Special Collections exhibition explores beloved art history professor’s life

Paul B. Moses was only an art professor in the College for four years before his tragic death in 1966 at the age of 36, but he made a lasting impact in Hyde Park and beyond during that time.

Moses was one of the first prominent Black art historians who boldly spoke out about issues of race at a time when public opinion was largely against him. 

Until Dec. 16, visitors can come to the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center at the Regenstein Library and chronologically follow the story of his personal life, academic interests, artworks and his prominence in the art history world and as a professor at UChicago.

To cultivate an intimate feeling in the exhibit, co-curator Stephanie Strother, a fourth-year art history Ph.D. student at UChicago, focused on incorporating small personal details. Special Collections Exhibition Designer Chelsea Kaufman pitched in too, reproducing the header texts and case labels in the exhibit from Moses’ handwriting.

In addition to highlighting Moses’ invitations to lectures on Matisse, his work as an art critic for the Chicago Daily News, and even art of his own, the exhibition’s discussion of Moses’ prominence in the art community highlights the discrimination and suffering he had to undergo as a Black individual in a predominantly white field. 

Moses was the first African American student at Haverford College, and was frequently singled out as one of the few Black art historians of the time. 

“In photos from art events around Chicago, he is usually the only Black person there,” Strother said. “In the letters we have, he rarely addresses it directly, but of course he was aware.” 

At UChicago, Moses is known for his refusal to teach Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” because of the novel’s portrayal of slavery, a stance for which he faced significant opposition from the academic community at the time. 

Despite his vulnerable position as a Black professor, Moses stood up and expressed his discomfort with the novel. This moment even opens the Introduction to literary critic Wayne C. Booth’s “The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction.”

This exhibit also offered a unique opportunity for Strother, to collaborate with a family member of the subject of her exhibition: Paul Moses’ son, Mike Moses, a phys. Ed. teacher and former soccer coach at the UChicago Lab School. 

“Working closely with Mike was one of the great joys and pleasures of working on this exhibit,” Strother said. “It reminds you of how little you actually know about the subjects you study, and how irreplaceable the knowledge that comes with being intimate with the subject is.” 

Strother and Mike Moses first met by chance on campus while they were both walking their dogs. Mike Moses said that he had no idea what went into creating an art exhibit at the time, but when the two started talking about Mike’s father, Moses and Strother began to think of a way to honor his impact at UChicago. 

Moses eventually showed her the boxes of memorabilia about Paul Moses that his mother had saved, and they soon began the process of applying for the Regenstein space and curating the exhibit.

Both curators reflected on the importance of the Regenstein exhibition space, a centralized location that is highly accessible to the UChicago community.

“Where it’s located, there’s so many individuals and so many individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds walking from Regenstein to Mansueto and back,” Mike Moses said. “The exhibit presents a different historical feel that you may not get from a larger museum, and the ease of use not only allows you to learn more, but it’s also more intimate.”

“I hope this exhibition can teach people about an individual who was integral to the University, someone whose life story has dropped out of the major narrative and who would have done so much more in his life had it not been ended so tragically and suddenly,” Strother added.

As with any biographical narrative, there are details that are forgotten in the larger narrative. Strother remarked that the reason for Moses’ particular interest in French Impressionism, in particular artist Degas, is a detail that they may not be able to uncover, but that she believes it to be emblematic of his greater outlook on the study of art.

Paul Moses took a particular interest in Degas’ printmaking and monotypes, an underexplored area of the 19th-century French artist’s work. 

“He was very forward-looking and avante-garde for the time, bringing people’s awareness to this aspect of Degas’ art. People are just now seeing them for the extremely innovative works that they are,” Strother said.

Considering these small details, she said, allows readers to put themselves in Moses’ place and get to know him more intimately.

Mike Moses said he is still considering what can be learned from the objects left behind from his father’s life. He muses on how art as a field of study may have presented Paul Moses with “a sense of freedom, a place away from the unrest Black people were dealing with.”

“Art has a different way of talking to people,” Mike Moses said. He said he continues to allow it to talk to him, looking for bits of his father’s life in the art he loved.

“Every time I see Degas in a museum, I take pictures. I think it will help me discover something new about him.”