Curriculum Vitae of Robert A. Baron
Arts Information Consultant
specializing in museum and image systematics
intellectual property advocacy
selected topics in Renaissance book illustration
monalisiana

http://www.studiolo.org/index.htm
Voice: 914.834.0233
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Education | Employment & Academic Affiliations
Publications, Papers and other Professional Activities
Fine Art Photography

Education top

• Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
  • [Ph.D.] (All but dissertation.)
  • M.A. 1968 (History of Art)
• Harpur College, SUNY Binghamton, New York, 1962 - 1965
  • B.A. 1965. Major: Art History
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. 1960-1962.
  • Major: Physics

• Arts Information Consultant - to present
• College Art Association, Committee on Intellectual Property, February, 1998 - February 2003
  • Chair
• Academic Image Cooperative (Digital Library Federation), April 1999 - 2000
  • Project Manager
• Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, May - September 1993
  • Contract Collection Management Consultant
• University Art Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, January 1990 - February 1990
  • Contract Collection Management Consultant
• J. Paul Getty Trust, Art History Information Program (AHIP), October 1985 - January 1987
  • Museum Prototype Project, Research Associate
• The Art Museum, Princeton University, October 1985 - January 1987
  • Visiting Fellow and Museum Computer Consultant
• California State University, Fullerton, September 1973 - January 1979
  • Assistant Professor in Art History
  • Seminars: European Mannerism, Rembrandt, France in the Seventeenth century.
  • Lectures: The Baroque in Italy, The Baroque in Holland and Flanders, Greek Architecture and Sculpture, The History of Architecture from Greece through the Renaissance, Introduction to Art History.
• College Art Association of America, Spring 1973
  • CAA Educational Lantern Slide Project: Researcher
• Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City, 1969
  • Adjunct Instructor, Art History Survey

Published or Completed:

• Metaphor and Polemic in the Wars over the Public Domain, Art and Museum Law Journal, Cooley School of Law, 2007.

• Musings on Infringement in the Modern World, Prepared for a discussion that took place at the United States State Department offices in Manhattan – 4/17/2007 on the occasion of a State Department invitation to four administrators of the copyright compliance unit of Beijing, China, to visit the United States.

