Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, The Graduate Center, New York
Dissertation: “Faith Ringgold: the Early Works & the Evolution of the Thangka Paintings”
Master of Philosophy in Art History, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Specialization: European Art Since 1860, Specialization in German Modernism
Master of Arts in Art History, American University, Washington, D.C.
Theses: “Piero della Francesca” (Italian Renaissance) and “Henry Ossawa Tanner” (African-American)
Bachelor of Fine Arts, magna cum laude, Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Painting & Art History: Thesis: “Egyptian Art of the Amarna Period”
Lisa E. Farrington was recently awarded the coveted title of Distinguished Professor by the City University of New York (CUNY). She is founding Chair Emeritus of the Art & Music Department at CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, coming to John Jay after 15 years as senior art historian at Parsons, the New School for Design. She was the 2007-2008 Endowed Scholar in the Humanities at Atlanta University’s historical black women’s college, Spelman, where her conference, “Hottentot to Hip Hop: the Black Female Body in Art and Visual Culture” was a critical and scholarly triumph. She earned Ph.D. & Master of Philosophy degrees from the CUNY Graduate Center, an M.A. from American University, a BFA from Howard University magna cum laude, and an Honors Degree from New York’s School of Art & Design. Her museum and curatorial experience includes the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and 10 years at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Dr. Farrington specializes in Race & Gender in Visual Culture, African-American Art, Modern Art, and Haitian Art & Vodou Culture. Dr. Farrington has published and lectured extensively, including on-site museum lectures for Parsons Atelier of Design in Paris, France. Her numerous awards include the Andy Warhol Foundation Creative Capital Writers Prize, the American Library Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature, the Hurston Wright Literary Award for Nonfiction, and the Association of Black Women Historians Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize—the latter three given for her groundbreaking book Creating Their Own Image: the History of African-American Women Artists (Oxford University Press, 2005; 2nd edition 2011). Most recently, she published a second seminal book with Oxford University Press--African American Art: A Visual and Cultural History (2016).
Professor Lisa E. Farrington is the founding Chair of John Jay’s Art & Music Department, as well as an accomplished curator, author, and art historian. In 2010 she won the coveted Creative Capital Writers Award from the Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2007-2008 she was awarded the prestigious William and Camille Cosby Endowed Scholars chair at Atlanta University’s historic black women’s college, Spelman. She has earned numerous academic degrees, including PhD and Master of Philosophy degrees from the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, an MA in art history from American University, a BFA (magna cum laude) from Howard University, and an Honors Degree in painting and illustration from New York's School of Art & Design. Dr. Farrington worked for many years at the Museum of Modern Art and, from 1994 to 2007, was senior art historian at Parsons School of Design (the fine arts division of The New School). She specializes in Western and Non-Western Art, Haitian Art and Vodou Culture, African-American Art, Women’s Art, and Race and Gender studies. She has also taught the on-site museum art history course at Parsons Atelier in Paris, France. Dr. Farrington is a Mellon, Magnet, U.S. State Department, and Ford Foundation Fellow, and was a consultant for The College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) Art History program. She has published ten books and a dozen scholarly essays in the past decade, including two monographs on artist Faith Ringgold, and a 2005 textbook for Oxford University Press entitled Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists, which recently won three major academic literary awards, including the American Library Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to Publishing, the American Association of Black Women Historians Annual Book Award, and the Richard Wright/Zora Neale Hurston Foundation nomination for non-fiction. Currently she is writing a history of African American art from the 17th century to the present for Oxford University Press.
African-American Art History & Visual Culture:
Contemporary African-American Art
African-American Art Survey
African-American Women Artists
Modern Art of the Harlem Renaissance
The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s
Non-Western Art History:
Non-West Survey: Asia, Oceania, Africa, America
Haitian Art & Vodou Culture
Art Theory:
Visual Thinking from Plato to Derrida
Western Art & Design
History of Graphic Design: 19th-20th Century
Modern Art
Art & Architecture in Paris (taught on-site at various Paris venues)
Art in Context Seminars:
Art in the Service of Religion
Concepts of Beauty in Art
Blacks in Western Art: Greece to the 20th Century
Body Politics: the Body in Art
Art & Mythology in the Ancient World
Art in New York
BOOKS: Solo Authored
1. African-American Art: A Visual and Cultural History (Oxford University Press, 2016)
2. Creating Their Own Image: the History of African-American Women Artists (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005; 2nd ed. 2011).
