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Elaine O'Brien Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Modern & Contemporary Art History
California State University, Sacramento
6000 J Street
Sacramento, California 95819-6061
(916) 278-5704
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Home address:
921 36th Street
Sacramento, California, 95816
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(916) 455-5963
Education:
Ph.D. in Art History, 1997, The Graduate School of the City University of New York
Specialization: 19th and 20th century European and American art and art criticism
Minor: Non-Western art
Dissertation: The Art Criticism of Harold Rosenberg: Theaters of Love and Combat
MA in Art History, 1987, San Diego State University of California
Specialization: 19th and 20th century European and American art
Minor: Non-Western art
Thesis: Art as Tragedy: Harold Rosenberg's Ethical Aesthetic
BA Studio (painting and printmaking), San Diego State University of California
BA in Art History, San Diego State University of California
Employment:
California State University Sacramento, 1998 - present
Schedule of courses: Introduction to Art & Visual Culture, Survey of Western Art: Renaissance to the Present, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century Art, Contemporary Art (graduate and undergraduate), Theory and Criticism (graduate), American Art, Latin American & Latino/a Art, Topics in Modern & Contemporary art seminar
Adjunct Lecturer. Contemporary Global Art, School of Visual Arts, New York. Fall and spring semesters, 1997-1998
Adjunct Lecturer. Modern and Contemporary Art. School of Visual Arts, New York. Fall and spring semesters, 1993-1998
Adjunct Lecturer. American Art After 1945. City University of NY, Staten Island. Spring semester, 1993
Adjunct Lecturer. 20th-Century Art. Cooper Union, New York. Spring semester, 1990
Adjunct Lecturer. Survey of Western Art. Hunter College, City University of NY. Fall and spring semesters, 1988-1989
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Public Lectures and Conference Papers:
Conference Session Chair: “Displacing Europe,” Europa! Europa? / European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies, 29-31 May 2008, Ghent University, Belgium
Conference Paper: “How the World Stole the Idea of Avant-Garde Art,” for session, “Eurocentrism and Beyond,” Europa! Europa? / European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies, 29-31 May 2008, Ghent University, Belgium
Conference session Chair: “Between Feminisms,” College Art Association Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, February 2006
Conference Paper: “Transcultural Feminism 2005: Women Artists in Exile,” for Session, “From Feminism to Formalism?” College Art Association Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, February, 2005
Conference Paper: “The Plural Perspectives of Global Feminism,” for “The Challenge of Pluralism – The Power of Interpretation,” The 12th Conference of The International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture, Uppsala University, Sweden, 22-24 October, 2004
Symposium paper: “Art History Now: Reckoning with the World,” California State University, Sacramento, March 17, 2004
Public lecture: “Art for a Violent World: Claudia Bernardi and the Task of Beauty,” University of the Pacific, Stockton, October 13, 2003
Public lecture: “Women in Exile: The Feminine Diaspora in Contemporary Art,” Crocker Museum of Art, Sacramento, April 26, 2003
Symposium paper: “Discourse of Tolerance: Difference and ‘Other,’” ”Examining the Sign Called ‘Unity’,” Writers and Thinkers Symposium, 2001, California State University, Sacramento.
