I received my Ph.D. in 1990 at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where I wrote my dissertation on Robert Rauschenberg under the guidance of Kirk Varnedoe. As a specialist on Rauschenberg’s art, I have spoken about this artist at museums across the United States and have published dozens of articles and essays on his work, including the catalogue for Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings, 1962-64, which I curated for the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1990. More recently, I authored an essay “Work Process: From the Blueprints to the Silkscreens on Plexiglass” for the catalogue for the upcoming exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: The Use of Images, which will open at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid in October in 2025. I also wrote two essays–one on Rauschenberg’s and Warhol’s early silkscreens and the other on a Kabal American Zephyr series piece by Rauschenberg of 1981–for exhibitions organized by the Faurschou Foundation presented in conjunction with the 2017 Venice Biennale. I also authored several essays published as part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Rauschenberg Research Project, which was launched online in 2013.
In the mid-1980s, I served for 7 years as Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Fairfield County, organizing exhibitions and supervising all museum functions. During the years following, while living in South Florida, Toronto, Sydney, the New York area, and Southern California, I have been an independent scholar extensively involved with teaching, curating, and writing. While I authored scores of exhibition catalogues for museums and galleries and articles for various newspapers and art journals, I wrote most consistently for Art in America (see Writing for links to selected essays and reviews in this and other publications).
Currently, I teach courses focussed on contemporary art at UCLA Extension (see Teaching for links to past classes and click here for information on my current or upcoming course). Beginning in late 2019, I endeavored to bring to light the art and design of Mila Gokhman, a Ukrainian-American artist born in Kyiv in 1934, who enjoyed a considerable reputation in Eastern Europe before coming to the U.S. in 2000, where she has remained wholly unknown. In November 2022, Woman’s Art Journal published a comprehensive article I wrote about her art and life. I also contribute to other in-print and online journals and have written on this website’s blog.