Advisor: Gordon Hughes

Dissertation Title: Perfecting Terror: Jean Fautrier, Asger Jorn, and the Appeal to Everyday Language in Postwar French Painting

Henry McMahon is a Ph.D. candidate in the history of modern art with a focus on interwar and postwar French painting. His dissertation, "Perfecting Terror: Jean Fautrier, Asger Jorn, and the Appeal to Everyday Language in Postwar French Painting," considers the role of graphic commonplaces in the work of artists widely considered to have begun painting anew in the aftermath of World War II. Henry is a graduate of New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He has served as a Fellow at the Menil Collection, Houston, TX, and in various Research and Teaching Assistant roles at Rice. In addition to his dissertation he is working on articles on early nineteenth century copperplate engraving in the Kingdom of Hawai`i, and Vichy France's use of artworks made by soldiers imprisoned in German works camps between 1940-44.