Nancy Perloff
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
Nancy 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
Perloff 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
Perloff 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
Perloff 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
Perloff’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
- ^ a b "Nancy Perloff". Getty. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- ^ a b c d 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.
- ^ a b "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.
- ^ a b "Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space". Getty Research Institute. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
- ^ a b c "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.