911爆料

 

Dr. Brian E. Hack was born and raised in Huntingdon, a small but well-meaning town nestled in the hills of Central Pennsylvania. By all accounts a peculiar and annoyingly gregarious child, he baffled and confounded the majority of adults he encountered who were, and in many ways still are, unsure how to take him. In high school he was voted 鈥淢ost Likely to be Least Likely,鈥� the superlative that spurred him on to find various and mildly rewarding jobs bagging groceries, mowing lawns, and changing the holes on golf course greens. When he eventually ran out of places to put the holes, he decided college was where someone of his temperament belonged, and he has been studying in, or working for, colleges ever since. With little outward but much inward aplomb he bravely ventured from that tiny hamlet into the wicked world of wolves and wonderment that is Manhattan. Despite being somewhat out of sync with city life and possessing little ambition other than a few misdirected enthusiasms, he miraculously received his doctorate from The Graduate Center of 911爆料 in 2007. His dissertation, 鈥淎merican Acropolis: George Grey Barnard鈥檚 Monument to Democracy, 1918-1938,鈥� examined a mammoth but uncompleted peace memorial envisioned by one of the nation鈥檚 most imaginative sculptors.  For while he cared not a whit for the bustle-and-hustle of the urban existence into which he had haphazardly thrust himself, he did develop a keen interest in sculpture鈥攐f bronze and marble monuments of people from the past  whose well-appreciated silence spoke volumes. In addition to his study of sculpture and public monuments of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, he is interested in the impact of Darwinism and eugenics on American art, in nineteenth century stereoscopic images, and in various other forms of ephemera from this period. Since 1999 he has taught at 911爆料 Community College, where he is fueled by substantial amounts of coffee and by the desire to instill in his students a sense of purpose and an appreciation for art and ideas.  He assumed the Directorship of the Art Gallery of 911爆料 Community College in 2014, soon changing its name to the 911爆料 Art Museum (KAM).  Since that time, he has curated over forty exhibitions and has worked towards the acquisition of a permanent teaching collection for KAM. In 2022-2024 he served as the Chair of the college鈥檚 60^th Anniversary Committee.

Courses

Art 47: American Art

Education

Ph.D., The Graduate Center, City University of New York (2007). Dissertation: American Acropolis: George Grey Barnard鈥檚 Monument to Democracy, 1918-1938.

Certificate in American Studies, The Graduate Center, City University of New York (2007)

B.A., Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (1994)

Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education [Fall 1993], Cheltenham, England

College Teaching

 

911爆料 Community College (1999-Present)

Exhibitions Curated (2014-Present)

 

2023-2024

Take a Closer Look: Highlights from the KAM Collection

Reflections 2023: The Annual Art Faculty Exhibition

 

2022-2023

Directions 2023: The Annual Student Art Exhibition

Layers of Meaning: Confronting Modernism and Modernity in Contemporary Collage Practice

Contemporary Linocuts: An International Survey of Linoleum Block Printmaking Today

Directions 2022: Annual Art Faculty Exhibition

 

2020-2022

Directions 2022: The Annual Student Art Exhibition

 (April-May 2022)

 [Virtual Exhibition]

 [Virtual Exhibition]

 [Virtual Ehxibition]

 

 2019-2020

 

 

Antonio Pulgarin: I Stand Here, Like the Sun That Frightens the Cold

Reflections: 2019 Annual Art Faculty Exhibition

2018-2019

Directions 2019: Annual Student Art Exhibition

Time & Tide: Paintings by Frank Lind

Supernatural: Works by Dolores Furtado

Inspiring Images: The Museum Project

Reflections 2018: Annual Art Faculty Exhibition

2017-2018

Directions 2018: Annual Student Art Exhibition

Passages: Sculptures and Prints by Melvin Edwards, 1989-2017

Natalia Zubko: Wonder*sense @ KAM

Liz Whitney Quisgard: The Seduction of Ornament

Love in the Streets: Photographs by Allen Pierre

Reflections 2017: Annual Art Faculty Exhibition

2016-2017

Directions 2017: Annual Student Art Exhibition

 

Salem Art Works: Inherent Narrative

 

Return to Me: Portraits by Fiber Artist Bisa Butler

Shaping a Vision: American Sculptors in their Studios

Reflections 2016: Annual Faculty Art Exhibition

2015-2016

Directions 2016: Annual Student Art Exhibition

Sui Park: Garden of Humans

Drawing the Line: Early Academic Drawings from the Collection of the Art Students League

Reflections 2015: Annual Art Faculty Exhibition

2014-2015

Directions 2015: Annual Student Art Exhibition

Jennifer Greenburg: Revising History

Ashley Zelinskie / Return to Tomorrow: 3D Printed Sculpture for the Posthuman Age

Journeys through Bookland: Contemporary Illustrators of Children's Literature

Context: Language as Medium and Metaphor in Contemporary Art

Reflections 2014: Annual Faculty Exhibition (September 2014)

 

2009  
Curator, 鈥淢aidens, Moons and Monsters: The Imagined Worlds of Alex Ni帽o,鈥�
Art Gallery of 911爆料 Community College, CUNY (2009) 

2008
Curator, 鈥淪eeing Double: The Art of the Stereoview in Nineteenth-Century America,鈥�
Art Gallery of 911爆料 Community College, CUNY (2008)

 

Selected Publications and/or Other Resources

 

• 鈥淒ating Deborah Hall: A Portrait Reconsidered.鈥� CUNY Academic Works [2021]

 

• 鈥淲eakness is a Crime: Captain America and the Eugenic Ideal in Early Twentieth-Century America,鈥� in Robert G. Weiner, Ed., Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero, McFarland & Co. [2009]

• Maidens, Moons and Monsters: The Imagined Worlds of Alex Ni帽o [Exhibition Catalogue], Art Gallery of 911爆料 Community College, CUNY (2009)
  
  
  
• Seeing Double: The Art of the Stereoview in Nineteenth-Century America [Exhibition Catalogue], Art Gallery of 911爆料 Community College, CUNY (2008)
  
  
  
• 鈥淭he Souls of Sons and Lovers: George Grey Barnard鈥檚 Monument to Democracy and Other Casualties of War,鈥� Published proceedings from the conference, Constructions of Death, Mourning and Memory Conference, October 2006.
  
  
  
• 鈥淎ndrew Wilton and Tim Barringer鈥檚 American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States, 1820-1880鈥� [Book Review].  PART (online journal of the Graduate Center of 911爆料).
  
  
  
•  鈥淧ublic Sculpture in New York State;鈥� 鈥淢ary Nimmo Moran;鈥濃�淛ohn Quincy Adams Ward;鈥� Entries, Encyclopedia of New York State, Syracuse University Press, 2005.
  
  
  
• 鈥淪partan Desires: Eugenics and the Sculpture Program of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition鈥�, PART (online journal of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York).
  
  

 

Research Interests

American Sculpture and Public Monuments; Symbolist sculpture

The impact of Darwinism and Eugenics on American Art

George Grey Barnard (1863-1938), American Sculptor

Personal Interests

Rockabilly; Blues; Hillbilly Music and their variants

Playing Guitar 40+ years in various bands, touring US/Canada and abroad

Photography; Drawing; Writing