Renowned art history scholar and Wake Forest University professor, David Lubin, honored
The New Yorker once described Charlotte C. Weber Professor of American Art David Lubin as “the esteemed scholar of art history in relation to popular culture.” On April 26, leading art scholars gathered at Reynolda House Museum of American Art for an interdisciplinary symposium held in honor of Lubin’s retirement from Wake Forest University. He has taught courses on the history of art, film and popular culture at the University for 25 years. The author of eight books, Lubin also studied filmmaking and wrote music reviews for Rolling Stone magazine early in his career.
The following experts in American studies and the forces that shape American culture, all profoundly influenced by Lubin’s impressive body of work, spoke at the event: Martin Berger from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Alexander Nemerov from Stanford University and Jennifer Roberts from Harvard University.
“David Lubin has been one of Wake Forest’s most brilliant and respected faculty members—a scholar of immense range and originality, and a teacher whose passion and wit lit up every classroom,” said Provost Michele Gillespie. “His work has shaped the field of American art history and inspired generations of students and colleagues alike. But more than that, David has been a treasured friend and thought partner to so many of us. It is a joy to honor him and celebrate a legacy that will long outlast his time on our campus and influence art history for generations to come.”
Lubin has published books on American art, film and popular culture. His book “Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images” (2003) won the Smithsonian Institution’s Charles C. Eldredge Prize for distinguished scholarship in American art. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and an NEH Public Scholar.
“As a teacher-scholar, I have made a point of involving my students in my research and even in my writing, asking them to read and critique work in progress,” Lubin said. “Not only has this proven useful for me, but it has also given them a chance to learn by taking an active role in the production of scholarship.”
Lubin has written about art and World War One in “Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War” (2016), and explored social class, social mobility, migration and other issues in “Titanic” (1999). He is also the author of “Picturing a Nation: Art and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century America” (1994) and “Act of Portrayal: Eakins, Sargent, James” (1985).
His most recent book, “Ready for My Closeup: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream,” will be released on August 12, 2025, in conjunction with the film’s 75th anniversary.
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