Professor Boris Groys delivered the fourth John McDonald Moore Memorial Lecture on Monday, November 17, at which he discussed how art is one of the most democratic forms of expression.

Dr. Groys, professor of aesthetics, art history, and media theory at the Center for Art and Media Technology  (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, and global professor at New York University. He is a philosopher, essayist, art critic, curator, media theorist, and an internationally acclaimed expert on late-Soviet postmodern art and literature as well as on the Russian avant-garde. Groys' writing engages the wildly disparate traditions of French poststructuralism and modern Russian philosophy.

The lecture series is named after one of the university’s most influential art history teachers. Past lectures have been given by Michael Brenson, Linda Nochlin, and Stephanie Barron. John McDonald Moore taught art history and criticism at The New School from 1968 until his death in 1999. Moore brought to his students the vision of an artist who is also a scholar, and his classes were famously popular. Students, family, and friends established this lecture series to honor John McDonald Moore’s contribution to the university’s intellectual life.  

This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s 2008-2009 program cycle on “Branding Democracy” and is held in conjunction with the exhibition Ours: Branding in the Age of Democracy, on view in the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Galleries from October 16, 2008-January 30, 2009