{{short description|American art historian}} {{Infobox academic | name = David Joselit | image = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = | occupation = Art historian, author, critic | title = Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies | discipline = Art history, visual studies | sub_discipline = Contemporary art, media theory, modernism | workplaces = {{Plainlist| * Harvard University * Graduate Center, CUNY * Yale University * University of California, Irvine * Massachusetts Institute of Technology }} | education = {{Plainlist| * Harvard University (AB, PhD) * Massachusetts Institute of Technology }} | academic_advisors = | notable_students = | notable_works = {{Plainlist| * ''Infinite Regress: Marcel Duchamp 1910–1941'' * ''American Art Since 1945'' * ''Feedback: Television Against Democracy'' * ''After Art'' * ''Heritage and Debt: Art in Globalization'' * ''Art's Properties'' }} }}
'''David Joselit''' is an American art historian, critic, and curator known for his work on modern and contemporary art, media theory, and image circulation. Joselit is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University. He held positions at the City University of New York Graduate Center, where he served as a Distinguished Professor, and at Yale University, where he was the Carnegie Professor and Chair of the Department of History of Art. Joselit began his career as a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and has since authored several widely cited books, including ''Infinite Regress: Marcel Duchamp 1910–1941'' (1998), ''American Art Since 1945'' (2003), ''Feedback: Television Against Democracy'' (2007), ''After Art'' (2012), ''Heritage and Debt: Art in Globalization'' (2020) which won the Robert Motherwell Book Award, and ''Art's Properties (2023)''. He is an editor of the journal ''October'' and a frequent contributor to ''Artforum''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=David Joselit |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Art-History/Faculty-Bios/David-Joselit |accessdate=December 10, 2016 |publisher=cuny.edu}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Joselit received both his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Aggarwal-Schifellite |first=Manisha |date=2020-05-25 |title=Learning to interpret change through images |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/learning-to-interpret-change-through-images/ |access-date=2025-04-06 |website=Harvard Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref> He edited a poetry magazine called ''Padan Aram'' during his undergraduate years and has expressed fondness for the Woodberry Poetry Room in Harvard's Lamont Library.
==Career== Joselit served as a curator at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and worked for several years as a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.<ref name=":0" />
At Yale, Joselit was a Carnegie Professor<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://news.yale.edu/2009/03/20/art-historian-david-joselit-new-carnegie-professor |title=Art historian David Joselit is the new Carnegie Professor |date=20 March 2009 |publisher=yale.edu |accessdate=December 10, 2016}}</ref> and also a past Harris Lecturer at Northwestern University.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.humanities.northwestern.edu/events/distinguished-harris-lecture/past-distinguished-harris-lecturers.html |title=Past Distinguished Harris Lecturers |publisher=northwestern.edu |accessdate=December 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220122011/http://www.humanities.northwestern.edu/events/distinguished-harris-lecture/past-distinguished-harris-lecturers.html |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He joined The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) faculty in 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |title=David Joselit Joins the Graduate Center’s Art History Program |url=https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2014/01/28/david-joselit-joins-the-graduate-centers-art-history-program/ |access-date=2025-04-25 |website=CUNY Newswire |language=en}}</ref> That same year, Joselit was named one of six faculty members promoted to Distinguished Professor at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York where he taught until 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/News/All-News/Detail?id=22712|title = David Joselit Joins Art History Program}}</ref> He described the Center as “one of the most important educators of contemporary art historians.”<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Paul Krugman, Eminent Art Critic and Historian David Joselit Are Among Additions to the University Faculty |url=https://www.cuny.edu/news/nobel-prize-winning-economist-paul-krugman-eminent-art-critic-and-historian-david-joselit-are-among-additions-to-the-university-faculty/ |access-date=2025-04-25 |website=The City University of New York |language=en}}</ref>
Joselit joined Harvard's Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS) in 2020 as a Professor of Visual Studies. At Harvard, he taught a seminar titled “Vision and Power: Introduction to Visual Studies,” examining how images convey meaning, power, and historical context.<ref name=":0" />
Joselit formerly chaired the Department of the History of Art at Yale University.<ref name=":1" />
On June 5, 2025, Joselit interviewed artist Rosa Barba about her solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Ocean of One's Pause, and the broader evolution of her practice. <ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title= From Medium to Material: Reframing Film with Rosa Barba and David Joselit |url=https://www.independenthq.com/features/from-medium-to-material-reframing-film-with-rosa-barba-and-david-joselit/|date= June 5, 2025 |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=independenthq.com|language=en}}</ref>
