New Books Network

About Kirstin Ellsworth

I have a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Indiana University and am an Associate Professor of Art History at California State University Dominguez Hills

Kirstin L. Ellsworth holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Indiana University and is Associate Professor of Art History at California State University Dominguez Hills.

NBN Episodes hosted by Kirstin:

Art June 9, 2021

The Empress and I

How an Ancient Empire Collected, Rejected and Rediscovered Modern Art

Donna Stein

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
In the 1970s, American curator Donna Stein served as an art advisor to Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi, the Shahbanu of Iran. Together, Stein and Pahlavi generated an art market in …
Art April 27, 2021

Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast

Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse and Aldona Jonaitis

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
Inseparable from its communities, Northwest Coast art functions aesthetically and performatively beyond the scope of non-Indigenous scholarship, from demonstrating kinship connections to manifesting spiritual power. Contributors to Unsettling Native Art Histories …
Art January 15, 2021

The Life and Art of Felrath Hines

From Dark to Light

Rachel Berenson Perry

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
Today I talked to Rachel Berenson Perry about her book The Life and Art of Felrath Hines: From Dark to Light (Indiana University Press, 2019). Felrath Hines (1913–1993), the first African American man to …
Art August 13, 2020

Synthesis

Lost and Found in America

Vesna Kittelson

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
The prolific artistic production of Vesna Kittelson always maintains autobiographical connections: her installations of deconstructed books and her luminous drawings of fountains recall her childhood in Split, Croatia; her early …
Art August 11, 2020

Georgia O'Keeffe's Wartime Texas Letters

Amy Von Lintel 

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
In 1912, at age 24, Georgia O’Keeffe boarded a train in Virginia and headed west, to the prairies of the Texas Panhandle, to take a position as art teacher for …
Art May 22, 2018

Foucault on Painting

Catherine M. Soussloff

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
In Foucault on Painting (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), Catherine Soussloff discusses an area of Foucault’s development that has remained largely overlooked: his engagement with painting. Indeed Foucault, we learn …
Art August 15, 2017

A Usable Past

American Folk Art at the Colby College Museum of Art

Lauren Lessing, Elizabeth Finch, et al.

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
A Usable Past: American Folk Art at the Colby College Museum of Art (Colby College Museum of Art, 2016) is a contemporary analysis of paintings, works on paper, sculptures, needlework …
Art July 28, 2017

Marsden Hartley's Maine

Donna M. Cassidy, Elizabeth Finch, and Randall R. Griffey

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
Marsden Hartley's Maine (Yale University Press, 2017), published to accompany a major exhibition of his work organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Colby College Museum of Art …
Art June 14, 2017

Art History for Filmmakers

The Art of Visual Storytelling

Gillian McIver

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
Gillian McIver's Art History for Filmmakers: The Art of Visual Storytelling (Bloomsbury, 2016) is a ground-breaking book that illustrates the relationships among the histories of painting and cinema. Of interest …
Art May 23, 2017

Asking the Audience

Participatory Art in 1980s New York

Adair Rounthwaite

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
In Asking the Audience: Participatory Art in 1980s New York (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) Adair Rounthwaite examines the roles of artist, audience and institutional context in the rise of …
Art March 7, 2017

Art Follows Nature

A Worldwide History of the Nude

Paul LeValley

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
Paul LeValley's Art Follows Nature: A Worldwide History of the Nude (Edition One Books, 2016) is the first comprehensive study of the nude in art from around the world …
Art December 17, 2016

Georgia O'Keeffe

Watercolors, 1916-1918

Amy Von Lintel

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
In "Georgia O'Keeffe: At Home in the Wonderful Nothing," a text accompanying the exhibition catalogue Georgia O'Keeffe: Watercolors 1916-1918 (Radius Books and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 2016), Amy Von Lintel …
Art October 21, 2016

Corita Kent

The Biography

April Dammann

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
Sister Mary Corita, IHM (1918-1986), was a beloved artist and teacher whose role as the rebel nun continues to inspire contemporary audiences. Corita joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart …