Whitney Chadwick (born 28 July 1943) is an American art historian and educator, who has published on contemporary art,

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, Surrealism, and gender and sexuality. Her book ''Women, Art and Society'' was first published by

Thames and Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

in 1990 and revised in 1997; it is now in its fifth edition. Chadwick is

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

from the School of Art.

Biography

Her undergraduate degree was a B.A. degree in Fine Arts from Middlebury College in 1965. She received her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

from Pennsylvania State University, and an honorary doctorate from the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...

in 2003. She taught at San Francisco State University in the School of Art and is now a Professor Emerita. Additionally she taught at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, Stanford University and

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. In 2010–2011 she was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where she worked on ''In the Company of Women: Female Sexuality and Empowerment in the Surrealist World'' focusing on surrealist women artists of the 1930s and 1940s. Chadwick was the second wife of artist

Robert Bechtle Robert Alan Bechtle (May 14, 1932 – September 24, 2020) was an American painter, printmaker, and educator. He lived nearly all his life in the San Francisco Bay Area and whose art was centered on scenes from everyday local life. His paintings ar ...

, until his death in 2020.

Publications

In addition to ''Women, Art and Society (1990)'', Chadwick has published ''

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of ...

: la realidad de la imaginacion''; ''Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement''; ''Myth in Surrealist Painting''; ''Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks; and'' contributed to the book authored by Liz Rideal, ''Mirror Images: Women Surrealism, and Self-Representation''. Chadwick edited with Isabelle de Courtivron, ''Significant Others: Creativity and Intimate Partnership''; and with Tirza True Latimer edited ''The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris between the Wars''. Her novel ''Framed'' was published in 1998.

Exhibition catalog essays

Chadwick has published exhibition catalog essays about Maria Elena Gonzalez,

Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum ( ar, منى حاطوم; born 1952) is a British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London. Biography Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to Palestinian parents. Although born in Lebanon, Hatoum ...

Nalini Malani Nalini Malani (born 19 February 1946) is a contemporary Indian artist widely acknowledged to be among the country's first generation of video artists. She works with several mediums which include theater, videos, installations along with mixed ...

, and Sheila Hicks, among others.

Honors, awards

Chadwick received many awards and honors including serving as a fellow at the

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculp ...

(2002); the Forum for Advanced Studies in Arts, Languages and Theology at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, and a fellowship/residency from the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University (2010–2011). In 1999 she was given the Award of Distinction by the National Council of Arts Administrators.

References

External links