Alistair Rider

My research area is twentieth-century North American and European art, with an emphasis on sculpture and environmental agendas. I am the author of two monographs, one on Carl Andre (1935-2024) and one on James Howell (1935-2014).

I am active in environmental humanities research networks at the University, and much of my teaching and writing pursues an ecological and materialist perspective on history. I am currently looking at the materials that appear in certain late-twentieth century sculptures and asking what they tell us about the global flow of goods and resources.

I also have a research interest in durational art practices, and in art projects of any nature that don't have an obvious end point. This is a study in how 'living' is given form in late modernist art, and also in demonstrating how the social and the collective are always present in artistic creation, irrespective of how individualistic it appears.  

If you are interested in studying for a doctoral dissertation in any field that might relate to these themes, then I would be pleased to hear from you.     

Twentieth-century art, particularly 1950-1980, minimalism, abstraction, histories of sculpture, theories of art practice