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Mark Staff Brandl

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

https://www.drgreatart.ch/

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MarkStaffBrandl

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January 2023

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Mark Staff Brandl is an artist, art historian and philosopher of art most well-known for his self-labeled "mongrel art": hybrids of installation and sequential paintings and drawings, which occasionally incorporate lectures as performances. Under the alias "Dr. Great Art" since 2016, he offers the public his inimitable performance-lectures concerning art history. He was born in 1955 in Peoria,Illinois, Brandl lived for many years in Chicago, where his career began. He has lived primarily in Switzerland since 1988, where he became a citizen in 1995. He studied art, art history, aesthetics and literary theory at the University of Illinois, Illinois State University, Columbia Pac. University, and received his Ph.D. in Art History magna cum lau Mark Staff Brandl is an artist, art historian and philosopher of art most well-known for his self-labeled "mongrel art": hybrids of installation and sequential paintings and drawings, which occasionally incorporate lectures as performances. Under the alias "Dr. Great Art" since 2016, he offers the public his inimitable performance-lectures concerning art history. He was born in 1955 in Peoria,Illinois, Brandl lived for many years in Chicago, where his career began. He has lived primarily in Switzerland since 1988, where he became a citizen in 1995. He studied art, art history, aesthetics and literary theory at the University of Illinois, Illinois State University, Columbia Pac. University, and received his Ph.D. in Art History magna cum laude from the University of Zurich in 2011. He is Associate Professor of Art History Emeritus at the Art Academy of Liechtenstein and Higher Professional College for Art in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Brandl is active internationally as an artist since 1980, has won various awards, had many publications and had numerous exhibitions. His shows include galleries and museums in the US, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Egypt, the Caribbean; specific cities include Paris, Moscow, Chicago, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Prague and New York. As a critic, he has been a contributor to London’s The Art Book, a podcaster for Bad at Sports, Theory Editor for Chicago's Proximity magazine and a Contributing Editor for New York’s Art in America. He was also the curator of the Kunstgrill Zurich and the Collapsible Kunsthalle.
Works of his have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Whitney Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the St. Gallen Art Museum, The Thurgau Museum of Fine Art, The E.T.H. Graphic Collection in Zurich, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the International Museum of Cartoon Art, the Art Museum Olten and others.
His philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series (David Carrier and Tiziana Andina, editors), titled 'A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art' has just been published. A book titled 'Covering Brandl,' on 22 years of essays about his art by the author and theorist Daniel F. Ammann was published recently by Magoria Press. ...more

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Average rating: 4.79 · 14 ratings · 3 reviews · 7 distinct works

	Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art, A by Mark Staff Brandl (Goodreads Author), David Carrier (Series Editor), Tiziana Andina (Series Editor) 4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dr Great Art and Mongrel Art it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wie Ein Neanderthaler Falsch Belichtet / Like a Neanderthal in a Bad Light by Mark Staff Brandl (Goodreads Author), Daniel Ammann it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	MARK STAFF BRANDL PRINTS DRUCKGRAPHIK it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tobia Bucher Winterweizen 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	John Seery by Mark Staff Brandl (Goodreads Author), John Seery (Artist) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In the Dark : [Exhibition: May 22 Through June 26, 1988 At the Hyde Park Art Center] by Jane Calvin, Mark Staff Brandl (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Mark Staff Brandl rated a book it was amazing Heartland Drive In Coke by Linda Frye Burnham	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 26, 2026 11:07AM · like
Mark Staff Brandl liked Shaun Belcher's blog post: The Other Side of The Desk " The Other Side of The Desk (The Ugly Librarian) In my middle years (not young not old) I spent many hours in serviceOn the shiny oak desks of municipal and academic librariesNot once did a sexual thought enter my head despite the staffBei..." Read more of this blog post »
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Mark Staff Brandl rated a book it was amazing The Silver Pigs (Marcus Didius Falco, #1) by Lindsey Davis	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 15, 2025 11:43AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mark Staff Brandl rated a book it was amazing The Letters of Vincent van Gogh by Vincent van Gogh	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Mark Staff Brandl liked Daniel Ammann's review of Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art, A (Aesthetics and Contemporary Art): "Mark Staff Brandl is a precise and brilliant thinker who overviews a broad panorama of art history and philosophy. His analysis into central metaphor is the first study taking an in-depth and multimodal view at central metaphors in the visual arts – " Read more of this review »
Aug 19, 2024 01:13AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art, A by Mark Staff Brandl. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art, A by Mark Staff Brandl <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mark Staff Brandl liked Margaryta's review of Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art, A (Aesthetics and Contemporary Art): "REVIEW FORTHCOMING"
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Mark Staff Brandl rated a book it was amazing MARK STAFF BRANDL PRINTS DRUCKGRAPHIK by Mark Staff Brandl (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Mark Staff Brandl rated a book it was amazing Wie Ein Neanderthaler Falsch Belichtet / Like a Neanderthal in a Bad Light by Mark Staff Brandl (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Mark Staff Brandl is now following John Barber Author of The Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 1
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Mark Staff’s Quotes

“Only optimists commit suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists. The others, having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?”
― Emil Cioran

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“When...did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent.”
― Salman Rushdie, Joseph Anton: A Memoir

tags: criticism, dissent, rationality, reason, religion, satire

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