Marina
Kliger

Art Historian & Curator

Rousseau Curatorial Fellow in European Art at Harvard Art Museums. Specializing in eighteenth through twentieth-century European and American visual culture, gender politics of art, cross-cultural contacts, history of collecting, and historiography.

CONTACT

2 Patrick Circle, Stoneham MA 02180

me@marinakliger.com

(646) 289-2632

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Education

2020

PhD History of Art

Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

Dissertation: Une Histoire Particulière: The Troubadour Style and Gendered Historical in Early Nineteenth-Century France

Advisers: Meredith Martin, Thomas Crow

2008

MA History of Art

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Thesis: Seeing Through the Veil: The (In)visibility of the Imperial Flâneuse

Advisers: Jill Casid, Nancy Rose Marshall

2006

BHA Studio Art and Material & Visual Culture

Carnegie Mellon University

Experience

01

Harvard Art Museums

Rousseau Curatorial Fellow in European Art | November 2022–Present

Co-curated an exhibition celebrating the bequest of the Arthur K. and Mariot F. Solomon Collection; edited and wrote for the exhibition catalogue; produced and contributed to the audio tour; led donor events previewing the exhibition; organized a student program with Boston-area artists in the exhibition; currently organizing and will moderate the opening roundtable.

Curated two temporary installations of works on paper from the permanent collection; conducted original research related to the acquisition, study, curatorial care, and display of the museums' collection of 18th and 19th-century European art.

02

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eugene V. Thaw Fellow for Collections Cataloging | September 2020–August 2022

Researched the provenance, exhibition history, bibliographic references, and critical history of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century artworks in the department of European Paintings for publication in the museum's online collection catalogue.

03

Brooklyn Museum of Art

Curatorial Liaison, Exhibitions Department | January 2015–January 2016

Served as an intermediary between technologists, educators, and curators across departments during the development and rollout of the mobile app ASK Brooklyn Museum, funded by Bloomberg Connects; designed, authored, and edited object-based articles for an internal wiki used by educators to quickly and accurately answer visitor questions through the app; facilitated curatorial review of wiki content and app conversations.

04

Art Institute of Chicago

Research Associate, European Painting and Sculpture | October 2009–July 2012

Supported curators of nineteenth-century and modern art with object-based and provenance research on prospective acquisitions, the permanent collection, and special exhibitions; wrote acquisition justifications, gallery labels, and website content; delivered lectures to various museum audiences.

Assistant, Interpretive Exhibitions and Family Programs | September 2008–October 2009

Administered program scheduling, registration, communications, and reporting; contributed to interpretive exhibition development. Supported other divisions of the education department through regular gallery teaching.

Art Smart

Lecturer | May 2019–March 2020

Led two-hour custom tours of New York City museums for small private groups.

National Gallery of Art

Summer Intern, Library Image Collections | June–August 2013

Researched and cataloged 50 reproductive prints from the René Huyghe Archive for web publication.

Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation

Cataloguer | January–May 2013

Cataloged prints by Henri Matisse for a condition survey of the collection.

Art Institute of Chicago

Museum Education Intern | June–August 2008

Participated in an intensive program of museum education theory and practice. Conducted daily tours for adult, student, family, and senior audiences.

Exhibitions

May 24–August 17, 2025

The Solomon Collection: From Dürer to Degas and Beyond

Harvard Art Museums

Co-curator

Exhibtion Page

April 7–August 4, 2025

Anecdotes and Artifacts: Early 19th-century French Artists Reimagine History

Harvard Art Museums

Curator (Gallery Rotation)

June 28–October 21, 2024

Woven for the World: Picturing Kashmiri Textiles Across Cultures

Harvard Art Museums

Curator (Gallery Rotation)

May 22–August 27, 2023

Van Gogh's Cypresses

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Researcher

Exhibtion Page

November 23, 2014–January 25, 2015

Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor

Art Institute of Chicago

Researcher

June 26–September 22, 2013

Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity

Art Institute of Chicago

Researcher

Exhibtion Page

February 26–May 30, 2011

Cézanne's Harlequin

Art Institute of Chicago

Co-curator (Gallery Rotation)

Exhibtion Page

Teaching Experience

New York University

Teaching Assistant for History of Western Art II

January 2018–May 2019

Barnard College

Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Art History II

January–May 2014

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Teaching Assistant for Renaissance to Modern Art

September 2006–May 2008

Publications

2026

"Bards, Druids, and Warriors: Picturing Celts in Early Nineteenth-Century France"

In Susanne Ebbinghaus, ed. The Many Faces of Celtic Art from Antiquity to the Present, exh. cat. Cambridge, MA: The Harvard Art Museums (forthcoming)

2025

The Solomon Collection: From Dürer to Degas and Beyond

With A. Cassandra Albinson, eds. Cambridge, MA: The Harvard Art Museums, 2025.

Publisher Page

Book Trailer

2023

"Offshoots: The Literary and Artistic Context"

With Alison Hokanson. In Susan A. Stein, Van Gogh's Cypresses, exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023.

