Costumes by Robert Shane for "Microcosm" (2014) Claire Jacob-Zysman and Dancers.
Photograph by Jules Zysman
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Research & Writing Art History, Theory, and Criticism Robert Shane's current book project is Mirroring Mothers: Witnessing Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art, and his research has been published in Hypatia. His art criticism has appeared in publications including The Brooklyn Rail and he has authored several catalog essays for contemporary art exhibitions. He has a secondary research interest in intersections between art and dance, and his creative work includes collaborations with dancers and costume design. |
Education
2009 PhD, Art History and Criticism, Stony Brook University
2007 Advanced Graduate Certificate in Art and Philosophy, Stony Brook University
2003 MA, Art History & Criticism, Stony Brook University
2000 BFA, Studio Art The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
2009 PhD, Art History and Criticism, Stony Brook University
2007 Advanced Graduate Certificate in Art and Philosophy, Stony Brook University
2003 MA, Art History & Criticism, Stony Brook University
2000 BFA, Studio Art The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
Publications
Chapters in books
“The Mirror before the Mirror—Reflections on Kristeva and Martha Graham’s Hérodiade (1944),” in Understanding Kristeva, Understanding Modernism, ed. Maria Margaroni. London: Bloomsbury. Forthcoming.
“Ritually Thinking the Eye: An Aesthetics and Ethics of Vision after the Work of Mario Perniola,” in Virtual Materialities, eds. Peter Gratton and Jennifer Purvis. Lanham, Maryland: Rowand & Littlefield. Forthcoming.
“Performing Painting: On the Time of Embodied Vision,” in Seeing Whole: Toward an Ethics and Ecology of Sight, Mark Ledbetter and Asbjørn Grønstad, eds. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, pp. 237-260.
Scholarly articles
“‘I longed to cherish mirrored reflections’: Mirroring and Black Female Subjectivity in Carrie Mae Weems’s Art against Shame,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 33, issue 3 (2018), Special issue—Gender and the Politics of Shame, ed. Clara Fischer: 500-520. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12391 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15272001/2018/33/3
“Motherhood According to Martha Graham: Dancing Jocasta” Theory@Buffalo 19, Special issue—Difference: Sexual, Cultural, Universal (2017): 83-110. Click for here for PDF
“Looking and Moving: Kinesthetic Empathy, Dance, and the Visual Arts,” Art Criticism 25, nos. 1-2 (Spring-Fall 2010): 153-168.
“Paul McCarthy’s Painter as Self-Portrait and Self-Loathing,” Art Criticism 24, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 84-103.
“The Personal and the Political: The Dynamics of East German Art in the Painting of Willi Sitte,” Art Criticism 19, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 121-142.
“A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Paul McCarthy’s Santa’s Chocolate Shop,” Art Criticism 18, no. 2 (Fall 2003): 84-103.
“From Formalism to Informe and Back Again: Rosalind Krauss’s use of Bataille,” Art Criticism 17, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 70-88
Art criticism, book reviews, interviews (all hyperlinked)
Interview, "In Conversation with Gladys Nilsson," The Brooklyn Rail (March 2020).
Review of Harold Mendez, The years now, The Brooklyn Rail (March 2020).
Review of Otto-Silke Knapp, In the waiting room, The Brooklyn Rail (March 2020).
Review of Francis Naumann's book Mentors: The Making of an Art Historian, The Brooklyn Rail (February 2020).
Review of Odessa Straub, There's my chair I put it there, The Brooklyn Rail (December 2019 - January 2020).
Review of Karen Kilimnik, The Brooklyn Rail (December 2019 - January 2020).
Review of Francesca DiMattio, Statues, The Brooklyn Rail (November 2019).
Review of Nick van Woert, Body Parts. The Brooklyn Rail (October 2019).
Review of Amy Bennett, Nuclear Family. The Brooklyn Rail (September 2019).
Review of Diana Copperwhite, The Clock Struck Between Time, The Brooklyn Rail (June 2019).
Review of Cameron Martin, Abstracts and Reticulations, The Brooklyn Rail (September 2017).
“‘Without Beginning or End’—The Trans-Temporal Art of Yeachin Tsai,” The Shambhala Times (Published in serial: 26, 28, 30 July 2017). And printed in its entirety on artist’s website.
“Temporal Nomads: The Scandal of Postmodern History Painting,” The Brooklyn Rail (June 2017).
Review of Joan Oliver, Landlocked: Among the Many, The Spot 518 (28 June 2017).
