معرفی
Irene V. Small is a Professor in the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University, specializing in contemporary art and criticism within global and transnational contexts. Her work critically engages with experimental practices from the 1960s–1970s, legacies of abstraction, and the social implications of form, with concentrated focus on Latin American art—particularly Brazil. She actively contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives including the Program in Media and Modernity, the Brazil Lab, and the Program in Latin American Studies.
Her research traverses radical pedagogy, expanded cinema, decolonial interventions, and the politics of medium specificity. Central to her scholarship is the interrogation of modernism’s topological field through concepts like Lygia Clark’s 'organic line,' which she deploys to analyze works ranging from Malevich’s Black Square to contemporary practices. She investigates how truncated media forms facilitate itinerancy and connectivity across Brazilian art history, from 19th-century proto-photography to digital remediation.
Small’s publications reveal consistent engagement with Brazilian avant-garde movements, examining artists like Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, and Tarsila do Amaral through frameworks of participation, embodiment, and geopolitical critique. Her recent work expands to address free speech, afterlives of slavery, and the decolonization of art institutions, demonstrating evolving focus on art’s capacity to reconfigure social and political realities.
Scientific Awards and Grants:
- Francine and Sterling Clark Art Institute Fellowship
- Graham Foundation Fellowship
- Getty Research Foundation Fellowship
- Dedalus Foundation Fellowship
- Creative Capital and Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant
- Lemann Institute of Brazilian Studies Fellowship
- Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Grant
Small serves on advisory boards for October, Ars, and Texte zur Kunst, and has curated exhibitions including Blind Field (2013) and Multitude (2002). Her teaching spans global contemporary art surveys, modern/contemporary Latin American art, and specialized seminars on decoloniality, gender, and experimentalism. She is affiliated with Princeton’s Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Brazil Lab, Gauss Seminars in Criticism, and Edward Said Memorial Lecture series.
