Dr Luke Smythe

Dr Luke Smythe

Dr Luke Smythe is a senior lecturer in art history and theory.

Prior to commencing at Monash, I taught art history in New Zealand and the United States. From 2012–2014, I worked as a Curatorial Fellow in Postwar Art at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

I write primarily about modern and contemporary German art, abstraction across media and regions, the transition of analogue media to the digital era, and the impact of generative AI on creative practice. My articles and essays addressing these and related topics have appeared in many journals and catalogues, including Art History, October, Modernism/modernity, the Art Journal (U.S.), and Oxford Art Journal.  I am the author of two monographs: Gerhard Richter, Individualism, and Belonging in West Germany (Routledge, 2022), and Gretchen Albrecht: Between Gesture and Geometry (Massey University Press, 2019; revised and expanded edition 2024). My current book project addresses the role of nature in the art of Sigmar Polke.

As a curator, I have worked on exhibitions at a number of museums and galleries, including the Chinati Foundation, Yale University Art Gallery and the Pinakothek der Moderne.

My research has been funded by the DAAD, the Fulbright Foundation, the Yale Centre for British Art, the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Anna Polke-Stiftung, Toi Aotearoa Creative New Zealand, and the Jennifer Gibbs Trust.

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Gretchen Albrecht: Between Gesture and Geometry

A comprehensive survey of the work of a leading New Zealand painter.

Gerhard Richter, Individualism, and Belonging in West Germany

This book reevaluates the art of Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) in relation to his efforts to achieve belonging in the face of West Germany’s increasing individualism between the 1960s and the 1990s.