“Tiffany in a New Light [Louis Comfort Tiffany Stained Glass at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Troy, NY],” Capital Region Living, June 2013, pp. 52-55.
Catalogue and exhibition essays
Author of the essay "Intimacy and Oblivion - Damian Loeb's paintings of the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse" for the exhibition Damian Loeb - All Hope Is Lost, Aquavella Gallery, Frieze New York, May 2-5, 2019. Catalog forthcoming.
Author of the essay "Warhol's Romanticism: Polaroids of Children and Their Mothers" for the exhibition Younger Than Today: Photographs of Children (and sometimes their mothers) by Andy Warhol, curated by Corinna Ripps-Schaming. University Art Museum, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY. June 29-Sept 15, 2018.
Author of the essay "When We Were Young: Rethinking Abstraction from the University at Albany Art Collections (1967-present) for the exhibition of the same name, curated by Corinna Ripps-Schaming. University Art Museum, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY. October 6-December 16, 2017.
“Terpsícore en la pintura: imágenes de danza de José Manuel Ciria / Terpsichore in Painting: José Manuel Ciria’s Images of Dance,” translated by David Cruz Acevedo, in Ciria: Heads Grids, curated and edited by Donald Kuspit. Madrid, Círculo de Bellas Artes, 2010, pp. 21-29 (Spanish) / 201-206 (English). PDF of the print catalog available through artist’s website: http://joseciria.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/CIRCULOBELLASARTESbaja.pdf
Contributor to the following books
Great Women Artists, Louisa Elderton, editor. London: Phaidon, 2019.
Landscape Painting Now, Todd Bradway, editor. Artbook/D.A.P., 2019.
Art of the Erotic, Kim Scott, editor. London: Phaidon, 2017.
Body of Art, London: Phaidon, 2015.
Art in Time: A World History of Styles and Movements, Tom Melick and Diane Fortenberry, editors. London: Phaidon, 2014.
Art and Place: Site-Specific Art of the Americas, Rosie Pickles, editor. London: Phaidon, 2013.
The Art Museum, Diane Fortenberry, editor. London: Phaidon, 2011.
Publications in progress
Mirroring Mothers: Witnessing Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art. Book project. Work in progress.
Peer-reviewer
Submission reviewer for The Journal of Art Historiography (University of Birmingham) spring 2014.
Curatorial Experience and Writing
See also: Publications > Catalogue and Exhibition Essays above
Exhibition Essayist
Author of "Translating Pam Poquette's Glyphs" for Pam Poquette: Glyphs | Gallery Fifty5, Kingston, NY | July 2019
Exhibition Essayist
Author of “The Musicality and Mysticism of the Mundane” for Yeachin Tsai: Winter Joy | Pause Gallery, Troy, NY | January 2019
Exhibition Committee Member
Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY. 2017 to present
Exhibition Tour
When We Were Young: Rethinking Abstraction for the University at Albany Art Collections, curated by Corinna Ripps-Schaming.
University Art Museum, University at Albany, NY. October 21, 2017
Exhibition Essayist
Author of the essay “Dorothea Osborn: Pantheism in the Age of Plastic” for the exhibition Dorothea Osborn’s Mixed Media | University of Connecticut Stamford Art Gallery, Stamford, CT | March 23-April 30, 2015.
Invited Juror and Curator, Writer
Juror and curator of Fence Select, exhibition of contemporary artists from the Capital Region of New York, and author of exhibition essay “Critical and Beautiful: The Contemporary Artists of the Capital Region.”
The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY
July 16 to August 29, 2014
Juror and Exhibition Committee Member
Saratoga County Arts Council at the Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
2010 to 2012
Invited Juror, Curator, and Essayists
Patterns in Practice, exhibition of new student printmaking, Picotte Hall Art Gallery, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
November 2009
See also: Publications > Catalogue and Exhibition Essays above
Exhibition Essayist
Author of "Translating Pam Poquette's Glyphs" for Pam Poquette: Glyphs | Gallery Fifty5, Kingston, NY | July 2019
Exhibition Essayist
Author of “The Musicality and Mysticism of the Mundane” for Yeachin Tsai: Winter Joy | Pause Gallery, Troy, NY | January 2019
Exhibition Committee Member
Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY. 2017 to present
Exhibition Tour
When We Were Young: Rethinking Abstraction for the University at Albany Art Collections, curated by Corinna Ripps-Schaming.