3. A Real-World Guide to Academic Publishing (New York: Millennium Fine Arts Publishing, 2006)
4. Faith Ringgold (San Francisco: Pomegranate Fine Arts Publishers, 2004)
5. Art on Fire: the Politics of Race and Sex in the Paintings of Faith Ringgold (New York: Millennium Fine Arts Publishing, 1999)
6. Emma Amos: To Enter the Studio Is a Political Act (© 2017)
BOOKS: Co- Authored and Co-Edited
8. Timothy Clark (San Francisco: Pomegranate Fine Arts Publishers, 2008)
9. Who’s Who & Whose Who?: Portraits in Art and Identity Politics (© 2017)
BOOKS: Contributing Author
10. Here! (Pine Bluff: Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 2015)
11. Women Artists of Harlem Renaissance (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2013)
12. Robin Holder Retrospective (College Park: University of Maryland and San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2009)
13. Four Decades of Excellence: the Life & Work of Starmanda Bullock (DC: Howard University Press, 2008)
14. A Proud Continuum: Eight Decades of Art at Howard University (DC: Howard University Press, 2005)
16. Skin Deep, Spirit Strong: Black Female Body in American Culture (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2003)
17. Art by African Americans in the Collection of the New Jersey State Museum (Trenton, 1998)
ARTICLES: Refereed Journals and Fine Arts Publications
1. “Starmanda Bulock,” International Review of African American Art v. 33, n. 1 (Spring 2018)
2. “Racial Identity in 19th Century African American Art,” Source: Notes in the History of Art v. 31, n.1. (Spring 2012): 5-11
3. “Editor’s Note: Special Issue on Cross-Cultural Issues in Art,” Source: Notes in the History of Art v. 31, n.1. (Spring 2012): 1-4
4. “Faith Ringgold,” commissioned limited edition article for the Museum of Modern Art Special Collections Library, 2010
5. “Susanne Kessler: Drawing Space,” international traveling exhibition catalog essay (Roma: Tifografia Eurosia, 2007)
6. “Bodies in Motion: Emma Amos,” cover article, International Review of African-American Art v. 22, n. 1 (Spring 2007): 32-44
7. “Emma Amos: Art as Legacy,” cover article, Woman’s Art Journal v. 28, n. 1 (Spring/Summer 2007): i, ii, 3-11
8. “Emma Amos,” Eleanor Flomenhaft Gallery exhibition catalog essay (New York, 2006)
9. “Conceptual Art of African-American Women,” Source: Notes in the History of Art v.24, v.4, (Summer: 2005): 67-75
10. “Editor’s Foreword: Special Issue on African-American Art,” Source: Notes in the History of Art v. 31, n.1. (Spring 2005): 1-2
11. “Faith Ringgold: Aesthetic Innovator” Valentine New York Art Journal v.2, n.2 (Spring/Summer: 2005): 20-27
12. "Commendatory Foreword,” in Vrachopoulos, T., Hilla Rebay, Art Patroness and Founder of the Guggenheim Museum of Art (Mellen Press, 2005)13. “Finding Faith: African-American Women’s Art Comes to Parsons,” RE:D [Regarding Design] Magazine v. 22, n. 2 (2004): 18-19
14. “Voices in Cloth: Story Quilts” exhibit catalog essay (Hattiesburg: University of Southern Mississippi, 2004)
15. “Reinventing Herself: the Black Female Nude,” Woman’s Art Journal v. 24, n.2 (Fall/Winter 2003/4): iii, 15-23
16. “Paintings of Gaye Ellington,” John Jay College / CUNY Wall Gallery exhibition essay, 2001
17. “Faith Ringgold: The Making of an Artist,” cover essay, American Visions: the Magazine of Afro-American Culture (Oct/Nov: 1999): 24-29
18. “Non-Western Art in the Advanced Placement Exam in Art History,” College Board Teachers Guide (1999)
19. "Art and Identity: the African-American Aesthetic at The New School," exhibition catalog essay (New York: The New School for Social Research, 1999)20. “The Language of Color: Women's Voices,” John Jay College / CUNY Wall Gallery exhibition essay (1994)
21. “Fifty Years of Haitian Art,” Borough of Manhattan Community College / CUNY Shirley Fiterman Gallery exhibition essay (1995)
22. "Weathering Prejudice,” Sunday New York Times Magazine, Letter to the Editor (8/10/1990)
ARTICLES: Refereed Review Articles
1. “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-1985,” Woman’s Art Journal v. 38, n. 1 (Spring / Summer 2018): 54-57
2. “In Her Own Words: Autobiographical Texts by Women Artists,” Woman’s Art Journal v. 34, n. 1 (Spring / Summer, 2013): 56
3. “Color of Stone: Sculpting the Black Female Subject in 19th Century America,” Woman’s Art Journal v.30 n.2 (Fall 2010): 42-44
4. “Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love,” Woman’s Art Journal v.30, n. 1 (Spring 2009): 39-41
5. “Kara Walker: Slavery, Slavery,” and “Ellen Gallagher,” Woman’s Art Journal v. 25, n.1 (Spring/Summer: 2004): 59-61
6. “The Black Female Body: A Photographic History,” Woman’s Art Journal v.24, n.1 (Spring/Summer: 2003)
African-American Art History & Visual Culture:
Contemporary African-American Art
African-American Art Survey
African-American Women Artists
Modern Art of the Harlem Renaissance
The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s
Non-Western Art History:
Non-West Survey: Asia, Oceania, Africa, America
Haitian Art & Vodou Culture
Art Theory:
Visual Thinking from Plato to Derrida
Western Art & Design
History of Graphic Design: 19th-20th Century
Modern Art
Art & Architecture in Paris
Art in Context:
Art in the Service of Religion
Concepts of Beauty in Art
Blacks in Western Art: Greece to the 20th Century
Body Politics: the Body in Art