Alexander Potts
Dr. Alex Potts FBA (Alexander Desmond Potts, or A.D. Potts) is an art historian.
Career
Education
Potts received his Bachelors degree (with honors) in mathematics, physics and chemistry, University of Toronto, Canada in 1965.[1][2] He then moved to England to pursue studies at the University of Oxford [3]as a Rhodes Scholar (1965-68).[4] At the University of London, he completed his PhD in art history in 1978.[5][6]
Career
After completing his PhD, he worked at a variety of schools across the UK, Europe, and the USA. In 1981, Potts began teaching at Camberwell College of Arts in London (Senior Lecturer in the history of art from 1984, Principal Lecturer; Acting Head of Department (Art History and Conservation) in 1987 and 1989).[7][8][9]
In 1996, he became a professor at the University of Reading where he held the position of Head of the Department of History of Art from 2000-2002.[10][11]
In 2002, he moved to the USA to serve as Chair of the Department of History of Art at the University of Michigan with a named chair position Max Loehr Collegiate Professor.[12][11] He served as chair until 2007[13], but remained teaching at UMich until 2019.[14] He was awarded emeritus status in 2020 (Max Loehr Collegiate Professor Emeritus).[15]
He also worked in a variety of other academic capacities. Potts served as Editor of the History Workshop Journal (from 1984, still serves as an Associate Editor today[16]), Pacific Standard Time Advisory Committee, Getty Research Institute (2009-11)[17], and Juror, Nasher Prize, Nasher Sculpture Center (2014-18).[18][19][20][21]
Fellowships and Awards
In addition to receiving a Rhodes Scholarship, Potts has received a long list of awards including Visiting Scholar, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2005)[22][23], Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington (2007)[24], Slade Lecturer of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, Hilary Term (2008)[25][23], Kirk Varnedoe Visiting Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, (2009)[26][27], Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2014-15)[6], and CAA, Distinguished Teacher of Art History Award (2017.)[28][23]
Potts is also inducted as an International Fellow of the British Academy in 2015.[29][30][31][32]
Research
Potts is considered one of the foremost scholars of modern sculpture. However, his work spans a wide range of topics from historiography to theories of realism and periods from the 18th century to today.
His 2000 book The Sculptural Imagination was impactful, in part, because (as Patrick Elliott pointed out) there had been a dearth of scholarly work on modern sculpture and is development.[33] In addition, as Jack Flam noted "he sees this history as having a specific direction that reached a crucial turning point in the 1960s, when sculptors freed themselves from painterly models and rethought the presentation, or “staging,” of sculpture."[34] Pamela M. Lee wrote that though the book reflects the "conditional and, therefore, heterogeneous approaches to objects" while also connecting this variety through a series of organizing principles.[35] However, not everyone agreed this was the right way to consider sculptural history. As art historian David Raskin pointed out, his work often reflects the integration of aspects of criticism into art history.[36]
Selected Publications
Books
- 1994: Flesh and the Ideal. Winckelmann and the Origins of Art History, New Haven and London: Yale University Press; reissued in paperback, 2000, 294 pp.[37]
- 2000: The Sculptural Imagination. Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 417 pp.[38]
- 2013: Experiments in Modern Realism: World Making, Politics and the Everyday in Postwar European and American Art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 457 pp.[39] [Reviews[40][41]]
Edited Volumes
- 2012: Modern Sculpture Reader, with Jon Wood and David Hulks, Leeds: The Henry Moore Institute, 2007; reissued by the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012 [42]
Articles and Essays
- 2004: ‘Tactility: the interrogation of medium in art of the 1960s’, Art History, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2004, pp. 283-304.[43]
- ‘Autonomy in Post-war Art, Quasi-heroic and Casual’, Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 27, No.1, 2004, pp. 43-59.[44]
- ‘Eros in Piccadilly: monument and anti-monument’, in David J. Getsy (ed.), Sculpture and the Pursuit of a Modern Ideal in Britain c. 1880-1930, Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004, pp. 105-139.[45]
- 2007: ‘Subjectivity, Civic Ideals, and Figures of Ideal Manliness: Representations of Masculinity in Late Victorian British Sculpture’, in Stefan Dudink, Karen Hagemann and Anna Clark (eds.), Representing Masculinity: Male Citizenship in Modern Western Political Culture, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.[46]
- 2012: ‘Realism, Brutalism, Pop’, Art History, Vol. 35, No.2, April 2012, pp. 288-313[47]; reissued in Lisa Tickner and David Peters Corbett, eds., British Art in the Cultural Field 1939-69, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, pp. 91-115. [48]
- ‘Caro in the 1960s and the Persistent Object of Sculpture’, The Sculpture Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2 , 2012, pp. 51-62.[49]
