CAA News Today
Books Published by CAA Members
posted by CAA — August 15, 2012
Publishing a book is a major milestone for artists and scholars—browse a list of recent titles below.
Books Published by CAA Members appears every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
August 2012
Irina Aristarkhova. Hospitality of the Matrix: Philosophy, Biomedicine, and Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012).
Helene Aylon. Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist (New York: Feminist Press, 2012).
Paul Catanese and Angela Geary. Post-Digital Printmaking: CNC, Traditional, and Hybrid Processes (London: A&C Black, 2012).
Sharon Lee Hart. Sanctuary: Portraits of Rescued Farm Animals (Milan, Italy: Charta, 2012).
Elaine O’Brien, Everlyn Nicodemus, Melissa Chiu, Benjamin Genocchio, Roberto Tejada, and Mary C. Coffey, eds. Modern Art in Africa, Asia, and Latin America: An Introduction to Global Modernisms (Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).
Conrad Ross. Perceptual Drawing: A Handbook for the Practitioner (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2011).
Carolyn E. Tate. Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture: The Unborn, Women, and Creation (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012).
Eugene F. Farrell: In Memoriam
posted by CAA — August 14, 2012
Francesca G. Bewer is research curator at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums.
Eugene Farrell, ca. late 1970s, in the analytical laboratory at the Center for Conservation and Technical Studies (photograph provided by the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums)
It is with sadness that I inform you of the death of Eugene F. Farrell, former senior conservation scientist at the Harvard Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Gene passed away in his sleep on March 19, 2012, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 78 years old. Farrell will be remembered by generations of conservators as a generous colleague and a dedicated teacher. He was knowledgeable, calm, and open minded—qualities for which he was greatly appreciated, especially during discussions and at meetings.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1933, Farrell came to the conservation field with a background in geology. He received a BA cum laude and an MA in geology from Boston University, which he supplemented with courses in X-radiography, physics, mathematics, geochemistry, and petrology. In 1956, the same year he married Lynne Breda, he became a member of the Scientific Research Society, Sigma Xi, which “honors excellence in scientific investigation and encourages a sense of companionship and cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering.” Farrell was a teaching fellow the following year at Boston University and spent the summer of 1958 studying ice cores in Thule, Greenland, as a crystallographer for Permafrost Ice Studies at the Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Establishment (then based in Wilmette, Illinois, and now in Hanover, New Hampshire). That led to a job as a research staff member in the Crystal Physics Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1960–77), during which time he published numerous papers in the American Mineralogist, Materials Research Bulletin, and American Ceramics Society Bulletin,among others. He also collaborated on a patent for a “Cathode Ray Tube Whose Image Screen Is Both Cathodochromic and Fluorescent and the Material for the Screen.”
Farrell began his museum career in 1977 after he answered a small “help wanted” ad in the Boston Globe for analytical work at Harvard University’s Fogg Museum in the Center for Conservation and Technical Studies (CCTS). Like Rutherford John Gettens, the museum’s illustrious first staff chemist from 1928 to 1950, Farrell had no prior museum experience but quickly learned to apply his skills and knowledge to the materials of art. He started as assistant conservation scientist under the museum’s science associate, Leon Studolski, and helped to integrate petrography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) in the laboratory work. He was soon promoted to conservation scientist. Shortly thereafter, in 1980, he became the senior conservation scientist of the CCTS, which is now called the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. It was a position he held until his retirement in 2004.
Farrell greatly enjoyed the collaboration among scientists, curators, conservators, and students. His quiet demeanor belied his great productivity; the quality and quantity of analyses he carried out is attested by the cabinets filled with report files and by his numerous publications. Among the broad range of topics and materials he investigated were: the painting materials of Vincent van Gogh and Winslow Homer; the composition of pigments from ancient Persia and from sixteenth- to eighteenth-century house paint; and pasteprints. His research on illuminated Renaissance manuscripts found in the Historical Library of the University of Valencia in Spain, while he was a visiting professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in 1990 culminated in the bilingual book he coauthored with Salvador Muñoz Viñas, published in 1999. The materials of stone in Indian and Gothic art and in Chinese scholar’s rocks fascinated Farrell, as did the substance of Chinese ceramics and Baroque terracotta sculpture. He contributed to an eighteen-month project on the analysis of Gothic stone sculpture from New England collections, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He also trained his analytical skills on the origins of turbidity in acrylic paints and on the metal composition of Renaissance bronze medals.
