Janetta Rebold Benton, Ph.D. 
Email: JBenton@pace.edu
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janetta_Rebold_Benton

Two Recent Books
The History of Western Art, Art Essentials series, Thames & Hudson, London , 2023 (176 pages, 117 illustrations).

How to Understand Art, Art Essentials series, Thames & Hudson, London, 2021 (176 pages, 101 illustrations).

Upcoming Lecture Series:
♦ 92NY (92nd Street Y), New York, NY, Roundtable
American Artists: Whistler and Cassatt; Homer and Eakins
Two Fridays, March 7 and 14, 2025, 12 noon-1:00 pm, on Zoom
Click for detail

♦ Smithsonian Associates, Washington, DC
Why, Oh Why, Do We Love Paris? The Timeless Charm of the City of Light
Two Saturdays, March 22 and 29, 2025, 1:30-4:00 pm, on Zoom
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Andy Warhol (1928-87) and Pop Art
Monday, May 12, 2025, evening lecture, 7:00-8:15 pm on Zoom

Upcoming Tours
♦Treasures of the Alps: Swiss Trains and Italy's Lake District, May 29, 2025 - Jun 11, 2025, 14 days

♦A River Cruise through Burgundy and Provence , Jul 8, 2025 - Jul 16, 2025, 9 days
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Somerset House, London, interview for podcast, April 11, 2024, in the series The Process, The Darker Side of Cute, conversation with the artist Sean-Kierre Lyons about their work in CUTE: An Exhibition Exploring the  Irresistible Force of Cuteness in Contemporary Culture, Somerset House, London, January 25-April 14, 2024. https://channel.somersethouse.org.uk/podcasts/process/the-darker-side-of-cute

CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley, interviewed by Faith Salie, for program about gargoyles, October 27, 2019, available on the following links:  
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-week-on-sunday-morning-october-27-2019/#    
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RmaBnm3qoU
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gargoyles-and-grotesques-get-their-closeup/

Fulbright Scholar Awards: 
♦ Graduate School of Art History, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, spring 2018  http://en.caa.edu.cn/news/LatestNews/201803/t20180307_72182.html 
♦ Graduate School of Art History, European University, St. Petersburg, Russia, fall 2012

Smithsonian Associates, Washington, DC

Why, Oh Why, Do We Love Paris? The Timeless Charm of the City of Light
Paris has long exerted a powerful appeal as one of the world’s most important locations for art and culture. What has set it apart over the centuries? Does it come from the soaring Gothic cathedral of Notre- Dame or the delicate Sainte-Chapelle with walls of sparkling stained-glass? Perhaps it’s the Art Nouveau entrances to the Paris Metro or the inside-out Pompidou Center. Could it stem from the city’s propensity to transform itself: For example, the Louvre--a medieval fortress, then royal residence, then world-class museum--most recently remade itself with I.M. Pei’s controversial glass pyramid-shaped entrance. Join Distinguished Professor of Art History Janetta Rebold Benton, a former resident of Paris and the Expert on Smithsonian Journeys trips to Paris and throughout France, to discover the secrets of the City of Light on a vicarious visit to her favorite city.

March 22, 2025, 1:30-4:00 pm, on Zoom
1. Early Years, Middle Ages, and Renaissance. A brief history of France and of Paris sets the stage. The cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle are two of the marvels of Gothic architecture. Meet King Francois Ier, dashing patron of the arts in 16th-century France. One of the greatest art museums of the world, the Louvre, also has one of the longest histories.

2. Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassicism. Visit the Luxembourg Palace and gardens. Follow the change from the serious paintings of Charles Le Brun, praised by Louis XIV, to depictions of Rococo romance by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Important events in French history, as the Revolution, and people, as Napoleon, are documented in the paintings of Jacques-Louis David. Neoclassical architecture is represented by the Panthéon, the Madeleine, and the Arc de Triomphe.