Panel Chair: “After the Little Magazine: Art News in the Nineteen-Fifties,” New Modernisms 3, Modern Studies Association Conference 2001, Rice University, Houston
Conference paper: “Thomas Hess and Harold Rosenberg: Friendship and Art News in the ‘Fifties,” New Modernisms 3, Modern Studies Association Conference 2001, Rice University, Houston
Conference paper: “Becoming Baudelaire: Harold Rosenberg and the Decadent Heroics of Modern Art Criticism, “New Modernisms Conference, University of Pennsylvania, October 2000
Conference paper: “Lot’s Wife: The Art of Claudia Bernardi,” International Committee of Art Historians, London, September 2000
Conference paper: “Mélusine After the Cry: The Art of Julia Couzens,” Association of Art Historians, Edinburgh, April 2000
Conference paper: “Creative Misreadings: The Alan Kaprow / Harold Rosenberg Correspondence,” College Art Association New York City. February 2000
Session Chair: “Lot’s Wife: Artists of Memory and the New Art History,” Barnard Feminist Art History Association Conference, New York City, November, 1999
Public lecture: "From Object to Action," CSU English Council Conference, Sacramento, California, April 26 1999
Public lecture: "Artists' Theater of the Fifties," University of California, Davis, May 20, 1999
Public lecture: "Of Art and Friendship: Thomas Hess and Harold Rosenberg," The Pollock-Krasner House, Springs, East Hampton, July, 1998
Panel Chair: "Art and Community,” Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture. New York, New York, February, 1997
Public lecture: "Begetting Spiritual Children: Artists Communities." The Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture. New York, New York, February, 1997
Public lecture: "American Action Painting as a Political Model." The Institute of Fine Arts, Bucharest, Romania. May, 1995
Conference paper: "Cold War Dialectics: Action Painting, Totalitarianism, Democracy." Socialist Scholars Conference, New York, New York. April, 1995
Conference paper: "Painting as Ethical Model: Harold Rosenberg and the Art of Willem de Kooning." Conference on Value Inquiry, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. April, 1994
Publications:
“Khalil Chishtee’s Divine Comedy,” Khalil Chishtee, exhibition catalogue, Green Cardamom Gallery, London, May – July, 2008.
“Assessment: The State of Art Criticism,” in James Elkins, ed., The State of Art Criticism, New York: Routledge, 2006.
“Isa Genzken,” entry in Grove Art Online/The Dictionary of Art, New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
“Cosima von Bonin,” entry in Grove Art Online/The Dictionary of Art, New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
“Candida Höfer,” entry in Grove Art Online/The Dictionary of Art, New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
“Jacqueline Lamba,” entry in Grove Art Online/The Dictionary of Art, New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
“Elke Krystufek,” entry in Grove Art Online/The Dictionary of Art, New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
Christina & Irene Höhenbüchler, entry in Grove Art Online/The Dictionary of Art, New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
“To Image the Soul: The Paintings of Joan Moment,” Joan Moment: Aerial Luminations, University Art Gallery, School of Fine and Performing Arts, California State University, Stanislaus, 2006.
“Staging the Performance of Time,” In the Shadow of the Hourglass: Deborah Lefkowitz, Wignal Museum, Chaffey College, 2003
“Locating Thiebaud,” Wayne Thiebaud, Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University and the Library Gallery, California State University, Sacramento, 2002
The Harold Rosenberg Papers, 230-page archive catalog for the Harold Rosenberg / May Tabak estate, 1991, J.P Getty Archives, Santa Monica, CA
"Harold Rosenberg," American National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1999
Research Grants:
President’s Travel Award, California State University, Sacramento, 2007
Faculty Research Award, California State University, Sacramento, 2001
Travel Fellowship awarded by the City University of New York Graduate School, summer, 1992
Other Professional Activities:
Curriculum Consultant: Kogi State University, Nigeria, June – August 2001. Analysis of KSU curricula in the Arts and proposal for curriculum development
Jurist, California Arts Council Fellowship Award, April 2003
Jurist, Humboldt State University Student Awards Exhibition, May 2003
Jurist, Painting and Mixed Media, California State Fair, Summer, 2003
Curatorial: Selected Exhibitions and Exhibition-related Lectures and Panel Discussions
Robert Else Gallery, CSU, Sacramento, CA
Traces: Contemporary Romanian Art, September-October, 2008. A four-venue, internationally travelling exhibition
Off-Center Femininities: Regards from Serbia and Montenegro, September-October, 2007
Making Tender the Dust: Claudia Bernardi
Public lecture: Memory and Loss in Contemporary Global Art
Panel Chair: Interdisciplinary panel discussion: Art and Genocide
Idols & Icons: Historical Personae in Contemporary Art: Lynn Bennett, Lee Jaffee, and Shepard Fairey
Mr & Mrs: The Art of Michael Stevens and Suzanne Adan
Panel chair. Creativity and Marriage: 8 Artists – 4 Artist-Couples
Geneculture: The Art of Suzanne Anker
Panel chair: Art and the New Genetics
From the Center: The Art of Frank Tuttle
Light Chambers III: The Art of Deborah Lefkowitz
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