Bio

A distinguished scholar of American culture, Alexander Nemerov explores our connection to the past and the power of the humanities to shape our lives. Through his empathetic, intuitive research and close readings of history, philosophy, and poetry, Nemerov reveals art as a source of emotional truth and considers its ethical demands upon us in our moment. Revered for his breadth of scholarship and celebrated for his eloquent public speaking, Nemerov inspires audiences with his belief in the affirming and transfiguring force of art.

An instinctive, nuanced author, Nemerov’s most recent book is The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s presenting tales of a visionary experience in the last years of America as a heavily forested land. His conjuring of a lost world of shade and sun has been praised by Annie Proulx ("deeply beautiful”, “astonishingly tender”, “one of the richest books ever to come my way") and Edmund de Waal (“moving and shocking and beautiful, an extraordinary achievement”).

Previous titles by Nemerov have gained further recognition: Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York was short-listed for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Prize in Biography; Summoning Pearl Harbor, was praised by the novelist Ali Smith as "a unifying and liberating meditation”; Soulmaker: The Times of Lewis Hine, was short-listed for the Marfield Prize, a national award in arts writing; Wartime Kiss: Visions of the Moment in the 1940s was named one of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles in 2013; Acting in the Night: Macbeth and the Places of the Civil War was a Choice Outstanding Academic Book; Icons of Grief: Val Lewton and 1940s America was praised by The New York Review of Books as "superbly original." Nemerov’s initial books include Silent Dialogues: Diane Arbus and Howard Nemerov, a meditation on his father, the poet Howard Nemerov, and his aunt, the photographer Diane Arbus; The Body of Raphaelle Peale: Still Life and Selfhood, 1812-1824; and Frederic Remington and Turn-of-the-Century America.

Nemerov, an engaging, eloquent speaker, gave the 2007 Andrew Wyeth Lecture at the National Gallery of Art, and in 2017, he delivered the 66th Andrew W. Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art, becoming the first scholar to deliver them with a focus on American art. He has also published two exhibition catalogues: To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, the companion to a National Museum of American Art exhibition of that name and Ralph Eugene Meatyard: American Mystic.

After receiving his B.A. in Art History and English with Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors from the University of Vermont and his Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University, Nemerov began his teaching career at Stanford University in 1992. Returning to Yale in 2001, Nemerov chaired the Department of the History of Art from 2009 to 2012 and in 2010 was named to the Vincent Scully Professorship. Nemerov returned to Stanford in 2012 as the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities and served as chair of the Department of Art and Art History from 2015 to 2021. The Stanford Daily has named him one of the university's top ten professors.

Academic Appointments

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

Administrative Appointments

  • Department Chair, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University (2015 - 2021)
  • 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)

Links

2024-25 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • A Voice from beyond the Grave: Tintoretto among the Art Historians EPILOGUE ICONS OF SOUND Nemerov, A., Pentcheva, B. V. 2021: 206-215

    View details for Web of Science ID 000731925300009

  • The Dead Kitten: Sacrifice in Barry Lyndon AFTER KUBRICK Nemerov, A., Szaniawski, J. 2020: 281-293

    View details for Web of Science ID 000672774100016

  • In Conversation Art Is Not the Archive ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART JOURNAL Lubin, D., Goodyear, A., Coffey, M. K., Burns, E. C., Fagg, J., Boylan, A. L., Getsy, D. J., Wilson, K., Saltzman, L., Barrett, R., Nemerov, A. 2018; 57 (2): 62–77

    View details for DOI 10.1086/701178

    View details for Web of Science ID 000448005100005

  • Dennis Miller Helen Keller Bunker MAGAZINE ANTIQUES Nemerov, A. 2016; 183 (3): 82-89

    View details for Web of Science ID 000375742200008

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000344844100019

  • James as Magician: Deception and the Moment of Truth HENRY JAMES REVIEW Nemerov, A. 2013; 34 (3): 213-219

    View details for Web of Science ID 000328093100002

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000303847900016

  • Judy Garland's Face ENGLISH LANGUAGE NOTES Nemerov, A. 2012; 50 (1): 83-86

    View details for Web of Science ID 000315667200015

  • 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

    View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2010.00848.x

    View details for Web of Science ID 000294260500010

  • WHEN DID ART BECOME MEANINGLESS? YALE REVIEW Nemerov, A. 2011; 99 (2): 94-103

    View details for Web of Science ID 000289091600007

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000262366100008

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000236926900006

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000236926900001

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000234550700010

  • The flight of form: Auden, Bruegel, and the turn to abstraction in the 1940S CRITICAL INQUIRY Nernerov, A. 2005; 31 (4): 780-810

    View details for Web of Science ID 000235514600002

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000178725000047

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000081667700033

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000077754500006

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID 000074705400004

  • The Frederic Remington studio (Book Review) GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY Book Review Authored by: Nemerov, A. 1998; 18 (1): 75-76

    View details for Web of Science ID 000074238000038

  • 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

    View details for Web of Science ID A1993LX13600007

  • 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