Maxwell Dunbar

Max Dunbar is a PhD Candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, studying modern American art. His work focuses on the relationship between artistic production and politics, especially during the Great Depression. His dissertation is on the early career of Philip Guston, using Guston as a case study for the political and artistic education of young American artists in the complex social world of the 1930s, both before and after the creation of the Works Progress Administration and the New Deal federal art programs. He has presented papers at conferences at Indiana University, Case Western Reserve University, and The Ohio State University, as well as public talks for the Kemper Art Museum on Washington University's campus. He spent two years as a fellow at Washington University's Writing Center, where he acts as a graduate tutor, assisting members of the Wash U community on a wide variety of written material. He is now working at the Kemper Art Museum as part of their Student Educator program.