University Art Museum, University at Albany, NY. October 21, 2017
Exhibition Essayist
Author of the essay “Dorothea Osborn: Pantheism in the Age of Plastic” for the exhibition Dorothea Osborn’s Mixed Media | University of Connecticut Stamford Art Gallery, Stamford, CT | March 23-April 30, 2015.
Invited Juror and Curator, Writer
Juror and curator of Fence Select, exhibition of contemporary artists from the Capital Region of New York, and author of exhibition essay “Critical and Beautiful: The Contemporary Artists of the Capital Region.”
The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY
July 16 to August 29, 2014
Juror and Exhibition Committee Member
Saratoga County Arts Council at the Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
2010 to 2012
Invited Juror, Curator, and Essayists
Patterns in Practice, exhibition of new student printmaking, Picotte Hall Art Gallery, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
November 2009
Conferences
2020 The College Art Association, Chicago.
Paper: "Laughing Mothers, Speaking Subjects" forthcoming.
2019 The Kristeva Circle, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Paper: “Mirroring Mothers: Witnessing Maternal Subjectivity in Sarah Irvin’s Breastfeeding Drawings”
2019 The College Art Association, New York, NY
Session Chair: Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art, co-chaired with Dr. Susan Van Scoy.
Paper: Correcting Mirrors: Shame, Subjectivity, and Breastfeeding in Contemporary Art.
2018 The Kristeva Circle, California State University Northridge, Los Angeles
Paper: “Milk and Tears”: Abjection, Reliance, and Shame in Susana Guerrero’s Sculptures of Breastfeeding.
Representing the Kristeva Circle, this paper was re-presented at the 2019 Diverse Lineages of Existentialism Conference, Washington D.C.
2017 The Kristeva Circle, University of Pittsburg, PA
Paper: “The Time of Oblivion and Thunder": Cosmos, Intimacy, and Revolt in Claire Jacob-
Zysman’s Dance A Single Dot of Light (2012)
2015 The Kristeva Circle, University of Memphis, TN
Paper: “Motherhood According to Martha Graham: Dancing Jocasta”
2015 Southern Humanities Council conference, Athens, GA ; and 2013 National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of
Artists, School of Visual Arts, New York
Paper: “Collaborating with the Cosmos: Earthworks after Copernicus”
2014 Society of Dance History Scholars + Congress on Research in Dance joint conference, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Paper: “The (M)other of Language: Martha Graham ‘Writing a Script of Movement’ for Jocasta and Oedipus”
2014 Nomadikon/Center for Ethics of Seeing, Athens, GA, October 2014
Paper: “Reflections on Time: The Face in the Mirror”
2014 The Kristeva Circle, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Paper: “The Temporal Scar: Zeitlos and Revolt in Women’s Memorial Art”
2014 Southern Humanities Council conference, Richmond, VA
Paper: “Memorial: The Temporal Scar”
2012 National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY; and The Kristeva
Circle, Siena College, Loudonville, NY, October 2012
Paper: “Commodity Abjection: the Performance Art of Paul McCarthy”
2012 The 6th Nomadikon Conference: Ecologies of Seeing. Organized by the University of Bergen, Norway. Hosted by The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
Paper: “Performing Painting: On the Time of Embodied Seeing”
2012 College Art Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA, February 2012
Session Chair: Intersections between Art and Dance in the Twentieth-Century
2011 National Conference on the Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, School of the Visual Arts, New York
Paper: Writing Art History as a Practice of Freedom
2011 College Art Association, New York, NY,
Paper: “Artist as Liar, Audience as Sucker: Commodity Fetishism in Paul McCarthy’s ‘Pinocchio’”
2006 International Association of Philosophy and Literature, University of Freiburg, Germany
Session Chair: “Collage, Layering, Juxtaposition”
2005 IAPL, University of Helsinki, Finland
Paper: “The Forgiving Eye: Art and Creativity after the Ethics of Kelly Oliver” [Respondent: Kelly Oliver]
2005: “The Fate of Interiority in Modern and Postmodern Art” Conference held at Stony Brook Manhattan
Discussant
2004 IAPL, Syracuse University and Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY
Paper: “Ritually Thinking the Eye: An Aesthetics and Ethics of Vision after the Work of Mario Perniola” [Respondent: Mario Perniola]
2003 IAPL, University of Leeds, England
Paper: “The Future of an Illusion: Psychoanalysis and Spirituality in the Work of Donald Kuspit” [Respondent: Donald Kuspit]
2020 The College Art Association, Chicago.
Paper: "Laughing Mothers, Speaking Subjects" forthcoming.
