Francis Naumann

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Francis M. Naumann (born April 25, 1948) is a scholar, curator, and art dealer, specializing in the art of the Dada movement and the Surrealist periods. He has an MFA degree in painting from the Art Institute of Chicago (1973) and a PhD in art history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (1988).

He taught art history at Parsons School of Design from 1977 through 1990[1] and is author of numerous articles and exhibition catalogues, including New York Dada 1915-25 (Harry N. Abrams, 1994) and Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1999).

In 1996, he organized "Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York" for the Whitney Museum of American Art, in 1997, "Beatrice Wood: A Centennial Tribute" for the American Craft Museum in New York, and, in 2003, he co-curated "Conversion to Modernism: The Early Work of Man Ray" for the Montclair Art Museum.[2]

For nineteen years—from 2001 to 2020—he operated the Francis Naumann Fine Art gallery in New York City which showed the work of artists Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood and Man Ray.[3]

He has published Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, in which the correlation between Duchamp's chess activities and his art is examined and, most recently, Naomi Savage: Stretching the Limits of Photography published by the Milton Art Bank in 2020.[4] His writings on Marcel Duchamp were published as The Recurrent, Haunting Ghost: Essays on the Art, Life and Legacy of Marcel Duchamp (New York: Readymade Press, 2012). In 2019, his autobiographical account of his relationship with art historians Leo Steinberg and John Rewald (among others) and the artist Beatrice Wood was published as MENTORS: The Making of an Art Historian (Doppelhouse Press).[5][6]

In 2019, ArtNet described him as "one of the world’s leading experts on Marcel Duchamp".[7]

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References[edit]

  1. ^ Richetti, Arianna (2022-09-16). "Duchamp: The Art of the Possible - Interview with Francis M. Naumann". DailyArt Magazine. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  2. ^ "Conversion to Modernism: The Early Work of Man Ray ; essays by Francis M. Naumann and Gail Stavitsky". tfaoi.org. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  3. ^ Greenberger, Alex (2019-10-07). "Dada Expert Francis Naumann Will Close Gallery, Citing Financial Pressures, Market Changes". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  4. ^ Naumann, Francis M. (2020). "Naomi Savage: Stretching the Limits of Photography". Milton Art Bank. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  5. ^ Naumann, Francis M. (2018). Mentors: the making of an art historian. Los Angeles: DoppelHouse Press. ISBN 9780999754467.
  6. ^ Shane, Robert R. (5 February 2020). "Francis M. Naumann's Mentors: The Making of an Art Historian". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  7. ^ "Duchamp Scholar Francis Naumann Says He's Closing His New York Gallery Because Young People Find Modernism 'Passé'". Artnet News. 18 October 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2024.

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