Nancy Lynn Perloff is an American curator and scholar of modern and contemporary art. She is curator of modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.[1] Her work has focused on the Russian avant-garde, concrete and sound poetry, and the relationship between music and the visual arts.[2]
Early life and education
editNancy Perloff's mother is poetry scholar Marjorie Perloff, and her sister, Carey Perloff, is a theater director.[3]
Perloff trained as both a musicologist and an art historian.[4] She received her graduate training at the University of Michigan School of Music, where her early research focused on early twentieth-century French music, particularly the circle of composer Erik Satie.[5]
Career
editPerloff joined the Getty Research Institute, part of the J. Paul Getty Trust, where she has served as curator of modern and contemporary collections.[1] In this role, she has contributed to the development of the institute’s holdings in Russian modernism, artists’ books, and experimental literary and sound-based practices.[6]
Her curatorial work has explored interdisciplinary connections between visual art, poetry, and music, particularly in relation to twentieth-century avant-garde movements.[2]
Her research interests have included early twentieth-century French music, Russian futurism, and the international development of concrete poetry.[7]
Exhibitions
editPerloff has organized or co-organized a number of exhibitions at the Getty Research Institute:
- Monuments of the Future: Designs by El Lissitzky (1998–99)
- Sea Tails: A Video Collaboration (2004)
- Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910–1917 (2008–09)
- World War I: War of Images, Images of War (2014), co-curated with Anja Foerschner and Gordon Hughes
- Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space (2017)[2][6]
- Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) (2024–2025, Getty Research Institute; 2025–2026, LUMA Arles)[4]
Her exhibitions frequently examine the relationship between visual art, language, sound, and technology.[2]
Publications
editPerloff is the author and editor of several scholarly publications:
- Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie (Oxford University Press, 1991)
- Situating El Lissitzky: Vitebsk, Berlin, Moscow (Getty Publications, 2003), co-edited with Brian M. Reed
- Explodity: Sound, Image, and Word in Russian Futurist Book Art (Getty Publications, 2017)[8]
- Concrete Poetry: A 21st-Century Anthology (Reaktion Books, 2021)[9]
Her work has been reviewed in publications including the Times Literary Supplement and Burlington Contemporary.[7]
Scholarly focus
editPerloff’s work brings together art history, musicology, and literary studies. Her research has addressed the relationship between popular and avant-garde culture, the development of Russian futurist book art, and the international movement of concrete poetry.[7]
References
edit- 1 2 "Nancy Perloff". Getty. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Messerli, Douglas (June 3, 2017). "An Eye for Words: Concrete Poets at the Getty". Hyperallergic. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- ↑ Risen, Clay (March 26, 2024). "Marjorie Perloff, Leading Scholar of Avant-Garde Poetry, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
- 1 2 "Nancy Perloff". LUMA Arles. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- ↑ Perloff, Nancy (1991). Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie. Oxford University Press.
- 1 2 "Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space". Getty Research Institute. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Concrete Poetry: A 21st-Century Anthology". Burlington Contemporary. 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- ↑ "Explodity: Sound, Image, and Word in Russian Futurist Book Art". Getty Research Institute. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- ↑ "Concrete Poetry: A 21st-Century Anthology review". Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved April 16, 2026.