Associate Professor Mark Abbe Featured in The New Yorker

Associate Professor of Art History Mark Abbe has been featured in The New Yorker. In the arcticle The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture, staff writer Margaret Talbot shares that, “Greek and Roman statues were often painted, but assumptions about race and aesthetics have suppressed this truth. Now scholars are making a color correction.” Learn more about Abbe’s research on ancient Greek and Roman polychromy by reading The New Yorker article here. 

Abbe received his MA in History of Art and Archaeology (2007) and PhD in Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology (2013) from New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, as well as an Advanced Certificate in the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (2007).

Abbe teaches a full complement of undergraduate and graduate courses on ancient art history. A specialist in Greek and Roman antiquity, he approaches works of art as expressions of culture that are best explained by situating them within their historical, social, and philosophical contexts. In addition to extensive archaeological fieldwork in the Mediterranean (Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt), he has professional training in art conservation and the scientific investigation of works of art. He has received research fellowships from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the American School of Classical Studies, and the American Research Institute in Turkey. A specialist in the study of color in antiquity, his principal areas of current research are Greek and Roman marble sculpture, particularly issues related to their ancient coloration and polychromy, and the digital visualization of historic materials.

He is the founder of the multidisciplinary Ancient Polychromy Network at the University of Georgia and is associated faculty in the Department of Classics.