2019 The Kristeva Circle, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Paper: “Mirroring Mothers: Witnessing Maternal Subjectivity in Sarah Irvin’s Breastfeeding Drawings”
2019 The College Art Association, New York, NY
Session Chair: Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art, co-chaired with Dr. Susan Van Scoy.
Paper: Correcting Mirrors: Shame, Subjectivity, and Breastfeeding in Contemporary Art.
2018 The Kristeva Circle, California State University Northridge, Los Angeles
Paper: “Milk and Tears”: Abjection, Reliance, and Shame in Susana Guerrero’s Sculptures of Breastfeeding.
Representing the Kristeva Circle, this paper was re-presented at the 2019 Diverse Lineages of Existentialism Conference, Washington D.C.
2017 The Kristeva Circle, University of Pittsburg, PA
Paper: “The Time of Oblivion and Thunder": Cosmos, Intimacy, and Revolt in Claire Jacob-
Zysman’s Dance A Single Dot of Light (2012)
2015 The Kristeva Circle, University of Memphis, TN
Paper: “Motherhood According to Martha Graham: Dancing Jocasta”
2015 Southern Humanities Council conference, Athens, GA ; and 2013 National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of
Artists, School of Visual Arts, New York
Paper: “Collaborating with the Cosmos: Earthworks after Copernicus”
2014 Society of Dance History Scholars + Congress on Research in Dance joint conference, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Paper: “The (M)other of Language: Martha Graham ‘Writing a Script of Movement’ for Jocasta and Oedipus”
2014 Nomadikon/Center for Ethics of Seeing, Athens, GA, October 2014
Paper: “Reflections on Time: The Face in the Mirror”
2014 The Kristeva Circle, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Paper: “The Temporal Scar: Zeitlos and Revolt in Women’s Memorial Art”
2014 Southern Humanities Council conference, Richmond, VA
Paper: “Memorial: The Temporal Scar”
2012 National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY; and The Kristeva
Circle, Siena College, Loudonville, NY, October 2012
Paper: “Commodity Abjection: the Performance Art of Paul McCarthy”
2012 The 6th Nomadikon Conference: Ecologies of Seeing. Organized by the University of Bergen, Norway. Hosted by The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
Paper: “Performing Painting: On the Time of Embodied Seeing”
2012 College Art Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA, February 2012
Session Chair: Intersections between Art and Dance in the Twentieth-Century
2011 National Conference on the Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, School of the Visual Arts, New York
Paper: Writing Art History as a Practice of Freedom
2011 College Art Association, New York, NY,
Paper: “Artist as Liar, Audience as Sucker: Commodity Fetishism in Paul McCarthy’s ‘Pinocchio’”
2006 International Association of Philosophy and Literature, University of Freiburg, Germany
Session Chair: “Collage, Layering, Juxtaposition”
2005 IAPL, University of Helsinki, Finland
Paper: “The Forgiving Eye: Art and Creativity after the Ethics of Kelly Oliver” [Respondent: Kelly Oliver]
2005: “The Fate of Interiority in Modern and Postmodern Art” Conference held at Stony Brook Manhattan
Discussant
2004 IAPL, Syracuse University and Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY
Paper: “Ritually Thinking the Eye: An Aesthetics and Ethics of Vision after the Work of Mario Perniola” [Respondent: Mario Perniola]
2003 IAPL, University of Leeds, England
Paper: “The Future of an Illusion: Psychoanalysis and Spirituality in the Work of Donald Kuspit” [Respondent: Donald Kuspit]
Guest Lectures and Public Talks
2019 Lecture, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD
Title: Mirroring Mothers: Witnessing Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art
2019 Presentation, English Department Faculty Works in Progress, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
Title: Mirroring Mothers: Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art
2017 Lecture, Feminist Art Reading Group, State University of New York at Albany
Title: “Maternity and Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to the Work of Julia Kristeva”
2017 Address for 20th Anniversary of the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary. The College of Saint Rose
Title: “Art and the Sacred”
2016 Lecture in conjunction with the College of Saint Rose’s Symphony Orchestra, cond. Dr. David Bebe, for its performance of Impressionist Music (Debussy and Ravel)
Title: Impressionist Art
2016 Keynote address for the 7th Annual Student Art Exhibit, New York State Office of General Services and Capital Area Art Supervisors, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY
Title: “Art Educates”
2016, 2014 Lecture, History of Twentieth-Century Dance, Prof. Ellen Sinopoli, Russell Sage College,
