Profession: art historian

The charismatic Schapiro was fundamental in changing the scope, methodologies and academic integrity of art history. Boas, Dewey and Sloan were influential teachers to him, Trilling and Zukofsky classmates at Columbia, and Motherwell, Frankenthaler, Judd, Kerouac and Ginsberg among students the convivial Schapiro influenced. He brought his lifelong friend Kracauer to the US, and welcomed Léger and Lipchitz with his erudition. He gave critical encouragement to his friend Willem de Kooning, bumped into Gorky in museums, dragged Newman and Gottlieb up to Columbia, and sustained a legion of friends and correspondents.