Jonathan D. Katz
Encyclopedia
Jonathan David Katz is an American activist, art historian, educator and writer, he is currently the director of the doctoral program in Visual culture
studies at State University of New York at Buffalo
. He is also the former executive coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University
. He is a former chair of the Department of Lesbian and Gay studies at the City College of San Francisco
, and was the first tenured faculty in gay
and lesbian
studies in the United States
. Katz was an associate professor in the Art History Department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
, where he also taught queer studies. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University
in 1996.
Katz is the founder of the Harvey Milk Institute
, the largest queer studies institute in the world, and the Queer Caucus for Art of the College Art Association.
Katz co-founded Queer Nation
San Francisco. He has made scholarly contributions to queer studies the focus of his professional career. He was the first artistic director of the National Queer Arts Festival
in San Francisco and has published widely in the United States and Europe.
His forthcoming book, The Homosexualization of American Art: Jasper Johns
, Robert Rauschenberg
and the Collective Closet
, will be published by the University of Chicago
Press. An internationally recognized expert in queer
postwar American
art, Katz has recently published "Jasper Johns' Alley Oop: On Comic Strips and Camouflage" in Schwule Bildwelten im 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Thomas Roeske, and "The Silent Camp: Queer Resistance and the Rise of Pop Art," in Plop! Goes the World, edited by Serge Guilbaut.
Katz is currently co-curator with David C. Ward and Jenn Sichel of the exhibition "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" at the National Portrait Gallery
, the first major museum exploration of the impact of same-sex desire in the creation of modern American portraiture. David Wojnarowicz
's video "A Fire in My Belly" was removed from the exhibition on November 30, causing controversy. Katz was not consulted before the work's removal.
Visual culture
Visual Culture as an academic subject is a field of study that generally includes some combination of cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, and anthropology, by focusing on aspects of culture that rely on visual images.- Overview :...
studies at State University of New York at Buffalo
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...
. He is also the former executive coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. He is a former chair of the Department of Lesbian and Gay studies at the City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco, or CCSF, is a two-year community college in San Francisco, California. The Ocean Avenue campus, in the Ingleside neighborhood, is the college's primary location...
, and was the first tenured faculty in gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
studies in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Katz was an associate professor in the Art History Department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
, where he also taught queer studies. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in 1996.
Katz is the founder of the Harvey Milk Institute
Harvey Milk Institute
Harvey Milk Institute, located in San Francisco, California, was the largest queer studies institute in the world, and was founded by Jonathan David Katz. It was named in honor of Harvey Milk....
, the largest queer studies institute in the world, and the Queer Caucus for Art of the College Art Association.
Katz co-founded Queer Nation
Queer Nation
Queer Nation was an organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, USA by AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay and lesbian violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media...
San Francisco. He has made scholarly contributions to queer studies the focus of his professional career. He was the first artistic director of the National Queer Arts Festival
National Queer Arts Festival
National Queer Arts Festival is an annual queer festival in San Francisco, established in 1998 to coincide with Pride Month.Other organisations which have assisted over the years include the Harvey Milk Institute, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art and the Center for African and African...
in San Francisco and has published widely in the United States and Europe.
His forthcoming book, The Homosexualization of American Art: Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
, Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
and the Collective Closet
The Closet
The Closet may refer to:* The Closet , Chinese film* The Closet , French film* The closet, referring to undisclosed homosexuality- See also :* Closet* Closet * In the closet...
, will be published by the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
Press. An internationally recognized expert in queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
postwar American
History of the United States (1945–1964)
For the United States, 1945 to 1964 was an era of economic growth and prosperity which saw the victorious powers of World War II confronting each other in the Cold War and the triumph of the Civil Rights Movement that ended Jim Crow segregation in the South....
art, Katz has recently published "Jasper Johns' Alley Oop: On Comic Strips and Camouflage" in Schwule Bildwelten im 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Thomas Roeske, and "The Silent Camp: Queer Resistance and the Rise of Pop Art," in Plop! Goes the World, edited by Serge Guilbaut.
Katz is currently co-curator with David C. Ward and Jenn Sichel of the exhibition "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" at the National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery (United States)
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in Washington, D.C., administered by the Smithsonian Institution. Its collections focus on images of famous individual Americans.-Building:...
, the first major museum exploration of the impact of same-sex desire in the creation of modern American portraiture. David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.-Biography:...
's video "A Fire in My Belly" was removed from the exhibition on November 30, causing controversy. Katz was not consulted before the work's removal.
Works
- "Re-viewing the Field: Queer Studies in Art History", Art History, 1999
- "John Cage's Queer Silence or How to Avoid Making Matters Worse", GLQ, Duke University Press, April, 1999. Reprinted in Here Comes Everybody: The Music Poetry and Art of John Cage, ed. David Bernstein, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999
- "Performative Silence and the Politics of Passivity," in Making a Scene, ed. Henry Rogers, Birmingham University Press, 1999
- "Dismembership: Jasper Johns and the Body Politic", Performing the Body/Performing the Text, eds. Amelia Jones and Andrew Stephenson, New York: Routledge Press, 1999
- Difference/Indifference: Musings on Duchamp and Cage, coauthored with Moira Roth, New York: Gordon and Breach, 1998
- "Lovers and Divers: Picturing a Partnership in Rauschenberg and Johns", Frauen/Kunst/Wissenschaft, Berlin, June 1998
- "Rauschenberg and the Guggenheim", Out Magazine, April 1998
- "Rauschenberg's Honeymoon", Art & Text, no. 16 (May–July), 1998