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Barbara London

Barbara London, Curator of Media Arts, at the Museum of Modern Art, founded the Museum's ongoing Video Exhibition Program in 1974. She has built an essential context for the visionary statements being made internationally in video and media art by multi-cultural voices, emerging talents, and more established artists such as Laurie Anderson, Gary Hill, Mako Idemitsu, Joan Jonas, Shigeko Kubota, Nam June Paik, and Bill Viola. Her objective has been to link the electronic arts with the more traditional art mediums. To document, preserve, and support this vital art field, she helped establish the Video Study Center and assembled its unique collection of more than 1,000 independently produced videotapes and related historical and theoretical publications.

To further her professional development, Ms. London took two sabbaticals to investigate new trends in electronic technologies and the effects on the creation and distribution of the arts in Japan. She is committed to developing new partnerships between arts and corporate organizations. Recent publications include InterNyet: A Curator's Dispatches from Russia and Ukraine (www.moma.org/internyet); Stir-fry: A Curator's Dispatches from China (www.moma.org/stir-fry); Non-Personal Computer Art, Lyon Biennial. Lyon, Musee d'Art Contemporain, 1995; and Time as Medium: Five Artists' Video Installations, Leonardo, Vol. 28, No. 5.

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"Barbara London." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/barbara-london.

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Summary

Barbara London, Curator of Media Arts at the Museum of Modern Art, founded the Museum's Video Exhibition Program in 1974 and established an international context for video and media art, presenting artists including Laurie Anderson and Bill Viola. She helped found the Video Study Center and assembled over 1,000 independently produced videotapes and related historical and theoretical publications to link electronic arts with traditional art mediums. She took two sabbaticals in Japan to investigate electronic technologies and effects on art and published InterNyet, Stir-fry, Non-Personal Computer Art (Lyon Biennial, Musee d'Art Contemporain, 1995) and Time as Medium, Leonardo Vol. 28, No. 5.

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Last modified 18 June 2011

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