David Stuart Rubin (born June 18, 1949) is an American curator, art critic, and artist.

Early life and education

Rubin was born in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in philosophy from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in art history from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Career

As a

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

curator, Rubin is recognized for thematic exhibitions, including ''Old Glory: The American Flag in Contemporary Art'', ''It's Only Rock and Roll: Rock and Roll Currents in Contemporary Art'', and ''Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s''. Rubin has held curatorial positions at

Scripps College Scripps College is a private liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California. It was founded as a member of the Claremont Colleges in 1926, a year after the consortium's formation. Journalist and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps pr ...

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

Santa Monica College Santa Monica College (SMC) is a Public university, public community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a Junior college#United States, junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. The coll ...

, the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

, the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

Albright College Albright College is a private liberal arts college in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1856 and had an enrollment of 1,652 students as of fall 2023. History Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when "Union Sem ...

, the

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (abbreviated to moCa) is a contemporary art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the only contemporary art venue of its kind in Metropolitan Cleveland. The organisation was founded by Marjorie ...

, the

Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum, museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,0 ...

, the

Contemporary Arts Center The Contemporary Arts Center (abbreviated CAC) is a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in pain ...

, and the

San Antonio Museum of Art The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) is an art museum in Downtown San Antonio, Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. The museum spans 5,000 years of global culture. The museum is housed in the historic former Lone Star Brewing Company, Lone Star Bre ...

. In 1996, Rubin served as the U.S. Commissioner for the Cuenca Bienal of Painting. Rubin has organized solo exhibitions for

Martha Alf Martha Joanne Alf (August 13, 1930 – September 13, 2019) was an American artist. Her work consists of paintings, drawings and photographs of everyday objects, including pears and rolls of toilet paper. Personal life Alf was born August 13, 1 ...

Robert Arneson Robert Carston Arneson (September 4, 1930 – November 2, 1992) was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades. Early life and education Robert Carston Arnes ...

William Baziotes William Baziotes (June 11, 1912 – June 6, 1963) was an American painter influenced by Surrealism and was a contributor to Abstract Expressionism. Life and career Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Greek parents Angelos and Stella, Baziotes w ...

Willie Birch Willie Birch (born 1942) is an American visual artist who works in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, and sculpture. Birch was born in New Orleans, and currently lives and works in New Orleans. He completed his BA at Southern Univ ...

Douglas Bourgeois Douglas Bourgeois (born 1951) is an American sculptor and Figurative art, figurative painter. Bourgeois has been called one of the new "visionary imagists". Life Bourgeois was born in Gonzales, Louisiana and grew up in St. Amant, Louisiana. He r ...

, Ellen Brooks,

Peter Campus Peter Campus (born 1937 in New York, NY), often styled as peter campus, is an American artist and a pioneer of new media and video art, known for his interactive video installations, single-channel video works, and photography. His work is held i ...

Cynthia Carlson Cynthia Carlson (born 1942) is an American visual artist, living and working in New York. Personal life and education Carlson was born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago and then attended the Sch ...

Petah Coyne Petah Coyne (born 1953) is a contemporary American sculptor and photographer best known for her large and small scale hanging sculptures and floor installations. Working in innovative and disparate materials, her media has ranged from the orga ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (31 March 1929 – 11 November 1989) was an American visual artist who became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose ...

Tomer Ganihar ''Tomer Ganihar'' (; born in 1970) is an Israeli photographer and writer. Ganihar, a self-taught artist, is known for his distinctive photographic style that employs only color film and natural light. His work, which often captures the dynamics o ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

, David Halliday,

Wally Hedrick Wally Bill Hedrick (1928 – December 17, 2003)Gerald D. Adams, San Francisco Chronicle, Wally Hedrick: Iconoclastic Painter, Sculptor, Wednesday, December 24, 200/ref> was a seminal American artist in the 1950s California counterculture,Pete ...

Al Held Al Held (October 12, 1928 – July 27, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings. As an artist, multiple stylistic changes occurred throughout his career, ho ...

Mark Kostabi Kalev Mark Kostabi (born November 27, 1960) is an American painter, sculptor and composer. Early life Kostabi was born in Los Angeles on November 27, 1960, to Estonian immigrants Kaljo and Rita Kostabi. He was raised in Whittier, California and ...

Donald Lipski Donald Lipski (born May 21, 1947) is an American Sculpture, sculptor best known for his installation art, installation work and large-scale Public art, public works. Early life and education Donald Lipski was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1947. ...

Christian Marclay Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay's work explores connections between sound art, noise music, photography, video art, film and digital animations. A p ...

Ana Mendieta Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter, and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. She is considered one of the most influential Cuban-American ar ...

Dennis Oppenheim Dennis Oppenheim (September 6, 1938 – January 21, 2011) was an American conceptual artist, performance artist, earth artist, sculptor and photographer. Dennis Oppenheim's early artistic practice is an epistemological questioning about the na ...

Martin Puryear Martin L. Puryear (born May 23, 1941) is an American artist known for his devotion to traditional craft. Working in a variety of media, but primarily wood, his reductive technique and meditative approach challenge the physical and poetic boundar ...

Alison Saar Alison Saar (born February 5, 1956) is a Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles-based sculptor, mixed-media, and installation artist. Her artwork focuses on the African diaspora and black female identity and is influenced by African, Caribbean, and ...

Robert Stackhouse Robert Stackhouse (born 1942) is an American artist and sculptor. Stackhouse graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida in 1965. He later earned a master's degree at the University of Maryland, College Park in stud ...

, Vincent Valdez,

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and Video installation, installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photog ...

, and

Emerson Woelffer Emerson Seville Woelffer (July 27, 1914 – February 2, 2003), was an American artist and arts educator. He was known as a prominent abstract expressionist artist and painter and taught art at some of the most prestigious colleges and universitie ...

. Rubin's curatorial archives are housed in the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

. As an art critic, Rubin has written for ''

Arts Magazine ''Arts Magazine'' was a prominent American monthly magazine devoted to fine art. It was established in 1926 and last published in 1992. History Founding Launched in 1926 and originally titled ''The Art Digest,'' it was printed semi-monthly from ...

'', '' Art in America'', ''

Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinki ...

'', and other art journals. He has published numerous books and catalogs in conjunction with exhibitions. As an artist, Rubin is known for automatic drawing. His drawings have been exhibited at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

; the Bradbury Art Museum at

Arkansas State University Arkansas State University (A-State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System and the second-largest university in the st ...

Jonesboro, Arkansas Jonesboro () is a city located on Crowley's Ridge in the northeastern corner of the U.S. State of Arkansas. Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County, Arkansas, Craighead County. In 2023, the city had an estimated population of ...

; and

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge), is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. With a total enrollment of 36,848 students (as of Fall 2024), it has the ...

. His drawings are in the permanent collections of the

Ogden Museum of Southern Art The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is a museum dedicated to art by artists from the southern United States in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was established in 1999. The building The Ogden museum is located in the Warehouse Arts District of downtown ...

in New Orleans, Louisiana; and the Bradbury Art Museum.

References

External links

* , Rubin's official website
David S. Rubin Artist Conversations at the San Antonio Museum of Art

"The David S. Rubin Papers" at Archives of American Art

Pecha Kucha presentation

"David S. Rubin: Drawing as Daily Ritual"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, David S. 1949 births Living people 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century people from California 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male artists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century people from California Albright College American art critics American art curators American magazine journalists American male journalists American surrealist artists Artists from Los Angeles Harvard University alumni Journalists from Los Angeles Pomona College faculty Santa Monica College people San Francisco Art Institute Scripps College faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Early life and education

Career

See also

References

External links