Elizabeth Armstrong is an American curator of contemporary and modern art.Smith, Roberta

''The New York Times'', July 29, 1990, Sect. 2, p. 29. Retrieved February 11, 2021.Mahal, Jennifer K

''Los Angeles Times'', March 24, 2002. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Knight, Christopher

''Los Angeles Times'', October 10, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2021. Beginning in the late 1980s, she served in chief curatorial and leadership roles at the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (or MCASD), in San Diego, California, US, is an art museum focused on the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from 1950 to the present. Mission The stated mission ...

Orange County Museum of Art The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The museum's collection comprises more than 4,500 objects, with a concentration ...

(OCMA),

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...

and

Palm Springs Art Museum The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) was founded in 1938, and is a regional art, natural science and performing arts institution for Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United St ...

.Letran, Vivian
"Curator Armstrong Is Named as Acting Director of OCMA,"
''Los Angeles Times'', November 13, 2001. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Spayde, Jon
"New art meets old masters: a conversation with MIA curator Elizabeth Armstrong,"
''Minn Post'', October 11, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2021.Ng, David

''Los Angeles Times'', November 14, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2021. She has organized numerous touring exhibitions and catalogues that gained national and international attention; among the best known are: "In the Spirit of

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

" (Walker, 1993), "Ultrabaroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art" (San Diego, 2000),Schwabsky, Barry
"David Reed: Paintings,"
''Artforum'', September 1998. Retrieved February 11, 2021. and "Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury" (OCMA, 2007).Johnson, Ken

''The New York Times'', March 21, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2021. She is also known for organizing three California Biennials (2002–6)Pagel, David

''Los Angeles Times'', July 17, 2002. Retrieved February 10, 2021.Helfand, Glen
"2004 California Biennial,"
''Artforum'', 2004. Retrieved February 11, 2021.Bedford, Christophe
"2006 California Biennial,"
''Artforum'', September 2006. Retrieved February 11, 2021. and notable exhibitions of

David Reed David Reed may refer to: Entertainment * David Vern Reed (1924–1989), American comics writer * David E. Reed (1927–1990), ''Reader's Digest'' editor * David Reed (artist) (born 1946), American artist * David Jay Reed (born 1950), artist * Dav ...

and

Mary Heilmann Mary Heilmann is an American painter based in New York City and Bridgehampton, NY. She has had solo shows and travelling exhibitions at galleries such as 303 Gallery (NY, NY) and Hauser & Wirth (Zurich) and museums including the Wexner Center for ...

(the artist's first retrospective).Knight, Christopher
"Life of the abstractionist party,"
''Los Angeles Times'', June 3, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2021. Armstrong's curatorial work and publications have been recognized by the

Andy Warhol Foundation Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

, the Center for Curatorial Leadership, the

Getty Foundation The Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California at the Getty Center, awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts".Getty FoundationAbout the Foundation. Retrieved September 18, 2008. In the past, it funded the Ge ...

Pacific Standard Time project and the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federa ...

, among other organizations.''Artforum''
"Andy Warhol Foundation Announces 2009–2010 Curatorial Research Fellows,"
News, July 1, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2021.Center for Curatorial Leadership
" CCL Announces Selection of First Fellows for 2008,"
News, October 2, 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2021.''Palm Springs Life''
"Palm Springs Art Museum Presents Ground-Breaking Exhibitions,"
November 10, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2021.National Endowment for the Arts. 1989 Annual Report, p. 127.

Education and career

Armstrong was born in

Winchester, Massachusetts Winchester is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, located 8.2 miles (13.2 km) north of downtown Boston as part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. It is also one of the List of Massachusetts locations by per capita income, wealt ...