• What’s Wrong with the way we judge Competition photography, and how did it get that way, December 2006. (Published on-line, here.)
• Chair: A NINCH/CAA Copyright Town Meeting:, A Practical Guide to the Problem of Intellectual Property Rights in the Electronic Environment, for Artists, Museums, Authors, Publishers, Readers and Users. College Art Association conference, New York, February 2003.
• Paper: Fair Use Under Challenge. Prepared for Image Rights Workshop, CAA Convention. NY. February 2003.
• Remarks on the Challenge to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (Eldred v. Ashcroft) from the Perspective of the Art Historian. Based on a talk by Robert A. Baron, Chair of College Art Association, Committee on Intellectual Property. Presented at an evening conference sponsored by the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) Scheduled to be published (in a condensed version) in the IFAR Journal.
• "Reconstructing the Public Domain (Metaphor as Polemic in the Intellectual Property Wars.)" Based on comments presented at the VRA-ARLIS NINCH Copyright Town Meeting: "The Changing Research and Collections Environment: The Information Commons Today," St. Louis, MO / March 23, 2002. See below. Scheduled to be published in the VRA Bulletin in three parts, 2003.
• Parody: The Publish and Perish Journal, begun 2002 - ongoing.
• VRA-ARLIS NINCH Copyright Town Meeting: The Changing Research and Collections Environment: The Information Commons Today, St. Louis, MO / March 23, 2002. Robert Baron, respondent. (See "Reconstructing the Public Domain," above.)
• Robert Baron. Letter in support of overturning the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Draft. Last edit: 4/2/2002.
• The Committee on Intellectual Property of the College Art Association presents Beyond Copyright: Do Artists Have Rights? A panel discussion of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) presented at the 90th Annual Conference of the College Art Association, Philadelphia, February 2002. Robert Baron. "Introduction."
• Summary of the Status of Fair Use Rights. (December, 2001. Not published.)
• Review Essay: "Images and Icons: The Making and Unmaking of Pictures for Mass Consumption:" Reviews of Firecrackers: The Art and History, Katie and the Mona Lisa, Photomosaic Portraits. in Visual Resources, vol 17, 2001
• Chair: NINCH/CAA Copyright Town Meeting, Chicago, March 3, 2001, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the College Art Association. "Licensing Initiatives for Scholars and Teachers: Contributions from the Copyright Industry and Other Resources: Copyright as Seen from the Perspective of Rights-Holders and Publishers." Speaker and Program Guide.
• NINCH Copyright Town Meeting, Baltimore, May 18, 2000, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums: Copyright Confusion? Community Guides. Robert Baron. The College Art Association's Q&A Guide to Copyright for Academics
• Letter to the editor, New York Times. Published, May 14, 2000: "Save Mosaic from Death by Water." About Turkey's refusal temporarily to stop a new dam's backwater from flooding the newly discovered ancient Greek town of Zeugma.
• NINCH/VRA Copyright Town Meeting, San Francisco, April 5, 2000, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Visual Resources Association. Robert Baron. "Making the Public Domain Public". Part I: "On defining the Public Domain." Part II: "On using the Public Domain." Both parts, published in the VRA Bulletin.
• NINCH/CAA Copyright Town Meeting, New York, February 26, 2000, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the College Art Association. "Intellectual Property Issues in the Academic Workplace: The 'Tug of War' between Faculty, University and Publisher for Rights to the Products of Contemporary Education." Chair.Robert Baron's Introduction.
• "Academic Image Exchange," CAA News (Newsletter of the College Art Association), Vol. 24, No. 5 (September 1999), p. 1. An announcement of the formation of the AIE and the sponsorship of the College Art Association and the Digital Library Federation. (Link to work-products of the Academic Image Exchange -- Later, Academic Image Cooperative.)
• LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Copyright Office. Promotion of Distance Education Through Digital Technologies (Docket No. 98-12A). COMMENTS OF THE COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION. Co-authored with Kathleen R. Cohen, Member of College Art Association's Committee on Education and Jeffrey P. Cunard, Debevoise & Plimpton, College Art Association, Counsel. 2/6/99. Published in CAA News, Vol. 24, No. 3 (May 1999), Insert between pp. 10-11.
• Letter to the Editor: Biloxi Sun Herald, 6/24/98. "Is the Internet to be a freeway, a toll road . . . or a dead end?"
• "From Romance to Ritual: Mona Lisa Images for the Modern World," Visual Resources (The Culture of the Copy), vol. 15, no. 2. A study of the meaning of making variants of famous works.
• "Mona Lisa for the Modern World," Discussing the many variants of the Mona Lisa produced for popular consumption. A paper being written on the Internet. (Continuous additions from c. 1998.)
• Copyright Law in the Digital World: Fair Use, Education and Libraries after CONFU, A Town Meeting in  Portland, Oregon. September 27th, 1997. Papers delivered.
  • "The Challenge to Education"
  • "Trying Out the Guidelines" (Outline of same.)
• Letter to the editor: "Debate on the Great Image Debate." Spectra, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Summer 1997), p. 10.
• Lecture: "Copyright in the Fine Arts: Issues and Dilemmas." New York University School of Museum Studies for Dana Dince.  April, 1997.
• Guest Editor: Copyright and Fair Use: The Great Image Debate, Gordon and Breach, February 1996, also as a special issue of Visual Resources (Vol. XII, Nos. 3 and 4.)
  • "Editor's Introduction, Summary and Analysis," in above.
• "`The Birth of the Museum' from an American Perspective," Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 15, No. 2 (June 1996).  The full version of "Don't Touch," below.
• "Don't Touch: The Museum as an Invention of Public Policy," a review of Tony Bennett, The Birth of the Museum, London, 1995. in Culturefront, Spring 1996.
• "Digital Fever: A Scholar's Copyright Dilemma," in Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 49-64.
• Lecture: "Systems Analysis for Museum Object Management Systems." New York University School of Museum Studies for Dana Dince. 1995.
• [MARC format for Fine Arts Cataloging: Don't use it.] in Spectra, vol. 22, no. 4, Summer 1995, p. 29.
• Poem: "Old Possum's Authority Reference Tool," in Spectra, vol. 22, no. 2, Fall 1994, p. 13. (A parody of art data indexing based on T.S. Eliot's "The Naming of Cats.")

