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Art History Faculty

Jenny Anger – Associate Professor of Art
641-269-4293
BCA 244
anger at grinnell.edu
Jenny Anger joined the Department of Art at Grinnell College in 1997. She is currently Associate Professor and Chair (2004-06). She has been Chair of the Gender and Women’s Studies Concentration (2002-03) and a member of the Humanities Center Advisory Board since its inception in 2000. She came to Grinnell after completing her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from Brown University in 1997. Anger’s specialty is twentieth-century European art history and theory. She has published essays on the Swiss-German artist Paul Klee in Canada, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and United States. Her Klee research has resulted in one major volume to date, Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art (Cambridge University Press, 2004). That book situates Klee’s art within the problematic of the decorative as it was articulated and contested especially in the early years of the twentieth century. Anger ends the book with analysis of contemporary art that highlights the continued importance of the decorative; her conclusions reflect her commitments to feminism, deconstruction, close reading of images, and living artists, commitments that animate all of her work. “Modern Art 1900-1940,” “Art Since 1945,” and “American Art” are Anger’s regular courses at Grinnell. Along with colleagues Susan Strauber and Tim Chasson, she teaches sections of the “Introduction to Art and Art History” course. Anger has also been pleased to teach two exhibition seminars in recent years (on German Expressionist prints and on photogravures of American Indians by Edward S. Curtis), and she has taught senior seminars on “Modernism and the Market,” “Modernism and Postmodernism,” and “Dialogues between Art and Philosophy of the Twentieth Century” (co-taught with philosophy professor Alan Schrift).

Timothy Chasson – Associate Professor of Art
641-269-3079
BCA 246
chasso at grinnell.edu
Robert Timothy Chasson received his Ph.D. in Medieval Art History from the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on the illustration and decoration of medieval Latin liturgical manuscripts, especially those produced in Italy and France from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. Current publications include studies on the exegetical functions of illustrations and geometrical designs in Italian “giant” bibles from the Romanesque period (Gesta 42/2: 2003; Rivista di storia della miniatura 9: 2004). Chasson has taught at Grinnell since 1980. His training and interest in architectural history finds expression in courses on architecture and urbanism in Europe from the Early Christian period forward, including two which are devoted to the cities of Rome and Paris, the latter course taught in French. Chasson has also taught on the Grinnell in London program and the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Program in Florence. He serves as the campus adviser for students interested in careers in architecture.

Susan Strauber – Associate Professor of Art
641-269-3084
BCA 248
straubes at grinnell.edu
Susan Strauber is associate professor of art with a Ph.D. in art history from Brown University. Her research interests include nineteenth century painting, particularly Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, and the origins of modernity. In addition to articles about the problematic estate stamp on Delacroix drawings and the construction of Delacroix's artistic identity, she has translated and edited The Graphic Art of Eugène Delacroix, a catalogue raisonné of Delacroix's prints. She has also acted as a professional consultant on Delacroix's works. Strauber's most recent scholarship is on the early portraiture of Edouard Manet and its place in Manet's invention of the modernist tableau. A resident of Iowa since 1973, Strauber has taught at Grinnell since 1980. She has offered courses in nineteenth century painting, impressionism and post-impressionism, and the history of women artists. Her advanced seminars include studies in romanticism, portraiture, and Manet and modernism. Professor Strauber contributes regularly to the multi-disciplinary Humanities 140: Medieval and Renaissance Culture course, and co-authored the Medieval and Renaissance Culture multi-media textbook on the college website with Marci Sortor (Associate Dean of the College, Associate Professor of History). As part of the college's off-campus studies program Grinnell-in-London, Professor Strauber has taught classes on-site throughout England and Wales on the Introduction to Art History, the Pre-Raphaelites, Constable and Turner, and Museums. On campus she has promoted conservation of the stained glass windows in Herrick Chapel, and overseen student research on the apse window, which reproduces in glass the famous pre-Raphaelite painting, William Holman Hunt's The Light of the World. She has developed her interests in theory through "The Indeterminacy of Art History" (co-authored with Ira Strauber, Professor of Political Science) for POROI (Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry) at the University of Iowa. Professor Strauber was also instrumental in devising Grinnell's exhibition seminar, a hands-on, collaborative course where students plan, organize, and research an exhibition, and produce an exhibition catalogue, on works of art in the Grinnell College Art Collection. The next exhibition seminar will be on Francesco Goya's Disasters of War (to be taught by Professor Strauber in the spring 2004).

Studio Art Faculty

Matthew Kluber - Assistant Professor of Art
641-269-4263
BCA 245
kluberm at grinnell.edu
Matthew Kluber is an Assistant Professor of Art at Grinnell College. He teaches printmaking and drawing. Kluber holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has taught at the University of Iowa and at Iowa State University and was Artist-in-Residence at the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa. Kluber has shown his prints, drawings, paintings and digital work at galleries and museums including: 123 Watts Gallery in New York City, Klein Art Works in Chicago, Rudolph Poissant Gallery in Houston, the Portland Museum of Art in Oregon, the Austin Museum of Art in Texas, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, and at the Des Moines Art Center, the University of Iowa Museum of Art, and the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College.

