Dr. Brett M. Van Hoesen
Assistant Professor: Modern and Contemporary Art History
Office: 158 Church Fine Arts Building
Office Hours: T/Th 3-4pm
and by appt.
Phone: (775) 784-6639
Email: bvanhoesen@unr.edu
Dr. Brett M. Van Hoesen teaches for USAC Torino Italy this summer.
Dr. Brett Van Hoesen joined the faculty at UNR in 2007. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Iowa and an M.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received her B.A. in Art with a minor in Dance from the University of Iowa. Prior to joining the faculty at UNR, Dr. Van Hoesen served as the Visiting Instructor for Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She has also held museum internships at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, The Busch-Reisinger Museum and The Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.
Research
Dr. Van Hoesen’s research areas include Contemporary European and American Art,
Visual Culture of the Weimar Republic, German Colonial History and its Legacy,
Dada (Berlin and Zürich), Photomontage, Hannah Höch, László Moholy-Nagy, Max
Pechstein, Popular Press Documentary Photography (Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung and Der
Querschnitt), African Art, 19th Century French Art, Museum Studies, and aspects of
contemporary Digital Culture Studies.
She has received funding for her research from the Ford Foundation, German Academic
Exchange Service (DAAD), Junior Faculty Research Grant Program (UNR), Scholarly
and Creative Activities Grant Program (UNR), and the Scholar in Residence Program
at the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art.
Publications
“Carl Einstein and the Lessons of László Moholy-Nagy.” In Carl Einstein and the European Avant-Garde, edited by Nicola Creighton and Andreas Kramer. Under review with Fink Verlag, Munich.
“Weimar Postcolonial Politics and the Rhineland Controversy.” In German Cultures of Colonialism: Race, Nation and Globalization, 1884-1945, edited by Geoff Eley and Bradley D. Naranch. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, forthcoming 2012.
“From Pop Icon to Postmodern Kitsch: Michael Jackson and Contemporary Art.” In Michael Jackson: Grasping the Spectacle, edited by Christopher Smit. Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, forthcoming 2012.
“Sound Art – New Only in Name: A Selected History of German Sound Works from the Last Century.”Co-authored with Jean-Paul Perrotte in Germany in the Loud Twentieth Century, edited by Florence Feiereisen and Alexandra Merley Hill, 141-156. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Link
“Who Knows Tomorrow: Berlin and Beyond.” (Exhibition review) Nka – Journal for Contemporary African Art (Duke University Press Journals), v. 28 (September 2011): 76-85 Link
“Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism: Constructing the Weimar New Woman out of a Colonial Imaginary.” In The New Woman International: Photographic Representations from the 1870s through the 1960s, edited by Elizabeth Otto and Vanessa Rocco with introduction by Linda Nochlin, 95-114. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2011. Link
“Notes from the Frontline.” n.paradoxa (international feminist art journal) v. 26 (July 2010): 77. Link
“Re-Visioning Germany's Colonial Past: Tactics of Weimar Photomontage and Documentary Photography.” In German Colonialism, Visual Culture, and Modern Memory, edited by Volker Langbehn, 197-219. London and New York: Routledge, 2010. Link
“West of Worcester: Reflections on Grad Night.” Keynote essay for exhibition of work by recent MFA and BFA graduates of the University of Nevada, Reno and Sierra Nevada College, June 2009. Published online: Link
Three essays: "Guerrilla Girls," "November Group," and "Spartacist Uprising." In International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, edited byImmanuel Ness. Malden, MA and Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
“The Short Century: Constructing a Contemporary Critical Biography of Africa.” New Art Examiner 31 (January/February, 2002): 36-41.
Courses
ART 365: Contemporary ArtART 472: 19th Century Art
ART 473: 20th Century Art
ART 484: Gender and Art History (formerly Women, Art, and Society)
ART 487: German Art, 1900 - present
ART 737: Graduate Seminar: Art Theory and Criticism
Course Offerings – SPRING 2012
ART 365 Contemporary Art (T/TH 1-2:15)
(Also offered with USAC, second summer session (July 16-August 17, 2012), Torino, Italy)
This course covers artists, art movements and issues ranging from mid-century Europe and America to 21st century global centers. With the assistance of PowerPoint presentations, CONTENTdm, films, music, artists’ writings, exhibitions, art theory and criticism, this course provides an interdisciplinary and international approach to the culture of contemporary art practices. Lectures are presented in conjunction with discussion activities. Student participation is an essential component of this course, as the subject matter of contemporary art requires on-going discussion, reevaluation, and debate. The final grade is based upon in-class assignments, mid-semester and final examinations as well as a written research project.