• "The Forgotten Applications" Citations, Object Usage, Rights & Reproductions, and Photo Archives, 1994-2002, draft, unpublished.

• Choosing Museum Collection Management Software: The Systems Analysis: Its Methods, Functions and Benefits. A discursive paper discussing a wide range of topics relating to Systems Analysis and Data in a Museum Setting (unpublished).

• [Computerized Accession Ledgers? A view from a Computer Consultant,] in Registrar (A publication of the Registrars Committee of the American Association of Museums), Vol..8, No.2 (Fall 1991), 41-43.
• "The SWAP Project: Building a Museum Database from the Bottom Up," in The International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, Butterworths (England), March 1989. Based on "From the Bottom Up," below.
• "From the Bottom Up: Retrospective Data Entry/Prospective Database Construction" (A paper delivered at the October 1988 meeting of the Museum Computer Network, Santa Monica, California.) Published in Spectra, The International Journal of Computer Applications in Museums, Vol. 16, no. 3 (Fall 1989).
• "Computerized Collection Management: A Primer," in Registrar (A publication of the Registrars Committee of the American Association of Museums), Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 1987), 2-6.

Other Professional Activities:

• Chair: Copyright Town Meeting:, A Practical Guide to the Problem of Intellectual Property Rights in the Electronic Environment, for Artists, Museums, Authors, Publishers, Readers and Users. College Art Association conference, New York, February 2003.
• Co-chair: A Workshop on acquiring rights to publish images: Clearing Rights and Permissions: How To, Why To, When To. College Art Association conference, New York, February 2003.
• Speaker: IFAR Evening: "Copyright or Copywrong? The Supreme Court, Copyright Term Extension, and The Arts," November 6, 2002. (See above.)
• Chair: Beyond Copyright: Do Artists Have Rights? A panel discussion on the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). College Art Association, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, February 21, 2002
• Participant: NINCH/AAM Copyright Town Meeting, Baltimore, May 18, 2000, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums: Copyright Confusion? Community Guides, "The College Art Association's Q&A Guide to Copyright for Academics."
• Participant: NINCH Copyright Town Meeting, San Francisco, April 5, 2000, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Visual Resources Association. The Public Domain: Implied, Inferred and in Fact. Paper by Robert Baron: "Making the Public Domain Public."
• Editorial Board: Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation. Autumn, 1999-ongoing.
• Co-chair. "The Tug of War between Faculty, University and Publisher for Rights to the Products of Contemporary Education." A Copyright Town Meeting at the Convention of the College Art Association, February 26, 2000, New York City. A program of the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH), sponsored by the Kress Foundation. Introduction: Robert A. Baron
• Member. Town Meeting Planning Committee. National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage. Kress funded program to encourage the discussion of copyright within the humanities community. 1998-ongoing.
• Guest Presenter. Colin Eisler's Diderot Seminar at the Institute of Fine Arts: Book Publishing in Sixteenth-century France. March 11, 1999.
• Co-chair: "NINCH/CAA Town Meeting on Intellectual Property: Making Sense of Copyright and Intellectual Property," Annual Meeting of the College Art Association. Los Angeles 1999. With David Green, Jeffrey Cunard, Tyler Ochoa, Martha Winnacker. Introduction: Robert A. Baron (read by Martha Hollander).
• Co-Founder. "The IMAGO Project," a Public Domain and broad licensed database of digital images for use by educators and scholars. (See above: Academic Image Cooperative.)
• Chair, Committee on Intellectual Property of the College Art Association. Beginning March 1998.
• Co-chair: "NINCH Town Meeting on Fair Use of Digital Images" Part I. Annual Meeting of the College Art Association, Toronto, February 1998.
• Presenter. "Moving into New Architecture: Redesigning the interior of your database," Workshop presentation for conference of the Visual Resources Association, Boston, February 1996. Subject: Data Transfer and Database Architecture.
• Executive Advisory Board of Image Directory, a project of Academic Press (Harcourt Brace & Co.). as of March 1996.
• Contributor to listservs: museum-l, caah, vra-l, cni-copyright, etc.
• Museum Computer Network (MCN)/New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) planning meeting on Museum Computerization, November 9, 1989. Invited Participant.
• "From the Bottom Up: Retrospective Data Entry/Prospective Database Construction" (A paper delivered at the October 1988 meeting of the Museum Computer Network, Santa Monica, California.) Published in Spectra, The International Journal of Computer Applications in Museums, Vol. 16, no. 3 (Fall 1989).
• "Computerized Collection Management: A Primer," in Registrar (A publication of the Registrars Committee of the American Association of Museums), Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 1987), 2-6.
• Bernard Salomon's Emblems for the Triumphs of Petrarch. A summary of research in progress. ca. 1979.

