Brooke Kamin Rapaport

Why is contemporary art now validating historic art and is this a growing trend in museum exhibitions? What choices do sculptors make in selecting materials and is there a return to traditional materials? What is the significance of the studio visit and is the practice a required ritual? These are some questions to be considered in my monthly blog posts. I am looking forward to online conversations with blog readers about issues in contemporary art.

I am an independent curator, contemporary art writer and lecturer and contributing editor at Sculpture magazine. As a guest curator at The Jewish Museum in New York, I organized Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend (2007) and Houdini: Art and Magic (2010). Recent articles have focused on Judy Pfaff (forthcoming, 2012), Bryan Hunt (2011), and Jean Shin (2008). For the exhibition Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, my catalogue essay described contemporary sculptors who were influenced by Calder’s work (2010). As a former associate curator in contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum, I organized Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age, 1940-1960 (2001).  I serve on the boards of Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Madison Square Park in Manhattan, and the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College.