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Maria Gough Named Pulitzer Professor of Modern Art
Cambridge, Mass., October 30, 2009 -- Maria Gough, a scholar of the Russian and Soviet avant-gardes, has been appointed Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. Professor of Modern Art in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2009.
Gough was previously associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. She served as area director for art history within this department from 2007 to 2009.
“Professor Gough is a pioneering theorist and historian whose work invites new approaches to the Russian and Soviet avant-gardes,” said Diana Sorensen, dean for the arts and humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “Yet she is also a dedicated teacher and mentor, committed to sharing her passion for the history of art. We are certain that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will benefit from her expertise and enthusiasm.”
Gough’s research focuses on modern art history, primarily the practices of the Russian and Soviet avant-gardes from 1900 to 1945. She is the author of The Artist as Producer: Russian Constructivism in Revolution (University of California Press, 2005). This groundbreaking book illuminates the famous debates of Inkhuk, a Soviet organization established in 1920 to encourage artistic expression in the post-Revolutionary era. During that period, concepts of art shifted from the traditional practice of painterly or sculptural composition toward a new aesthetic project centered on “construction.”
In addition to her detailed work on the ideological debates in Russian and Soviet avant-garde culture, Gough writes broadly about their resonance in artistic circles from Berlin to Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. Gough’s work touches on American art, as well – her archival investigations have provided evidence for connections between New York Minimalists such as Frank Stella and the work of Russian and Soviet Constructivists such as Alexander Rodchenko.
Gough is currently at work on several book projects. How to Make a Revolutionary Object will address the intermedia projects of El Lissitzky and Gustavs Klucis, two innovative artists who shaped Soviet culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Another project, Radical Tourism, will explore the photographic practices of foreign travelers in Soviet Central Asia during the early 1930s.
Gough holds a B.A. (Honors) in fine arts from the University of Melbourne. She received a master’s in the history of art from Johns Hopkins University in 1990 and a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University in 1997. Prior to teaching at Stanford, Gough was William Wilhartz Assistant Professor of the History of Art at the University of Michigan.
Gough has been honored with many awards and fellowships, including the Paul Mellon Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art (1992-1995) and a Clark Fellowship from the Clark Art Institute (2001).
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