Dr. Caroline Jones, assistant professor of contemporary art and criticism at Boston
University, has been awarded the 1999 Charles C. Eldredge Prize by the Smithsonians
American Art Museum. She is recognized for her recent book Machine in the Studio:
Constructing the Postwar American Artist(University of Chicago Press, 1997), an
outstanding example of scholarship which reinterprets the cultural climate of the 1960s
American art scene.
Jones argues that the artists she examines identified closely with postwar industry and
corporate culture. Drawing from extensive interviews with artists and their assistants, Jones
presents the idea that much of the major work of the 1960s was compelling precisely
because it was rooted in the industrial culture of its time. The gap between the public
perception of the art of this period versus real studio practices of the time first drew Jones
to her subject.
Jones explores, through the careers of three mainstream artists of the 1960s, how the model
of the solitary individual artist toiling in semi-sacred studio space changed after World War
II. Frank Stella cultivated identities as both a humble painter-worker and an executive artist
in a three-piece suit. Working out of his Factory studio, Andy Warhol responded to a
postwar climate conditioned by advertising and crisp cultural icons. Robert Smithson
debunked the sanctity of the studio even further by choosing instead to work directly in the
environment.
Author of numerous articles and papers, director and producer of films, and an experienced
lecturer, Jones is director of Boston Universitys museum studies program. She received a
bachelors degree in art history from Harvard and an M.F.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts
at New York University, concentrating on art of the 20th century. She completed her
doctorate at Stanford, where she was awarded several fellowships, and was also a junior
fellow with the Boston University Humanities Foundation.
Joness reinterpretation of the 1960s offers a very different and potentially very productive
re-reading of a critical period in American art, the Eldredge Prize jurors wrote in their
decision announcement. The three jurors who awarded the $2,000 prize were: Linda Ferber,
chief curator of American paintings and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; Michael
Leja, associate professor of art history in the department of architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Bruce Robertson, chairman of the department
of the history of art and architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art, named in
honor of the former director of the museum (1982–88), is sponsored by the American Art
Forum, a patrons support organization. This annual award seeks to recognize originality
and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing, and clarity of method. Single-author,
book-length publications in the field of American art history appearing in the three previous
calendar years are eligible. It is especially meant to honor those authors who deepen or
focus debates in the field or who broaden the discipline by reaching beyond traditional
boundaries.
Recent Eldredge Prize recipients include:
1998: Sarah Burns, Inventing the Modern Artist: Art & Culture in Gilded Age
America(Yale, 1996)
1997: Sue Rainey, Creating Picturesque America: Monument to the Natural and Cultural
Landscape(Vanderbilt, 1994)
1996: Michael Leja, Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the
1940s(Yale, 1993)
For information about the 2000 Eldredge Prize, please write Research and Scholars Center,
National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. 20560.
The deadline for nominations is December 1, 1999.
The National Museum of American Art, the first federal art collection, is located in the Old
Patent Office Building at Eighth and G Streets, N.W. in Washington, D.C. above the
Gallery Place Metrorail station. Museum hours are from 10 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. daily (closed
December 25). Admission is free. For more information, call (202)357–2700;
(202)786–2393 (TTY); (202)633–9126 (Spanish recording). >
Jones argues that the artists she examines identified closely with postwar industry and
corporate culture. Drawing from extensive interviews with artists and their assistants, Jones
presents the idea that much of the major work of the 1960s was compelling precisely
because it was rooted in the industrial culture of its time. The gap between the public
perception of the art of this period versus real studio practices of the time first drew Jones
to her subject.
Jones explores, through the careers of three mainstream artists of the 1960s, how the model
of the solitary individual artist toiling in semi-sacred studio space changed after World War
II. Frank Stella cultivated identities as both a humble painter-worker and an executive artist
in a three-piece suit. Working out of his Factory studio, Andy Warhol responded to a
postwar climate conditioned by advertising and crisp cultural icons. Robert Smithson
debunked the sanctity of the studio even further by choosing instead to work directly in the
environment.
Author of numerous articles and papers, director and producer of films, and an experienced
lecturer, Jones is director of Boston Universitys museum studies program. She received a
bachelors degree in art history from Harvard and an M.F.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts
at New York University, concentrating on art of the 20th century. She completed her
doctorate at Stanford, where she was awarded several fellowships, and was also a junior
fellow with the Boston University Humanities Foundation.
Joness reinterpretation of the 1960s offers a very different and potentially very productive
re-reading of a critical period in American art, the Eldredge Prize jurors wrote in their
decision announcement. The three jurors who awarded the $2,000 prize were: Linda Ferber,
chief curator of American paintings and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; Michael
Leja, associate professor of art history in the department of architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Bruce Robertson, chairman of the department
of the history of art and architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art, named in
honor of the former director of the museum (1982–88), is sponsored by the American Art
Forum, a patrons support organization. This annual award seeks to recognize originality
and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing, and clarity of method. Single-author,
book-length publications in the field of American art history appearing in the three previous
calendar years are eligible. It is especially meant to honor those authors who deepen or
focus debates in the field or who broaden the discipline by reaching beyond traditional
boundaries.
Recent Eldredge Prize recipients include:
1998: Sarah Burns, Inventing the Modern Artist: Art & Culture in Gilded Age
America(Yale, 1996)
1997: Sue Rainey, Creating Picturesque America: Monument to the Natural and Cultural
Landscape(Vanderbilt, 1994)
1996: Michael Leja, Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the
1940s(Yale, 1993)
For information about the 2000 Eldredge Prize, please write Research and Scholars Center,
National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. 20560.
The deadline for nominations is December 1, 1999.
The National Museum of American Art, the first federal art collection, is located in the Old
Patent Office Building at Eighth and G Streets, N.W. in Washington, D.C. above the
Gallery Place Metrorail station. Museum hours are from 10 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. daily (closed
December 25). Admission is free. For more information, call (202)357–2700;
(202)786–2393 (TTY); (202)633–9126 (Spanish recording).
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