Curriculum Vitae
SUSAN NOYES PLATT
216 First Ave South no 410
Seattle, Washington, 98104
206-650 0791(cell)
Email susplatt@gmail.com
www.artandpoliticsnow.com
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin
M.A. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
B.A. Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARD
Smithsonian Short Term Fellow 2009
Smithsonian Visiting Scholar Fellowship 2007
Kathe Kollwitz Award , Women’s Caucus for Art 2002
Fulbright Fellowship, Turkey 1999-2000
Martha Nichols Award for Outstanding Achievement, University of North Texas, 1996
Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American Art 1993
Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Museum of American Art and Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1987
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Lecturer, University of Washington 1998-2009 Inquiring Mind Lecturer, Humanities Washington 2006-2008
Visiting Professor, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Tx 2004-2005
Seattle Central Community College Winter 2003, 2004
Evergreen State State College, Spring 2002
Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey 1999-2000
Associate Professor of Art History, University of North Texas, 1989-97
Tenure granted at UNT 1993
Assistant Professor, Washington State University 1984 – 89 Tenure Granted at WSU 1989
Assistant Professor Mills College 1981 – 1984
ADMINSTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
James W. Washington, Jr, House, Humanities Consultant 2006- Organizing Committee “Art of Resistance Conference”Seattle 2004-6
Coordinator, Seattle venue“Art Across Borders, Contemporary Art from Iraq and Palestine” 2004
Coordinator, Global Art Coalition 2001 – 2002
Conference Coordinator, Women’s Art Resource Center/Women’s Caucus for Art International Conference Toronto, Canada February 25-26, 1997-8
Coordinator, Symposium on AIDS, Culture and Society, 1996
EXHIBITIONS CURATED
Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis 2011
Pornography of Power: the Anti War Art of Selma Waldman 2008
Consumptive Disorders: Environmental Ecologies of Lubbock, 2005
“One Year After” Global Arts Coalition, Seattle Central Community College Gallery 2002
Dokunma (Contemporary Artists working with Fabric and Textiles) Istanbul, Turkey 1999
“Aids, Culture and Society, James Watral and Mark Mahan.” 1996
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Books
Art and Politics Now, Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis, Midmarch Arts Press, 2011.
Art and Politics in the 1930s, Modernism, Marxism, Americanism, A History of Cultural Activism During the Depression Years, Midmarch Arts Press, 1999.
Modernism in the 1920s: A Study of the Interpretations of New York from Expressionism to Constructivism , UMI Research Press, 1985
Chapters in Books
“Maya Lin’s Confluence Project,” for a book to be published by Sculpture Magazine in production
“Northwest Ecological Art,” for a book to be published by Sculpture Magazine in production
“Elizabeth McCausland: Art, Politics and Sexuality” for anthology Katy Deepwell, ed.,Women and Modernism, (Manchester University Press, 1998). pp.83-96.
“Gambling, Fencing and Camouflage, Homer Saint-Gaudens and the Carnegie International, 1922- 1950”International Encounters: The Carnegie International and Contemporary Art 1896 – 1996 (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum, 1996) pp. 66-91.
“The Jersey Homestead Mural: Ben Shahn, Bernarda Bryson, and History Painting in the 1930s,” in Redefining American History Painting, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
“The Little Review: Early Years and Avant-Garde Ideas,” in Sue Ann Prince, ed, The Old Guard and the Avant-Garde, Modernism in Chicago 1910- 1940, University of Chicago Press, 1990, pp. 139-154
Articles
“James W. Washington, Jr., Painter, Activist, Sculptor,” Columbia Magazine, Winter 2011.
“Selma Waldman, In Memoriam,” Raven Chronicles, Spring 2009.
