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H. Alexander Rich, Ph.D.

Department Chair

Associate Professor

Executive Director, Polk Museum

George and Dorothy Forsythe Endowed Chair in Art History and Museum Studies

Rich

My primary goal as a professor of Art History and Museum Studies is to provide students with the tools they need to study art and the world of museums critically. In the classroom, I have three overarching objectives for my students: that they learn how to look at art, how to talk about art, and how to write about art. At the Museum, I strive to offer students the opportunity to work with objects firsthand and to gain transformative, pre-professional experiences that can set them on a path toward long-term careers in the field. More than anything else, by honing students' innate skills of observation and critical thinking, I want them to understand why the history of the artworks we study — along with the cultural spaces in which we exhibit, preserve, and learn from them — is as essential as the art itself.

-H. Alexander Rich

Polk Museum of Art

 863.688.7743 x234

 863.680.3758

Biography

Dr. Rich is Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art History and Museum Studies and holds the George and Dorothy Forsythe Endowed Chair in Art History and Museum Studies. He is also Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Polk Museum of Art and Director of the Melvin and Burks Galleries on campus. Dr. Rich is a specialist in Modern and Contemporary art history, with a particular focus on European and American art of the 19th and 20th centuries. He earned his Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and his A.B. from Dartmouth College.

Dr. Rich's research focuses frequently on the experiential role of the viewer, on histories that have yet to be told, and on the concepts of liminality, in-between-ness, and insider-outsider status in the history of art, especially with regard to artists who are often understudied, overlooked, or who grapple with feelings of "Otherness." His dissertation, entitled “Artist or Critic?: Guy Pène du Bois & the Search for Artistic Identity,” examined the under-recognized legacy of the artist and art critic Guy Pène du Bois, who was a key figure in the advent of modern art in America but is virtually unknown today.

A native of New York City, Dr. Rich is the curator of far-ranging museum exhibitions, including Masters of Spain: Goya and Picasso, Renoir: Les Études, Rembrandt’s Academy, and Chagall: Stories into Dreams at the Polk Museum of Art. Before moving to Florida in 2014, Dr. Rich taught previously in both the History of Art Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York and in the City University of New York system. Prior to joining the staff of the Polk Museum in 2017 and becoming its executive director in 2019, he has also worked in both curatorial and education capacities at museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, NH.

Education

  • Ph.D., Art History, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York, NY
  • M.A., Art History, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York, NY
  • A.B., English / Art History, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Awards

Florida Southern College

  • George and Dorothy Forsythe Endowed Chair in Art History and Museum Studies:  2021 to present.
  • Robert H. Tate Faculty Development Endowment Fund: 2017, 2018.
  • Faculty Summer Research Stipend: 2016.

Institute Of Fine Arts, New York University

  • Lila Acheson Wallace Fellowship: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.
  • Samuel F.B. Morse Fellowship: 2006.
  • Director’s Fellowship: 2004, 2005.
  • Leo and Karen Gutmann Foundation Grant: 2004, 2005, 2006.
  • Leon and Shelby Levy Fellowship: 2003.

Dartmouth College

  • Arthur Feinstein 1955 Memorial Award in English Honors. Dartmouth English Department award for outstanding Honors Thesis.
  • B. William Hochman 1955 Memorial Award in American Literature. Dartmouth English Department award recognizing academic excellence in American literature courses over previous four years.
  • Class of 1962 Award for Excellence in Writing Assistance. Award for outstanding performance as a Writing/Teaching Assistant.

Publications

“A Nightmare Experience: Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare, Bram Stoker’s Dracula & the Experiential Role of the Viewer/Reader in Two Gothic Masterworks,” Journal of Florida Studies (2018): 150-162.

“Interpreters of Nature: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the ‘Sense of Place,’” Journal of Florida Literature 24 (2016): 33-48.

Robert Vickrey: Master of Magic Realism, editor and contributor, exhibition catalogue, Lakeland: Melvin Art Gallery, Florida Southern College, 2015.

“Otherness, The Expatriate Tradition & the Search For Identity in 1990s Art,” in Shades of Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean-American Artists, 1989-2001, exhibition catalogue, ed. Kyunghee Pyun, New York: AHL Foundation, 2014: 23-31.

“Rediscovering Florine (Again),” Woman’s Art Journal, (Fall/Winter 2012): 22-29.

“Dorothy Norman,” “Paul Pfeiffer,” “Kenny Scharf,” and “Esteban Vicente,” entries in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, ed. Joan Marter, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

“Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party,” Brooklyn Museum of Art website, place settings/heritage tiles entries, fifty plus articles on historical women for comprehensive searchable online database, 2006.

“Mel Kendrick: Seeing the Sculpture in the Tree,” Valley News, March 7, 2002

Staff Arts Writer, The Dartmouth newspaper, Fall 1999 to Spring 2003.

Exhibitions Curated/Organized

Edward Hopper and Guy Pène du Bois:  Painting the Real, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 2022 – March 2023. [forthcoming]

Toulouse-Lautrec & The Belle Époque, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  February 13 – May 23, 2021.

