- wellsk@uwm.edu
- Mitchell Hall 147A
- CV
Kay Wells
- Associate Professor, American Art and Architecture, Art History
Education
- PhD, History of Art, University of Southern California
- MA, History of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- BA, History of Art, Barnard College, Columbia University
Teaching Schedule
| Course Num | Title | Meets |
|---|---|---|
| ARTHIST 102-401 | Renaissance to Modern Art and Architecture | TR 11:30am-12:20pm |
| ARTHIST 102-601 | Renaissance to Modern Art and Architecture | T 10:30am-11:20am |
| ARTHIST 102-602 | Renaissance to Modern Art and Architecture | T 12:30pm-1:20pm |
| ARTHIST 102-603 | Renaissance to Modern Art and Architecture | R 10:30am-11:20am |
| ARTHIST 102-604 | Renaissance to Modern Art and Architecture | R 12:30pm-1:20pm |
| ARTHIST 353-201 | American Art: Colonial Period - 1870 | No Meeting Pattern |
| ARTHIST 353G-201 | American Art: Colonial Period - 1870 | No Meeting Pattern |
Courses Taught
- ARTHIST 102 - Renaissance to Modern Art and Architecture
- ARTHIST 250 - Introduction to American Art
- ARTHIST 368 - History of Modern Design
- ARTHIST 353 - American Art: Colonial Period-1870
- ARTHIST 354 - American Art: 1870 - Present
- ARTHIST 355 - American Folk Art
- ARTHIST 356 - American Architecture
- ARTHIST 462 - Frank Lloyd Wright
- ARTHIST 501 - Colloquium in Method and Theory
-
ARTHIST 750 - Revival! Visualizing the American Past
- ARTHIST 750 - Japonisme—Japan and America in Artistic Encounter
Research Interests
- American art and architecture
- Modern design, craft, and decorative arts
- Material and visual culture studies
- Politics of artistic revivals
Books
Wells, K. L. H. Uncanny Revivals: Designing an American Identity. Yale University Press, 2026.
Wells, K. L. H. Weaving Modernism: Postwar Tapestry between Paris and New York. Yale University Press, 2019.
Selected Publications
Wells, K. L. H. "Publishing the Index of American Design." Source: Notes in the History of Art 44, no. 3 (Spring 2025): 152-162.
Wells, K. L. H. "Looming Large: Presentations of textile art in Washington, DC; New York; and Chicago." Arforum 63, no. 1 (September 2024): 138-145.
Wells, K. L. H. "Indexing Whiteness to American Design." American Art 36, no. 3 (Fall 2022): 10-14.
Wells, K. L. H. "Reading Feminism in Modern Tapestry's Archive." Archives of American Art Journal 60, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 24-43.
Wells, K. L. H. “Laboring Under Globalization: Tapestries by Contemporary Artists” Art Journal 77, no. 4 (Winter 2018): 26-45.
Wells, K. L. H. “Rockefeller's Guernica and the Collection of Modern Copies” Journal of the History of Collections 27, no. 2 (2015): 255-277.
Wells, K. L. H. “Serpentine Sideboards, Hogarth’s Analysis, and the Beautiful Self” Eighteenth-Century Studies 46, no. 3 (Spring 2013): 399-413.