“Public Politics and Domestic Rituals,” Contemporary Art by Women in Turkey, 1980 – 2000” Frontiers, 2003, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 19-37
“Gambling, Fencing and Camouflage: Homer Saint-Gaudens and the Carnegie International 1922-1950”
International Encounters, Carnegie Museum of Art, 1996
“Paradigms and Paradoxes: Nature, Morality and Art in America,” Art Journal, Summer 1992, pp. 82-88
“Mysticism in the Machine Age: Jane Heap and The Little Review,” Twenty /One, Art and Culture, University of Illinois, Chicago, vol. 1, no.1, 1990 pp. 18-44
“Clement Greenberg in the late 1930s – A New Perspective on his Criticism,” Art Criticism vol. 5, no. 2, Spring 1989, pp. 47-64
“Modernism, Formalism and Politics: the 1936 ‘Cubism and Abstract Art Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art,” Art Journal, Winter 1988, pp. 284-295
Catalogues
Loud Bones, The Jewelry of Nancy Worden, Tacoma Art Museum, 2009
Dee-Dee Does Utopia (The Art of Deborah Lawrence) Seattle, 2008.
Pornography of Power: The Anti War Art of Selma Waldman, Seattle Central Community College 2008
Making a Life, Creating A World, Jacob Lawrence and James W. Washington, Jr. Northwest African American Museum, 2008 – 2009.
Art Across Borders, Contemporary Art from Iraq and Palestine ( brochure) 2004
Essay in Selma Waldman/Naked/Aggression Profile of the Armed Perpetrator 1998 – 2003
Imna Arroyo, San Juan Puerto Rico, 2002
As you see me, But I am not, Five Contemporary Turkish Women Artists, Women’s Museum, Frankfurt, 2001
Tomur Atagok, Ankara, 2000
Dokunma, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, 1999-2000
Women’s Work, Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington, Tx 1997
Lynda Benglis: Game Being, Print Press, University of North Texas,1997
Encounters: Ray Smith, Dallas Museum of Art, 1993
“Nancy Graves” National Honorees Catalogue, Women’s Caucus for Art, 1993
“Art of the Inland Northwest: Pioneers to Postmodernism” One Hundred Years of Art in Washington State, Tacoma Art Museum 1989
Nancy Worthington: Reflection on our Age, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California 1984
Book Reviews
“The Triumph of Modernism: India’s Artists and the Avant-Garde, New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official, Fall 2010
“Your Birght Future 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea and Outside In: Chinese xAmericanxContemporary Art,” August 2010
“’William Kentridge: Five Themes’ and ‘Joe Feddersen: Vital Signs,’” Art Book, February 2010.
“Art and China’s Revolution” The Art Book, August 2009
“Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics and Belonging and Globalization Critical Essays in Contemporary Art and Culture,” The Art Book, November 2008
“The Dinner Party, Global Feminisms, and Wack!” The Art Book, May 2008
“Art and Politics: The Abu Ghraib Effect, Fernand Botero,” The Art Book, Fall 2007
“‘Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond,’ Peter Selz”,
The Art Book, Aug 2006, 44-46.
“Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture,” The Art Book, Nov 2005, 41-42
Textiles from Bauhaus to Black Mountain,” The Art Book, March 2004
“Anita Brenner,” The Art Book, Fall 1999.
“Alice Neel, Nell Blaine, Berenice Abbott” Art Journal, summer 1999.
“Rethinking Edward Hopper,” The Art Book, January 1999, vol. 6, no. 1. pp. 14-16.
“Culture and Power,” Art Journal, Fall 1996, pp. 95-97.
Online articles and book reviews:
blog http://artandpoliticsnow.blogspot.com
“Cultural Collisions and Pervasive Prejudice” TheArt of Roger Shimomura,” artdish.com, February 2010.
“Word Into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East,” Arteast.org July 2006
Book Review Bram Dijkstra American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 – 1950, CAA Reviews posted May 2004
Gloria Bornstein Artdish.com Summer 2002
Book Review “Bert Winther-Tamaki, Art in the Encounter of Nations: Japanese and American Artists in the Early Post War Years, CAA Reviews, 2001. posted April 2002
“Culture Then and Now,” artdish.com, December 2001
Art Criticism and Essays (selected)
“Istanbul: 10th International Biennial,” Sculpture. July – August 2008.
