Benjamin Heinz-Dieter Buchloh (born November 15, 1941) is a German art historian. Between 2005 and 2021 he was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor ofModern Art in the History of Art and Architecture department atHarvard University.

Born inCologne,Germany on November 15, 1941, Buchloh received aM.Phil inGerman literature from theFreie Universität Berlin in 1969. He later obtained hisPh.D. inart history in 1994 from theGraduate Center at theCity University of New York, where he studied with fellow art historianRosalind Krauss.^[2]

After time as an editor for Germanart journalInterfunktionen and teaching stints at theKunstakademie Düsseldorf,NSCAD University, andCalArts, Buchloh began teaching art history at theState University of New York at Old Westbury and theUniversity of Chicago.^[3] He later taught at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology as anassociate professor from 1989 to 1994. From 1991 to 1993, he also served as the Director of Critical and Curatorial Studies for theWhitney Museum of American ArtIndependent Study Program. He then taught at bothColumbia University and its sister college,Barnard College, as Virginia B. Wright Professor of Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Art from 1994 to 2005, including service as a department chair from 1997 to 2000.

In 2005, he joined theHarvard University department of History of Art and Architecture. He was named Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor ofModern Art.^[4] In 2006, he was named Andrew W. Mellon Professor ofModern Art. In 2007, Buchloh won theGolden Lion award at the 2007Venice Biennale for his work as an art historian towards contributing to contemporary art.^[5] In fall 2009, Benjamin Buchloh resided at theAmerican Academy in Berlin as aDaimler Fellow.^[6] In 2021 he retired from teaching.^[7]

Buchloh is currently a co-editor of the art journalOctober and in 2022 completed a monograph ofGerhard Richter titledGerhard Richter: Painting After the Subject of History.^[8]

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His book,Neo-Avantgarde and Culture Industry (2000), is a collection of eighteen essays on major figures of postwar art written since the late 1970s. It coversNouveau Réalisme inFrance (Arman,Yves Klein,Jacques de la Villeglé), postwar German art (Joseph Beuys,Sigmar Polke,Gerhard Richter), AmericanFluxus andPop Art (Robert Watts andAndy Warhol),minimalism and postminimal art (Michael Asher andRichard Serra), and European and Americanconceptual art (Daniel Buren,Dan Graham).

Buchloh addresses some artists in terms of their oppositional approaches to language and painting, for example,Nancy Spero andLawrence Weiner. About others, he asks more general questions concerning the development of models ofinstitutional critique (Hans Haacke) and the theorization of themuseum (Marcel Broodthaers); and addresses the formation of historical memory in postconceptual art (James Coleman).

The second volume of Buchloh's collected essaysFormalism and Historicity: Models and Methods in Twentieth-Century Art was released in February 2015. It collects a series of important and widely influential essays on thematic and historical issues in twentieth-century art including the "return to order", Soviet "factography", and the "paradigm repetitions" of the neo-avant-garde.

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(May 2012)

• Dissent: The Issue of Modern Art In Boston,Institute of Contemporary Art, 1986,ISBN 978-0-910663-43-4
• Gerhard Richter: Paintings, 1988, (Terry Neff, editor),Thames & Hudson, 1988.ISBN 978-0-500-01442-4
• Gerhard Richter: 18 Oktober 1977, Walther König,1989.ISBN 978-0500289525
• The Work of Andy Warhol, (Gary Garrels, editor), Bay Press, 1989,ISBN 978-0-941920-11-7
• "Conceptual Art 1962–1969: From Aesthetic of Administration to the Critique of Institutions,"October 55 (Winter 1990).
• Andy Warhol: A Retrospective (with Kynaston McShine andRobert Rosenblum), Museum of Modern Art, 1989,ISBN 978-0870706806
• Gerhard Richter: Documenta IX 1992, 1993,ISBN 978-0944219119
• Gerhard Richter (with José Lebrero), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 1994,ISBN 978-8480260336
• James Coleman: Projected Images 1972–1994 (withLynne Cooke),Dia Art Foundation, 1995,ISBN 978-0944521311
• Gabriel Orozco: An Exhibition Catalogue,ICA London, July 25–September 22, 1996,ISBN 978-1-900300-06-3
• Experiments in the Everyday—Allan Kaprow and Robert Watts: Events, Objects, Documents (with Judith Rodenbeck),Wallach Art Gallery, 2000,ISBN 978-1884919077
• Thomas Struth: Portraits (with Thomas Weski),Marian Goodman Gallery, 2001,ISBN 978-3888140969
• Gerhard Richter: Acht Grau, Hatje Cantz, 2002,ISBN 978-3775712750
• Allan Sekula: Performance Under Working Conditions (with Karner Dietrich), 2003,ISBN 978-3901107405
• Neo-Avantgarde and Culture Industry: Essays on European and American Art from 1955 to 1975, MIT Press, 2003,ISBN 978-0262523479
• Art Since 1900 withHal Foster,Rosalind Krauss, andYve-Alain Bois, Thames & Hudson, 2004,ISBN 978-0500238189
• Thomas Hirschhorn,Phaidon Press, 2004,ISBN 978-0714842738
• Flashback: Revisiting The Art of the Eighties (withJohn Armleder), Hatje Cantz, 2006,ISBN 978-3775716314
• Hans Haacke: For Real (withRosalyn Deutsche), Richter Verlag, 2007,ISBN 978-3937572598
• Andy Warhol—Shadows and Other Signs of Life:Anniversary Notes for Andy Warhol, Walther König, 2008,ISBN 978-3865603845
• Ground Zero (with David Brussel andIsa Genzken),Steidl, 2008,ISBN 978-3865603845
• Nancy Spero:Dissidances (withMignon Nixon andHélène Cixous),Museu d'Art Contemporani Barcelona, 2008,ISBN 978-8489771604
• Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity (withBarry Bergdoll,Leah Dickerman, and Brigid Doherty), Museum of Modern Art, 2009,ISBN 978-0870707582
• Gerhard Richter: Large Abstracts (with Gregor Stemmrich), Hatje Cantz, 2009,ISBN 978-3775722490
• Art Since 1900 (volume 1 1900 to 1944, with Hal Foster, Yve-Alain Bois, and Rosalind Krauss), Thames and Hudson, 2011,ISBN 978-0500289525
• Formalism and Historicity: Models and Methods in Twentieth-Century Art, MIT Press, 2015,ISBN 978-0262028523
• Sarah Sze, withOkwui Enwezor and Laura Hoptman,Phaidon Press, 2016.ISBN 978-0714870465
• Gerhard Richter'sBirkenau Paintings, Walther König, 2016.ISBN 978-3-86335-886-0
• Gerhard Richter—Painting After the Subject of History, MIT Press. 2022.ISBN 978-0262543538
• Exit Interview: Benjamin Buchloh in Conversation with Hal Foster, MIT Press, 2024.^[9]ISBN 978-1-949484-06-9

• American Academy in Berlin profile

• 1941 births
• Living people
• Writers from Cologne
• German art historians
• Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
• Academic staff of NSCAD University
• California Institute of the Arts faculty
• State University of New York at Old Westbury faculty
• University of Chicago faculty
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
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