Art professor James Hirschfield dies
The Kenan Distinguished Professor was a member of Carolina’s faculty for nearly 40 years.
James Hirschfield, professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ art and art history department, died suddenly April 21.
He was in his final semester at Carolina after joining the faculty as an assistant professor in 1988. He earned tenure in 1994, was promoted to full professor in 1998 and served as chair of the art and art history department from 2010-2017. In 2011, he was named a Kenan Distinguished Professor, one of the University’s highest honors for faculty excellence.
His scholarly and creative life was rooted in sculpture — not only as a studio practice but as a way of engaging deeply with the world. In over nearly four decades at Carolina, he brought that preparation to bear on generations of students who encountered sculpture through his teaching. His work was recognized by some of the most prestigious funding bodies in the arts, among them the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Graham Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Art Matters, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Hirschfield’s creative practice extended well beyond the studio. Together with his wife and longtime collaborator, Sonya Ishii, he created public art projects of lasting significance — works ranging from freestanding sculpture to immersive sculptural environments. Their practice was rooted in close attention to site: a search, as they described it, for “an inherent truth that lends itself to becoming visual metaphor.” Their designs engaged viewers first through strong aesthetic presence, and then opened outward into layers of meaning that rewarded sustained attention.
Hirschfield’s commitment to public art reached into the civic life of Chapel Hill as well. He served on the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission for many years, and his contributions there were foundational. The public art infrastructure he helped build remains part of Chapel Hill’s cultural fabric.
Read more about Hirschfield’s life and contributions to Carolina.
