Artie Foster
PhD Candidate: Euro-American 20th and 21st Century Painting
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About
Artie is a PhD candidate in the Art History department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is writing a dissertation on the transition from the modern to the postmodern era, using the work of painter Frank Bowling and his embrace of modernist formalism as a case study. Bowling's work over the end of the 20th century increasingly embraces idioms of the emergent postmodernist scene, from rediscoveries of found forms, multi-media, and issues of identity and critique. However, the dissertation argues that, despite his experiments with form, Bowling demonstrates a consistent wariness towards postmodern conceptions of painting as a vehicle for immediate and political, rather than abstract and formal, meaning. Thus, the dissertation highlights how Bowling, and other likeminded artists, attempted to resuscitate the progressive dimensions of the Euro-American modernist avant-garde, while rejecting their retrograde attitudes towards race, sex, and other markers of difference.
Artie has presented his research at various conferences, including the College Art Association ('24, '25) and the Midwest Art History Society ('22, '24), among others, and he has received grants in support of his research, including the Ross Edman Art History Fellowship (UIC) and Provost's Graduate Research Award (UIC).
Artie is also a lecturer in art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent course offerings include:
- How Do We Do Art History? Introduction to Art History and Its Methods (UIC '22, '23, '24)
- How Did Art Begin? The Origins of Art and Its History, Prehistory - Renaissance (SAIC '24, '25)
- How Did Art Become Modern? Global Modern and Contemporary Art, Renaissance - Contemporary (SAIC '24)
- What Happened After Modern Art? Trends in Art History After 1960 (UIC '22, '23, '24)
- Black + Art = (UIC '25)
Artie completed his MA in Art History at The George Washington University (2019) and his BAs in Art History and Communication at Lake Forest College (2014).