Yve-Alain Bois

Yve-Alain Bois (born 1952) is an historian and critic of modern art. Yve-Alain Bois was born on April 16, 1952 in Constantine, Algeria.

Academic Activities

In a formative early experience, he rejected Michel Seuphor's mis-characterization of Piet Mondrian as a kind of neo-Platonic monk, upon receiving this book as a confirmation present from his grandfather. He received an M.A. from the "Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes" in Paris for work on El Lissitzky's typography, and a Ph.D. from the "Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales" for work on Lissitzky's and Malevich's conceptions of space. His advisor was Roland Barthes.

He is a Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, in the chair inaugurated by Erwin Panofsky and formerly held by Millard Meiss, Irving Lavin, and Kirk Varnedoe. Previously, he served on the faculty at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique".

He has written books or major articles on canonical artists of European modernism including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and of American postwar art including Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Cy Twombly, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra, and Robert Ryman. He is also an influential interpreter of comparatively more obscure artists including Wladyslaw Strzeminski, Katarzyna Kobro, and Sophie Calle. He is currently at work on a structuralist response to Roland Barthes's "A Lover's Discourse" as refracted through interpretations of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Alexandre Cabanel, and Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier. He is an editor of the journal October.

External links

Articles and Reviews by Bois

* [http://www.egs.edu/faculty/bois/bois-whose-formalism.html Yve-Alain Bois, "Whose Formalism?" "Art Bulletin," Mar. 1996 (European Graduate School)]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_n1_v78/ai_18394851/print "Whose Formalism?" alternate version, findarticles.com]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_3_37/ai_53286428/print Review of Tony Smith retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, "Artforum", Nov. 1998]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_4_37/ai_53479689/print Review of "Supports/Surfaces" exhibition at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, "Artforum", Dec. 1998]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_6_37/ai_54050180/print Bois and Linda Nochlin discuss the "Matisse and Picasso" exhibition, "Artforum," Feb. 1999] (see also Linda Nochlin)
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_7_40/ai_84182763/print Review of Barnett Newman retrospective, Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Artforum", Mar. 2002]
* [http://www.bookforum.com/archive/win_03/bois.html "Back to the Future," review of eight books on Malevich, in "Bookforum" winter 2003]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_7_41/ai_98918657/print "The Mourning After," panel discussion on painting, "Artforum", Mar. 2003]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_2_42/ai_109023328/print On Fred Sandback, "Artforum," Oct. 2003]
* [http://www.humanities.uci.edu/remembering_jd/bois.htm Letter to the "New York Times" protesting the tone of the Jacques Derrida obituary written by "a Jonathan Kandell," Oct. 10, 2004]
* [http://www.iconoduel.org/archives/2005/04/000595_the_face_of_the_enemy.php#comment001710 Comment by Bois on discussion of "Art Since 1900" reviews, "Iconoduel" May 8, 2005]
* [http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/28/2/245 "Tough Love," on Hubert Damisch, in "Oxford Art Journal" vol. 28, no. 2 (2005)]

* [http://www.janedealmeida.com/yve_alain_bois.pdf Interview with Yve-Alain Bois for Folha de Sao Paulo, Caderno Mais!, 2005]

* [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/author/default.asp?aid=1084 MIT Press: list of books and articles by Bois]

* [http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00001434/01/1434_2.pdf All About Yve: An Interview with Yve-Alain Bois (1995)]

Reviews of Bois

*Michael Leja, "Formalism Redivivus?" review of "Painting As Model" in "Art in America" Mar. 1992, pp. 35-39.
*Arthur Danto, review of "Painting as Model", in "Art Journal," vol. 51, pp. 95-97.
*Stephen Melville, "Matter, Model and Modernism," in "Art History" vol. 15, no. 3 (Sept. 1992), pp. 387-391.
*Paul Overy, "'Here-I-Am-Again-Piet': A Mondrian for the Nineties" in "Art History", vol. 18, no. 4 (Dec. 1995), pp.584-605.
* [http://www.humanities.uci.edu/remembering_jd/bois.htm Jacob Weisberg, on the 'Matisse/Picasso' split in everyday life, in "Slate," Mar. 6, 1999.]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_10_93/ai_n15890994/print Pepe Karmel, "The October Century," review of "Art Since 1900," in "Art in America," Nov. 2005.]
* [http://www.chicagoschoolmediatheory.net/annotations/boispainting.htm Harper Montgomery, annotation of "Painting: The Task of Mourning" from www.chicagoschoolmediatheory.net]

About Bois

* [http://www.ias.edu/Newsroom/announcements/Uploads/view.php?cmd=view&id=262 "Art Historian Yve-Alain Bois joins the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study," press release, Jan. 7, 2005.]
* [http://www.egs.edu/faculty/yvealainbois.html Yve-Alain Bois: Bio / Lectures / Bibliography (European Graduate School)]
* [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=230425 "From Art to Barthes and Back Again," The Harvard Crimson, Sept. 19, 1991]
* [http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:tGQtgYsQdUgJ:detheoria.blog-city.com/+Vrai-Faux+Passeport+blog+password&hl=hr&gl=hr&ct=clnk&cd=11 Google cache of the Vrai-Faux Passeport: "Art Since 1900" roundtable transcript]