Bio


A scholar of American art, Nemerov writes about the presence of art, the recollection of the past, and the importance of the humanities in our lives today. Committed to teaching the history of art more broadly as well as topics in American visual culture--the history of American photography, for example--he is a noted writer and speaker on the arts. His most recent books are To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America (2011), the catalogue to the exhibition of the same title he curated at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Acting in the Night: Macbeth and the Places of the Civil War (2010). His new book, Wartime Kiss: Visions of the Moment in the 1940s, will be published by Princeton University Press this fall.

Academic Appointments


  • Professor, Art & Art History
  • Professor (By courtesy), English

Administrative Appointments


  • Department Chair, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University (2015 - Present)
  • Professor in the Arts and Humanities, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University (2012 - Present)
  • Vincent Scully Professor, Department of the History of Art, Yale University (2010 - 2012)
  • Professor, Department of the History of Art, Yale University (2001 - 2010)
  • Lecturer, Summer Alumni College, Stanford University (2000 - 2000)
  • Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University (2000 - 2000)
  • Lecturer, Summer Alumni College, Stanford University (1999 - 1999)
  • Internal Faculty Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center (1998 - 1999)
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University (1995 - 2000)
  • Visiting Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University (1992 - 1995)
  • Material Culture Fellowship, National Museum of American Art (1989 - 1991)

Honors & Awards


  • Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Beta Kappa Society (1985)
  • Winner of a Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award, Yale University Press (1996)
  • Dean’s Award, Stanford University (1998-1999)
  • Winner of a Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award, Choice (2011)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Chair, Department of the History of Art, Yale University (2009 - 2012)
  • Director of Graduate Studies, Department of the History of Art, Yale University (2008 - 2009)
  • Director of Graduate Studies, Department of the History of Art, Yale University (2005 - 2006)
  • Member, Board of Directors, Stanford Humanities Center (2003 - 2009)

Program Affiliations


  • American Studies

Professional Education


  • Doctor of Philosophy, Yale University, History of Art (1992)
  • Master of Philosophy, Yale University, History of Art (1987)
  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Vermont (1985)

