“Adam Pendleton: To Divide By,” an exhibition catalog published by WashU’s Kemper Art Museum and distributed by the University of Chicago Press, has been named best monograph of 2024 by the Midwest Art History Society (MAHS).
The honor was announced during the society’s Outstanding Catalog Awards ceremony, held in Denver April 4 as part of the annual MAHS members meeting. “This publication provides valuable theoretical framing along with thorough attention to the particulars of the artist and his body of work,” noted MAHS secretary and catalog committee member Erica Warren. “The book design also marries pointedly with the artwork and interpretive content.”
Kemper Art Museum curator Meredith Malone edited the monograph and organized the exhibition of the same name, which explored Pendleton’s interest in creating a conversation between mediums, as well as his belief in abstraction’s capacity to destabilize and disrupt. Malone also authored one of three principal essays, along with contributors Joshua Chambers-Letson, a professor of performance studies and of Asian American studies at Northwestern University, and critic Hal Foster, co-editor of the journal October and professor of art and archaeology at Princeton.
Also featured are a conversation between Pendleton and critic Isabelle Graw and the complete transcripts, here presented for the first time, of two film portraits by Pendleton. David Wise, of Forthcoming Studio, designed the volume.
Founded in 1973, the MAHS brings together academic, museum-based and independent art historians in the common goal of scholarly inquiry and the exchange of ideas. For more information about the society, visit mahsonline.org. For more information about the catalog, visit press.uchicago.edu. For more information about the Kemper Art Museum, visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.