- 2013: ‘Realism and Materialism in Postwar European Art’, in Warren Carter, Barnaby Haran and Frederic J. Schwartz, eds., Re/New Marxist Art History, London: Art/Books, 2013, pp. 400-418.[50]
- 2014: ‘Paolozzi’s Pop New Brutalist World’, Tate Papers, Issue 21, April 2014, http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/paolozzis-pop-newbrutalist-world
- 2021: ‘The Public Gallery as Arena for Modern Sculpture’, in Malcolm Baker and Inge Reist, eds., Sculpture Collections: Collecting, Ordering and Displaying Sculpture, Leiden: Brill, 2021[51]
- 2025: 'The Materialist Imagination: Essays in Honour of Caroline Arscott' with Thomas Hughes in Oxford Art Journal, Volume 48, Issue 1, March 2025, Pages 1–6[52]
References
- ↑ "Alexander Potts | U-M LSA History of Art". lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-27.
- ↑ Oregon Humanities Center (2017-05-15). UO Today with Susan Siegfried and Alex Potts. Retrieved 2025-12-28 – via YouTube. "...I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto..." (16:47)
- ↑ "BALLIOL COLLEGE NEWS". Balliol College News - University of Oxford. 2015. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Rhodes Scholar Database". Retrieved 27 Dec 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Alexander Potts". ArteInformado. 2015. Retrieved 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help); Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Alexander Desmond Potts | Scholars | Institute for Advanced Study". www.ias.edu. 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Potts, Alex; House, John; Hope, Charles; Gretton, Tom (1988), Gardiner, Juliet, ed., "What is the History of Art … ?", What is History Today … ?, London: Macmillan Education UK, pp. 96–104, doi:10.1007/978-1-349-19161-1_9, ISBN 978-1-349-19161-1, retrieved 2025-12-28 "Authors and Affiliations Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, UK Alex Potts (Principal Lecturer in the History of Art)"
- ↑ Tate. "London Art Schools". Tate. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Editors, The (2018-11-01). "Preface". Oxford Art Journal. 4 (2): 2–3. doi:10.1093/oxartj/4.2.2. ISSN 0142-6540. Unknown parameter
|orig-date=ignored (help) - ↑ amycsmith (2018-07-26). "Prof. Alex Potts". Classics at Reading. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
On this auspicious occasion Professor Alex Potts from University of Michigan, formerly Professor of the History of Art & Architecture at University, served as one of the workshops’ keynote speakers and proposed a toast to Winckelmann.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Regents' Roundup | The University Record". record.umich.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Archives". regents.umich.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Department of History of Art (University of Michigan) records, 1946-2013, Finding aid created by Hannah Gulick, November 2013. Digital materials processed by Elise Reynolds, February 2014. Updated in May 2019 by Elizabeth Hannigan. MLibrary, Digital Finding Aid for this source: https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-bhl-2013070 Call Number: 2013070 Bimu 2
- ↑ Churchill, Sally (2019). [chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://regents.umich.edu/files/meetings/12-19/2019-12-VI-Potts.pdf "The University of Michigan Regents Communications"] Check
|archive-url=value (help) (PDF). Regents Archives. Archived from the original on 2019. Retrieved 2025. Unknown parameter|url-status=ignored (help); Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ↑ "Emeriti Faculty | U-M LSA History of Art". lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Editorial Collective for the History Workshop Journal". Oxford Academic. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "PST ART: Art & Science Collide". www.getty.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "2016 Jury". www.nashersculpturecenter.org. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "2017 Jury". www.nashersculpturecenter.org. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "2018 Jury". www.nashersculpturecenter.org. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Rozelle, Jane (2016-06-07). "A Prestigious $100,000 Prize Brings Out a Who's Who of the Art World and Dallas High Society — The Nasher's Big Night". PaperCity Magazine. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Getty Scholars Program: All Past Themes and Scholars | Getty Projects". www.getty.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 "Nasher Sculpture Center Establishes International Nasher Prize for Sculpture | News & Press - Press Release". www.nashersculpturecenter.org. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Senior Fellows | National Gallery of Art". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "The History of the Slade Professors". www.hoa.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Public Programming | The Institute of Fine Arts and The Frick Collection Symposium on the History of Art". ifa.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Utley, Gertje (2009). "Appointments for the Varnedoe Visiting Professorship". Alumni NEWSLETTER INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS (45). p. 7.