. She enrolled at

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...

in Amherst, Massachusetts intending to be an artist, but transitioned to art history and cultural studies, earning a BA in American Studies in 1974.Abbe, Mary
"Minneapolis curator to head Palm Springs Art Museum,"
''StarTribune'', November 14, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2021. After graduating, she worked as a grants administrator at the National Endowment for the Humanities (1976–9) before entering graduate school at the University of California Berkeley to earn an MA in the History of Art in 1982. While at Berkeley, she worked as a research assistant for the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

and as a curatorial assistant for the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, where she contributed to the 1983 publication “The Anthropology of World’s Fairs: San Francisco's

Panama Pacific International Exposition Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List of transcontinental countries#North America and South America, transcontinental country spanning the Central America, southern ...

of 1915."Benedict, Burton (ed.)
''The Anthropology of World's Fairs: San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915''
Berkeley, CA: Lowie Museum of Anthropology, 1983. Retrieved March 8, 2021. An essay based on the subject of her master's thesis, "American Scene as Satire, the Art of

Paul Cadmus Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 – December 12, 1999) was an American artist widely known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings. He also produced many highly finished drawings of single nude male figures ...

in the 1930s," appeared in ''Arts Magazine'' in March 1982.Armstrong, Elizabeth N. "American Scene as Satire: The Art of Paul Cadmus in the 1930s," ''Arts Magazine'', March 1982. She was hired by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis as an assistant curator in 1983, taking over as curator from 1989–1996.''Artforum''
"New Curator at Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Young Artist Wins Metro Five Award Fellows,"
News, June 24, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2021. She was hired as senior curator by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 1996, and organized twelve exhibitions there, including four touring shows with major publications.Chang, Young

''Los Angeles Times'', February 8, 2001. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Knight, Christopher

''Los Angeles Times'', August 9, 1998. Retrieved February 9, 2021. Armstrong joined the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) in Newport Beach in 2001 as deputy director for programs and chief curator, serving until 2008; she served as interim director in 2001–2.Berman, Art

''Los Angeles Times'', September 17, 1996. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Boucher, Geoff

''Los Angeles Times'', November 13, 2001. Retrieved February 9, 2021. During her time at OCMA, she organized three California Biennials (2002, 2004, 2006) and several touring exhibitions with accompanying publications.Muchnic, Suzanne

''Los Angeles Times'', June 5, 2005. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Johnson, Ken

''The New York Times'', October 23, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2021. In 2008, Armstrong returned to Minneapolis, taking positions at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) as its first curator of contemporary art and as founding director of the Center for Alternative Museum Practice (CAMP). In 2014, the Palm Springs Art Museum hired her as executive director, a position she held until 2018.''Artforum''
"Palm Springs Art Museum Names New Director,"
News, November 17, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2021.Vankin, Deborah

''Los Angeles Times'', April 10, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2021.

Curatorial work

Armstrong's curatorial work and leadership has been recognized for guiding contemporary museums through change, growth and a rethinking of their cultural roles in relation to local communities, new audiences and the wider art world. Her exhibitions seek to generate new discourse, often delving into museum and private collections to highlight underrated genres (e.g., printmaking), groups (women), themes and periods (early American modernism) or to create connections between contemporary art and other fields—design, architecture, music, decorative arts, religion—or between established, obscure and emerging artists.Kimmelman, Michael

''The New York Times'', August 24, 1990, p. C22. Retrieved February 11, 2021. She has also organized several definitive or first major exhibitions involving under-recognized movements (Fluxus, California hard-edge painters), regions (Latin America, mid-century Southern California), and artists (Mary Heilmann).Woodard, Josef
"Flashing Back to Absurdity With the Art of Fluxus: The ‘60s movement, which thumbed its nose at conventional wisdom, returns in an amusing, confusing show in Santa Barbara,"
''Los Angeles Times'', September 8, 1994. Retrieved February 10, 2021.Knight, Christopher

''Los Angeles Times'', October 3, 2000. Retrieved February 9, 2021.

Walker Art Center

At the Walker Art Center, Armstrong helped establish the museum's Print Study Center and organized several innovative exhibitions focused on printmaking, by artists ranging from

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in ...

Susan Rothenberg Susan Charna Rothenberg (January 20, 1945 – May 18, 2020) was an American contemporary painter, printmaker, sculptor, and draughtswoman. She became known as an artist through her iconic images of the horse, which synthesized the opposing forces ...

. "First Impressions" (1989) documented the growth of printmaking in the United States over the previous 30 years, using diverse work by

Lynda Benglis Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941) is an American sculptor and visual artist known especially for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. She maintains residences in New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kastellorizo, Greece, and Ahmeda ...

Helen Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s ...

Bruce Conner Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography. Biography Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas.His wel ...

and

Larry Rivers Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists ...

and later artists

Carroll Dunham Carroll Dunham (born November 5, 1949) is an American painter. Working since the late 1970s, Dunham's career reached critical renown in the 1980s when he first exhibited with Baskerville + Watson, a decade during which many artists returned to pa ...

, Elizabeth Murray and

Donald Sultan Donald K. Sultan (born 1951) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, particularly well-known for large-scale still life paintings and the use of industrial materials such as tar, enamel, spackle and vinyl tiles. He has been exhibiting ...

; ''New York Times'' critic William Zimmer called the show "an especially clear statement on the origins of the contemporary art world," accompanied by a catalogue filled with now-classic images and rich quotations.Zimmer, William
"An Outpouring of Creativity in Neuberger's 'First Impressions'"
''The New York Times'', September 2, 1990, Sect. 12WC, p. 20. Retrieved February 11, 2021. Roberta Smith described the subsequent survey, "Jasper Johns: Printed Symbols" (1990), as brilliantly organized (by the different print workshops he collaborated with) to enable viewers to understand each printmaking medium as a distinct entity. In 1993, Armstrong presented "In the Spirit of Fluxus" (organized with Joan Rothfuss), the first major museum exhibition in the U.S. to document the international Fluxus movement from the 1960s to the present, a significant contribution to scholarship on the group; the ''Los Angeles Times'' described the widely traveled exhibition as a commanding, "big, brawling, cerebral circus of an art show."McKenna, Kristine

''Los Angeles Times'', April 11, 1993. Retrieved February 10, 2021. During her Walker tenure, Armstrong also mounted exhibitions of

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Peter Fischli and David Weiss Peter Fischli (born 8 June 1952) and David Weiss (21 June 1946 – 27 April 2012), often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, were a Swiss artist duo that collaborated beginning in 1979. Their best-known work is the film '' Der Lauf der Dinge'' (''Th ...

, Ann Hamilton and David Ireland,

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which also inc ...

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

, and area photographer

Paul Shambroom Paul Shambroom (born 1956) is an American photographer and graduate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design whose work explores power in its various forms. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant from the Creative Capit ...

.Letran, Vivian
"New Curator for Art Museum,"
''Los Angeles Times'', July 28, 2001. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Armstrong, Elizabeth
''Peter Fischli and David Weiss in a Restless World''
Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Walker Art Center, 1996. Retrieved February 12, 2021.Flam, Jack D
''Robert Motherwell''
Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 1985. Retrieved February 12, 2021.

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

During Armstrong's tenure at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (MCASD), she organized several notable exhibitions with an increasingly cosmopolitan focus. "Ultrabaroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art" (2000, curated with Victor Zamudio-Taylor) featured 80 diverse works made in the prior decade years by sixteen, far-flung, mainly younger artists (e.g., Miguel Calderón, Maria Fernanda Cardoso,

Adriana Varejão Adriana Varejão (born 1964, Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian artist. She works in various disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and photography. She was an artist-in-resident at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2004. ...

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (born 1961, Madrid, Spain) is an American Conceptual art, conceptual artist known for multidisciplinary, socially oriented sculpture, video and Installation art, installations and urban Community arts, community-based proje ...

).Schwabsky, Barry
"UltraBaroque: Aspects of Post–Latin American Art,"
''Artforum'', September 2000. Retrieved February 11, 2021. Critics described the show as ambitious, compelling and provocative in its challenge to misperceptions and stereotypes that prevented American audiences from understanding Latin American art's range and sophistication.Muchnic, Suzanne

''Los Angeles Times'', March 4, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2021. During this time, Armstrong also curated exhibitions of Brazilian sculptor

Valeska Soares Valeska Soares (born in 1957 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, MG) is a Brooklyn-based Brazilian-American sculptor and installation artist. Her sculptures and installations utilize a wide range of materials—including reflective mirrors, antique ...

, Mexican artist

Silvia Gruner Silvia Gruner is a Mexican artist born to a family of Jewish Holocaust survivors. Biography Gruner received her Fine Arts Degree from Bezalel Academy of Art & Design (1978-1982) and pursued her master's degree in Fine Arts at Massachusetts Colle ...

