Alex J. Taylor is an historian of modern American art and visual culture. His research strives to locate works of art within the histories of global capitalism and mass media. His interests include transnational modernisms, studio practice, artistic self-fashioning, patrons and patronage, advertising, consumer cultures, and the intersections between artistic, political, and economic life.

Alex’s most recent book is Forms of Persuasion: Art and Corporate Image in the 1960s (University of California Press, 2022), the first dedicated history of corporate patronage in post-war art. Before shifting his focus to American art, Taylor spent a decade working in the cultural sector in Australia, including roles at Experimenta and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. He continues to work on exhibition projects, including curatorial seminars with graduate and undergraduate students.

Alex maintains ongoing research interests in avant-garde painting and sculpture of the mid-twentieth century, including its engagements with film, television, and other forms of popular culture. Other new research includes a history of the ‘collectible’ bridging the spheres of elite connoisseurship and consumer culture.