Works and Projects in Progress:

• Editor: "Q&A on Copyright. A guide for members of the College Art Association," presented by the CAA Committee on Intellectual Property.
• Editor: "The Portland and Toronto Town Meetings: Copyright Law in the Digital World: Fair Use, Education and Libraries after CONFU." For Visual Resources.
• "Scholarly Citations, Rights & Reproductions, Photo Archives: Automated Systems for Museums." (In progress, but published here in draft.
• "Choosing Museum Collection Management Software: The Systems Analysis: Its Methods, Functions and Benefits." Unpublished, published in draft.
• Feature and Requirement Survey for Fine Arts Data Projects. A checklist of systems requirements for small museums. (Unpublished. Requires format translations to publish.)

Larger Projects:

• "The Bernard Salomon Project:" An effort to publish on the World Wide Web, all the graphic works of the 16th C. French book illustrator, Bernard Salomon. As of 2/2003, Aesop cycle (nearly complete, all in draft).
• The Illustrated Bartsch: No. 65. Bernard Salomon. Abaris Books, Norfolk, CT.

Scholarly subjects in research:

• Illusion and Metaphor in Rubens's Triumph of the Eucharist cycle.
• Narrative and Emblem in Bernard Salomon's illustrations for the Old Testament.
• Illustrations for Petrarch's Trionfi in Renaissance France. See abstract.

Works Cited (selected list):

• Barbara Feldman, "Surfing the Net with Kids," Syndicated Column. Leonardo da Vinci, December 25, 2002: Mona Lisa Images for a Modern World. Rating: "Spectacular".
• Tyler T. Ochoa, "Origins and Meanings of the Public Domain," (draft: 11/25/2002), n. 245).
• Kathleen Connolly Butler, "Keeping the World Safe from Naked-Chicks-in-Art Refrigerator Magnets: The Plot to Control Art Images in the Public Domain through Copyrights in Photographic and Digital Reproductions," in Comm/Ent: Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Fall 1998), p. 55 ff. Cites "Digital Fever," and Copyright and Fair Use issue of Visual Resources, throughout.
• Mike Wallace. Mickey Mouse History and other Essays on American Memory, Temple University Press, 1996, pp. 114, 125, 129. (Refers to museum-l post on "Why people go to museums.") See also here, visited 2/10/03.
• Spectra, Vol 24. no.3 (Spring 1997), pp. 51-3. Review of Copyright & Fair Use: The Great Image Debate.
• CAA NEWS, May/June 1997. Review of Copyright & Fair Use: The Great Image Debate.

