In 1962, Kurt von Meier joined the faculty at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand. Having just acquired his master’s degree at Princeton, the ambitious and talented young American professor found himself in a relative backwater of the art world, but with the opportunity to have an impact with his vision of teaching art history. By all accounts, he was popular, if controversial. As this course proposal demonstrates, he was ready to take New Zealand by storm with a rigorous and powerful teaching plan. His professorship ended in 1964, however, not long after he wrote an article in a local newspaper criticizing the design and planning for the new Elam School of Fine Arts building. He returned to Princeton for a year, acquired his PhD., and then went on to an assistant professorship at the University of California Los Angeles.
