Social History of Art

  I taught the history of art for 29 years at Kent State University, specializing in American painting, prints, photographs, and architecture. Since 1999 I have turned to painting (see my website (bensart.com). I am the author of three monographs, I edited two other books, and published numerous articles on topics drawn from my area of specialization, notably studies of the photographer Napoleon Sarony, the lithographer Robert Riggs, and, most recently, the definitive study of the American painter of the Civil War era, Conrad Wise Chapman. I divide the year between homes and studio in Kent, Ohio, and Taos, N.M.