This spring the Department of Art History celebrated the career of Dr. Karen Bearor, who announced her retirement from Florida State University after 33 years of service. Dr. Bearor joined the faculty in 1992, and over the next three decades contributed vitally to the department’s activities, as a colleague, teacher, mentor, and advocate for Art History at FSU and in the wider academic community.
Dr. Bearor specialized in American art history in her studies at the University of Texas and in the core lecture courses she taught at FSU. Her primary focus has been as much, however, on women artists, and she was able to merge both of these interests in her monograph, Irene Rice Pereira: Her Paintings and Philosophy (University of Texas Press, 1993).
Bearor’s book remains—as a testament to its impact and legacy—still in print as hardcover, softcover, and ebook, over thirty years after it originally appeared. Pereira, an abstract painter who worked with unconventional materials, had a distinguished career both as an artist and a teacher, notably helping found the Works Progress Administration’s Design Laboratory during the Great Depression. She was one of the first two women to receive a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in 1953, yet she remained almost unknown to the general public and rarely included in studies of the period until Bearor published her monograph.
Professor Bearor’s work on Pereira radiated outward to a series of related articles and book chapters on American painting, photography and film, curating, and aesthetic theory during the post-World War I Era. In addition to her publications, she has also curated exhibitions, organized film festivals, and participated in numerous conferences and symposia.
Upon arriving at FSU, Professor Bearor created an entirely new curriculum on American art from the Colonial era through the Cold War. She taught upper-level lecture courses and seminars on the Methods of Art History, Global Women’s Art, the Progressive Era, the Harlem Renaissance, Monuments and Memorials, the Cold War, and Documentary Photography and Film. Her former students describe the powerful and continuing impact of Dr. Bearor’s mentorship – both the ideas she introduced and the way she taught them, instilling a lifelong passion for art history in others. Alumna Alison Reilly (PhD ’23) writes,
“Significantly, she taught us to broaden our understanding of artworks, objects, and their display, which enabled me to reconsider the function of exhibitions as memory places. I appreciate this intellectual gift and share her method of expanded thinking with my students. This allowed one of my seminar students to invert my analysis of exhibitions as memorials by composing a conference paper that framed a monument as an exhibition. Dr. Bearor has proven that her notable impact as a gifted teacher extends far beyond her classroom.”
Former students also praise Dr. Bearor’s writing guides, in which she “demystified art historical writing methods,” providing clear guidance in every aspect of art historical research and writing, from the organization and content of a paper prospectus and formatting citations for obscure sources to commonly misspelled words. Many alumni describe their continued use of these guides with their own students. Ashley Lindeman (PhD ’22) writes, “I believe I’m a better writer and my students are becoming better writers because of Dr. Bearor’s guidance.”
Dr. Bearor chaired 8 doctoral dissertations, another 15 master’s thesis committees, and one undergraduate honors thesis, while serving on dozens of others. She was also a longtime contributor to FSU’s International Programs, teaching for many years at both the Florence and London campuses. In addition to her numerous service roles for the department, college, university, and national committees, and many years of service on the faculty senate, Dr. Bearor held a lengthy appointment as coordinator of the department’s annual Graduate Student Symposium; former chair Paula Gerson writes of her gratitude to Dr. Bearor for “crafting the Symposium into such an important annual department activity and a vital part of our national identity, editing our graduate-student journal Athanor, and being such a hospitable host to our visitors.”
Professor Rick Emmerson, who served as Art History chair from 2006 to 2009, writes:
“I have great memories working with Karen both as her chair almost twenty years ago, and as her friend and colleague. As her chair I could always depend on her stepping up to help, to serve on committees and to strongly represent the department and the arts to the university at large. As her friend and colleague after my return to FSU as a visiting distinguished professor, I had an office just two doors down the hall. Since we are both morning people, we often began the day sharing our views concerning the latest political events. But what always impressed me was how often I saw students both in her office and waiting in the hall to discuss their projects and papers. We both care deeply about student writing, and she devoted countless hours to helping students improve their papers.”
The Department celebrated Dr. Bearor’s achievements and honored her service at the Art History Graduation Celebration in May, with a special presentation and gift, a memory book of notes and cards from former students and colleagues, and a touching remembrance by alumni Segundo and Bobbie Fernandez, who met in Dr. Bearor’s Methods seminar in 2002.
