Jochen Wierich

Background

About Jochen Wierich

I was born in Germany and received a M.A. in American Studies at the University of Frankfurt and a Ph.D. in American Studies at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. I had pre- and post-doctoral fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution as well as the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library. I began my museum career at the Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, working as a research assistant on the exhibition "Winslow Homer in Gloucester". As Curator of Art at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane, I organized "Enchanted Visions: The Taos Society of Artists and Ancient Cultures". As Curator of Art at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville where I organized several major exhibitions, including "Painters of American Life: The Eight", an exhibition that traveled to four additional venues in the Southeast,"American Impressionists in the Garden"(also a traveling exhibition), and "Jaume Plensa: Human Landscpae"(traveling exhibition). As Chief Curator at the Mississippi Museum of Art, I co-organized "Picturing Mississippi: Land of Plenty, Pain, and Promise, 1817-2017." I taught art history and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, Whitman College, and Belmont University. In 2011, I taught at the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor. I have written extensively on topics in American art and have appeared in a number of journals including Winterthur Portfolio, American Art, and American Art Review. I was the co-editor as well as contributing author for the anthology "Internationalizing the History of American Art: A Reader" published by Penn State Press in 2009. My book "Grand Themes: Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, and American History Painting", also published by Penn State Press, was released in January 2012.