Jonathan Weinberg
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Weinberg is an artist and art historian. He is currently a critic at the Yale School of Art
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, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard's Department of Fine Arts in 1990, where he studied under T.J. Clark. He began teaching at Yale the next year.
, the Reader's Digest Collection, as well as other museums and private collections. Writing for the catalogue (Amusements, Paintings and Prints by Jonathan Weinberg) of Weinberg's 1997 show at New York's Cortland Jessup Galley, Scully wrote:
Weinberg’s are willfully difficult paintings, consciously serious. He believes that it is the duty of a modern painter to try to do difficult things. Until recently he did not show some of the work that an unprejudiced, perhaps naive, observer like myself might regard as among his best: his sun-drenched little acrylics, for example, and his big watercolors, generous in scale and monumentally constructed. For both these types, Weinberg’s motif is the beach, not the city. How fundamentally New Yorkish that seems, distinguishing between the dual environments of its artists’ lives, the beach where you relax, the city where all the tough stuff goes on.
, writing about Weinberg's Ambition and Love in Modern American Art (Yale, 2001) in Art in America
, called it "one of the best books on American art of any period that I have ever read," "an exemplary text," and "rare that such a perfect fit between style and substance occurs in the writing of an art historian."http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/reviews.asp?isbn=9780300081879 Nochlin and others have noted that Weinberg's work is cogent while being extremely well written and researched; with none of the theory or jargon that has turned so many away from the academy.
, and scholar and artist-in-residence at the Getty
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Yale School of Art
The Yale School of Art is one of twelve constituent schools of Yale University. It is a professional art school, granting only Masters of Fine Arts degrees to those completing studies in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, or sculpture....
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Early Life
Weinberg grew up in New York City and attended the Fieldston School. He studied as an undergraduate at Yale with Vincent ScullyVincent Scully
Vincent Joseph Scully, Jr. is Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, and the author of several books on the subject...
, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard's Department of Fine Arts in 1990, where he studied under T.J. Clark. He began teaching at Yale the next year.
Paintings
His paintings have been the subject of over twenty one-person shows, and are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, the Reader's Digest Collection, as well as other museums and private collections. Writing for the catalogue (Amusements, Paintings and Prints by Jonathan Weinberg) of Weinberg's 1997 show at New York's Cortland Jessup Galley, Scully wrote:
Weinberg’s are willfully difficult paintings, consciously serious. He believes that it is the duty of a modern painter to try to do difficult things. Until recently he did not show some of the work that an unprejudiced, perhaps naive, observer like myself might regard as among his best: his sun-drenched little acrylics, for example, and his big watercolors, generous in scale and monumentally constructed. For both these types, Weinberg’s motif is the beach, not the city. How fundamentally New Yorkish that seems, distinguishing between the dual environments of its artists’ lives, the beach where you relax, the city where all the tough stuff goes on.
Published work
Weinberg has published widely. Linda NochlinLinda Nochlin
Linda Nochlin is an American art historian, university professor and writer. She is considered to be a leader in feminist art history studies. She is best known as a proponent of the question "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"...
, writing about Weinberg's Ambition and Love in Modern American Art (Yale, 2001) in Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, called it "one of the best books on American art of any period that I have ever read," "an exemplary text," and "rare that such a perfect fit between style and substance occurs in the writing of an art historian."http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/reviews.asp?isbn=9780300081879 Nochlin and others have noted that Weinberg's work is cogent while being extremely well written and researched; with none of the theory or jargon that has turned so many away from the academy.
Publications
- Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley and the First American Avant-Garde (Yale, 1993)
- Ambition and Love in Modern American Art (Yale, 2001)
- Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art (Abrams, 2005)
- Fantastic Tales: The Photography of Nan Goldin (Penn State, 2005)
- editor, Eugene D. Glynn, Desperate Necessity: Writings on Art and Psychoanalysis, with an introduction by Jonathan Weinberg (Periscope, 2008)
- co-editor, The Social and the Real: Political Art of the 1930’s in the Western Hemisphere, an anthology edited with Alejandro Anreus and Diana L. Linden (Penn State, 2006).
- co-editor, Were Here: The Gay and Lesbian Presence in Art, a special issue of the Art Journal, co-edited with Flavia Rando, (Winter 1996) [Vol. 55, no. 4]
Teaching Career
Weinberg was on the faculty of Yale's Department of the History of Art from 1989-2001, and has since been a John Simon Guggenheim fellow, a Mills fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Sterling fellow at the Clark Art InstituteClark Art Institute
The Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, usually referred to simply as "The Clark", is an art museum with a large and varied collection located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States...
, and scholar and artist-in-residence at the Getty
Getty
-The Getty family and its businesses:* Getty family** George Getty, American lawyer and father of J. Paul Getty*** J. Paul Getty, wealthy American industrialist and founder of Getty Oil**** Talitha Getty , J. Paul Getty's second wife...
.