Nell Painter: The historian as artist

After history professor emerita Nell Painter saw a New York Times cover depicting the Russian bombing of Grozny, the North Caucasus-located capital of Chechnya, she wondered why white Americans were called Caucasians. After spending a semester in Germany finding out, Painter wrote “The History of White People” in 2010, discussing how formerly non-white people were classified as white through their assimilation into American society.

Painter is often referred to as a historian first and a painter second. Noting the sharp divide between art and history, she explained her interest in the two subject areas.

“It’s scholarship versus art,” Painter said. “[In history], my aim is for the reader to understand what I’m thinking. I was making the meaning, not the reader. But in art, the viewer makes the meaning. The aim is not so much clarity, but interest.”

Despite the differences between the two subject areas, Painter combined art and history in her two art history books. She continues to make art and believes that an artist does not need to wait for inspiration to strike in order to create, as long as there is interest and inclination.

“I feel that as a professional, I need to make art whether I feel like it or not,” she explained.

Painter first started teaching at the University in 1988 as a professor of history. She eventually took a 10-year break from teaching but was invited back to the University by Eddie Glaude GS ’97, head of the African American Studies department, to teach a course this fall.

The interdisciplinary course is called AAS 347: Art School at African American Studies: Process, Discourse, Infrastructure, in which Painter combines art making with art criticism and an examination of contemporary art, particularly the works of black artists. The course is fundamentally based on art concepts, but the art that students create is intertwined with African American history....