John O'Brian
Encyclopedia
John O'Brian is a writer, curator, and art historian. He is best known for his books and articles on modern art history and criticism. Since 1987, he has taught at the University of British Columbia
, Vancouver, where he is a Faculty Associate of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and held the Brenda & David McLean Chair in Canadian Studies from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2011. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2009, and received an honorary degree from the University of Trinity College at the University of Toronto in 2011.
in St. Andrews, Fife, and Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, before entering University of Trinity College
at the University of Toronto
, where he received an Honours B.A. in Political Science and Economics in 1966. He worked at the Toronto firm of Harris & Partners until 1974, before enrolling at York University
and starting to write art criticism initially, then poetry, and eventually art history. He received his Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University
under the supervision of T.J. Clark (historian) in 1990. While at Harvard, he was a member of the Pumping Station, a Cambridge collective of radical thinkers that met at the house of Gillian and Iain Boal
.
After publishing a monograph in 1983, David Milne
and the Modern Tradition of Painting, he published the first two volumes of Clement Greenberg
: The Collected Essays and Criticism in 1986. The books generated wide international interest and debate, establishing O’Brian’s career as an historian of modernism. Alice Goldfarb Marquis has made the case that O'Brian's work on Greenberg helped to establish his reputation. The second two volumes of the edition, which also received broad attention, appeared in 1993. In an editorial written for The New Criterion, Hilton Kramer
expressed admiration for Greenberg’s criticism but distaste for O’Brian’s politicization of it.
O’Brian has lectured internationally – in Australia, China, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, and South Africa as well as across North America and Europe – often with a Canadian bias. He has been professionally involved with museums and galleries, either as a curator or an advisor. From 1991-1998, he was a Special Advisor to the board of the National Gallery of Canada
.
His current research focuses on the role of photography in the production of nuclear narratives since the end of World War II. The technologies of photography and nuclear fission, he contends, are intimately connected to one another as well as to the social and political conditions of postwar modernity. The research forms part of a long-term project he calls “Camera Atomica.”
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, Vancouver, where he is a Faculty Associate of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and held the Brenda & David McLean Chair in Canadian Studies from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2011. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2009, and received an honorary degree from the University of Trinity College at the University of Toronto in 2011.
Life and Work
O’Brian was born in 1944 to Canadian parents in Bath, England. He was educated at New Park SchoolNew Park School
- Founding and Development :New Park School was an independent preparatory school in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. The school was founded in 1933 by Cuthbert Dixon, a teacher at Merchiston Castle School....
in St. Andrews, Fife, and Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, before entering University of Trinity College
University of Trinity College
The University of Trinity College, informally referred to as Trin, is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Trinity was intended by Strachan as a college of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of...
at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, where he received an Honours B.A. in Political Science and Economics in 1966. He worked at the Toronto firm of Harris & Partners until 1974, before enrolling at York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
and starting to write art criticism initially, then poetry, and eventually art history. He received his Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
under the supervision of T.J. Clark (historian) in 1990. While at Harvard, he was a member of the Pumping Station, a Cambridge collective of radical thinkers that met at the house of Gillian and Iain Boal
Iain Boal
Iain Boal is an Irish social historian of technics and the commons, based as an independent scholar in the San Francisco Bay Area.He is one of the founders of the Retort collective, an association of radical writers, teachers, artists, and activists, which has existed in the Bay Area for the past...
.
After publishing a monograph in 1983, David Milne
David Milne
David Milne may refer to:* Sir David Milne , British admiral* David Milne , Canadian artist* David Milne , Australian rugby league player...
and the Modern Tradition of Painting, he published the first two volumes of Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
: The Collected Essays and Criticism in 1986. The books generated wide international interest and debate, establishing O’Brian’s career as an historian of modernism. Alice Goldfarb Marquis has made the case that O'Brian's work on Greenberg helped to establish his reputation. The second two volumes of the edition, which also received broad attention, appeared in 1993. In an editorial written for The New Criterion, Hilton Kramer
Hilton Kramer
Hilton Kramer is a U.S. art critic and cultural commentator.Kramer was educated at Syracuse University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Indiana University and the New School for Social Research. He worked as the editor of Arts Magazine, art critic for The Nation, and from 1965 to 1982,...
expressed admiration for Greenberg’s criticism but distaste for O’Brian’s politicization of it.
O’Brian has lectured internationally – in Australia, China, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, and South Africa as well as across North America and Europe – often with a Canadian bias. He has been professionally involved with museums and galleries, either as a curator or an advisor. From 1991-1998, he was a Special Advisor to the board of the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
.