March 29, 2025, 1:30-4:00 pm, on Zoom
3. Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. Paris saw a major renovation under Georges-Eugene Haussmann. Cartoons drawn by Honoré Daumier document daily reality. The Baroque Revival opera house known as the Palais Garnier would be well-suited to the ballerinas depicted by Edgar Degas. The engineer Gustave Eiffel designed the huge tower bearing his name, now the symbol of France.

4. The Twentieth Century. Art Nouveau entrances were built to the Paris Metro. Among the famous artists working in Paris were Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Georges Rouault, Constantin Brancusi, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Victor Vasarely, and Niki de Saint Phalle. The Pompidou Center and the Louis Vuitton Foundation vie for the title of Paris’s Most Unusual Museum.
Link to Smithsonian website

Andy Warhol (1928-87) and Pop Art
May 12, 2025, evening lecture, 7:00-8:15 pm on Zoom

Pop Art, a shortening of Popular Art, takes its name from the subjects depicted --ordinary, ubiquitous, popular images encountered in everyday life. The quintessential "king of Pop" was Andy Warhol, perhaps best known for using commercial printing techniques to produce multiple images of popular items--including the now iconic Campbell's soup cans, and movie stars like Elizabeth Taylor. Multi-talented Warhol was an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and publisher. He was often highly controversial--for his art, his activities, and his appearance. Above all, Warhol is famous, or infamous, as the leader of an important new art movement, Pop Art, that broke with all previous art movements and expanded our definition of “art.”

Link to Smithsonian website

92NY (92nd Street Y), New York, NY, Roundtable

American Artists: Whistler and Cassatt; Homer and Eakins
The United States produced some of the world's most creative, innovative artists. In richly illustrated lectures, Distinguished Professor of Art History Dr. Janetta Rebold Benton takes an in-depth look at the life and work of great American painters who display widely varying aesthetic styles, artistic philosophies, and, especially, personalities.

1. March 7, 2025   James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), two Americans who made their artistic careers abroad, in England and France, respectively. Audacious Whistler authored The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, whereas Cassatt favored refined Impressionist domestic scenes.

2.  March 14, 2025   Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), two Realists who documented life in America. Homer created factual records of the Civil War and his surroundings, whereas Eakins, teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, took his lesson on male anatomy too far and scandal ensued.

Link to Roundtable website

Smithsonian Journeys, Washington, DC

I will serve as the Smithsonian Expert Lecturer on the following trips:

2025
♦Treasures of the Alps: Swiss Trains and Italy's Lake District, May 29, 2025 - Jun 11, 2025, 14 days
Immerse yourself in the majestic mountain scenery of Switzerland, Italy, and Austria as you explore the history, arts, traditions, and classic trains of the Alps.
Link to Smithsonian Journeys website

♦A River Cruise through Burgundy and Provence , Jul 8, 2025 - Jul 16, 2025, 9 days
Cruise from Burgundy wine country to picturesque Provence along the Saône and Rhône Rivers aboard an elegant river ship, exploring charming villages, World Heritage sites such as Lyon’s Old City and the Papal Palace in Avignon, and the wine regions of the Rhône Valley and Burgundy. 
Link to Smithsonian Journeys website

Lectures in China
American Embassy, Beijing, Art and Environment in America, public lecture with translators, April 20, 2022, online.

American Embassy, Beijing, Public Art in America, public lecture with translators, May 13, 2021, online.

Hangzhou: China Academy of Art, public lectures with translators: 1) Animals in the Art of the Middle Ages, 2) Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings, 2018.

Beijing: Tsinghua University, Broadcast of my lecture on Andy Warhol, watched by more than 3,600 people, 讲座回顾 | “波普教皇”安迪·沃霍尔的一生, 2018.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/h-2bsou72YW26O85biwNtQ

Shanghai: Shanghai University, Winslow Homer; American Consulate, Winslow Homer, 2018.

Nanjing: Nanjing University, 1) Georgia O’Keeffe, 2) Andy Warhol, 2018.

Conference Papers
Invited keynote speaker, “Extreme Architecture around the World,” Fulbright Annual Symposium, Yale University, New Haven, December 3, 2023.

Invited plenary speaker, "Medieval Mischief: Wit and Humor in the Art of the Middle Ages," International Society of Humor Studies Conference, University of Texas - Austin, June 26, 2019.

                                                                                                                                      BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Janetta Rebold Benton is the Distinguished Professor of Art History at Pace University, NY. The recipient of two Fulbright Scholar Awards, in 2018 she was visiting professor in the graduate school of Art History, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China; in 2012 she was visiting professor in the graduate school of Art History, European University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Benton regularly presents subscription seminars for the Smithsonian Associates, Washington, DC. She presented subscription lecture series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, every season 1988-2011, and has lectured at The Cloisters, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach; the Schimmel Center for the Arts, NY; and elsewhere in America and abroad. She serves as the Expert Lecturer on Smithsonian Journeys and Metropolitan Museum of Art trips throughout the world. A former resident of Paris, she taught art history courses at the American Embassy.

Dr. Benton’s tenth book, The History of Western Art, was published by Thames & Hudson, London, 2022/23 with editions in Latvian (Jāna Rozes apgāds, Riga), German (Midas Verlag, Zurich), and Spanish (Arte Blume, Barcelona) . Her How to Understand Art was published by Thames & Hudson in 2021.with editions in French (Flammarion, Paris), Italian (24 Ore Cultura, Milan), German (Midas Verlag, Zurich), Latvian (Jāna Rozes apgāds, Riga), Spanish (Art Blume, Barcelona),Vietnamese (Omega Books, Hanoi), and Taiwanese (Domain Publishing Company, Taiwan)

Her other books include Handbook for the Humanities (Robert DiYanni co-author), Pearson/Prentice Hall, NJ, 2014, published in paperback, as an E-book, and in Chinese translation, 2019, 2016. Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities (Robert DiYanni co-author), Pearson/Prentice Hall, NJ, two volumes and combined volume, fourth edition, 2012, and Chinese translation of second edition, 2011. Dr. Benton’s Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art is published in the Praeger Series on the Middle Ages, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA, 2009, in hardcover and as an E-book. Medieval Mischief: Wit and Humour in the Art of the Middle Ages, The History Press, Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2004, examines an engaging aspect of medieval culture. Art of the Middle Ages in the World of Art series, Thames & Hudson, London, 2002, offers a complete overview of the art and architecture of medieval Western Europe. Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings, Abbeville Press, NY, 1997, is also published in French as Saintes Terreurs: Les Gargouilles dans l’Architecture Médiévale (Flammarion, Paris), 2000. The Medieval Menagerie: Animals in the Art of the Middle Ages, Abbeville Press, NY, 1992, a Book of the Month Club selection, is also published in French as Bestiaire Médiéval: Les Animaux dans l’Art du Moyen Age (Flammarion, Paris), 1992. Dr. Benton was the guest curator and catalog author for the 1995 exhibition Medieval Monsters: Dragons and Fantastic Creatures at the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY.

Articles and reviews written by Dr. Benton appear in the Periodical of Tsinghua University Art Museum (清华大学艺术博物馆馆刊), Beijing, 2020; IKON, Center for Iconographic Studies, University of Rijeka, Croatia, 2017; Proceedings of the International Conference, State Hermitage Museum Publishers, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2017 and 2015; Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Sage Reference, Los Angeles, CA, 2014; Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, exhibition catalog, 2007; as well as in scholarly journals including Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, Poitiers, 1998; Arte Medievale, Rome, 1993; Artibus et Historiae, Vienna, 1989; and Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, 1985.

Dr. Benton was educated at Harvard University, Graduate School of Education, MDP diploma; earned her Ph.D. in Art History at Brown University; Master's degree in Art History at George Washington University; and Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at Cornell University.