THREE NOTES AROUND THE BAROQUE SENSATION

Albert Narath is a doctoral candidate in modern architectural history at Columbia University in New York and a Paul Mellon Pre-doctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Research in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He holds an MA degree from the Architectural Association in London. His dissertation concerns architectural and art historical debates surrounding the Neo-baroque at the end of the nineteenth century in Germany

The Baroque Effect: Architecture and Art History in Berlin, 1886-1900

This dissertation explores the rich interplay between architecture and art historical research that emerged in Germany in the final decades of the nineteenth century through the rediscovery of the Baroque. The close connection during these years between the establishment of the Baroque as an independent architectural style within the young field of Kunstwissenschaft, the burgeoning interest in Baroque space and the mechanics of perception in psychological aesthetics, and the appearance of the Baroque in many of the most important architectural projects of the late nineteenth century made the style a flashpoint for far-reaching debates concerning the roles of art history and architecture in a period marked by profound transformations. Focusing on the reception of the Baroque in Berlin, this dissertation examines the important role of the style in attempts by architects to reexamine their discipline in the context of historicism, the unprecedented growth of the metropolis, and the complex and often conflicting array of regional and national conceptions of identity that accompanied the political development of the German Empire. Through a series of case studies documenting the remarkable interplay of art history and architectural practice in Berlin from the mid-1880's to the turn of the twentieth century, the dissertation traces the emergence of the "NeuBarock" ("New Baroque")

Magnetic field independence of the spin gap in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-delta}

We report, for magnetic fields of 0, 8.8, and 14.8 Tesla, measurements of the temperature dependent ^{63}Cu NMR spin lattice relaxation rate for near optimally doped YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-delta}, near and above T_c. In sharp contrast with previous work we find no magnetic field dependence. We discuss experimental issues arising in measurements of this required precision, and implications of the experiment regarding issues including the spin or pseudo gap.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, as accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter