Claudia Mesch
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Phone: 480-965-8864
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ART 260 TEMPE, AZ 85287-1505
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Mail code: 1505Campus: Tempe
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Claudia Mesch writes on developments in 20th-century and contemporary art. Her publications examine modern art's cultural exchanges across national, disciplinary, and other borders, as well as modern art's engagement with politics and with games and game structure. She is the author of many books including Joseph Beuys: The Reader; Modern Art at the Berlin Wall: Demarcating Culture in the Cold War Germanys [See Judith Smith, "East German art not to be dismissed, professor asserts,"ASU News, May 20, 2009]; Art and Politics: a Small History of Art for Social Change since 1945; and the artist biography Joseph Beuys. A Korean translation of The Beuys Reader and an Italian edition of Joseph Beuys are forthcoming, and a paperback reprint edition of Modern Art at the Berlin Wall was released in 2018. She is also part of the writing team for the textbook Art History: a Thematic Approach, Renaissance to the Present, with Samantha Kavky and Karen L. Carter (Cognella Inc., 2024).
Mesch is a founding editor of the open access e-journal Journal of Surrealism and the Americas, which has been in publication for over 15 years. A recipient of multiple research awards from the Fulbright and the D.A.A.D., conference awards from the Terra Foundation for American Art, and fellowships from the Getty Library and the Henry Moore Institute, Mesch was chosen to participate in ASU's 2008 "Last Lecture" series, a prestigious student-nominated award.
She has lectured at many museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Heard Museum, the Crystal Bridges Museum, the Art Institute in Chicago, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. She is at work on several projects: an essay on Charles White's artistic activities in the German Democratic Republic; a critical assessment of the relation of Surrealism and trauma in the work of several Native American modernists; and an exhibition that considers the activities of Surrealists in Arizona and the greater Southwest.
- B.A. Yale University; Ph.D. The University of Chicago
- Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Art History and Art Theory; Museum Studies
- Cold War Studies
- Trauma Studies
- Surrealism in the Americas
- German and French Intellectual History
Recent Publications
- "Game-Based Learning in the Introductory Art History Course: Weaving Historical Contexts and Incentivizing Critical Looking," AMPS Proceedings Series 28:1, A Focus on Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning and Research in the Modern Academy, ed. Zain Adil (2023): 230-239
- Modern Art at the Berlin Wall: Demarcating Culture in the Cold War Germanys (I.B. Tauris, paperback edition/reprint, 2018)
- Joseph Beuys (Reaktion Books, London, 2017)
- Beyond the Horizon: Armand Morin & Ernesto Sartori, ed. Claudia de Forêt (Yuma AZ: Yuma Art Center, June, 2016)
- “L’Institutionalisation de la sculpture sociale: le Bureau pou la démocratie directe par referendum de Beuys,” in Mathieu Copeland, ed., l’exposition d’un film, trans. Chloé Pelletrin (Dijon: Les Presses du reel, 2015), 176-179
- “Shadows of the Colonial: David Hare, Empathetic Perception, and Ethnographic Surrealism in the 1940s,” South Central Review Vol. 32 No. 1 (Spring 2015): 76-95
- Art and Politics: a Small History of Art for Social Change Since 1945 (I.B. Tauris, 2013)
- “Sculpture in Fog: Beuys’ Vitrines,” in John Welchman, ed., Sculpture and Vitrine (Ashgate and The Henry Moore Institute, 2013), 121-142
- “‘What Makes Indians Laugh’: Surrealism, Ritual and Return in Steven Yazzie and Joseph Beuys,” Journal of Surrealism and the Americas (2012) Vol. 6 No. 1 (December, 2012): 39-60.
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“Serious Play: Games and Early Twentieth-Century Modernism,” reprinted in David Getsy, Ed., From Diversion to Subversion: Games, Play, and Twentieth-Century Art (Pennsylvania State Press, 2011), 60-72
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Review of Boris Groys, The Communist Postscript (Verso, 2010), Theory, Culture and Society Vol. 28, No. 3 (June, 2011): 162-164
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“Post-Meinhof Feminism: Yvonne Rainer’s Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1979),” in Berlin Divided City, Sabine Hake and Philip Broadbent, Eds. (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010), 135-144
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Review of Heike Fuhlbrügge, Joseph Beuys und die anthropologische Landschaft (Reimer Verlag, 2008), Journal für Kunstgeschichte 12: 4 (2008): 307-311
- Modern Art at the Berlin Wall: Demarcating Culture in the Cold War Germanys (I.B. Tauris, 2008)
- “Socialist Primitivism and the ‘New’ Leipzig School,” The Art Book 14, No.1 (U.K.; February, 2007): 54-55
- Joseph Beuys: the Reader, co-edited with Viola Michely (MIT Press/I.B. Tauris, 2007)
- “‘Ezra Pound is back’: Klaus Ottmann’s SITE Santa Fe Biennial,” exhibition review, The Art Book 14, No.3 (U.K.; August, 2007): 65-66
- “Cold War Games and Postwar Art,” Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, Vol. 6.1 (Winter, 2006), http://reconstruction.eserver.org/061/contents.shtml
- “Serious Play: Games and Early Twentieth-Century Modernism”,The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914-1945 (Fall 2005): 9-30
- Rethinking Conceptual Art,”* caa.reviews (Summer, 2002)
- " Racing Berlin: The Games of Run Lola Run," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture (2000).