=== On museums and online art platforms === Joselit argues that while “there's nothing like seeing a work of art in person,” virtual exhibitions can widen access and may change future art-world practices, potentially reducing the reliance on international art fairs.<ref name=":0" /> He was the co-curator Achim Hochdoerfer and Manuela of the exhibition ''Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age'' which opened at the Brandhorst Museum in Munich in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-04-10 |title=Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age {{!}} Museum Brandhorst |url=https://www.museum-brandhorst.de/en/exhibitions/painting-2-0-expression-in-the-information-age/# |access-date=2025-04-25 |website=Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age {{!}} Museum Brandhorst |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Selected works==
=== Books === * ''Infinite Regress: Marcel Duchamp 1910–1941'' (MIT Press, 1998). * ''American Art Since 1945'' (Thames and Hudson, 2003). * ''Feedback: Television Against Democracy.'' (MIT Press, 2007) * ''After Art'' (Princeton University Press, 2012). * ''Heritage and Debt: Art in Globalization'' (MIT Press, 2020) * ''Art's Properties'' (Princeton University Press, 2023)
=== Interviews=== * ''David Joselit with Greg Lindquist'' (The Brooklyn Rail, 2013) <ref>{{Cite web |title= David Joselit with Greg Lindquist |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2013/06/art_books/david-joselit-with-greg-lindquist/|date= June 1, 2013 |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=brooklynrail.org|language=en}}</ref> * ''Interview: After Busan Biennale, Yale Art Historian Urges Art World to Think Local'' (Asia Society, February 7, 2013) <ref>{{Cite web |title=Interview: After Busan Biennale, Yale Art Historian Urges Art World to Think Local|url=https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/interview-after-busan-biennale-yale-art-historian-urges-art-world-think-local/|date= February 7, 2013 |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=asiasociety.org|language=en}}</ref> * ''David Joselit | Against Representation In conversation with David Andrew Tasman'' (Dismagazine, February/March 2015) <ref>{{Cite web |title=David Joselit Against Representation In conversation with David Andrew Tasmant |url=https://dismagazine.com/discussion/75654/david-joselit-against-representation//|date= March 1, 2015 |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=dismagazine.com|language=en}}</ref> * ''An Art Historian Has A Solution for the Debates Over Representation and Identity'' (ARTnews, February 27, 2023)<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Art Historian Has a Solution for the Debates Over Representation and Identity|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/david-joselit-arts-propoerties-dana-schutz-1234658900/|date= February 27, 2023 |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=artnews.com|language=en}}</ref> * ''In Conversation: David Joselit & Cheyney Thompson on ‘Francis Picabia. Eternal Beginning'' (Hauser and Wirth, May 31, 2025 <ref>{{Cite web |title=In Conversation: David Joselit & Cheyney Thompson on ‘Francis Picabia. Eternal Beginning’|url=https://www.hauserwirth.com/events/in-conversation-david-joselit-and-cheyney-thompson-on-francis-picabia/|date= May 31, 2025 |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=hauserworth.com|language=en}}</ref> * ''From Medium to Material: Reframing Film with Rosa Barba and David Joselit'' (Independent, June 5, 2025) <ref name="auto"/>
=== Articles ===
* Joselit, David. "Notes on surface: Toward a genealogy of flatness." ''Art history'' 23.1 (2000): 19-34. {{doi|10.1111/1467-8365.00193}} * Baker, George, et al. "Round table: The present conditions of art criticism." ''October'' 100 (2002): 201-228. {{jstor|779100}} * Joselit, David. "Yippie Pop: Abbie Hoffman, Andy Warhol, and Sixties Media Politics." ''Grey Room'' 8 (2002): 63-79. {{jstor|1262608}} * Joselit, David. "Navigating the new territory: art, avatars, and the contemporary mediascape." ''Artforum (Summer 2005)'' (2005): 276-279. * Joselit, David. "No exit: video and the readymade." ''October'' 119 (2007): 37-45. {{jstor|40368457}} * Joselit, David. "Painting beside itself." ''October'' 130 (2009): 125-134. {{jstor|40368572}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Joselit |first=David |date=Fall 2011 |title=What to Do with Pictures |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41417908 |journal=October |volume=138 |pages=81–94 |issn=0162-2870}} * {{cite journal |last=Joselit |first=David |date=Summer 2011 |title=Signal Processing: David Joselit on Abstraction Then and Now |url=http://artarchives.net/texts/2011/joselit2011.html |journal=Artforum}} * Joselit, David. "On Aggregators." ''October'' 146 (2013): 3-18. * Joselit, David. "Heritage and Debt." ''October'' 171 (2020): 139-141. {{doi|10.1162/octo_a_00381}} * Joselit, David. "NFTs, or the readymade reversed." ''October'' 175 (2021): 3-4. {{doi|10.1162/octo_a_00419}} * Baker, George, and David Joselit, eds. "A questionnaire on global methods." ''October'' 180 (2022): 3-80. {{doi|10.1162/octo_a_00453/111539}}
==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [https://afvs.fas.harvard.edu/people/david-joselit Harvard University web page] {{Portal bar|Art|History|Film|Biography|United States}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Joselit, David}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:21st-century American historians Category:21st-century American male writers Category:CUNY Graduate Center faculty Category:American art historians Category:University of California, Irvine faculty Category:Yale University faculty Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:American male non-fiction writers