Bill Anthes
Professor of Art
With Pitzer Since: 2006
Field Group: Art
Campus Address: Avery 222
Phone: 909.607.3176
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Thursdays 10am-12pm and by appointment
Bill Anthes is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in studio art, art history and American studies. He teaches and writes about art in terms of multimedia practice and intercultural and interspecies exchange. His most recent book is Edgar Heap of Birds, published by Duke University Press.
Educational Background
PhD, American Studies, University of Minnesota
MA, Art History, University of Colorado, Boulder
BFA, Art History, University of Colorado, Boulder
Research Interests
Global indigenous modern and contemporary art in the Americas, Africa, and the Pacific; decolonial methodologies for art history in settler nations such as the United States, Canada, South African, Australia, and New Zealand; and artistic engagements with animals and nonhuman nature.
Recent Courses
The Art World Since 1989
Modern into Contemporary: Art from 1945 to 1989
Theories of Contemporary Art
Art and Animals
Tradition and Transformation in Native North American Art
Native American Art Collections Research (at the Pomona College Museum of Art)
First Year Seminars: Writing About Art, Writing About Animals
Books
Edgar Heap of Birds. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.
Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice. With Rebekah Modrak. London: Routledge, 2010.
Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940-1960. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.
Selected Recent Essays
“Activating ‘The Difference Which Makes a Difference’: Juan Downey’s Decolonial Field,” in Robert Crouch and Ciara Ennis, eds., Juan Downey: Radiant Nature (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and Pitzer College Art Galleries, 2017).
“2017: Indigenous Futures,” editors’ introduction with Kate Morris, for special volume, “Contemporary Native North American Art.” Contributions from Kathleen Ash-Milby, Ruth B. Phillips, Candice Hopkins, Jessica Horton, Kate Morris, Jolene Rickard, Dylan Robinson, Heather Igloliorte, Sherry Farrell-Racette, and Marie Watt, with an artist’s project by Postcommodity, Art Journal, v. 76, n. 1 (Summer 2017).
“Socially Engaged Art, Photography, and Art History,” in Activating Democracy: The “I Wish to Say” Project, Sheryl Oring, ed. (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2016).
“Tarrah Krajnak: Strays,” Exposure, v. 47, n. 1 (Spring 2014).
“Marisol’s Indians,” in Marisol: Sculptures and Works on Paper, 1955-1998, Marina Pacini, ed. (Memphis: Brooks Museum of Art and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).
“‘Why Injun Artist Me’: Acee Blue Eagle’s Diasporic Performative,” in Native Diasporas: Indigenous Identities and Settler Colonialism in the Americas, Gregory D. Smithers and Brooke N. Newman, eds. (University of Nebraska Press, 2014)
“Ethics in a World of Strange Strangers: Edgar Heap of Birds at Home and Abroad,” Art Journal, v. 71, n. 3 (Fall 2012)
Selected Recent Conference Presentations and Invited Talks
Symposium: “Art History in Settler States: Cultural Studies of the Colonies,” University of Birmingham, England, May 2017.
“Making an Art World in Indian Country,” presented in symposium organized in conjunction with the exhibition Mabel Dodge Luhan & Company: American Moderns and The West, The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico, June 2016.
Colloquium: “Challenging Art History in Settler-Colonial Societies,” The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, April 2016.
“Ceremony, History and the Contemporary: Time in Native American Art,” College Art Association 103rd Annual Conference, New York, February 2015.
“Indigenous Silences,” Scripps College Humanities Institute, Claremont, California, October 2014.
Panel: “Settler-Colonial Art History: A Transnational Perspective,” Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, October 2014.
“Sharp Rocks: Native American Artists in the Contemporary Art World,” American Anthropological Association 112th Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, November 2013.
Symposium: “Modernists and Mentors: Indigenous and Colonial Artistic Exchanges,” Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, England, November 2013.
“A Wheel Returns,” Native American Art Studies Association Conference, Denver, Colorado, October 2013.
“Indian Painting in an Expanded Field: Mapping Modernism in Native North America,” presented at Mapping Modernisms: Transcultural Exchanges in 20th Century Global Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 2012.
Selected Grants, Awards and Honors
Editorial Board Member, American Indian Quarterly (2015-present).
Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant, College Art Association, for Edgar Heap of Birds (2014).
Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant (2009).
Arnold S. Graves and Lois S. Graves Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Teaching in the Humanities, Pomona College/The American Council of Learned Societies (2008).
Online
“Q&A with Bill Anthes,” News from Duke University Press (blog): https://dukeupress.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/qa-with-bill-anthes/
“Native Hosts” by Edgar Heap of Birds at Pitzer College (2013): https://vimeo.com/60673043
