NELSON, Robert S. 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born October 27, 1947, in Temple, TX; children: two. Education: Rice University, B.A., 1969; New York University, M.A., 1973; Ph.D., 1978.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Art History, CWAC 250, University of Chicago, 5540 Greenwood Ave., Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail—olin@midway.uchicago.edu.

CAREER:

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, distinguished service professor of art history, 1977—.

MEMBER:

U.S. National Committee of Byzantine Studies; International Center of Medieval Art.

WRITINGS:

The Iconography of Preface and Miniature in the Byzantine Gospel Book, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1980.

Theodore Hagiopetrites: A Late Byzantine Scribe and Illuminator, Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna, Austria), 1991.

(Editor, with others) The Nature of Frank Lloyd Wright, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1998.

Visuality before and beyond the Renaissance: Seeing As Others Saw, Cambridge (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with Richard Shiff) Critical Terms for Art History, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2003.

(Editor, with Margaret Olin) Monuments and Memory, Made and Unmade, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Hagia Sophia, 1850-1950: Holy Wisdom Modern Monument.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robert S. Nelson is a professor of art history at the University of Chicago, focusing on studies of the Byzantine era. Nelson has written or edited several books on the subject of art and art history, and also serves as the chair of an interdisciplinary program on the history of culture. Critical Terms for Art History is a survey of critical issues faced by art history. A reviewer for Choice called the book "an interesting introduction to criticism and the current historical vocabulary." And in a review for Library Journal Savannah Schroll noted, "The book is a lighthouse in a field often overshadowed by a miasma of ambiguously articulated theories."

Nelson's book Visuality before and beyond the Renaissance: Seeing As Others Saw contains nine essays, each covering a specific time and place. Readers are taken from Mesopotamia B.C., to classical Antiquity, to China in the Middle Ages, to Western Europe during the Byzantine era, and then to modern Senegal and the art in each of these periods. In a review for the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Liz James wrote, "The theme of visuality, of ways of seeing, is maintained throughout … and so offering a range of pertinent issues and approaches." James went on to say, "This is a fascinating collection of papers on an important theme, the ways in which people see and the ways in which they talk about what they see."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Burlington Magazine, July, 1992, review of Theodore Hagiopetrites: A Late Byzantine Scribe and Illuminator, p. 446.

Choice, January, 1997, review of Critical Terms for Art History, p. 783.

Interior Design, Septemeber, 1989, David G. De Long, review of The Nature of Frank Lloyd Wright, pp. 170-171.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June, 2002, Liz James, review of Visuality before and beyond the Renaissance, pp. 411-414.

Library Journal, May 1, 2003, Savannah Schroll, review of Critical Terms for Art History, p. 109.

Medieval Review, December, 2001, review of Visuality before and beyond the Renaissance.

Speculum, April, 1994, George Galavaris, review of Theodore Hagiopetrites, p. 538.