Award-winning art historian Terry Smith's incomparable mapping of contemporary art reveals its relationship to the modern, lays bare its history and points the way toward its future. Smith, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh, will present "On Our Contemporaneity" April 26 at 4:30 p.m. at Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall.

A reception in 258 Goldwin Smith Hall will follow the lecture. Both events are free and open to the public.

In his latest book "What Is Contemporary Art?" Smith offers a comprehensive mapping of contemporary art and an exploration of its broader context. The book was awarded the 2010 Frank Jewett Mather Award for distinction in art criticism by the College Art Association, which called Smith "that rare art and social historian able to write criticism at once alert to the forces that contextualize art and sensitive to the elements and qualities that inhere to the works of art themselves."

Smith's 2009 book, "Making the Modern: Industry, Art and Design in America," won the inaugural Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Prize for its outstanding contribution to the study of American modern art. His current project is "Contemporary Art of the World: Late Modern to Now."

As a former professor of contemporary art and director of the Power Institute at the University of Sydney, Smith brings an international perspective to the issues of global art. He serves on the board of the Andy Warhol Museum, is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a membré titulaire of the Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art.

Smith's research interests include world contemporary art, the histories of multiple modernities and modernisms, the history and theory of contemporaneity and the historiography of art history and art criticism. He has special expertise in American visual cultures since 1870 and Australian art since settlement, including aboriginal art.

The talk is part of the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Lecture series, which are presented with support from the Office of the President and the College of Arts and Sciences.