Background
Tom McDonough is an art historian, critic, and professor recognized for his expertise in modern and contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on the avant-garde movements of the 20th century. His scholarship delves into the relationships between art, politics, and social movements, especially within the context of postwar Europe. McDonough has extensively studied the Situationist International, an influential group of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists active during the 1950s and 1960s.
Currently serving as a professor in the Art History Department at , McDonough has also taught at institutions such as Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. He received a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, followed by an MA and a PhD from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Throughout his career, McDonough has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including a postdoctoral fellowship from The Getty Grant Program and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2024.
McDonough’s contributions to the literature of art history encompass several notable publications. He authored “The Beautiful Language of My Century: Reinventing the Language of Contestation in Postwar France, 1945-1968 and edited volumes such as Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents and The Situationists and the City: A Reader. His writings are characterized by a deep analysis of the intersections between art, urban space, and political economy, offering insights into the dynamics of radical artistic movements and their social impacts.
Select Publications
- (Ed.) The Situationists and the City: A Reader (Verso, 2009)
- The Beautiful Language of My Century: Reinventing the Language of Contestation in Postwar France, 1945-1968(The MIT Press, 2007)
- (Ed. with Aruna D’Souza) The Invisible Flâneuse? Gender, Public Space and Visual Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris (Manchester University Press, 2006)
- “No Ghost,” OCTOBER no. 110 (2004)
- “The Crimes of the Flâneur,” OCTOBER no. 102 (2002)
- (Ed.) Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (The MIT Press, 2002)
- “Rereading Debord, Rereading the Situationists,” OCTOBER no.79 (1997)
- “Situationist Space,” OCTOBER no.67 (1994)
Education
- MA, PhD, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; independent study program, Whitney Museum of American Art
- BA, Rutgers University
Research Interests
- Postwar European avant-gardes, with a particular emphasis on the Situationist International
- Postwar French architectural and urban history
- Contemporary Black American art
Teaching Interests
- 19th century Paris
- Black Monument: African American Sculpture
- European Avant-Gardes
- Godard: Film Texts & Contexts
- Modern Art
- Radical Dreams: Surrealism & Cinema
- Theories of Photography
Awards
- SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities (2024)
- Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, (Fall 2021)
- Scholar-in-Residence at the Académie de France à Rome/Villa Medici, Italy (Spring 2015)
- Curatorial Research Grant from FACE/Étant donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art (2010)