Edith Balas (June 20, 1929 - November 16, 2024) was a Romanian-born American Professor of Art History, College of Humanities & Social Sciences atCarnegie Mellon University inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Balas was born in 1929 inCluj (present-day Romania); she was aHolocaust survivor. She was the widow of the late mathematicianEgon Balas, who was a fellow professor at Carnegie Mellon.^[1]

Balas' main areas of interest weremodern art (1890-1960), painting and sculpture, and the art of the Italian Renaissance.^[2][3][4][5] In 2003, she curated an exhibition at the Frick Art Museum,^[6] and several in Pittsburgh, Paris, New York and Budapest. She began teaching atCarnegie Mellon University in 1977, where she was also an adjunct professor of History of Art and Architecture at theUniversity of Pittsburgh.

Balas was also a Holocaust survivor, having been sent to the Nazi death campAuschwitz. InBird in Flight: Memoir of a Survivor and Scholar, Balas tells her story of facing grim situations and becoming what she describes as a “professional survivor.” Balas named her memoir “Bird in Flight” afterConstantin Brâncuși’s famous sculpture of the same name. “I consider it emblematic of my life,” she said.^[7]

After the war, her husband was imprisoned by thecommunist authorities for three years, during which Balas raised their two daughters. She received an M.A. in philosophy from theUniversity of Bucharest in 1952.^[8] She then emigrated to the United States with her husband, and received an M.A. in the History of Arts from Pittsburgh University in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1973.

• Balas, Edith (2008).Brancusi and his world. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN 978-0887484896.
• Balas, Edith (2006).Brancusi & Romanian folk traditions. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN 978-0887484599.
• Balas, Edith (2004).Michelangelo's double self-portraits. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN 978-0887484179.
• Balas, Edith (2002).The Mother Goddess in Italian Renaissance art. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN 978-0887483813.
• Balas, Edith (1998).Joseph Csáky : a pioneer of modern sculpture. Philadelphia: American Philososphical Society.ISBN 978-0871692306.
• Balas, Edith (1995).Michelangelo's Medici Chapel : a new interpretation. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.ISBN 978-0871692160.
• Balas, Edith (2002).The Holocaust in the painting of Valentin Lustig. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN 978-0887483738.
• Koerner, Henry (2003).The early work of Henry Koerner. Pittsburgh, Pa: Frick Art & Historical Center.ISBN 978-0970342553.
• Balas, Edith (2010).Bird in flight : memoir of a survivor and scholar. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN 978-0887485381.
• Edith Balas, "Michelangelo's Medici Chapel: A New Interpretation", Philadelphia, 1995

• List of Holocaust survivors

• Romanian art historians
• Carnegie Mellon University faculty
• Auschwitz concentration camp survivors
• 2024 deaths
• 1929 births
• Romanian emigrants to the United States
• University of Pittsburgh alumni
• Writers from Cluj-Napoca
• Jewish women writers
• American art historians
• Women art historians
• University of Bucharest alumni
• Romanian women writers
• Jewish American historians

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