“Maya Lin and the Confluence Project,” Sculpture November 2006
“Third Floor: Planned Obsolescence,” Artlies, Spring 2005
“Seattle: James Turrell,” Art Papers Magazine, November December 2003
“Art and Justice: Public Art in Seattle,” Sculpture Magazine, September 2003
“Roger Shimomura: Racism,” Raven Chronicles (online)
“Seattle: Marita Dingus,” Art Papers Magazine, September/October 2003
“The Digestible Other/The Istanbul Biennial,” Third Text, Summer 2003 with Tomur Atagok
“Seattle: Maki Tamura” Art Papers Magazine, July/August 2003
“Out of the Box: Black Writers Evade Stereotypes,” Real Change, October 30 – November 12, 2003
“Outside In ‘Homeless Youth offer a different View,” Real Change, July 10 – 23, 2003
“Grieve for the Loss of Iraq’s Historical Soul.” The Seattle Times, April 18, 2003
“Seattle Washington (“States of the Union: Before and After”) Art Papers January-February 2003, p. 51
“Do-Ho Suh and Xu Bing,” ( catalog reviews) The Art Book March 2003 pp. 34-35
“Art on a Mission” Northwest Colors, April 2003
“East Coast hip hop company ignites the passions in Washington’s Only Women’s Prison,” Real Change
December 26 – January 8, 2003
“Genocide Trail: Holocaust Unspoken Real Change October 18 –November 3, 2002
Gail Tremblay, Raven Chronicles, vol. 10, no. 3
Seattle: Gail Tremblay, Art Papers Magazine, November 2002
Palimpsests Art Access September 2002
Bellevue (Roger Shimomura) Art Papers Magazine July-August 2002, p. 52
The True Philanthropists ‘Nickel and Dimed in America,’(theater review)Real Change August 8 –21, 2002
Changing Models for Public Art: Seattle’s ‘Salmon in the City’ “ Sculpture Magazine June 2002
Brazil, Pakistan India: Contemporary Artists/Historical Contexts
Art Papers Magazine, May June 2002, pp. 22-27
Remembering the Past, (Japanese Internment Camps) Real Change May 16 – 29 2002
“An Act of Resistance (Tanis Maria S’eiltin at Sacred Circle Art Gallery),” Art Access May 2002
“An American Diary, Roger Shimomura at the Bellevue Art Museum,” Art Access, March 2002
Arts Corps, A Phenomenal Success Story Real Change, January 10 –23, 2002
Disability and Liberation Real Change Nov 29 – December 21, 2001
Vancouver (Cai Guo-Qiang) Art Papers Magazine January February 2002 p. 56
Two Major Collections of African American Art Art Access September 2001
Seattle Celebrates El Dia de los Muertos Art Access November 2001
“Czech Connections,” Afterimage, July/August 2001, p. 17
“The Digestible Other, The Istanbul Biennial,” Third Text, 55 Summer 2001
“Istanbul”( four exhibitions) Art Papers Magazines, July August 2000
“Istanbul: Bedri Baykam,” Art Papers Magazine, May June 2000
“Staged Sanctity,” (Inci Eviner) Afterimage, July August 2000
“Istanbul Biennial,” Art Papers, January February 2000
“Shared Freedoms,” Afterimage, November, December 1999
“Politically Incorrect, Outing the Political Artist,” Art Papers, September, October 1999
“PETLAND, A Woman’s Life,” Frontiers, vol. xix, no. 2, 1998, pp. 83-93.