Bobbie McKibbin – Associate Professor of Art
641-269-3080
BCA 247
mckibbin at grinnell.edu
Bobbie McKibbin is a Professor of painting at Grinnell College and holds an M.F.A. in printmaking from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1975).  Professor McKibbin has participated in invitational, juried and group exhibitions regionally and nationally including the Des Moines Art Center (1998, 1997, 1994, 1988, 1981), Brunnier Art Museum (1999, 1997, 1994, 1987), MacNider Museum (1991, 1983, 1979), Blandon Memorial Art Museum (1984, 1982), Sioux City Art Center, Waterloo Museum of Art, Century Center Art Center, Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Cincinnati Art Museum and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.  Solo exhibitions include Olson-Larsen Galleries, Artifacts Gallery, galleries in Chicago, Washington D.C., Maui, and Minneapolis, Grinnell College, Central College, Buena Vista College, Albion College, Columbia College, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Texas Woman’s University, and Miami University. Professor McKibbin has been commissioned by numerous private and corporate collections and is included in over 67 museum, academic and corporate collections including the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.  McKibbin’s work is represented by Olson-Larsen Galleries of West Des Moines and L.A. Design, Missoula, Montana. Personal Statement: My work originates from my love for drawing. I work with beautiful soft pastels, one of the most direct and simple materials an artist can employ. For 28 years the landscape has provided an unending source for my painting and my images record and describe the richness, complexity and mystery of the world in which we live and work. I try to faithfully record a sense of place without sacrificing the overall integrity of the image. Light, time and atmospheric conditions are very important elements and with mark-making I leave a record of my activity and search.

William Pergl – Assistant Professor of Art
641-269-4762
BCA 251
perglwe at grinnell.edu
William Pergl is an assistant professor of Art with a M.F.A. from Cornell University and a B.F.A. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Upon receiving his B.F.A., Pergl was a recipient of the Rickert-Ziebolt Trust Award and during his graduate study was awarded the John Hartel Graduate Award for Art and Architecture and the International Sculpture Centerís Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. Pergl has shown his sculpture in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the country including: Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis, IN), Appalachian Center for Crafts (Smithville, TN), Gallery 312 (Chicago, IL), ARC Gallery (Chicago, IL), Rockford Art Museum (Rockford, IL), Bellevue Art Museum (Bellevue, WA), Aljira - A Center for Contemporary Art (Newark, NJ), University of Illinois (Chicago, IL), University of Toledo (Toledo, OH), University of Bridgeport (Bridgeport, CT), Eastern Oregon University (La Grande, Oregon), Commencement Art Gallery (Tacoma, WA), Minnentonka Art Center (Minneapolis , MN), Blanden Memorial Art Museum (Fort Dodge, IA), Sioux City Art Center (Sioux City, IA) and Cedar Rapids Art Museum (Cedar Rapids, IA).

Jill Davis Schrift – Lecturer in Art
641-269-3880
BCA 128A
schriftj at grinnell.edu
Jill Davis Schrift has been a lecturer in art at Grinnell College since 1988. She teaches all of levels of ceramics. In the introduction to studio class she teaches drawing. Schrift holds a Masters Degree in Fine Arts, with a specialization in ceramic sculpture from Purdue University and an Masters of Science in Teaching from State University of New York at Potsdam. Schrift has had solo exhibitions of her ceramic work and her pastel drawings and collages at Iowa Artisan’s Gallery, Iowa City, Iowa, Grinnell College Print and Drawing Study Room, Grinnell Regional Medical Center, Brenton National Bank, Grinnell, Iowa, Marshalltown Community College, Marshalltown, Iowa and The Center for Liberal Studies, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York. Her work has been part of group exhibitions at the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Olson-Larson Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa, Charles H. Mac Nider Museum, Mason City, Iowa, Kirkwood Commmunity College and Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

Staff

Karen Hueftle - Art Slide Library Curator
641-269-3082
BCA 255
hueftle at grinnell.edu
Karen got her B.A. in 1980 from the University of Nebraska, Kearney, with a double major in English & French (but don't ask her to speak French now....or English) & a minor in Art. After realizing that her talent in Art was indeed minor, she opted to attend graduate school in Art History & attended the University of Iowa, Iowa City, from 1980 to 1986, specializing in African & North American Indian Art. While a graduate student there, she received several research assistantships, working in the Slide Library & in the University of Iowa Museum of Art, where she assisted with two major exhibitions, one of the Stanley Collection of African Art & one of the Art of the Mesquakie Indians, & one conference on African Art. She participated in a few Student Salons, most notably the highly controversial "The Many Moods of Duane Banks," a collaborative work with two other untalented artists. In 1986 came the miraculous possibly of a job in the Art History field. SLIDE CURATOR! At GRINNELL COLLEGE! It seemed too good to be true for a little girl from Colorado, third in a litter of six, haphazardly parented by an Atheist & a Catholic (my Dad called us all the Pope's kids). But it was true. And the rest is history. I am SLIDE CURATOR! And mother to 31 cats. And maker of a damn fine margarita. And hostess to the infamous annual Cinco de Mayo party. Life is good.

Pamela Poynter – Academic Support Assistant
641-269-4262
BCA 162
poynterp at grinnell.edu
Pam joined the fine arts staff in August 1999. She is a University of IIllinois Chicago alum and works with the art, theatre, and music department faculty and students on academic programs and office management in the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts.