Robert Herbert and John Zarobell Collection

Robert Herbert was born to John Newman Herbert and Rosalia Hart on April 21, 1929, in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1951 he received a B.A. from Wesleyan College, with his studies focusing on the history of science. Shortly after graduation, Herbert left for France and studied at the University of Paris until 1952, then returning to the States in 1953 to marry Eugenia Randall Warren. He pursued graduate work at Yale University, completing his M.A in 1954, and starting as a Yale instructor in 1956 while working on his Ph.D. Awarded the degree in 1957 with a dissertation on Seurat, Herbert was heavily influenced by the work of Columbia University professor Meyer Schapiro, who encouraged Herbert’s socialist outlook on art history. Herbert was Professor of History of Art at Yale until 1990, and then moved to the Department of Art at Mount Holyoke College from 1990 to 1997. Herbert has curated many prominent exhibits and produced a multitude of publications, receiving numerous awards and accolades.

John Zarobell graduated Hampshire College with a B.A in 1992, concentrating in studio art before moving on to study art history in his graduate studies. He received his M.A (1997) and Ph.D. (2000) from the University of California, Berkley, then jumped headfirst into the world of curating. Coordinating a plethora of exhibits since 1999, Zarobell is also the author of Edvard Munch’s Mermaid (2005) and Empire of Landscape: Space and Ideology in French Colonial Algeria (2010), as well as many articles and art reviews.