New Capricci," November–December 1987. Gallery 107 Mercer Street, New York, New York, "Capricci," April–May, 1989. Krannert Museum of Art and Kinkaid Pavilion, "Birds of a Feather," September, 1991.