Anthony Lee

  • Idella Plimpton Kendall Professor of Art History
  • Chair of Art History & Architectural Studies
Anthony Lee

Anthony W. Lee is a scholar of modernist art and the history of photography. His courses canvas the variety of modernisms and photographic practices throughout Europe and North America, with special attention to experiments in the period between 1830 and 1980. His many books are concerned with artistic adventures in the context of cultural and political encounters, and include Painting on the Left; Picturing Chinatown, which won both the Smithsonian’s Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship and the Cultural Studies Book Prize given by the Association of Asian American Studies; A Shoemaker’s Story, which won the New York Book Show Award for its Scholarly category; The Global Flows of Early Scottish Photography; and several books bringing together different scholars in the interdisciplinary study of camerawork. He is the founder and editor of the distinguished series Defining Moments in Photography, published by the University of California Press. He is currently at work on a project about Pictorialism, social reform, and the historical meanings of dreaming. 

Areas of Expertise

modern art and the history of photography

Education

  • Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
  • B.A., Holy Cross College

Happening at Mount Holyoke

Recent Campus News

To gain perspective on the rise of AI-generated art, Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Art History Professor Anthony Lee looked back on the impact photography had on painting in the nineteenth century in a recent Wired Magazine essay.

As Mount Holyoke marks the one hundred fiftieth year of the teaching of art history, its Department of Art History and Architectural Studies is celebrating its long history and is working to ensure it evolves to meet the changing nature of the field.

Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå junior Sarah Hwang’s endless energy and enthusiasm made her the perfect person to join a presidential campaign in Iowa.