“Lucienne Bloch: A Retrospective,” Art Papers, January-February 1999
“In Istanbul: Contemporary Art in Turkey” Art Papers, Winter 1998
“In London: Susan Platt Reports on the Whitechapel Open,” Art Papers, September/October 1998
“In Warm Springs (Lillian Pitt) ” Art Papers, September October 1999
“Politically Incorrect, Outing the Political Artist,” Art Papers, September, October 1999
“Women Artists of India: A Celebration of Independence,” Art Papers, March/April 1998
“New Art in China, Post 1989” Art Papers, March/April. 1998
“David Alfaro Siqueiros,” Art Papers , November/December, 1997
“Betye Saar, ” Art Papers , September/October, 1997
“Cuban Art in Canada,” Art Papers , September/October, 1997
“Art and Activism: A Brief History,” Art Papers May/ June, 1997
“The Culture of the Apocalypse,” (Masami Teraoka) Art Papers, Jan Feb 1997
“Annabel Daou,” 20, Art Papers, July-August , 1996
“Searching For Equality Through Art,” The Dallas Morning News, Oct 4, 1995 (
“Nuclear Politics, Nuclear History and Postmodern Politics,” Reflex 1994
“Two Strikingly Different Views of the World,” Dallas Morning News, November 6,1990
“Border Watch II opens new vistas,” Dallas Morning News September 23, 1990
“Sculpture for Walls,” New Art Examiner, May 1987
“Luis Cruz Azaceta,” New Art Examiner, September 1987
“Notes on New Talent,” New Art Examiner, October 1987
“Feminism, Politics and Social Commentary,” New Art Examiner, November 1987
“Art for the New Apocalypse,” Artweek, February, 1985
“The Responsive Machine,” Artweek, March,1985
“Book Review: Modern Art and Modernism,” Artweek, November, 1983
“Connecting with the Primal,” Artweek, November, 1983
“Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison: An Urban Discourse,” Artweek, May,1983
“Artists Who Draw,” Artweek, January, 1983
“Hudson’s World,”Artweek, December 1982
“San Francisco International Video Festival,”Artweek, December 1982
“Franz Kline,” Artweek, October, 1982
“Testing the Studies: Eve Hesse,”Artweek, October 1982
“Vito Acconci: The Sheltering City,” Artweek, September, 1982
“Personal, Modern Eccentric,”(Surls, Burton, Shapiro) Artweek, August, 1982
“Earl Staley, New Work,” Artweek, March, 1980
“Fort Worth,”(Roy Fridge) Artforum, September, 1980
“Dan Flavin’s Factual Fantasies,” Artweek, January, 1980
“Dallas,”(Robert Tiemann) Artforum, April, 1980
“Vernon Fisher,” Arts Magazine February,1980
“The Aesthetic Side of Christo,” Artweek, 1979 September,
“Women in Sight: Issues of Quality, Quantity, Politics,” Artweek, November, 1979
“Houston/Austin,” (Sam Gummelt, Michael Tracy) Artforum, October, 1979
“Dallas/Houston,” (James Surls, Tom Sayre) Artforum, June, 1979
Refereed and Invited Papers
“James W. Washington Jr, and the Civil Rights Movement in Seattle, pending, Pacific Northwest History Association, Tacoma April 2007
“African American Artists in Seattle After World War II: A Selection” Association of African American History, Research and Preservation, Seattle, February, 2006
“Artists, Women, War,” Texas Tech University, Lubbock Texas conference on Women and War sponsored by the Women’s Studies Department,April 2005
“Art and Politics in the 1930s,” Keynote Speaker, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Fall 2005
“Contemporary Art in Turkey: The Effect of the Istanbul Biennial” International Association of Art Critics, London, Fall 2000
“Myth, Politics, and Gender by Contemporary Art by Women in India,” British Art Historians Association, Exeter, Spring, 1998
“Postmodern Puzzles: Contemporary Art in China,” CAA, Toronto, February, 1998
“Radical Women Critics of the 1930s,”Women’s Caucus for Art, Boston, Spring,1996
“Clement Greenberg in the 1930s,” College Art Association, San Antonio,Spring,1995
“Proletarian Culture in the 1930s,”Association of Art Historians, Birmingham, England
Spring, 1994
“Ruptured Romances: Art Criticism in the 1930s,” National Museum of American Art,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1993 Spring
“Not a Digression: Art and Politics in the 1930s,” Association of Art Historians, Leeds,
