Barry Schwabsky
Barry Schwabsky (b. Paterson, New Jersey, in 1957) is an American art critic, art historian and poet. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, New York University, Yale University, and Goldsmiths College, among others.
Barry Schwabsky

Alex Lozupone · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1957
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- historian · art critic · poet · journalist · curator · writer
- Fields
- visual arts · poetry
- Languages
- English
In this article
Personal life
Schwabsky attended Haverford College (class of 1979) and is married to artist Carol Szymanski. They reside in New York City with their two daughters.
Published poetry
• Trembling Hand Equilibrium (Black Square Editions) • Book Left Open in the Rain (Black Square Editions/The Brooklyn Rail) • 12 Abandoned Poems (Kilmog Press) • Poems 1981–2002 (Meritage Press) • Fate/Seen in the Dark (Burning Deck)
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Barry Schwabsky, revision 1354412638 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Art criticism
Schwabsky is art critic for The Nation (the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States) and co-editor of international reviews for Artforum. Schwabsky's essays have appeared in many other publications, including Flash Art, Contemporary, Artforum, London Review of Books and Art in America. His art criticism books include: Words for Art: Criticism, History, Theory, Practice (Ram Publications); The Widening Circle: Consequences of Modernism in Contemporary Art (Cambridge University Press); and contributions to Abstract Painting: Concepts and Techniques and Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting (Phaidon Press). He has published books on Jessica Stockholder (Phaidon Press), Mel Bochner, Chloe Piene, Karin Davie, Dana Schutz, Alex Katz, Gillian Wearing: Mass Observation (Merrill Publishers), Henri Matisse and Alighiero Boetti, among others. He was an early contributor to The Thing.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 31 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
37,830 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Barry MacSweeneyAuthor
- Barry MitcalfeAuthor
- Barry N. MalzbergAuthor
- Barry NormanAuthor
- Barry SpacksAuthor
- Barry TebbAuthor
- Barry UnsworthAuthor
- Bart ChabotAuthor
Best supported in this field
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