The Art Historian Curt Glaser (1879-1943) and His Visit to Japan

Curt Glaser (1879-1943) was a versatile scholar: he first studied medicine and then, probably at the suggestion of his wife, who was very interested in art, art history, and earned doctorates in both subjects. From 1909, he worked as curator of the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) until 1924, when he succeeded Peter Jessen as director of the State Art Library, a position he lost in 1933 due to Nazi racial laws. He foresaw the catastrophe and immediately emigrated to Switzerland and Italy until he arrived in the USA in 1940, where he died in 1943. Glaser turned the art library into a center of Berlin's art life - he organized exhibitions, held regular events in his large official residence (a kind of salon, whose soul was Mrs. Glaser), maintained close contacts with modern artists (he "discovered" Edvard Munch, for example), wrote regular art reviews for newspapers and magazines, was a prolific writer, and was intensely involved with East Asian art, on which he also published. His book on Japanese theater was edited by no less than Otto Kümmel, director of the East Asian Art Department and an art historian of East Asia who was widely feared as a critic. His work on The Representation of Space in Japanese Painting was published as early as 1908. Despite his many activities and achievements, Glaser was quickly forgotten - early emigration and death during the World War before he could put down roots in the USA - contributed to this. It was only the efforts of his heirs to restitute his art collection that brought him brief publicity, not least thanks to an opulent work on Glaser as a collector.
This book deals with a hitherto largely neglected facet of Glaser's work, namely his interest in Japanese art, with which Glaser and his wife became familiar during a lengthy trip to Japan in 1911. Since, due to his emigration, hardly any information about this trip has survived from Glaser's side, Dr. Kuwabara has attempted to find more details in Japanese sources and, above all, has translated an essay about Glaser's visit by the Japanese doctor and writer Ôta Masao (1885-1945; pseudonym Kinoshita Mokutarô). In addition to a biographical introduction to Glaser, the volume includes a (by no means complete) list of Glaser's writings (almost 600) and two of his short essays on Japanese theatrical arts.