England, Spring1992
“Radical Women: Artists and Writers of the 1930s,” Northwest Women’s Studies
Association Spring1991
“Exploding the Myth: Thomas Craven and the Criticism of Regionalism,” Association
of Art Historians, Dublin, Ireland Spring, 1990
“New Perspectives: Feminism and American Art” for conference “Hindsights and Insights:
Scholarship in American Art 1970-1990” Sponsored by the National Museum of
American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Spring 1990
“The Battle of Modernism and Regionalism: Stuart Davis and Thomas Hart Benton in the
early 1930s,” for session chaired by Diane Kelder, College Art Association,
NewYork Spring, 1990
“The Impact of the New York Museum of Modern Art on the Interpretation of Modern Art in
America,” Pacific Northwest American Studies Association, Whitman College, Walla
Walla, Washington, Spring, 1989
“Artists of Earth, Space and Time of the Inland Northwest,” College Art Association, San Francisco,Winter 1989
“Recent Issues in Feminist Criticism,” Northwest Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Portland Fall 1988
“The Little Review and the Early Avant-Garde Scene in Chicago,” Chicago Art Institute
sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Spring1988
“Modernism in the 1930s: The Cubism and Abstract Art Exhibition of 1936,” National
Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Spring,1987
“Feminist Criticism: Two Approaches, Three Case Studies,” Women’s Caucus for the Arts,
Boston, Winter 1987
“Thomas Cole, The Harrisons and the Morality of Landscape,” Art History Conference,
University of Washington, Seattle, Spring, 1986
Other invited lectures and panels (selected)
“Art Criticism, 1979 to the present” The Evergreen State College, March 2, 2010
“Call to Conscience, African American Visual Art from Slavery to the Presidency.” Tacoma, 2009
“Selma Waldman: Pornography of Power” Seattle Central Community College, Fall 2008
“Jacob Lawrence and James W. Washington Jr, “Northwest African American Art Museum 2008
“Four African American Artists in Washington State,” Inquiring Mind, Spring 2007 multiple venues
“Maya Lin and the Confluence Project,” Inquiring Mind, Fall 2006, Richland, Wash
“Artists Against Injustice,” John F. Kennedy University, Arts Program, Berkeley, Ca Feb 2006
“Artists Against Injustice,” University of San Francisco, Feb 2006
“Artists Against Injustice,” Fairhaven College, Western Washington University, Bellingham, October 2005
“Art and Politics from New York to Istanbul, “ Texas Tech University, October 2004
“Los Tres Grandes: Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros” Seattle Art Museum, Fall 2002
“Contemporary Art in the Middle East, “ The Evergreen State College, Winter 2002
“Contemporary Art and Women in the Middle East,” Western Washington University, Fall 2002
“Contemporary Art in Turkey,” American Research Institute in Turkey, Istanbul;
Fulbright Commission, Antalya, Turkey, May 2000
“ Recent Art and Politics,” Istanbul Technical University
“Public Art Product and Process,” American Consulate, Istanbul; Marmara University, Istanbul; Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul
“Jacob Lawrence: Modernist History Painter,” Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington
“Women, Art, and Radical Politics,” Radical Women, Seattle, Washington
Workshop: Cultural Spaces, School of Architecture, Washington State University January 24 1998
“Art and Politics in China,” lecture on the NGO conference and contemporary art in China given at: Women’s Caucus for Art; Womens Studies Program, University of North Texas; Faculty Women’s Association, University of North Texas; Veteran Feminists of America, Southern Methodist University; University of Texas, Arlington; Political Science Department, University of North Texas; Helen Terry Memorial Lecture, Unitarian Church, Denton; Texas Women’s University, Texas Association of Art Education. Fall 1995
“Art and Politics, Then and Now,” Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art 1994 Fall