Matthew James Holman is a writer and academic, based in London.
I write on
literature
and the visual arts, especially in relation to questions of conflict and
diplomacy, democracy and culture, and the avant-garde. I completed a PhD in American cultural history at University College London, and have held research or postdoctoral fellowships at Yale, The Smithsonian, The Courtauld (as the Terra Foundation for American Art Fellow), the Paul Mellon Centre, and the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies in Berlin, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
My first book, Frank O’Hara and MoMA: New York Poet, Global Curator, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury in autumn 2025.
My art and literary criticism has appeared in Apollo, ArtNet, The Art Newspaper (where
I often contribute the Big Review feature), Burlington Contemporary, Frieze, Jacobin, Literary Review, New Left Review, Poetry London, Poetry Review, The White Review, The Times
Literary Supplement, and elsewhere. My scholarship has been published by Critical Quarterly, Essays and Studies, The Journal of Modern Literature and Women’s Studies. I have contributed essays for artist books, international exhibitions, and monographs, including
on Frank Auerbach, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Daniel Crews-Chubb, Theodore Ereira-Guyer, Françoise Gilot, Emily Kraus, Sir Christopher Le Brun, Megan Rooney, Gideon Rubin, and Mark Wallinger. I am a member of the International Association of Art Critics
(AICA) and have lectured extensively on contemporary art and curatorial practice, including at
The Barbican, The Guildhall, and The Slade. I am currently Lecturer in Literature and Fine Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, and continue to teach American art history at The Courtauld.
For enquiries, please email me at matthew.james.holman@gmail.com.
