Matthew Jesse Jackson

Biography

Matthew Jesse Jackson teaches courses grounded primarily in the contemplation of cultural experience since 1945.  Jackson’s most recent monograph, Il’ia i Emiliia Kabakovy: Gde nashe mesto? [Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Where Is Our Place?] (Moscow: Breus Foundation, 2019), presents a comprehensive Russian-language survey of Russia’s most famous living artists.  Jackson is also the editor and co-translator from the Russian of Ilya Kabakov: On Art (University of Chicago Press, 2018), the definitive collection of Kabakov’s writings in English, and the author of The Experimental Group: Ilya Kabakov, Moscow Conceptualism, Soviet Avant-Gardes (University of Chicago Press, 2010; new paperback edition, 2016), winner of the Robert Motherwell Book Award from The Dedalus Foundation for outstanding publication in the history and criticism of modernism in the arts, as well as the Vucinich Book Prize for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies; the prize citation reads, in part: “Matthew Jesse Jackson's The Experimental Group is an engaging, beautifully written, and erudite study of unofficial Soviet art. It provides brilliant readings of numerous individual drawings, albums, mixed media work, and installations…[T]his monumental study of creativity in and after the late Soviet period is a remarkable scholarly achievement.” The volume was also named runner-up for Book of the Year in art history and criticism at the American Publishers (PROSE) Awards and placed on the short list for Book of the Year by the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL). Jackson earned a Ph.D. in History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley, thanks to Anne M. Wagner and T.J. Clark, and is also A.B.D. in Russian Literature, having been awarded M.Phil. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University, where he studied as a President’s Fellow. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa summa cum laude with a B.A. in French and German from the Florida State University.

Publications

Vision and Communism

Editor with Robert Bird, Christopher Heuer, Tumelo Mosaka and Stephanie Smith, The New Press
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2011

The Experimental Group: Ilya Kabakov, Moscow Conceptualism, Soviet Avant-Gardes

University of Chicago Press
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2010

“William Eggleston,” in Among Others, eds. Charlotte Barat and Darby English (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2019)

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Review of Madina Tlostanova, "What Does It Mean To Be Post-Soviet? Decolonial Art from the Ruins of Soviet Empire," Slavic Review, 2019

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“The Art of Tania Bruguera,” in Tania Bruguera: The Francis Effect, ed. Noah Simblist (New York: Guggenheim, forthcoming, 2019). Produced by Our Literal Speed

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“F’ed-Up Middlemen,” in Art & Language: Nobody Spoke (London: Lisson Gallery, 2014)

— reprinted in French translation, “Foutus les intermédiaires,” in Art & Language Reality (Dark Fragments (Light)), (Montsoreau, France: Le Château de Montsoreau-Musée d’Art Contemporain, 2018)

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Review of Sebastian Zeidler, "Form as Revolt: Carl Einstein and the Ground of Modern Art," Critical Inquiry, 2018. Produced by Our Literal Speed

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“Everythingism,” in Theaster Gates: Nasher Prize Symposium, ed. Leigh Arnold (Dallas: Nasher Sculpture Center, 2018), 99-115

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“The Elimination of Utopianism Is Yet Another Form of Utopianism,” in Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future, ed. Juliet Bingham (London: Tate Modern, 2017)

— reprinted in Russian translation: “Izbavlenie ot utopizma lish’ odna iz form utopicheskogo,” in I’lia i Emiliia Kabakovy (Moscow: State Tretiakov Gallery, 2018).

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“Sex/Death,” in Revolution Every Day, ed. Robert Bird et al (Milan: Mousse, 2017)

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“Thomas Bernhard | Bolshevik Revolution,” in Revolution Every Day, ed. Robert Bird et al (Milan: Mousse, 2017)

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Exhibitions

Our Literal Speed: Über die Asthetische Erziehung des Menschen, Princeton University, 2012

Vision and Communism, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2011

Our Literal Speed: An Exhibition Accompanying a Conference, Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2009

“Our Literal Speed,” University of Chicago/The University of Illinois at Chicago/The Art Institute of Chicago/The Renaissance Society/The Smart Museum/Art Chicago, 30 April-2 May 2009

Our Literal Speed, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM), Karlsruhe, 2008

Profiles

Andrei Pop
Andrei Pop
Modern Art and Aesthetics
Department Chair
CWAC 162 | Tuesdays 1-2pm or by appointment.
773.702.0278
Niall Atkinson
Niall Atkinson
Medieval and Renaissance Architecture and Urban History
CWAC 260
773.702.0270
Wei-Cheng Lin
Wei-Cheng Lin
Chinese Art and Architecture
Architectural Studies Advisor
CWAC 268 | Office Hours: Wednesdays 9-10am and 12-1pm
773.702.0268
2006-07
Iowa State University
Assistant Professor, East Asian Art and Architecture
Potters Wheel
Richard Neer
Ancient Greek Art and Architecture
CWAC 259
773.702.5890
Megan Sullivan
Megan Sullivan
Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art
CWAC 272
773.702.5126