Joseph D. Ketner II papers
name: label: Creator
content: Ketner, Joseph D., II, 1955-
label: Names
content: Group Zero
label: Names
content: Duncanson, Robert S., 1821-1872
label: Names
content: Piene, Otto, 1928-
label: Names
content: Warhol, Andy, 1928-
label: Names
content: Wimar, Carl, 1828-1862
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Occupation
content: Museum curators -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Topic
content: African American artists
label: Topic
content: Landscape painting -- 19th century
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated in 2022 by Patricia Ketner, Joseph Ketner's widow.
creator: label: Creator
content: Ketner, Joseph D., II, 1955-
setName: label: See more items in
content: Joseph D. Ketner II papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of  curator, art historian, and museum director Joseph D. Ketner II date from circa 1967-2020 and measure 20.2 linear feet. Correspondence is mostly professional in nature and with people and on topics not covered under the project files series, in which much correspondence is located. The project files series contains wide overarching topics of research that in many cases spanned most of Ketner's career, including African American artists, particularly Robert S. Duncanson and Group Zero including Otto Piene and others, Andy Warhol,and Charles Ferdinand Wimar (Carl, Karl). Within project files, related correspondence, exhibitions, writings, interviews and research material occur. As Ketner worked in Germany intermittently and focused on many German artists and topics, there is a good amount of German language material throughout. Writings, Exhibition Files, Teaching Files, Artist Files, and Subject files series all contain material on topics not covered in the Project File Series.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Joseph D. Ketner II (1955-2018) was a curator, art historian, and museum director specializing in modern and contemporary art, as well as nineteenth-century American and African American art. He earned his Bachelors and Master's degrees in Art History from Indiana University at Bloomington, and completed the J. Paul Getty Leadership Institute for Museum Management. As a graduate student at Indiana University, he focused his thesis on the African-American artist, Robert S. Duncanson, and has became the pre-eminent scholar on his work and career.

Following his Master's Degree, Ketner started a position as curator at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana, followed by a stint as curator (1982-1989) and then director (1989-1998) of the Washington Gallery Museum of Art in St. Louis. In 1998 he was appointed the Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University where he managed both the collections and the exhibition program.

From 2005-2008 Ketner served as the chief curator of the Milwaukee Art Museum, where he was responsible for a collection of more than 25,000 works, where he acquired works by artists such as Sol LeWitt, Nam June Paik, and Amy Sillman, among many others, and coordinated exhibitions by such artists as Francis Bacon, Bruce Nauman, and Andy Warhol.

In 2008 Ketner was appointed Henry and Lois Foster Chair in Contemporary Art Theory and Practice at Emerson College, Boston, where he also held the position of distinguished curator-in-residence and served as Director of the Emerson Urban Arts, Media Arts Gallery from its founding in 2016 at, Emerson College, Boston. 

Throughout most of his curatorial and academic career Ketner kept busy with additional roles as an independent art historian and curating and publishing exhibitions internationally, drawing from lifelong research projects reflected in his papers. His exhibitions, publications, and projects earned grants and awards from the American Association of Museums, Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the Henry Luce Foundation, and etant donnes. He and his exhibitions received press coverage from such periodicals as  The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Artforum, and Flash Art.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 20.2 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1967-2020
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.ketnejos
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as seven series.

Series 1: Correspondence (0.2 Linear feet: Box 1)

Series 2: Project Files (15.5 Linear feet: Boxes 1-16)

Series 3: Writings (0.3 Linear feet: Box 16)

Series 4: Exhibition Files (0.4 Linear feet: Box 17)

Series 5: Teaching Files (0.2 Linear feet: Box 17)

Series 6: Artist Files (2.7 Linear feet: Boxes 17-20)

Series 7: Subject Files (0.7 Linear feet: Box 20)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed in 2022 by Ryan Evans.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of  curator, art historian, and museum director Joseph D. Ketner II date from circa 1967-2020 and measure 20.2 linear feet. Correspondence is mostly professional in nature and with people and on topics not covered under the project files series, in which much correspondence is located. The project files series contains wide overarching topics of research that in many cases spanned most of Ketner's career, including African American artists, particularly Robert S. Duncanson, and Group Zero including Otto Piene and others, Andy Warhol, and Charles Ferdinand Wimar (Carl, Karl). Within project files related correspondence, exhibitions, writings, interviews and research material occur. As Ketner worked in Germany intermittently and focused on many German artists and topics, there is a good amount of German language material throughout. 

Writings include essays and publications not covered under the project files series. Writing files including manuscript drafts and correspondence regarding writing assignments and commissions are found throughout the project files. Exhibition files includes exhibition planning documents for exhibitions not covered under the project files series. Exhibition files are found throughout the project files. Teaching files series includes course planning documents and lecture notes not covered under the project files series. Teaching files are found throughout the project files. The artist files series includes research material and correspondence on various artists who largely are not represented in the project files series. Subject files contain primarily research material on topics in art history, which have not been covered in the project files series.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives of American Art holds on microfilm "Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872): the Late Literary Landscape Paintings" by Joseph D. Ketner, II, 1980 Sept. Master's Thesis donated by Ketner, Faculty of Fine Arts, Indiana University, 1980.