, French painter Bertrand Lavier, and California-based, socially engaged artist Jean Lowe.Robinson, Walter
"New This Month in U.S. Museums,"
''Artnet'', April 1998. Retrieved February 15, 2021.Barry, Robert
"Bertrand Lavier,"
''Frieze'', November 17, 2013. Retrieved February 12, 2021.Ollman, Leah

''Los Angeles Times'', June 15, 2000. Retrieved February 9, 2021. The earlier exhibition, "David Reed Paintings: Motion Pictures" (1998), offered what critic

Christopher Knight Christopher or Chris Knight may refer to: Film and television *Christopher Knight (actor) (born 1957), American actor * Christopher Knight (filmmaker), blogger and filmmaker * Chris Knight (''Neighbours''), fictional character in the soap opera '' ...

termed "an engaging, well-selected survey" of Reed’s work since the mid-1970s, including 40 canvases and five installations featuring video clips of classic film scenes (e.g., from

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

’s ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties ...

'') in which his paintings were slipped into the décor.Knight, Christopher
"David Reed’s Sense and Sensuality,"
''Los Angeles Times'', October 6, 1998. Retrieved February 9, 2021. That same year, the ''Los Angeles Times'' called the exhibition "Double Trouble: The Patchett Collection" (1998) a "refreshingly unpretentious" show juxtaposing 200 contemporary works (from Duchamp to

Raymond Pettibon Raymond Pettibon (born Raymond Ginn, June 16, 1957) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Pettibon came to prominence in the early 1980s in the southern California punk rock scene, creating posters and album art mainly for ...

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in Performance Art, performance, sculpture and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot (Burden), Sh ...

and

Manuel Ocampo Manuel Ocampo (born 1965) is a Filipino artist. His work fuses sacred Baroque religious iconography with secular political narrative. His works draw upon a wide range of art historical references, contain cartoonish elements, and draw inspiratio ...

) and Americana items from the collection of Hollywood writer and director

Tom Patchett Tom Patchett is an American film director, screenwriter, actor and producer who is best known as the co-creator of '' ALF''. He co-wrote the films ''Up the Academy'', ''The Great Muppet Caper'', ''The Muppets Take Manhattan'', and ''Project ALF'' ...

Orange County Museum of Art

At the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), Armstrong was credited for re-orienting the museum in a "decidedly forward-looking" cutting-edge contemporary art direction,Cook, B.W
"The Crowd,"
''Los Angeles Times'', July 11, 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2021. including the successful recasting of its California Biennials of emerging artists from throughout the state and an expansion of its international contemporary art collection.Knight, Christopher

''Los Angeles Times'', October 13, 2004. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Letran, Vivian

''Los Angeles Times'', July 27, 2001. Retrieved February 9, 2021. Critic David Pagel praised the 2002 biennial for its use of humor;

noted the 2004 biennial for its cohesiveness and high levels of accomplishment and new media, which he wrote positioned OCMA as "the go-to museum for the region’s art."Tumlir, Jan
"The 2004 California Biennial,"
''Artforum'', February 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2021. In 2006, OCMA offered a sprawling, cosmopolitan biennial organized under six loose themes that ''Artforum'' wrote, broke from prevailing trends or labels for a "breath of fresh West Coast air."Muchnic, Suzanne

''Los Angeles Times'', October 7, 2006. Retrieved February 9, 2021.''Los Angeles Times''

September 10, 2006. Retrieved February 9, 2021. Armstrong's OCMA shows that traveled widely included "Girls' Night Out" (2003), which presented two generations of groundbreaking photography, video and performance by women taking more evocative and poetic approaches to female identity, and "Villa America: American Moderns, 1900-1950" (2005), which drew on the extensive private collection of Minneapolis businessman Myron Kunin to explore the evolution of early American modernism in relation to French art and popular culture.Armstrong, Elizabeth and Irene Hofmann
''Girls' Night Out''
Newport Beach, CA: Orange County Museum of Art, 2003. Retrieved February 12, 2021.Powers, Elia

''Los Angeles Times'', July 8, 2005. Retrieved February 9, 2021.''Los Angeles Times''

Obituaries, November 4, 2013. Retrieved February 9, 2021. The latter exhibition was the first museum show devoted to Kunin's collection, which Armstrong became familiar with while at the Walker; it presented an eclectic mix of well-known ( Stuart Davis,

Arthur Dove Arthur Garfield Dove (August 2, 1880 – November 23, 1946) was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter.. Dove used a wide range of media, sometimes in unconventional combinati ...

Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was bor ...

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...

