The other “Sch,” or When Damisch Met Schapiro

Abstract

French art-historian/philosopher Hubert Damisch and American art-historian Meyer Schapiro maintained an intellectual friendship of rare intensity for nearly forty years. Their many letters bear witness to this: From art history to psychoanalysis, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and literature, they exchanged ideas in almost every field of the humanities and social sciences. The special issue which this text introduces focuses on the years 1972 and 1973, a period during which Damisch spent much time in the United States and met, in addition to Schapiro, Michel Foucault, Max Black, M. H. Abrams, and Norman Malcolm. “The Other ‘sch,’ or When Damisch Met Schapiro” seeks to put into perspective the forty-four letters gathered here as well as the several essays devoted to the Freud-Signorelli case.