Jonathan Harris
Jonathan Harris has a PhD on American art and politics in the 1930s (CNAA 1986) and has taught at several British universities including Keele, Liverpool, Southampton and now Birmingham City University. Specialising in modernist and contemporary art, Harris has published 20 books and over 100 book and journal essays. Harris’s most recent studies are Globalization and Contemporary Art (Wiley-Blackwell 2011), The Utopians Globalists: Artists of Worldwide Revolution, 1919-2009 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and The Global Contemporary Art World: A Rough Guide (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2017).
Current Activity
Writer
Critic
Historian
Areas of Expertise
Social history of art
Marxism and culture
Art historiography
State and cultural production
Qualifications
BA (Hons) Art History Sussex 1983 First Class
PhD Middlesex Polytechnic (CNAA) 1986
Memberships
College Art Association of America
Council for Higher Education in Art & Design
Editor of book series, Liverpool University Press
Contested Modernisms research group, University of Barcelona
AHRC Strategic Reviewers’ Group, 2013-present: member for Art & Design
AHRC Peer Review College member, 2010-present: academic; knowledge transfer research grants applications
Teaching
Modernist Art
Contemporary Art and Globalization
Politics of art and state
Art historiography
Art
Research
Globalization and contemporary art
Modernism and modernity
State and cultural production
Marxism and cultural materialism
Postgraduate Supervision
I have supervised 13 students to successful completion of PhDs:
Oliver Peterson Gilbert ‘Pop Art Redefined: British Pop Art of the 1960s: Towards a Social and Institutional History’ PhD awarded December 2015 (University of Southampton, Director of Studies 2012-2015)
Judith Walsh: ‘Jack Smith, John Berger and British Kitchen Sink painting’ PhD awarded July 2013 (University of Southampton, Director of Studies 2007-2013)
Jane Clayton: New Technologies and social change: a case-study of FACT, Liverpool (University of Liverpool/AHRC candidate) PhD awarded June 2012 (University of Liverpool, Director of Studies 2009-2011)
Antoinette McKane: ‘Tate Liverpool: Lessons for Regeneration 1988-2008’ (University of Liverpool/AHRC candidate): PhD awarded July 2012 (University of Liverpool, Director of Studies 2007-2011)
August Davis: ‘Martha Rosler,’ PhD awarded October 2010 (University of Liverpool, Director of Studies)
Lyn Hildytch: ‘Lee Miller: Surrealism and Second World War Photography,’ PhD awarded May 2010 (Liverpool Hope University: External supervisor, degree validated by University of Liverpool)
Jill Townsley: ‘Moments of Repetition in the Process of Art Production: Temporalities, Labour, Appropriations and Authorships,’ PhD awarded March 2010 (University of Chester: External supervisor, degree validated by University of Liverpool) theory-practice degree
Tom Ratcliffe: ‘Between Paris and New York: Abstract Art in England from 1945-1965,’ PhD awarded December 2009 (Leeds Metropolitan University: External supervisor)
Jill Gibbon: ‘A Radical Witness: An Assessment of Ideas and Uses of Presence on Location in Reportage,’ PhD awarded April 2008 (Wimbledon College of Art, University of Surrey: External supervisor) theory-practice degree
Bryan Banks: ‘Facture and Paint in Art since the Renaissance,’ PhD awarded December 2006 (University of Liverpool: Director of Studies)
Jeffrey Adams: ‘Three Graphic Novels: Realism and Politics,’ PhD awarded October 2003 (University of Liverpool: Director of Studies)
Derek Horton: ‘A theoretical and practical investigation into the embodiment of histories, use-values and exchange-values in objects, and its implications for their sculptural use in art practice,’ PhD awarded July 2002 (Leeds Metropolitan University: Director of Studies) theory-practice degree
Pam Meecham: ‘Ben Shahn and American Modernism,’ PhD awarded May 2002 (University of Keele: Director of Studies)
Publications
1 Art in Modern Culture (Phaidon, 1992: co-editor)