What’s the Story:  Art in Search of a Narrative, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  October 10, 2020 – January 17, 2021.

Music & Dance in Painting of the Dutch Golden Age, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  February 8 – September 27, 2020.

A Brush with HerStory:  The Paintings of Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 14 2019 – October 25, 2020.

Global Art of the 1970s:  From the S.C. Johnson Collection, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  November 7, 2019 – February 2, 2020. 

Spirits:  Ritual and Ceremonial African and Oceanic Treasures from the Dr. Alan and Linda Rich Collection, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  October 26, 2019 – January 26, 2020. 

Pierre Matisse:  Sparks of Creativity, Melvin & Burks Galleries, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL:  September 27 – November 4, 2019. 

Pierre Matisse:  Stories of Creativity, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  September 7 – November 24, 2019.

Flashback Female:  Women Artists in the 1980s and 1990s from the Permanent Collection, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  June 1 – August 31, 2019.

Inside the Masters’ Studios:  Richard Haas Dioramas, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  April 6 – July 27, 2019.

The Art of Will Barnet, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  January 12 – March 10, 2019.

Degas: The Private Impressionist, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 22, 2018 – March 24, 2019.

Chagall:  Stories into Dreams, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  September 29, 2018 – January 6, 2019.

The Von Wagner Code:  Unlocking the Mystery of a Rediscovered Painting, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  June 23 – September 16, 2018.

Lorrie Goulet:  Seventy Years Carving, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  June 16 – September 30, 2018.

Masters of Spain: Goya and Picasso, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  March 17 – June 17, 2018.

Richard Segalman:  Monotypes, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 26, 2017 – March 25, 2018.

Renoir: Les Études, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 26, 2017 – March 11, 2018.

America/American: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 16, 2017 – March 4, 2018.

Faces in the Crowd, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  September 30 – December 17, 2017.

Disruption and Conversation:  Jerry Uelsmann, 50 Years in the Darkroom, Melvin & Burks Galleries, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL:  September 22 – November 5, 2017.

Rembrandt’s Academy: Old Master Paintings from Private Dutch Collections, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  June 10 – September 24, 2017.

The Figure in American Art, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  June 10 – September 24, 2017.

An Homage to Architecture: Richard Haas, Master of Trompe L'oeil, Melvin & Burks Galleries, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL:  September 23 – November 6, 2016.

Robert Vickrey:  Master of Magic Realism, Melvin & Burks Galleries, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL:  September 4 – November 4, 2015.

Presentations

“Degas Revisited:  A New Glimpse at an Impressionist Master,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 21, 2018.

“Chagall and Brooks: Two Outsiders in Paris,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL: September 28, 2018.

“The Von Wagner Code: Unlocking a Mystery,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL: June 29, 2018.

“Whose Academic Museum?: Transforming a Community Museum into an Academic Museum for All,” Roundtable Panel Leader, 2018 Association of Academic Museums and Galleries Annual Conference, Miami, FL: June 21-24, 2018.

“Goya, Picasso, and the Symbolism of the Bull,” Moderator and Panelist, Goya, Picasso & the Heritage of Spain, Florida Humanities Council Grant-Funded Panel, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  April 3, 2018.

“Childhood Visual Literacy:  Seeing the World Through Art and Museums ,” Keynote Address, Fifth Annual Visionaries of the Visual Arts Awards, Naples, FL:  January 9, 2018. 

“New Perspectives:  Reconsidering Renoir and ‘American’ Art,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL:  December 22, 2017. (https://polkmuseumofart.org/press-content/2018/1/10/watch-renoir-les-tudes-lecture)

“A Brief-ish History of Photography,” Jerry Uelsmann Exhibition Lecture, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL: October 26, 2017.

“Faces in the Crowd: The Individual and Communal Experience of Seeing & Being Seen in the Museum,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL: October 6, 2017. (https://vimeo.com/244839605)

“The Museum as Academy: Or What We Learn When We Look at Art,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL: June 9, 2017.

“From Paris to Cos Cob: An American Impressionism,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL: January 20, 2017.

“The Art of Subversion,” Honors Program Supper Seminar, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL: November 7, 2016.

“A Nightmare Experience: Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare, Bram Stoker’s Dracula & the Experiential Role of the Viewer/Reader in Two Gothic Masterworks,” Florida College English Association Conference, St. Petersburg, Florida: October 2016.

“Picasso, Zao Wou-ki, Whanki Kim in Paris: The ‘Other’ at Home,” AHL Foundation Public Lecture Series, Korean Cultural Service NY,  New York, NY: October 2015. 

“Robert Frank’s Florida: Rediscovering 1950s Florida from within the Pages of Frank’s Masterwork The Americans,” Florida College English Association Conference, St. Petersburg, Florida: October 2015.

“Interpreters of Nature: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the ‘Sense of Place,’” 28th Annual Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society Conference, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Florida: March 2015.