His current research focuses on the role of photography in the production of nuclear narratives since the end of World War II. The technologies of photography and nuclear fission, he contends, are intimately connected to one another as well as to the social and political conditions of postwar modernity. The research forms part of a long-term project he calls “Camera Atomica.”
Books
- David Milne and the Modern Tradition of Painting. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1983.
- Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism. 4 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986 and 1993.
- Degas to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection. New York and Cambridge, Mass.: Harry N. Abrams and Harvard University Art Museums, 1988.
- Voices of Fire: Art, Rage, Power, and the State. Co-edited with Bruce BarberBruce BarberBruce Barber is an artist, writer, curator, and educator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he teaches at NSCAD University. His artwork has been shown at the Paris Biennale, the Sydney Biennial, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walter Phillips Gallery, London Regional Gallery, and...
and Serge Guilbaut. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
- More Los Angeles Apartments. Vancouver: Collapse/VAFS, 1998.
- Ruthless Hedonism: The American Reception of Matisse. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
- All Amazed: For Roy KiyookaRoy KiyookaRoy Kenzie Kiyooka, was an influential Canadian arts teacher, painter, poet, photographer, multi-media artist of national and international acclaim....
. Co-edited with Naomi Sawada and Scott Watson. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002.
- Greenberg Variations. Portland, Oregon: The Back Room, 2007.
- Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity and Contemporary Art. Co-edited with Peter White. Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2007.
- Atomic Postcards: Radioactive Messages from the Cold War. Co-written with Jeremy Borsos. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Articles
- “Postcard to Moscow,” in Postcards: Ephemeral Histories of Modernity, edited by Jordana Mendelson and David Proschaska (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010), 182-93, 222-24.
- “Amerika Dropt a Bomb on Nevada,” Open Letter: A Canadian Journal of Writing and Theory 14, No. 4 (Fall 2010), 63-77.
- “Another Report on the Age of Extinction,” Canadian Review of American Studies 38, No.1 (2008), 191-98.
- "The Nuclear Family of Man,” Japan Focus: Asia Pacific Journal, July 2008. http://japanfocus.org/ (Re-published on The History News Network)
- “Bernard Smith’s Early Marxist Art History,” Thesis Eleven (Australia), No. 82 (August 2005), 29-37.
- “Anthem Lip-Sync,” The Journal of Canadian Art History XXI/1 & 2 (2000), pp. 140-151.
- "Shining on the Modernist Parade: The American Sacralization of Matisse at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1948," Coloquio Internacional de Historia del Arte (Mexico City) 20, 1997, pp. 771-805.
Profiles and Opinions
- Christopher Knight, "Remarkable Man's Remarkable Trove," The Los Angeles Times (16 February 1993)
- Hilton Kramer, "Clement Greenberg & the Cold War," The New Criterion (March 1993)
- Peter Plagens, "Thoroughly Modern, Really," Newsweek (19 April 1993)
- William Feaver, "Clement Greenberg: An Unerring Demolisher of Pretension," Art News (September 1994)
- Christopher Brayshaw, "Greetings for Postwar B.C.," Vancouver Courier, 17 September 1997 (cover story)
- Blake Gopnik, " Whose Work Is It, Anyway?" Globe and Mail, 23 November 1997
- Sarah Milroy, "A Trickster Who Makes Serious Art: Iain Baxter," Globe and Mail, 5 June 1999
- Blake Gopnik, “The Real Matisse,” Globe and Mail, 14 October 2000
- Sarah Milroy, “A Talent for Stirring Things Up,” Globe and Mail, 24 February 2001
- Margaret Webb, “Alumni Profile:” Trinity Magazine 41 (Autumn 2003) University of Toronto, 29-31. (Profile on John O’Brian)
- Kelsy Dundon, “Violently Alive,” UBC Arts: The Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts (Spring 2004), 3. (Profile on John O’Brian)
- Holland Cotter, “Matisse the Son, Illuminating the Father’s Legacy,” The New York Times, 14 May 2004
- Sarah Milroy, “Roy Kiyooka’s Palpable Sense of Place,” Globe and Mail, 19 May 2005
- Alice Goldfarb Marquis, Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg (Boston: MFA Publications, 2006)
- Nancy Tousley, “Coming Out of the Wilderness: Book Addresses Myths and Realities of Canadian Art,” Calgary Herald, 12 January 2008
- Robert Jacobs, “John O’Brian Speaks on The Family of Man,” Hiroshima Research News (Hiroshima Peace Institute, vol. 10, No. 3, March 2008
- Greg Buium, “ Firestorm: The National Gallery’s Acquisition of Voice of Fire,” The Walrus, March 2010
- Visualizer, “Missives from the Nuclear Age,” Wall Street Journal, 2 July 2011