• Illinois Heritage Association On-Line. January 25, 1998. (Website reviewed.)

Academic and Scholarly Interests/Experience:

• Graduate Study:
  • Major field: Art of Europe in the Seventeenth Century.
  • Minor field: Art of Europe during the Renaissance.
• Dissertation Subject:
  • Graphic Art of Bernard Salomon: The illustrated book in Renaissance Lyon.  Dissertation under direction of Colin Eisler of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.  Unfinished/in process.
• Masters Papers:
  • The Iconography of Georges de la Tour's Berlin Saint Sebastian
  • George Grosz: The Fat and the Thin

Graduate Coursework:

• Lectures:
  Egyptian Art (Bothmer).  Hellenistic Sculpture (Blanckenhagen). Early Christian Art (Buchthal). Carolingian Art (Bober). Romanesque Sculpture in France (Bober). Illuminated Manuscripts of the Later Middle Ages (Bober). Italian Early Renaissance Sculpture (Janson). Florentine Fifteenth-Century Art (Eisler). Netherlandish Fifteenth-Century Painting (Eisler). Fifteenth-Century German Painters (Sterling). Sixteenth-Century Italian Baroque Painting (Posner). Italian Sculpture of the Seventeenth Century (Lavin, audit). Poussin and Seventeenth-Century French Painting (Posner). French Seventeenth-Century Painting (Costello, audit). British Painting of the Late 18th Century (Rosenblum). English Painting (1800-1970) (Schiff). Impressionism to Cubism (Goldwater).

•  Seminars and Topics:
  Colin Eisler, "Michelangelo Problems," Topic: Michelangelo's influence in the North: Rosso's Galerie François Ier.  Kathleen Weil-Garris Posner, "Problems in Early Cinquecento Painting and Sculpture,"  Topic:  The development of the painted enframement in major 16th-century Roman fresco decoration.  Jane Costello, "Rubens Problems,"  Topic: Rubens's Hunts.  Jane Costello, "Georges de la Tour and the le Nain," Topic: Georges de La Tour's Berlin Saint Sebastian.  Ann Harris (at Columbia University), "Poussin and Claude," Topic: Poussin's use of architecture.  Robert Goldwater, "Criticism Seminar," Topic:  The art criticism of Joris-Karl Huysmans.  Jane Costello, "Poussin" (audit).  Colin Eisler, "Transmission of Style in the art of the Northern Renaissance" (audit, 1985).

Professional Memberships:

American Association of Museums, Registrar's Committee of the AAM. College Art Association, CAA Committee on Intellectual Property (2/98). Museum Computer Network, Small Museum Interest Group, Art Museum Interest Group, Intellectual Property Interest Group. Renaissance Society of America. Visual Resources Association. National Coalition of Independent Scholars. Art Historians on the Web.

Fine Art Photography top

Link to Competition Photography and Awards (last updated 1/07)

Memberships:

Westchester Photographic Society
(from 9/2003; board of directors and editor of newsletter, from 4/05 to 4/07)

Mamamorneck Artists' Guild, as "Active Member" (from 5/06)

Papers and Presentations:

What’s Wrong with the way we judge Competition photography, and how did it get that way, December 2006. (Published on-line, here.) [Tracing the origins of the so-called "rules" of composition to Wolfflin's "Principles of Art History."]

Exhibits:

2004
Ossining Public Library, 2/04, 1st place
Larchmont Public Library, 2/04
Ossining Art Barn, 3/04
Rye Free Reading Room, 3/04, 2nd place
Mount Pleasant Library, Pleasantville, 7/04
Mt. Kisco Public Library, 8/04 1st place & honorable mention
Mid-Westchester Jewish Community Center, 10/04
New Rochelle Public Library, 11/04, 3rd place

2005
Greenburgh Public Library, 3/05
Hudson Valley Hospital, 4/05
Mt. Kisco Public Library, 8/05
Hiram Halle Library, 9/05
Harpur College Alumni Exhibit, 10/05 (Juried, Selected for Calendar Illus.)
Ossining Public Library, 12/05

2006
Ossining Public Library, "The Eclectic Quintet" Nine Photos.
Greenburgh Public Library Library, 2/06
Yonkers Riverfront Library, 4/06
Northern Westchester Hospital, Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, 5/06
Mamaroneck Artists Guild, "A Bold Step," 5/06
Larchmont Library, 6/06
Mamaroneck Artists Guild, "Be Seated," 6/28 -- 7/15/06
New Rochelle Library, 7/7/06 - 727/06
Hudson Valley Hospital, 9/9/06 - 12/16/06
Somers Library, 9/30/06 - 10/28/06
Northern Westchester Hospital, 11/2/06 - 4/30/07
Yonkers Riverfest Photo Booth, 9/30/06
Mamaroneck Artists Guild, "Gift Show," in 11/13/06, out 1/6/07

2007
Rye Free Reading Room, 1/7/07 - 2/16/07
Yonkers Downtown Development BID, 1/10/07 - 2/28/07, "The Quintessential Photographers" (invitational)
Jewish Community Center, Scarsdale, NY,  2/6/07 - 3/15/07, "Altered Realities" (invitational).
Pound Ridge (Hyram Halle Library), 3/3/07 - 4/14/07
Mamaroneck Artists Guild at White Plains Library, 3/12/07 - 6/4/07
Yonkers Downtown Development BID, 3/3/07 - (invitational)
Greenburgh Senior Center 3/12/07 (moved to Greenburgh City Center)
Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, 3/21/07 (invitational)
Fundraiser: South West Chamber Orchestra, 5/7/07.
Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, Northern Westchester Hospital. 5/1/07 - 10/30/07
Yonkers Downtown Development BID, 4/21/07 (invitational)
Empire State Building, Lobby. May 23 - August 27, 2007
Mamaroneck Artists Guild, "Postcards from the Edge" (fundraiser)
Yonkers Downtown Development BID, 6/9/07 - (invitational)
Mamaroneck Artists Guild, "Trios," 6/27/07 - 7/17/07. Includes "Raven Triangle."
Greenburgh Nature Center, "Nature, Up Close and Personal," 7/7/07 - 8/31/07. Includes "Georgia's Dream, #2."
Greenburgh Town Court, "Through the Looking Glass," 7/2/07 - 8/31/07. Includes "The Three Bells."
New England Camera Club Council. Judge's selection of photo (Guggenheim Museum, NYC, interior) for tour.
Mamaroneck Artists Guild. Exhibition (MAG): "September Song," 9/26 - 10/20/07, Photo: Crater Lake, aka "The finger and the cross."
MAG/Bin 9/29/07, selections: Puffed-up Pelican, Good Timing, Agave (San Marino),
Ossining Library, 10/7 - 11/9/2007: Crater Lake #3,
Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, Northern Westchester Hospital, 11/1/07 - 4/29/08. Beechmont Lake, New Rochelle, NY.
Harrison Library, NY. Solo Exhibit awarded by jury: 12/2/2007 - 1/4/2008: "Against Nature."


 

Upcoming Exhibits:

Harrison Library (Westchester), December 2007 (solo exhibit)
Ossining Public Library, "The Eclectic Quintet,"  (group show)

Selected Published Photographs:

Harpur College 2006 Alumni Calendar (September): "The Alien Womb Visits Again." See this link

Los Angeles Times, "A Park with a Powerful Spell, (on the 50th anniversary of Disneyland), July 17, 2005. Published photo of Orange County Riot Police closing Disneyland when invaded by Yippies. See: this link for photo.

Commission: Louise Nevelson, "Night Presence IV" by The Jewish Museum, NYC 6/28/06 (for retrospective catalogue).

Competitions:

Frequent competition winner at the Westchester Photographic Society. For competition  history see http://www.studiolo.net/pix/gallery41.htm

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