Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.Arch., University of Oregon, Eugene
M.A., University of Oregon, Eugene
B.Arch., University of Oregon, Eugene

Appointed 2017, Program in Art History

Bio

John López’s research takes a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to examining the visual, material, and spatial practices between early modern Europe and the New World. López earned a Ph.D. from the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art program at MIT and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago. He is currently writing a book, The Aquatic Metropolis, that examines the centuries-old efforts by the Aztec and Spanish to end catastrophic inundation at Mexico City via image making, urban planning, and environmental change. López’s research has been supported by the National Endowment of the Humanities, the John Carter Brown Library, the Newberry Library, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, the Social Science Research Council, and the Academic Council of Learned Society, among others.  

Lectures

Medieval and Renaissance Art: introductory survey to Christian, Barbarian, Moslem, and Classical traditions in European Art from the fourth through the sixteenth centuries

Early Renaissance Art and Architecture

Late Renaissance Art and Architecture

Baroque Art

Latin American Art and Architecture

Seminars

Ways of Seeing: The Art and Architecture of Latin America

Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture in the Modern Imagination

Publications

In Progress:

The Aquatic Metropolis: Mapping Water and Urban Form at Viceregal Mexico City (book manuscript in progress). López CV Pre-Columbian Art in the Early Modern Imagination (second book project)

John F. López, ed. A Companion to Viceregal Mexico City, 1519-1821. Leiden: Brill, 2021.

John F. López and Luis Gordo Peláez. “Viceregal Mexico City.” In A Companion to Viceregal Mexico City. Leiden: Brill, 2021.

“The Desagüe’s Watermark.” In A Companion to Viceregal Mexico City. Edited by John F. López and Luis Gordo Peláez. Leiden: Brill, 2021.

“Mesoamerica, Pre-Columbian Architecture,” “Military Architecture and Fortification” “Guadalajara,” and “Mexico City.” In Grove Encyclopedia of Latin American Art. Edited by Thomas B. F. Cummins and Patrick Hajovsky. Oxford: Oxford University Press (under contract; to be submitted to editors in summer 2017).

“On the Pre-Columbian Stage: Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s 1804 Design for Fernand Cortez” (article manuscript in progress).

“Towards a New Reading of Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture in the Modern Imagination” (article manuscript in progress).

Edited Journal Issues:

“En el arte de mi profesión”: Adrian Boot y la tecnología holandesa en la Ciudad de México Virreinal.” In “Monumentos al agua: fábrica, descripción, e imagen de obras hidráulicas en el México Virreinal.” Edited by John F. López and Luis Gordo Peláez. Boletín de Monumentos Históricos, no. 32 (Fall 2015): 26-46. Spanish translation of “In the Art of My Profession”: Adrian Boot and Dutch Water Management in Colonial Mexico City.”

“La huella del agua” with Luis Gordo Peláez. In “Monumentos al agua: fábrica, descripción, e imagen de obras hidráulicas en el México Virreinal.” Edited by John F. López and Luis Gordo Peláez. Boletín de Monumentos Históricos, no. 32 (Fall 2015): 2-8.

“Indigenous Commentary on Sixteenth-Century Mexico City.” In “The Ethnohistorical Map in New Spain.” Edited by Alexander Hidalgo and John F. López. Ethnohistory, vol. 61, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 253-275.

“Beneath the Surface of a Map” with Alexander Hidalgo. In “The Ethnohistorical Map in New Spain.” Edited by Alexander Hidalgo and John F. López. Ethnohistory, vol. 61, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 223-228.

“In the Midst of Floodwaters: Mapping Viceregal Mexico City’s Urban Transformation, 1524- c.1690.” Rutgers Art Review, vol. 28 (2012): 35-52

“In the Art of My Profession”: Adrian Boot and Dutch Water Management in Colonial Mexico City.” In “Imperial Geographies and Spatial Memories in Spanish America.” Edited by Alexander Hidalgo and John F. López. Journal of Latin American Geography, vol. 11/S (2012): 35-60.

“Introduction” with Alexander Hidalgo. In “Imperial Geographies and Spatial Memories in Spanish America.” Edited by Alexander Hidalgo and John F. López. Journal of Latin American Geography, vol. 11/S (2012): 1-4.

External Links