Romy Golan is an art historian and professor in the Ph.D. program in art history at

The Graduate Center, CUNY The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

. Her research focuses on modern European art, particularly French and Italian painting of the interwar and postwar period.

Education and career

Golan completed her Ph.D. at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

, London in 1989. Before joining the faculty of The Graduate Center in 1998, Golan taught at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

(1987–2002) and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

(1993–1998). Golan’s first book, ''Modernity and Nostalgia: Art and Politics in France between the Wars'' (1995) posits a number of reversals between

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

and rearguard. In a challenge to traditional scholarship on

interwar France Interwar France covers the political, economic, diplomatic, cultural and social history of France from 1919 to 1939. France suffered heavily during World War I in terms of lives lost, disabled veterans and ruined agricultural and industrial area ...

, Golan argued that neo-traditional ''belle peinture'' and modernist painting,

cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be " world citizens ...

and

xenophobia Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

, in fact often shared the same stage. In ''Muralnomad: The Paradox of Wall Painting, Europe 1927-1957'' (2009), Golan explored the

transmediality is a term used in intermediality studies, narratology, and new studies (in particular in the phrase ‘ transmedia storytelling’ derived from Henry Jenkins, to describe phenomena which are non-media specific, meaning not connected to a specifi ...

of the

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

image. The book looks at mural paintings, including works by

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

Mario Sironi Mario Sironi (May 12, 1885 – August 13, 1961) was an Italian modernist artist who was active as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, and designer. His typically somber paintings are characterized by massive, immobile forms. Biography He was bor ...

, and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, that were not truly convinced that they belonged on walls. Installed in unorthodox manners, these public works manifested an ambivalence about their charged ideological identity. Her most recent book is ''Flashback, Eclipse. The Political Imaginary of Italian Art in the 1960s'' (Zone Books, 2021). Structured by two forms of non-linear and decidedly non-presentist forms of temporality, the flashback and the eclipse, this book argues that Italian art of the 1960s reimagined Italian (and European) history, but in oblique form. The reimagining occurred as modernism in the country was formerly aligned with Italian fascism. Golan's curatorial work includes ''Encounters with the 1930s'' at the

Museo Reina Sofia Museo may refer to: * Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film *Museo (Naples Metro) Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. O ...

in 2012 and ''

Avigdor Stematsky Avigdor Stematsky (1908–1989) was a Russian Empire-born Israeli painter. He is considered one of the pioneers of Israeli abstract art. Biography Stematsky was born in 1908 in Odessa. He joined the Massad group in Tel Aviv. In 1929, he went to P ...

’s Late Works'' at the

Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aroun ...

in 2008. She has also contributed catalogue essays to exhibitions including ''Le Paris de Dufy'' at the

Musée de Montmartre The Musée de Montmartre ( en, Montmartre Museum) is located in Montmartre, at 8-14 rue Cortot in the 18th (XVIII) arrondissement of Paris, France. It was founded in 1960 and was classified as a Musée de France in 2003. The buildings were form ...

in 2021, ''

Charlotte Perriand Charlotte Perriand (24 October 1903 – 27 October 1999) was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L'Art de Vivre" f ...

: Inventing a New World'' at the

Fondation Louis Vuitton The Louis Vuitton Foundation ( French: ''Fondation d'entreprise Louis-Vuitton''), previously Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation (''Fondation Louis-Vuitton pour la création''), is a French art museum and cultural center sponsored by the group L ...

, Paris in 2019, and ''Postwar: Art between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–1965'' at the

Haus der Kunst The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a non-collecting modern and contemporary art museum in Munich, Germany. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. History Na ...

, Munich in 2016.

Works

Books

*''Modernity and Nostalgia: Art and Politics in France Between the Wars'' (Yale University Press, 1995) *''Muralnomad: The Paradox of Wall Painting, Europe 1927–1957'' (Yale University Press, 2009) ** *''Flashback, Eclipse: The Political Imaginary of Italian Art in the 1960s'' (Zone Books, 2021)

Selected articles and book chapters

* * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golan, Romy CUNY Graduate Center faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art