Kristel Smentek

Kristel Smentek is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), affiliated with the School of Architecture and Planning’s Department of Architecture, specializing in History, Theory & Criticism. Her research focuses on eighteenth-century European art, transcultural exchanges, and the history of collecting, with a particular emphasis on Asian-European interactions. She holds fellowships from prestigious institutions such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Her first book, Mariette and the Science of the Connoisseur in Eighteenth-Century Europe, examines the role of connoisseurship in Enlightenment-era art discourse. Her current book project, Disorient: Arts from China in Eighteenth-Century France, explores the impact of Asian art on European aesthetics. She co-curated the exhibition Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment (2022–2023), blending scholarly research with public engagement. Earlier exhibitions include Rococo Exotic: French Mounted Porcelains and the Allure of the East (2007) at the Frick Collection.

Teaching bridges early modern and modern periods, covering topics like ornament from the Rococo to the 1920s, the history of the art museum, and Asian-European encounters. Her work often addresses the ideological tensions between art, commerce, and cultural representation.

• Key Awards:
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
  • American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship
• Recent Exhibitions:
  • Dare to Know (2022–2023)
  • Rococo Exotic (2007)

Her research and curatorial work critically examines how art objects mediate cultural exchange, power dynamics, and the construction of historical narratives.