) and more obscure artists, such as

Peter Blume Peter Blume (27 October 1906 – 30 November 1992) was an American painter and sculptor. His work contained elements of folk art, Precisionism, Parisian Purism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Biography Blume, born in Smarhon, Russian Empire to a ...

Jared French Jared French (February 4, 1905 – January 8, 1988) was an American painter who specialized in the medium of egg tempera. He was one of the artists attributed to the style of art known as magic realism along with contemporaries George Tooker a ...

Morton Schamberg Morton Livingston Schamberg (October 15, 1881 – October 13, 1918) was an American modernist painter and photographer. He was one of the first American artists to explore the aesthetic qualities of industrial subjects.. Schamberg is consid ...

and Paul Tchelitchew. Two of Armstrong's other OCMA traveling exhibitions received wide attention on both coasts.Spears, Dorothy
"Swimming With the Big Fish at Last,"
''The New York Times'', October 3, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2021.Haithman, Diane

''Los Angeles Times'', May 30, 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2021. "Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone" (2007) was an overdue first retrospective of Heilmann’s work, offering more than 50 paintings across four decades and examples of her ceramics and furniture designs, along with a concurrent show of artists whose work she influenced.Cook, B.W

''Los Angeles Times'', May 17, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Goldstein, Ann
Review
''Artforum'', December 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2021.Norden, Linda
"Mary Heilmann,"
''Artforum'', May 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2021. "Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury" (2007) cast a wide conceptual net, surveying the post-World War II, progressive cultural zeitgeist in Southern California through more than 150 objects, including

Ray and Charles Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...

designs, architectural photographs by

Julius Shulman Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph " Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman' ...

, and works by under-recognized California hard-edge painters.Hart, Hugh
"Midcentury mod and all that jazz,"
''Los Angeles Times'', October 7, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2021.Finkel, Jori

The New York Times'', October 7, 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2021. It was praised for its informed installation design, painting gallery, and an award-winning catalogue that design writer Steven Heller called an integrated, consistent history examining every facet of popular art for how it "expressed California’s cultural aura" during an era where it eclipsed New York City as a zone of experimentation.Heller, Steven
"Visuals,"
''The New York Times'', June 1, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2021. ''The Atlantics

Benjamin Schwarz Benjamin Schwarz (born 10 July 1986) is a German footballer who most recently played for Preußen Münster, as a left back. Career Born in Munich, Schwarz began his career 1991 with SV Ludwigsvorstadt and played here four years before signed fo ...

termed it an "unusually intelligent and lavishly illustrated" book, the first to connect the various artistic forms that Southern California modernism took and to "provocatively suggest that a common sensibility animated all those forms."Schwarz, Benjamin
"California Cool,"
''The Atlantic'', March 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2021.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Mia) and Palm Springs Art Museum

At Mia, Armstrong took on the challenge of integrating contemporary curatorial strategies into an encyclopedic museum with broader historical/cultural collections and audiences than her previous museums. In the exhibitions "Until Now: Collecting the New (1960-2010)," "More Real: Art in the Age of Truthiness" (2012), "Global Remix I: Art and Globalization" (2012) and "Global Remix II: What is Sacred?" (2013), she sought fresh ways of mixing contemporary and traditional art to engage public appreciation, dialogue and understanding.Armstrong, Elizabeth
''More Real?: Art in the Age of Truthiness''
Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2012. The latter exhibition deployed works from the museum’s collection and borrowed items, juxtaposing deeply traditional items of religious art (e.g., vestments) with contemporary works (a Beuys gray felt suit, a faux suit of armor by Korean artist

Do-Ho Suh Do Ho Suh (hangul: 서도호, born 1962) is a Korean sculptor and installation artist. He also works across various media, including paintings and film which explore the concept of space and home. His work is particularly well known in relation t ...

, Warhol images) to probe the spiritual in a postmodern world. During her tenure at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Armstrong launched highly visible exhibitions including "Women of Abstract Expressionism" (2017), " Albert Frey and

Lina Bo Bardi Lina Bo Bardi, born Achillina Bo (5 December 1914 – 20 March 1992), was an Italian-born Brazilian modernist architect. A prolific architect and designer, she devoted her working life, most of it spent in Brazil, to promoting the social and cult ...

