Michael Brenson
Senior Critic
Biography
B.A., Rutgers University (English)
M.A., Johns Hopkins University (Creative Writing)
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University (Art History)
Independent critic. Art critic, New York Times (1982–91). Curated exhibitions of Magdalena Abakanowicz, P.S.1 (1993); Ryoji Koie, Gallery at Takashimaya (1994); and Jonathan Silver, Sculpture Center (1995). Publications include Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, and the Place of the Visual Artist in America (2001); Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block Structures (2002); Acts of Engagement: Writings on Art, Criticism, and Institutions, 1993–2002 (2004); edited (with Mary Jane Jacob) Conversations at the Castle: Changing Audiences and Contemporary Art (1998); edited (with Rhea Anastas), Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings by Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, Cady Noland, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker, Daniela Rossell and Eau de Cologne (2006); museum catalogues on Elizabeth Catlett, Mel Edwards, Alberto Giacometti, Gillian Jagger, Maya Lin, Juan Muñoz, Martin Puryear, and David Smith; and numerous other essays on modern and contemporary sculpture, public art, art criticism, and contemporary art and its institutions. Getty Scholar (1999). University of Wisconsin Art Institute Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence (2004). Guggenheim Fellow (2008). Sculpture faculty Bard College's Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts (1999 to the present). Currently writing a biography of David Smith to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.