The American Institute of Indian Studies deeply mourns the death, on April 14, 2023, of Catherine B. Asher, a renowned art historian who dedicated her life to studying and publishing on the art and architecture of South Asia. Professor Asher’s contributions to the field of art history were significant. She was particularly known for her expertise in Indo-Islamic architecture of India, and her groundbreaking research shed new light on the Mughal Empire and its artistic legacy.
Cathy Asher
Professor Asher, who spent most of her professional career in the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota, had a long association with AIIS, especially with the Center for Art & Archaeology (CA&A). She was its faculty chair for two terms from 1990 – 2000, and she was deeply involved in its mission of advancing the understanding of India’s rich cultural heritage. In 1989 she, along with Professor Thomas Metcalf (University of California, Berkeley) organized a seminar on “Perceptions of India’s Past from Ancient to Modern Times” which brought together an international gathering of scholars from India, Pakistan, Europe and America. The papers presented were subsequently published, under the joint editorship of Professors Metcalf and Asher, as Perceptions of South Asia’s Visual Past jointly by the AIIS and Oxford New Delhi, in 1994 Several CA&A publications and projects were accomplished under her able guidance including the ongoing series, The Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, and the documentation of monuments along the major travel and trade routes of North India. Throughout her career, Professor Asher received several AIIS fellowships and grants that supported her research in India. The CA&A archives preserve photographs and drawings generated in the course of her several research projects. Her contribution to CA&A helped to shape its direction and impact. To acknowledge the many contributions by Professor Asher and her husband, the late Frederick (Rick) Asher, AIIS dedicated the CA&A archives after Frederick and Catherine Asher in 2002. In August 2003 Professor Asher, together with Barbara Metcalf, then professor (now emeritus) at the University of Michigan, co-led a workshop on Islam in South Asia in Delhi for 22 graduate students at American universities. The workshop was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Professor Asher will be deeply missed by her colleagues, students, and friends in the art world and beyond. Her passion for her subject, and her extraordinary warmth and generosity will be remembered as her enduring legacy.