2 Modernism in Dispute: Art since the Forties (Yale University Press, 1993: co-author)
3 Federal Art and National Culture: The Politics of Identity in New Deal America (Cambridge University Press, 1995: sole author)
4 The Social History of Art in Four Volumes by Arnold Hauser (orig. 1951: Routledge ed. 1999: new General Introduction and 4 specific Introductions: sole author)
5 The New Art History: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2001: sole author)
6 Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Painting: Hybridity, Hegemony, Historicism (Tate Liverpool/Liverpool University Press, 2003: sole editor)
7 Art, Money, Parties: New Institutions in the Political-Economy of Contemporary Art (Tate Liverpool/Liverpool University Press, 2004: sole editor)
8 Writing Back to Modern Art: After Greenberg, Fried, and Clark (Routledge, 2005: sole author)
9 Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and Counterculture in the 1960s (Tate Liverpool/Liverpool University Press, 2005: joint editor)
10 Art History: The Key Concepts (Routledge, 2006: sole author)
11 Value: Art: Politics: Criticism, Meaning and Interpretation after Postmodernism (Liverpool University Press, 2007: sole editor)
12 Dead History, Live Art? Spectacle, Subjectivity and Subversion in Visual Culture since the 1960s (Tate Liverpool/Liverpool University Press 2007: sole editor)
13 Identity Theft: The Cultural Colonization of Contemporary Art (Tate Liverpool/Liverpool University Press 2008: sole editor)
14 Inside the Death-Drive: Excess and Apocalypse in the World of the Chapman Brothers (Tate Liverpool/Liverpool University Press, 2010: sole editor)
15 Regenerating Culture and Society: Architecture, Art and Urban Style within the Global Politics of City Branding (Tate Liverpool/Liverpool University Press, 2011: co-editor)
16 Globalization and Contemporary Art (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011: sole editor)
17: Bashir Makhoul (Palestinian Art Court: Al Hoash, 2012: co-editor)
18. The Utopian Globalists: Artists of Worldwide Revolution, 1919-2009 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013: sole author)
- Picasso and the Politics of Visual Representation: War and Peace in the Era of the Cold War & Since (Liverpool University Press/Tate Liverpool 2013: co-editor)
20. Prineas (Adrian Joyner Press 2013: Interview with Peter and Linda Huby; co-author)
21 The Global Contemporary Art World: A Rough Guide (Blackwell, 2017: sole author, forthcoming)
22 The Myth of the Art Market (forthcoming, IB Tauris)
23 Contemporary Art in Global Asia (forthcoming, IB Tauris)
Media Work
(24 May 2016) Interview and panel discussion Live Arts Show (Birmingham) on the future of art and design education, especially in reference to Birmingham
(21 May 2013) Interview for Resonance FM arts radio station (London) on WSA conference ‘10 Years on: Art & Everyday Life in Iraq and Iran’ c.30 minutes
(19 February 2013) Interview for British Council radio programme in Madrid, for Spanish ‘World Service’ radio on British Council lectures on globalisation and contemporary art world c. 30 minutes
(July 2007) Interviewed for 1st Manchester International Festival promotional film, on The Guardian newspaper ‘Do Art and Politics Mix?’ debate; panel member in the debate (for details see lecture 71 below, 4.7)
(December 2006) Interviewed for University of Liverpool promotional film on the social value of academic research – Tate Liverpool and CAVA activities (P.R. Office, University of Liverpool)
(March 2005) Review of Exhibition ‘Creative Tension. British Art 1900-1950’ at Gallery Oldham (BBC Radio 4 Front Row)
(September 1997) ‘Prospects for TV’ (participant in BBC Radio Stoke-on-Trent arts programme)
(1993) Modernism and Culture in the USA: 1930-1960 (BBC/Open University audio-cassette, for ‘Modern Art: Practices and Debates.’ A316)
(sole presenter)
(1992) Public Murals in New York City (BBC TV/Open University video production, for ‘Modern Art: Practices and Debates’, A316) recorded on location in New York
(sole presenter)