I study the history and theory of modernism from impressionism to the present. Within this field, my research centers on the question of representation. What does it mean for one thing to represent another one? I approach this problem both theoretically and historically, focusing especially on moments in European and American art history when it seemed especially difficult. As such, I am drawn to basic analytical categories such as comparison and resemblance, as well as methodological issues concerning how conventions of represententation relate to the socio-historical structures in which they develop.

My first book, Painting with Monet, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press.

Ongoing Projects

Book-length studies of:

  • An environmental history of the impressionists' Seine.
  • How post-war American artists (Maya Deren, Louise Nevelson, Betye Saar) drew on Gothic literature to forge a feminist modernism. 

And article-length treatments of:

  • Racial politics in post-war American criticism.
  • Race and Resemblance in Lorraine O'Grady's Miscegenated Family Album (1994).
  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir's generational positioning.

Areas of Focus:

  • French Impressionism
  • 20th Century American Abstraction
  • Modernist Criticism
  • Critical Theory and Aesthetics

Education:

  • PhD. Harvard, History of Art and Architecture, 2021
  • BA. University of Chicago, Fundamentals: Issues and Texts, 2013