Claire Bishop

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Claire Bishop
Born1971 (age 5253)
NationalityBritish
Education Cambridge University, Essex University
OccupationProfessor of Art History at CUNY Graduate Center
Known forHistories and theories of participation art and performance
Notable workArtificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (2012); “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics" (2004)

Claire Bishop is a British art historian, critic, and Professor of Art History at CUNY Graduate Center, New York where she has taught since September 2008. [1]

Contents

Bishop is known as one of the central theorists of participation in visual art and performance. Her 2004 essay titled “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics,” which was published in October , remains an influential critique of relational aesthetics. [2] Bishop's books have been translated into over eighteen languages and she is a frequent contributor to art journals including Artforum and October.

Early life and education

Bishop grew up on the Welsh border and attended Welshpool High School.[ citation needed ] She received a Bachelor of Arts in art history from St John's College, Cambridge in 1994 and completed her MA and Ph.D in art history and theory at Essex University in 1996 and 2002 respectively. Bishop was a tutor in critical theory in the Curating Contemporary Art department at the Royal College of Art, London from 2001 to 2006, before becoming an associate professor in the department of Art History at the University of Warwick, Coventry from 2006 to 2008. [3]

Career

Bishop's book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (2012) is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, best known in the U.S. as "social practice." In it, Bishop follows the trajectory of twentieth-century art and examines key moments in the development of a participatory aesthetic. This Itinerary takes in Futurism and Dada; the Situationist International; Happenings in Eastern Europe, Argentina, and Paris; the 1970 Community Arts Movement; and the Artists Placement Group. It concludes with a discussion of long-term educational projects by contemporary artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tania Bruguera, Pawel Althamer, and Paul Chan. [4] Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship was reviewed in a wide range of publications including Art in America, [5] Art Journal, [6] CAA Reviews, [7] Art Review, [8] Art Monthly, [9] and TDR: The Drama Review. [10] In 2013, Artificial Hells won the Frank Jewett Mather Prize for art criticism and the ASAP book prize.

Bishop is also the author of the short book Radical Museology, or,What's Contemporary in Museums of Contemporary Art? (2013), with drawings by Dan Perjovschi, which has been translated into Romanian, Russian, Korean, Spanish, and Italian.

Her current research looks at contemporary art and performance as a way to understand the changing impact of digital technology upon attention. Part of this research was published as 'Black Box, White Cube, Gray Zone: Dance Exhibitions and Audience Attention' TDR, Summer 2018.

In 2020 she published a book of conversations with the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera.

In 2024, Bishop was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts Research. [11]

Selected publications

Books

Edited Volumes

Papers

Related Research Articles

References

  1. "'Ruin lust' dominates contemporary art, says US author and academic Claire Bishop". The Sydney Morning Herald . 15 December 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  2. "Former West Conference Bio".
  3. "FORMER WEST – Claire Bishop".
  4. Bishop, Claire (2012). Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship . Verso. pp. back cover. ISBN   978-1-84467-690-3.
  5. Heartney, Eleanor (June 2012). "Can Art Change Lives?". Art in America. 100 (6): 67.
  6. Charnley, Kim (Summer 2014). "Criticism and Cooperation". Art Journal. 73 (2): 116–118. doi:10.1080/00043249.2014.949523. S2CID   193159638.
  7. Widrich, Mechtild (12 August 2013). "Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship". CAA Reviews: 1–3.
  8. Charlesworth, J.J. (October 2012). "Artificial Hells Participatory Art and the Politics Spectatorship". Art Review (62): 142.
  9. Quaintance, Morgan (September 2012). "Artificial Hells". Art Monthly (359): 37.
  10. Watt, Kenn (2014). "Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship by Claire Bishop (review)". TDR: The Drama Review. 58 (1): 181–183. doi:10.1162/dram_r_00340. S2CID   57562771.
  11. Nayyar, Rhea (11 April 2024). "Lorraine O'Grady and Nicholas Galanin Named Guggenheim Fellows". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 14 April 2024.