That is, thankfully, changing and changing fast, but this change raises a lot of tough questions. My own work is in part addressed to answering them. As both a scholar and a teacher, I am unrelenting in considering art from world perspectives and dealing with art’s entanglements in the fraught and lengthy history of globalization. KB: Since you primarily research living artists, how do you understand the relationship between artist and art historian? RB: This is a fascinating subject for me. Artists have, without exception, been extraordinarily kind to me as a researcher, and I’m acutely aware that one of the largest readerships for art historians is practicing artists. Artists and art historians have many topics of mutual concern, and I hope that everything I write contributes meaningfully to the conversations going on around those topics. I feel like I owe that to the artists I research and teach. KB: You cofounded the journal Contemporaneity and currently serve on its advisory board. What was the driving force behind this endeavor and what role did you serve? RB: When I was a graduate student in Pittsburgh, a few of my colleagues and I founded Contemporaneity because we saw a need for a venue in which to explore how issues to do with historical time become involved with the visual cultures of the world past and present. As an online publication, we try to stay on the cutting edge of digital publishing by bringing together new directions in scholarly writing with creative work in a range of media. KB: I understand that you have a background in museum work. What role did you have in working with those institutions and what specific interests do you have in museums? RB: In Pittsburgh, I became involved in various ways with exhibitions and educational programs at Carnegie Museum of Art and the Andy Warhol Museum. Apart from gaining valuable experience working in the museum setting, I made a lot of great friends. Having the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma is an opportunity
that excites me very much. I lectured there recently, which I hope is the beginning of much collaboration. I think museums are a key venue for art historians because they connect us to audiences beyond the readers of academic writing and the students in our classes. KB: The book you are working on is called Conceptual Art International: Art & Language and Others. Can you tell me a little bit about what readers can expect to read? RB: The book is about a group of conceptual artists called Art & Language. I’m especially interested in how their turn to a linguistically based visual art that treats thought like an artistic medium developed through international collaborations between artists in the United States, England, Australia, and Yugoslavia at a time during the 1960s and 1970s when artists became increasingly mobile and connected. The book focuses on how these encounters shaped Art & Language’s work in ways that illuminate the status of recent art history, particularly where the relationship between art and politics is concerned.
Robert Bailey, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma.
KB: After your book is complete, where do you see your research going? RB: I’m starting to address that question, and I don’t have a definite answer yet. Having spent more than a decade researching and writing about conceptual art, which is so cerebral, I’m excited to investigate something more practical, and I’m beginning to think about how artists are shaping alternatives to our current economic situation. Having said that, my lengthy involvement with conceptual art is bound to inform my research for a long time to come. KB: Your work is really fascinating and we are glad to have you here in Oklahoma. Anything else you would like to add for our readers? RB: I’m excited to be here. Support the arts! n Krystle Brewer is an artist, curator, and writer who is currently pursuing a master’s in art history at Oklahoma State University. She can be found at www.krystlebrewer.com
p ro f i l e
5