- "Vostell's Ruins: Dé-collage and the Mnemotechnic Space of the Postwar City," Art History (2000).
- Mesch,Ulrike Claudia*. Surrealism and the Americas Conference. Terra Foundation(5/1/2010 - 1/31/2012).
- Mesch,Ulrike Claudia*. Surrealism and the American West Conference. (10/14/2006 - 10/31/2006).
- Mesch,Ulrike Claudia*. Surrealism and the American West Conference. Terra Foundation(6/1/2006 - 1/31/2009).
Courses
2025 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 438 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 438 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 538 | Art of the 20th Century I |
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ART 592 | Research |
2024 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 498 | Pro-Seminar |
ARS 591 | Seminar |
2023 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 692 | Research |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 460 | Art Now |
ARS 598 | Special Topics |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
2023 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
2023 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
2022 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 501 | Methodologies and Art History |
ARS 710 | Current Research in Art Histor |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 692 | Research |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 494 | Special Topics |
ARS 598 | Special Topics |
2022 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
2022 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 591 | Seminar |
2021 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 501 | Methodologies and Art History |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 710 | Current Research in Art Histor |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 595 | Continuing Registration |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 795 | Continuing Registration |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 538 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 438 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 692 | Research |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
2021 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
2021 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 438 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 438 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 498 | Pro-Seminar |
ARS 591 | Seminar |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 595 | Continuing Registration |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 795 | Continuing Registration |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
2020 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 692 | Research |
ARS 501 | Methodologies and Art History |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 710 | Current Research in Art Histor |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 595 | Continuing Registration |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 795 | Continuing Registration |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 690 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
2020 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
2020 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 498 | Pro-Seminar |
ARS 591 | Seminar |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
ARS 460 | Art Now |
ARS 598 | Special Topics |
2019 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ARS 692 | Research |
ARS 799 | Dissertation |
ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ARS 599 | Thesis |
ARS 790 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
ARS 438 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 538 | Art of the 20th Century I |
ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ARS 592 | Research |
ARS 590 | Reading and Conference |
ARS 792 | Research |
ARS 795 | Continuing Registration |
- Mesch, Claudia. "What Makes Indians Laugh: Surrealism, Ritual and Return in Steven Yazzie and Joseph Beuys". "Surrealism and the Americas" Conference, Rice University, Houston, Texas (Nov 2010).
- Mesch, Ulrike. The Failure and Success of the Düsseldorf (Art) Student Movement. 2008 University of North Carolina German Studies Workshop (Apr 2008).
- Mesch, Ulrike. Berlin and Post-Meinhof Feminism: Yvonne Rainer’s 'Journeys from Berlin/1971' (1979). UT Austin German Studies Symposium (Mar 2008).
- Mesch, Ulrike. The Art and Legacies of the Büro Berlin. (Aug 2006).
- Mesch, Ulrike. Picasso in Berlin, and the cold war battle for the 'real' in painting. (Nov 2004).
- Mesch, Ulrike. Recovering and Reconstructing 'Modern Art' in Divided Berlin. (Nov 2004).
- Mesch, Ulrike. Recovering and Reconstructing 'Modern Art' in Divided Berlin. CAA Conference (Feb 2004).
- Mesch, Ulrike. Marcuse, Art History, and the Abandonment of '60s Radical Culture. Critical Theory Roundtable (Oct 2000).
- Mesch, Ulrike. Forgetting Marcuse. College Art Association conference (Feb 2000).
- Mesch, Ulrike. Marking the Postwar City: Art, Space and Memory in Divided Berlin. German Studies Association Conference
- Mesch, Ulrike. The Other Divide: Art on Television in Cold War Germany. Broadcast Education Association Conference
- School of Art Area Heads, Area Representative, Art History (2010 - 2011)