: A Search for Living Architecture" (2017), "Kinesthesia: Latin American Kinetic Art, 1954-1969" (2017), "Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" (2018) and "

Agnes Pelton Agnes Lawrence Pelton (1881–1961) was a modernist painter who was born in Germany and moved to the United States as a child. She studied art in the United States and Europe. She made portraits of Pueblo Native Americans, desert landscapes and s ...

: Desert Transcendentalist."Cheh, Carol
"See Us Roar: Women (finally) star in an exhibition of midcentury abstract expressionist painters,"
''Palm Springs Life'', December 1, 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2021.Vankin, Deborah

''Los Angeles Times'', March 24, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2021.Brunker, Alicia
"Albert Frey and Lina Bo Bardi’s Midcentury Masterpieces Are on Display at the Palm Springs Art Museum,"
''Architectural Digest'', September 15, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2021.''Palm Springs Life''
"Kinesthesia at the Palm Springs Art Museum,"
September 3, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2021.Kleinschmidt, Janice
"Radiant Agnes Pelton,"
''Palm Springs Life'', October 11, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2021.

Awards and recognition

Armstrong has been awarded curatorial fellowships from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (2010), the Center for Curatorial Leadership (2007–8), and the National Endowment for the Arts (1989); in 2016, she was named an officer in the

Order of Arts and Letters The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

by the French

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) *Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) *Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan) * Ministry ...

.Artists Legacy Foundation
2020 Jurors
Retrieved February 15, 2021. Her OCMA exhibition "Birth of the Cool" won an Art to Life Curatorial Award from ''Art and Living Magazine'' in 2008, and her Walker show, "Peter Fischli and David Weiss" won an International Association of Art Critics special exhibition award in 1998.Washington University in St. Louis
"Birth of the Cool curator Elizabeth Armstrong to speak at Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Sept. 20,"
News, August 19, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2021. Her catalogues that have been recognized with awards include ''Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury'' (American Association of Museum Curators prize for best exhibition catalogue, 2007) and ''In the Spirit of Fluxus'' (International Association of Art Critics Award, 1994–5).

Major publications

*''More Real?: Art in the Age of Truthiness'' (2012) *''Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury'' (2007)Armstrong, Elizabeth
''Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury''
Newport Beach, CA: Orange County Museum of Art, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2021. *''Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone'' (2007)Armstrong, Elizabeth
''Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone''
Newport Beach, CA: Orange County Museum of Art, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2021. *''Villa America: American Moderns, 1900-1950'' (2005)Armstrong, Elizabeth
''Villa America: American Moderns, 1900-1950''
Newport Beach, CA: Orange County Museum of Art, 2005. Retrieved February 12, 2021. *''Girls' Night Out'' (2003) *''Ultrabaroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art'' (2000)Armstrong, Elizabeth and Victor Zamudio-Taylor
''Ultrabaroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art''
La Jolla, CA: Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, 2000. Retrieved February 12, 2021. *''David Reed Paintings: Motion Pictures'' (1998)Armstrong, Elizabeth
''David Reed Paintings: Motion Pictures''
La Jolla, CA: Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, 1998. Retrieved February 15, 2021. *''Peter Fischli and David Weiss: In a Restless World'' (1996) *''In the Spirit of Fluxus'' (1993)Armstrong, Elizabeth and Joan Rothfuss
''In the Spirit of Fluxus''
Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Walker Art Center, 1993. Retrieved February 12, 2021. *''Jasper Johns: Printed Symbols'' (1990)Armstrong, Elizabeth
''Jasper Johns: Printed Symbols''
Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 1990. Retrieved February 11, 2021. *''First Impressions: Early Prints by Forty-Six Contemporary Artists'' (1989)Armstrong, Elizabeth
''First Impressions: Early Prints by Forty-Six Contemporary Artists''
New York: Hudson Hills Press, Walker Art Center, 1989. Retrieved February 11, 2021. *''Tyler Graphics, the Extended Image'' (1987)Armstrong, Elizabeth
''Tyler Graphics, the Extended Image''
Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Gallery, 1987. Retrieved February 11, 2021.

References

External links

Elizabeth Armstrong author page
WorldCat
Elizabeth Armstrong biography
Center for Curatorial Leadership {{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Elizabeth American women curators American curators Women art historians American art historians American contemporary art UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni People from Los Angeles Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Hampshire College alumni Historians from California 21st-century American women