Robert C. Morgan

Robert C. Morgan (born 1943) is an American art critic, art historian, curator, poet, and artist.
Biography
Robert C. Morgan received his M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975 and his Ph.D. in art education from New York University in 1978. Professor Morgan has had an extensive academic career. He has taught at New York University, Wichita State University, the University of Rochester, the School of Visual Arts, Barnard College, and Columbia University. From 1981- 2001, he was Professor of the History and Theory of Art at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently an adjunct professor of Fine Arts in the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Morgan has worked extensively as an independent curator. He has organized museum retrospectives of Allan Kaprow (1979) and Komar and Melamid (1980), both at the Ulrich Museum of Art in Kansas. In 1990, he curated Concept -- Decoratif in conjunction with the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York. From 1989 to 1990, he directed a gallery in SoHo (New York) where he curated a dozen exhibitions of both emerging and established artists, including Carolee Schneemann, Nancy Grossman, Hung Liu, Hong-Wen Lin, Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Mel Bochner, Antoni Muntadas, and Max Ernst. In 1994, he co-organized the exhibition Logo Non Logo with French critic Pierre Restany at the Thread Waxing Space in New York, which later traveled to the Art Museum of the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.
Morgan has authored numerous books, catalogs and monographs on contemporary artists in various countries. His book on the American conceptualist Robert Barry was published by Karl Kerber Press in Bielefeld, Germany (1986). Haim Steinbach was published by the Musee d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux (1988). Duchamp, Androgyny, Etc., (on Marcel Duchamp) was published by Editions Antoine Candau in Paris (1990). A Hans Bellmer Miscellany was published by Baum/Malmburg in Malmö, Sweden in 1993. His Turkish Bath installation at Artists Space in 1976 has been recognized an early example of post-conceptual art.
Morgan frequently writes art criticism for the Brooklyn Rail. His books and collected critical essays published include commentaries on conceptual art, post-conceptual art and the new media arts (Umbrella Associates, 1992). He has published the following books in the United States: After the Deluge: Essays on the Art of the Nineties, (Red Bass Publications, 1993), Conceptual Art: An American Perspective (McFarland, 1994); Art into Ideas: Essays on Conceptual Art (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Between Modernism and Conceptual Art (McFarland, 1997): and The End of the Art World (Allworth Press, 1998).
His critical anthologies on Gary Hill (2000) and Bruce Nauman (2002) were published by Johns Hopkins University Press. An edited volume of the late writings by the critic Clement Greenberg was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2003. In 1995, he traveled to Korea on a Fulbright Fellowship.
Books
Commentaries on the New Media Arts Pasadena, CA: Umbrella Associates, 1992
After the Deluge: Essays for Art in the Nineties. New York: Red Bass, 1993
Conceptual Art: An American Perspective. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 1994. Introduction by Michael Kirby
Art Into Ideas: Essays on Conceptual Art. London:Cambridge University Press, 1996
Between Modernism and Conceptual Art. Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland, 1997
The End of the Art World New York: Allworth Press (in collaboration with the School of Visual Arts), 1998. Introduction by Bill Beckley
The enigmatic world of Dmitri Strizhov. Author. Global Curiosity, 1st edition. 1998
Gary Hill, editor. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000
Bruce Nauman, editor. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002
Clement Greenberg: Late Writings, editor. University of Minnesota Press. 2003
Vasarely. New York: George Braziller, 2004
Wild Dogs in Bali: The Art of Made Wianta. Singapore: SNP Editions, 2005
Anthologies and monographs
"Asparagus and Chrysanthemums = Sentimentality and Power," in Muntadas and D'Agostino, eds., The Un/Necessary Image, New York: Tanam Press and Cambridge, Committee on the Visual Arts, MIT, 1983
"The Delta of Modernism" Re-Dact, Edited by Peter Frank. New York: Willis, Locker, and Owens, 1984. Revised and reprinted in Kostelanetz, ed., Esthetics Contemporary, 2nd Edition, (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1989 (Spanish Translation appeared in Revista Esthetica (CAYC, Buenos Aires), Fall 1991. Revised in The End of the Art World, New York: Allworth Press, 1998.
"Systemic Books by Artists" in Joan Lyons, ed., Artists' Books: A Critical Anthology and Sourcebook, Peregrine Smith Books and Visual Studies Workshop Press, Rochester, N.Y., 1985.
Haim Steinbach: Monograph of an Exhibition, Bordeaux: capc Musee d'art contemporain, 1990 (French)
Joseph Nechvatal: Laminations of the Soul in Joseph Nechvatal. Paris: Antoine Candau Editions, 1990 (English and French) (Online)
"La Situacion del Arte Conceptual Desde "January Show" Hasta Nuestros Dias" in Juan Vicente Aliaga and José Miguel G. Cortés, editors, Arte Conceptual Revisado, Universidad Poletechnica de Valencia, 1990 (Spanish and English
"Entretien avec Robert C. Morgan" en Richard Serra: Ecrits et Entretiens, 1970-89 (Daniel Lelong Editeur, 1990). English Edition, Chicago University Press, 1993
Colin Naylor, ed .Contemporary Masterworks (London: St. James Press, 1992) Entries include critical discussions of works by Isamu Noguchi, Gordon Bunschaft, and Josep Renau.
Oscar de Mejo:The Naive Surrealist, Essay by Robert C. Morgan. New York: Abrams, 1992
Marcel Delmotte. Essay by Robert C. Morgan. Nahan Galleries (in collaboration with Galerie Isy Brachot, Bruxelles), 1991
"The Miralda Honeymoon Celebration in Las Vegas", Nevada State Council on the Arts, 1992
"Hans Bellmer:The Infestation of Eros" in A Hans Bellmer Miscellany, Anders Malmburg, Malmö and Timothy Baum, New York, 1993
"Dorothea Tanning's Sculptural Interlude" in Dorothea Tanning (New York: George Braziller, 1995)
"Philip Glass: The Photographer" (1984, revised 1996), Writings on Glass: Essays, Interviews, Criticism. Edited by Richard Kostelanetz and Robert Flemming. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997)
"The Language of Eros" in Noritoshi Hirakawa, Matters, 1988–1997. New York: Deitch Projects and Antwerp: Zeno X Gallery, 1998
"A Sign of Beauty" in Bill Beckley and David Shapiro, Uncontrollable Beauty. New York: Allworth Press, 1998.
"Touch Sanitation: Mierle Laderman Ukeles" in Linda Frye Burnham and Steven Durland, editors. The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of Art in the Public Arena. Critical Press. The Gunk Foundation, 1998
"The End of the Art World" (excerpt) in Patricia Hills, Modern Art in the USA: Issues and Controversies of the 20th Centuries" Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000
Film appearance
Ciria, (Pronounced Thiria) (2013), directed by Artur Balder
See also
Conceptual art
Post-conceptual art
Institutional Critique
Postmodern art
Computer art
Electronic art
Systems art
New media art
Generative art
Notes and references
External links
Official site for Robert C. Morgan
Robert C. Morgan in Conversation with Phong Bui (July-August 2009)
Gallery site for Proyectos Monclova
American art critics
American art historians
Living people
American art curators
Cultural historians
Artists from New York (state)
American conceptual artists
Rochester Institute of Technology faculty
American male poets
1943 births
Post-conceptual artists
Pratt Institute faculty