2022-23 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Silent Dialogues: Diane Arbus and Howard Nemerov Nemerov, A. Fraenkel Gallery. 2015
  • Thomas Cole's hat, or What is it to be an artist? MAGAZINE ANTIQUES Nemerov, A. 2014; 181 (6): 102-109
  • James as Magician: Deception and the Moment of Truth HENRY JAMES REVIEW Nemerov, A. 2013; 34 (3): 213-219
  • Wartime Kiss Nemerov, A. Princeton University Press. 2013
  • Swimming: Thomas Eakins, JFK, and November 22, 1963 Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy Nemerov, A. edited by Mesley, O. Dallas Museum of Art and Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth. 2013: 78–91
  • Seeing Ghosts: The Turn of the Screw and Art History The Spectralities Reader: Ghosts and Haunting in Contemporary Cultural Theory Nemerov, A. edited by del Pilar Blanco, M., Peeren, E. London: Bloomsbury. 2013: 527–47
  • The Pentimento: Emily Dickinson and Winslow Homer Emily Dickinson in Context Nemerov, A. edited by Richards, E. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press. 2013
  • Rothko Was Rembrandt: How One Artist Became Another Mark Rothko: Paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington Nemerov, A. edited by Bartelik, M. Warsaw: The National Museum in Warsaw. 2013: 127–38
  • The Religion of Art and Nothing of Life: Frederick H. Evans’s A Sea of Steps Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century Nemerov, A. edited by Trumble, A., Rager, A. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2013: 125–31
  • The Glitter of Night Hauling: Andrew Wyeth in the 1940s Wyeth Vertigo Nemerov, A. Shelburne, Vermont: Shelburne Museum. 2013: 72–79
  • Weightless History: Faulkner, Bourke-White, and Eisenstaedt Fictions of Art History Nemerov, A. edited by Ledbury, M. Williamstown, Massachusetts: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. 2013: 3–20
  • The glitter of Night Hauling Andrew Wyeth in the 1940s MAGAZINE ANTIQUES Nemerov, A. 2012; 179 (3): 146-155
  • Judy Garland's Face ENGLISH LANGUAGE NOTES Nemerov, A. 2012; 50 (1): 83-86
  • Ghosts and Sculpture: Harriet Hosmer and Patricia Cronin Patricia Cronin: All Is Not Lost Nemerov, A. ew Orleans: Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University. 2012: 27–30
  • Blood Shed in This War: Civil War Illustrations by Captain Adolph Metzner, 32nd Indiana Indiana Magazine of History Nemerov, A. 2012; 108: 186-187
  • The Madness of Art: Georgia O’Keeffe and Virginia Woolf Anglo-American: Artistic Exchange between Britain and the USA Nemerov, A. edited by Corbett, D. P., Monks, S. London: Wiley Blackwell. 2012: 196–215
  • The Forest of the Old Masters: The Chiaroscuro of American Places Behold America! Art of the United States from Three San Diego Museums Nemerov, A. San Diego Museum of Art. 2012: 97–114
  • The Madness of Art: Georgia O'Keeffe and Virginia Woolf ART HISTORY Nemerov, A. 2011; 34 (4): 818-837
  • WHEN DID ART BECOME MEANINGLESS? YALE REVIEW Nemerov, A. 2011; 99 (2): 94-103
  • The Rattlesnake: Benjamin Henry Latrobe and the Place of Art in America Knowing Nature: Art and Science in Philadelphia, 1740-1840 Nemerov, A. edited by Meyers, A. Yale University Press. 2011
  • A World Too Much: Democracy and Natural History in the Work of Godman and Audubon Knowing Nature: Art and Science in Philadelphia, 1740-1840 Nemerov, A. Yale University Press. 2011: 356–75
  • To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America Nemerov, A. Smithsonian American Art Museum, in association with Yale University Press. 2011
  • Acting in the Night: Macbeth and the Places of the Civil War Nemerov, A. University of California Press. 2010
  • Photography and Literature CAA Reviews Online Nemerov, A. 2010
  • Describing Is Descending Catalogue to the exhibition, Moby-Dick Nemerov, A. San Francisco: Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. 2009: 117–26
  • Ground Swell Edward Hopper in 1939 AMERICAN ART Nemerov, A. 2008; 22 (3): 50-71
  • Seeing Ghosts: The Turn of the Screw and Art History What Is Research in the Visual Arts?: Obsession, Archive, Encounter Nemerov, A. edited by Holly, M. A., Smith, M. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. 2008: 13–32
  • Albert Bierstadt, Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery Cooper, H., Nemerov, A. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2008: 315–17
  • Whitman’s Moment PN Review Nemerov, A. 2007; 176: 30-33
  • Archive Style: Photographs & Illustrations for U. S. Surveys, 1850-1890 CAA Reviews Online Nemerov, A. 2007
  • Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945): Illustration for “Drums,” c. 1928 The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings Nemerov, A. Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. 2007: 545–548
  • Interventions: The boy in bed: The scene of reading in N. C. Wyeth's 'Wreck of the "Covenant"' - The author replies ART BULLETIN Nemerov, A. 2006; 88 (1): 61-68
  • Interventions: The boy in bed: The scene of reading in N. C. Wyeth's 'Wreck of the "Covenant"' ART BULLETIN Nemerov, A. 2006; 88 (1): 7-27
  • Morris Louis: Court Painter of the Kennedy Era Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited Nemerov, A. Atlanta: High Museum of Art. 2006: 21–38
  • Frederic Remington and the American Civil War: A Ghost Story Nemerov, A. Stockbridge, Mass.: Norman Rockwell Museum. 2006
  • Looking askance: Skepticism and American art from Eakins to Duchamp (Book Review) ART BULLETIN Book Review Authored by: Nemerov, A. 2005; 87 (4): 731-734
  • The flight of form: Auden, Bruegel, and the turn to abstraction in the 1940S CRITICAL INQUIRY Nernerov, A. 2005; 31 (4): 780-810
  • Icons of Grief: Val Lewton’s Home Front Pictures Nemerov, A. University of California Press. 2005
  • Coming Home in 1945: Reading Robert Frost and Norman Rockwell American Art Nemerov, A. 2004; 18: 59-79
  • The Pleasure of Conversation The Original Work of Art: What It Has to Teach Nemerov, A. 2003: 40-45
  • Haunted Supermasculinity: Strength and Death in Carl Rungius’s Wary Game Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide Nemerov, A. 2003; 2
  • Burning Daylight: Remington, Electricity, and Flash Photography Frederic Remington: The Color of Night Nemerov, A. edited by Anderson, N. Washington, D. C.: The National Gallery of Art. 2003: 78–95
  • The Victorians and the visual imagination (Book Review) ALBION Book Review Authored by: Nemerov, A. 2002; 34 (2): 333-335
  • Peak Viewing Tate Nemerov, A. 2002; 28: 34-39
  • The Dark Cat: Arthur Putnam and a Fragment of Night American Art Nemerov, A. 2002; 16: 37-57
  • Mammoth Scale: The Anatomical Sculptures of William Rush Nemerov, A. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute. 2002
  • The Body of Raphaelle Peale: Still Life and Selfhood, 1812-1824 Nemerov, A. University of California Press. 2001
  • Behold the hero: General Wolfe and the arts in the Eighteenth century (Book Review) ALBION Book Review Authored by: Nemerov, A. 1999; 31 (1): 116-117
  • Haunted Supermasculinity: Strength and Death in Carl Rungius’s Wary Game American Art Nemerov, A. 1999; 13: 2-31
  • Art of the gold rush (Book Review) CALIFORNIA HISTORY Book Review Authored by: Nemerov, A. 1998; 77 (3): 187-189
  • The ashes of Germanicus and the skin of painting: Sublimation and money in Benjamin West's 'Agrippina' YALE JOURNAL OF CRITICISM Nemerov, A. 1998; 11 (1): 11-27
  • The Frederic Remington studio (Book Review) GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY Book Review Authored by: Nemerov, A. 1998; 18 (1): 75-76
  • Vanishing Americans: Abbott Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Attraction of Camouflage American Art Nemerov, A. 1997; 11: 50-81
  • Frederic Remington, Moonlight, Wolf Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years—A Selective Catalogue Faxon, S., Nemerov, A. New York: DAP Press. 1996: 454–5
  • Frederic Remington and Turn-of-the-Century America Nemerov, A. Yale University Press. 1995
  • A Stirring and Crawling of the Yeasty Thing’: Evolution and Misogyny in the Art of Frederic Remington Redefining American History Painting Nemerov, A. edited by Burnham, P., Giese, L. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1995: 82–100
  • MODELING MY FATHER + THE POETRY OF NEMEROV,HOWARD AMERICAN SCHOLAR Nemerov, A. 1993; 62 (4): 551-561
  • Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the American West Gateway Heritage Nemerov, A. 1993; 14: 69-70
  • Projecting the Future: Film and Race in the Art of Charles Russell American Art Nemerov, A. 1993; 8: 71-89
  • “More Bark Than Bite: Thoughts on the Traditional— And Not Very Historical—Approach to Western Art Journal of Arizona History Nemerov, A., Truettner, W. 1992; 33: 311-24
  • N. C. Wyeth’s Theater of Illustration American Art Nemerov, A. 1992: 37-57
  • What You See Is Not Necessarily What You Get: New Meaning in Images of the Old West Montana: The Journal of Western History Nemerov, A., Truettner, W. 1992; 42: 70-76
  • Frederic Remington: Within and Without the Past American Art Nemerov, A. 1991: 37-59
  • Doing the Old America’: The Image of the American West, 1880-1920 The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920 Nemerov, A. edited by Truettner, W. Smithsonian Institution Press. 1991: 285–343