Henri Matisse, The Casbah Gate, 1912-1913. Oil on canvas. The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
How Art Became Modern
An introductory course that surveys the ways in which modern Western art emerged through global encounters.
Scipio Moorehead?, [Portrait of Phyllis Wheatley], 1773. Engraving. Frontispiece to Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
African-American Art
An intermediate-level course spanning the 18th century to the present, this course examines how and why black artists in the United States have used painting, sculpture, photography, print, and mixed media to assert and question personal, racial, and national identity.
Edmonia Lewis, Minnehaha, 1868. Marble, 11 5/8 × 7 1/4 × 4 7/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
American Art Sequence
Three advanced classes on the relationship between art and politics in the United States from colonization to the Civil War, Civil War to Civil Rights, and Civil Rights to Social Justice.
Renée Stout, Her Request Brought Back Memories from “The Washington Portfolio”, 1994. Computer generated digital Iris print, 26 × 40 5/8 in. (66 × 103.2 cm). American University Museum
American Art and the Illusion of Truth
Offered in spring 2020, this graduate seminar explored the politics of art that looks distinctly apolitical. Together, the class produced an exhibition on Art and Authenticity in the Age of Fake News for the American University Museum.
Thomas Cole, The Clove, Catskills, 1827. Oil on canvas. 25 x 35 inches. New Britain Museum of American Art
MA Theses
I have supervised MA theses on work by the following artists:
Louis Carlos Bernal
Andrea Bowers
Thomas Cole
Diana Dowek
Edmonia Lewis
Marujo Mallo
Lee Miller
Joan Mitchell
Yoko Ono
Hiram Powers
John Singer Sargent
Florine Stettheimer
Faith Ringgold
Laurie Simmons
Alfred Stieglitz
Alma Thomas
Fred Wilson
Francesca Woodman