William Hauptman, 58: art historian and curator

William Hauptman, an American art historian living in Lausanne, put together some of Switzerland's and Europe's foremost museum exhibitions and researched the life and works of famous artists. As many of his published works testify, an art historian's job requires not only an in-depth knowledge of art, but also a lot of patience and painstaking detective work. It was detective work of sorts that first brought the native of Washington D.C to Lausanne in 1980. Then assistant professor of art history at the University of Maryland, Hauptman was offered the challenging job of cataloguing the works of a 19th century Vaudois artist, Charles Gleyre.  
Because of the sheer volume of pages and photographic reproductions required to complete this task - known in art circles a catalogue raisonné - Hauptman knew he would be in Lausanne for the long haul. “An artist’s life is like Ali Baba’s cavern,” Hauptman explains. “Tracing, authenticating, and documenting Gleyre’s scattered works was an enormous and daunting process." It took him 15 years.
However, compiling a catalogue raisonné is a “prestigious assignment" for an art historian that turns you Into "a world expert on a particular artist,” he adds.
For people who may have no clue what an art historian does, Hauptman's work includes – but is not limited to – establishing the timeline of an artist’s life or works, interpreting art in the historical context, and focusing on the visual aspects of historical documents. “In a way, a good historian should be as well trained as a medical doctor,” says Hauptman, who holds a doctorate degree in Art History. “We have to have a solid historical, social, philosophical and scientific background.”
 
That experience and knowledge, combined with years of teaching – including at the universities of Lausanne and Neuchâtel – led Hauptman to another passion: developing and putting together exhibits at some of Europe’s top museums and art galleries.
 
A “curator” is one of many hats some art historians wear. Their duties can include selecting the paintings and the difficult task of convincing museums and private collectors to loan their art works for an exhibit, “something most of them don’t like to do because of the risks involved,” Hauptman says.
 “Then there are other details – finding the best way to hang and arrange the paintings, spacing and lighting them,” he adds. “Every exhibition is different so there are no rules that can be applied across the board. Experience dictates the best way to go about it.”
 
The exhibits Hauptman put together in the past few years include several at Lausanne’s Fondation de l’Hermitage and Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, the Kunstmuseum in Bern, Zurich’s Kunsthaus, and the former Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Lugano. He also curated exhibitions at London’s famed Tate Gallery and at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille.
“I love to develop exhibits and see them all the way through,” Hauptman notes, adding that his favorite part of his multi-faceted job is to write books and catalogs, especially focusing on Swiss and British painters of the 19th century.