- ↑ "Awards for Distinction | Programs | CAA". www.collegeart.org. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Professor Alex Potts FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Alex Potts elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy | U-M LSA History of Art". lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "British Academy reaches 1,000 as 42 new UK Fellows are welcomed". The British Academy. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "New British Academy fellows take total past 1,000". Times Higher Education (THE). 2015-07-16. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Elliott, Patrick (2001). "Review of The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist". The Burlington Magazine. 143 (1185): 771–772. ISSN 0007-6287.
- ↑ Flam, Jack (2002-03-28). "The Road to Minimalism". The New York Review of Books. 49 (5). ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Lee, Pamela (2002). "Review: [Untitled]". login.ezproxy.waterfield.murraystate.edu. doi:10.2307/3177279. Retrieved 2025-12-28. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist". The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Flesh and the Ideal". Yale University Press London. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "The Sculptural Imagination". Yale University Press. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Experiments in Modern Realism". Yale University Press. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Experiments in Modern Realism: World Making, Politics and the Everyday in Postwar European and American Art". Experiments in Modern Realism: World Making, Politics and the Everyday in Postwar European and American Art. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ "Experiments in Modern Realism". Yale University Press London Blog. 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Store, Getty Museum. "Modern Sculpture Reader". Getty Museum Store. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Potts, Alex (2004). "Tactility: The Interrogation of Medium in Art of the 1960s". Art History. 27 (2): 282–304. doi:10.1111/j.0141-6790.2004.02702004.x. ISSN 0141-6790.
- ↑ Potts, A. (2004-01-01). "Autonomy in Post-war Art, Quasi-heroic and Casual". Oxford Art Journal. 27 (1): 43–59. doi:10.1093/oaj/27.1.43. ISSN 0142-6540.
- ↑ Sculpture and the pursuit of a modern ideal in Britain, c. 1880-1930. Internet Archive. Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate. 2004. ISBN 978-0-7546-0996-4. Search this book on
- ↑ Representing Masculinity. Search this book on
- ↑ Potts, Alex (2012). "Realism, Brutalism, Pop". Art History. 35 (2): 288–313. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8365.2011.00887.x. ISSN 0141-6790.
- ↑ Tickner, Lisa; Corbett, David Peters (2012). British art in the cultural field, 1939-69. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-27584-9. Search this book on
- ↑ Potts, Alex (2012). "Caro in the 1960s and the persistent object of sculpture". Sculpture Journal. 21 (2): 51–62. doi:10.3828/sj.2012.16.
- ↑ "Art / Books | Publishers of fine illustrated books | ReNew Marxist Art History". Retrieved 2025-12-28.
- ↑ Potts, Alex. "Chapter 9 The Public Art Gallery as Arena for Modern Sculpture". brill.com. doi:10.1163/9789004458840_011. Retrieved 2025-12-28. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Potts, Alex; Hughes, Thomas (2025-09-30). "The Materialist Imagination: Essays in Honour of Caroline Arscott". Oxford Art Journal. 48 (1): 1–6. doi:10.1093/oxartj/kcaf002. ISSN 0142-6540.
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