Diane Fischer

Adjunct Professor of Art History

Curriculum Vitae
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Dr. Diane Fischer has spent her career combining museum work, teaching, and art consulting. She received a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York majoring in American Art and minoring in the History of Photography. Her dissertation was later published in both English and French as a multi-authored catalogue for the exhibition Paris 1900: The “American School” at the Universal Exposition (1999 – 2001). This major exhibition, which she organized as a curator at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, traveled to four venues, including the Musée Carnavalet in Paris. Some of her other many other publications include essays in Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Art: Essays in Honor of Gabriel P. Weisberg (2008) and The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism (2005).

As Chief Curator of the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, Dr. Fischer oversaw the reinstallation of the permanent collection and special exhibitions after a major renovation and expansion in 2011. She also curated over twenty additional exhibitions on a variety of topics and contributed an essay to The Samuel H. Kress Memorial Collection catalogue of Renaissance and Baroque art. As a member of the senior staff, she was involved with daily operations of the museum and made it a priority to mentor dozens of curatorial interns.

Before arriving at Furman University in the Fall of 2020, Dr. Fischer taught at Pratt Institute, Seton Hall University, Montclair State University, Cedar Crest College, and Muhlenberg College. She is also the president of her own art advising business.
Honors & Awards

  • Seton Hall University: University Research Grant
  • The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York: Dissertation Fellowship, Travel Fellowship, University Travel Grant, State-Funded University Fellowship, Program Fellowship
  • University of New Mexico: Graduate Assistantship
  • Cornell University: Cornell Council for the Creative and Performing Arts Grant

Education

  • Ph.D., The Graduate School and University Center of the City of New York
  • University of New Mexico, completed coursework for an M.A. in the History of Photography and the Graphic Arts
  • B.F.A., Cornell University

Publications

  • "Introduction," Samuel H, Kress Memorial Collection at the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley. Allentown, PA: Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, 2012
  • "Declaration of Empire: The United States National Pavilion at the Paris Exposition of 1900," in Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Art: Essays in Honor of Gabriel P. Weisberg. Newark, DE: University of Delaware/ Associated University Presses, 2008
  • "Alfred Stieglitz and Tonalism: The Americanization of Pictorial Photography." in The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism. New York: Spanierman Art Gallery, 2005
  • Primal Visions: Albert Bierstadt "Discovers" America, Montclair, NJ: The Montclair Art Museum, 2001
  • Paris 1900: The "American School" at the Universal Exposition. Editor and primary author. The Montclair Art Museum and Rutgers University Press, 1999. French edition, Paris 1900: Les artistes américaines à l'exposition universelle. Paris musées, 2001
  • American Tonalism: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Montclair Art Museum, co-authored with Kevin J. Avery. The Montclair Art Museum, 1999
  • The Montclair Art Colony: Past and Present, co-authored with Gail Stavitsky. The Montclair Art Museum, 1997
  • "The Spirit of Inness: Creating an "American School" at the Universal Exposition of 1900," in George Inness: Presence of the Unseen, Montclair Art Museum, 1994

Research Interests

  • Walker Evans and the American Social Landscape Photographers
  • Tonalist Painting and American Pictorial Photography

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