Troy, NY
Title: “Art and Dance Collaborations: Graham/Noguchi and Cunningham/Rauschenberg”
2012 Lecture and guided discussion of Jacques Derrida’s “Passe-Partout” from The Truth in Painting (1978), ART518 Contemporary Art History, Dr. Lucy Bowditch, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
Title: “Derrida and Aesthetics”
2019 Lecture, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD
Title: Mirroring Mothers: Witnessing Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art
2019 Presentation, English Department Faculty Works in Progress, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
Title: Mirroring Mothers: Maternal Subjectivity in Contemporary Art
2017 Lecture, Feminist Art Reading Group, State University of New York at Albany
Title: “Maternity and Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to the Work of Julia Kristeva”
2017 Address for 20th Anniversary of the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary. The College of Saint Rose
Title: “Art and the Sacred”
2016 Lecture in conjunction with the College of Saint Rose’s Symphony Orchestra, cond. Dr. David Bebe, for its performance of Impressionist Music (Debussy and Ravel)
Title: Impressionist Art
2016 Keynote address for the 7th Annual Student Art Exhibit, New York State Office of General Services and Capital Area Art Supervisors, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY
Title: “Art Educates”
2016, 2014 Lecture, History of Twentieth-Century Dance, Prof. Ellen Sinopoli, Russell Sage College,
Troy, NY
Title: “Art and Dance Collaborations: Graham/Noguchi and Cunningham/Rauschenberg”
2012 Lecture and guided discussion of Jacques Derrida’s “Passe-Partout” from The Truth in Painting (1978), ART518 Contemporary Art History, Dr. Lucy Bowditch, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
Title: “Derrida and Aesthetics”
Exhibition and Performance Record
Resident Costume Designer
Claire Jacob-Zysman and Dancers, 2014 to 2017
Exhibiting Artist
Our Heads, curated by Brian Cirmo | Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY | Oct-Nov, 2013
Dancer
Claire Jacob-Zysman and Dancers. Choreography by Claire Jacob-Zysman.
Exhibiting Artist
Faculty Show | The College of Saint Rose | Sept-Oct 2007
Exhibiting Artist
Mohawk-Hudson Regional Juried Exhibition | University Art Museum, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY | 2000
Xu Bing, Juror
Muralist
“Hudson Riverfront Mural” by Albany Mural, Jan-Marie Spanard, director
trompe-l’oeil public mural commissioned by the City of Albany, NY
June-November 1999
Claire Jacob-Zysman and Dancers, 2014 to 2017
- Two costumes for the piece Electric Counterpoint (2015), premiered Massry Center for the Arts, College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
- One costume for the piece Landscape with Birds (2015), premiered Massry Center for the Arts
- Six costumes for the piece Microcosm (2014), premiered Woodstock, NY
Exhibiting Artist
Our Heads, curated by Brian Cirmo | Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY | Oct-Nov, 2013
Dancer
Claire Jacob-Zysman and Dancers. Choreography by Claire Jacob-Zysman.
- Inside/Out Community Day performance at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Beckett, MA, July 1, 2012.
- An Evening with Claire Jacob-Zysman and Dancers. First Friday performance hosted by Westminster Presbyterian Church, Albany, . September 2, 2011.
- At First Glance. Choreography by dancers from the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, Albany, NY. October 29 & 30, 2010.
- The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY
Exhibiting Artist
Faculty Show | The College of Saint Rose | Sept-Oct 2007
Exhibiting Artist
Mohawk-Hudson Regional Juried Exhibition | University Art Museum, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY | 2000
Xu Bing, Juror
Muralist
“Hudson Riverfront Mural” by Albany Mural, Jan-Marie Spanard, director
trompe-l’oeil public mural commissioned by the City of Albany, NY
June-November 1999
Professional Affiliations
Academic Honors
Languages
- College Art Association, member, http://collegeart.org/
- Society of Dance History Scholars, member, https://sdhs.org/
- The Kristeva Circle, http://www.kristevacircle.org/
- American Association of University Professors, member, http://www.aaup.org/
Academic Honors
- 2010 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Nominee, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
- 2005 Dedalus Foundation Fellowship Nominee, Stony Brook University
- Academic Scholarship, Department of Art History and Criticism, Stony Brook University
- Teaching Assistantship, Department of Art History and Criticism, Stony Brook University 2001-2005
Languages
- Spanish: reading knowledge, intermediate verbal and written knowledge
- German: reading knowledge
- French: reading knowledge