Publisher Page

2022

"'Small gifts foster friendship': Hortense de Beauharnais, Amateur Art Practice, and the Politics of Exchange in Post-Revolutionary France"

In Small Things in the Eighteenth Century, edited by Beth Fowkes Tobin and Chloe Wigston-Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Publisher Page

Preview

2017

"Actualité de la recherche : Pierre Henri Révoil (1776–1842), Jeanne d'Arc prisonnière à Rouen, vers 1819"

In Le Temps des collections VI. Rouen: Réunion des Musées Métropolitains Rouen Normandie, 2017.

Publisher Page

2016

"What's in an art lesson?"

Object of the Day. The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, April 24, 2016.

Web Page

2013

Historic Exhibitions: The Armory Show

With Stephanie D'Alessandro and Allison Perelman. The Art Institute of Chicago, February 2013.

Web Page

Selected Conferences

2025

"The Genre Anecdotique and Feminine Historical Consciousness in Early Nineteenth-Century France"

Session: Women Artists and the Politics of Neoclassicism, College Art Association Annual Conference, February 12

2024

"Depicting Kashmiri Textiles: Orientalist Representation and Material Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century"

Harvard Art Museums Curatorial Research Colloquium, November 18

2024

"Troubadour Histories and the Politics of Gender in Restoration France"

Women in French History Conference, Boston University, March 22

2023

"Cut into Pieces: The Politics of the Robe de Cachemire and the Fashions of the Franco-Persian Alliance in Paris, 1808-1815"

Session: Fashion, Race, and Power in the Eighteenth Century, Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture Annual Conference, October 14

2023

"The Material Culture of Memory: Personal Possessions and Historical Distance in Post-Revolutionary France"

Material Culture Forum, Harvard University, September 8

2022

"The Turk in the City: Negotiating National Identity and Cosmopolitanism in Early Nineteenth-Century Paris"

Metropolitan Museum of Art Spring Fellows Colloquia, May 23

2022

"A Turk at the Paris Salon: The Ambiguities of National Dress and Cosmopolitanism in Jean-Baptiste Isabey's Le Grand escalier du musée (1817)"

Session: Clothing and Empire: Dress and Power in the Long 18th Century, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Meeting, April 1

2021

"Feminine Historical Consciousness in Early Nineteenth-Century France: Fashion Journals, Literary Almanacs, and Femmes Illustres Compendia"

Session: Nineteenth Century Fashion in Print, Virtual Encounters in Book History Series, University of Michigan Library, October 14

2021

"Historicizing Women in the Early Nineteenth Century: Gendered Temporality in the Troubadour Style"

New York University Institute of Fine Arts Symposium, May 7

2020

"The Woman Artist and Collector in Nineteenth-Century Paris"

Women in the Arts Conference, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 30

2019

"Collecting Memory: Hortense de Beauharnais and the Politics of Souvenir"

Session: Material Culture of the Napoleonic Era, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Meeting, March 22

2018

"Painting Politics: Marie-Philippe Coupin de la Couperie's The Death of Abel and the Political Uses of History Painting"

Session: The Politics of Visual Representation, College Art Association Annual Conference, February 21

2017

"Troubadour Narratives and the Creation of Historical Memory in Restoration France"

Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium, University of Virginia, November 3

2016

"'Les petits cadeaux entretiennent l'amitié': Hortense de Beauharnais, Amateur Art Practice, and the Politics of Exchange"

Small Things in the Eighteenth Century Conference, University of York, July 8

2015

"Imagining Paris in the Nineteenth Century: The Artist's Vision of Urban Experience"

Urban History Association Conference, Columbia University, October 25

Fellowships & Awards

Major Fellowships

  • • Lila Acheson Wallace Fellowship, IFA, 2014–2016, 2017–2018
  • • Florence and Samuel Karlan Memorial Fund Fellowship, IFA, 2012–2014
  • • Mainzer Fellowship in Gender Studies and Sexuality, NYU, 2017
  • • Bourse Jeanne Marandon, Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d'Amérique, 2016–2017
  • • Provost's Global Research Initiative Fellowship, NYU Paris, 2016 and 2017

Travel Grants

  • • GSAS Dean's Student Travel Grant, NYU, 2017 and 2018
  • • Weinberger Travel Grant, IFA, 2015
  • • Alumni Association Research Travel Grant, IFA, 2014

Professional Development

Harvard Extension School

The Essentials of Editing

March 2025

Morgan Library & Museum

Drawing Institute Graduate Seminars: Master Drawings Writing Workshop, Watercolor, The Renaissance in France

2018–2020

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Teaching Institute in Museum Education

August 2009

Skills

Languages

  • • Research fluency in French
  • • Basic capabilities in German and Russian

Research & Writing

  • • Archival, primary and secondary source research
  • • Writing for varied audiences
  • • Developmental and copy editing

Technical

  • • Collections databases, including TMS and CITI
  • • Digital humanities tools
  • • Museum education platforms