Farrell was a lecturer in history of art and architecture at Harvard University from 1984 onward, teaching courses on the “Technical Examination of Works of Art” and “The Materials of Art” and in the Harvard freshmen seminar program. His many students will remember him for his patience and courteousness: regardless of their level of scientific knowledge, they knew that they could depend on him for any help they needed. He also genuinely took pleasure in helping the Straus Center’s graduate conservation interns and fellows with their research projects and worked with them enthusiastically. Some of the projects that he oversaw were of great interest to the museum community at large. For instance, in 1984–85, under the guidance of Farrell and the center’s director Arthur Beale, Pamela Hatchfield and Jane Carpenter undertook the first major investigation of the potential effects of formaldehyde and formic acid on museum collections.
Farrell, along with Beale and a fellow conservation scientist, Richard Newman, publicized the effects of acid rain on outdoor cultural properties. He was also involved in the important two-day seminar on “The Role of Conservation and Technical Examination in the Art Museum” that was hosted in 1985 by the CCTS in conjunction with the New England Museum Association; more than a hundred participants attended the seminar. Also, in collaboration with colleagues at Harvard’s Peabody Museum, Farrell developed ways of applying atomic absorption spectroscopy instrumentation to the analysis of cultural artifacts.
At the beginning of the 1990s he oversaw the major upgrading of the Straus Center’s analytical facilities and, together with his colleagues, began creating libraries of FTIR and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectra using the Forbes Pigment Collection and the Gettens Collection of Binding Media and Varnishes. He also oversaw a new internship in conservation science and, more recently, the first Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellowship in conservation science at the center—a program initiated in 2002.
After a brief break from museum work following his retirement, Farrell worked on a part-time basis on a range of analytical projects at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, collaborating anew with his former colleague Newman, who is now head of the MFA’s Scientific Research Department.
Farrell always had a dual interest in science and art. Throughout much of his adult life he took courses in art history, languages, and history. He played the guitar and studied instrument making at the Museum of Fine Art’s antique instruments collection, building several guitars and a lute. Farrell also obtained a certificate in the art of hand-wrought ironwork, of which he was very proud. His interests ranged beyond science and art—particularly to all matters Gaelic. The Farrell ancestors had come from the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland before they settled in what is now West Virginia. He took numerous trips back to the old homeland starting in 1968, both with his family and with study groups, and he also studied Gaelic assiduously at the Harvard Extension School. It is in Ireland that he and his family made the acquaintance of—and fell in love with—Irish wolfhounds. They adopted their first one from a shelter in 1982. Farrell was an indefatigable student to the end: in addition to other courses, he was giving himself a self-tutorial on quantum physics in the period before he died.
Gene Farrell is survived by his wife Lynne Breda Farrell, his son Eugene Thoralf, and his dog Owen (Gaelic for Eugene)—the latest in a long line of rescued Irish hounds. Gene will be greatly missed and remembered by all who had the very good fortune to spend time with him.
Committee on Women in the Arts Picks for August 2012
posted by CAA — August 10, 2012
Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts selects the best in feminist art and scholarship. The following exhibitions and events should not be missed. Check the archive of CWA Picks at the bottom of the page, as several museum and gallery shows listed in previous months may still be on view or touring.
August 2012
Rineke Dijkstra, Self Portrait, Marnixbad, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 19, 1991, 1991, chromogenic print, 35 x 28 cm (artwork © Rineke Dijkstra; photograph provided by the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)
Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128
June 29–October 8, 2012
It has been a great year for female photographers exhibiting in New York museums: Cindy Sherman at the Museum of Modern Art, Francesca Woodman at the Guggenheim, and now the Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra, who has a midcareer survey at the Guggenheim. Active since the early 1990s, Dijkstra works in video and large-format color photography, addressing a diverse range of subjects, from adolescents in Poland, Ukraine, and the United States to new recruits to the Israeli army, juxtaposed in their civilian dress and soldier gear.
Feminist Genealogies in Spanish Art: 1960–2010
MUSAC: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León
Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses 24, León, Spain 24008
June 23, 2012–January 6, 2013
Curated by Juan Vicente Aliaga and Patricia Mayayo, this exhibition investigates the underrecognized role that feminist activism and theory has played in Spanish art since the 1960s. Showcasing the work of seventy-seven artists (individuals and artist collectives) and representing several generations, Feminist Genealogies in Spanish Art: 1960–2010 strives to restore what the museum justifiably refers to as “the erased memory of feminist knowledge, practices, and genealogies” from Spanish art history—from the waning years of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship to the current rise of the Indignados (“Indignant”) protest movement.
Ulrike Müller: Raw/Cooked
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238
June 29–September 9, 2012
In the fifth installment of the Brooklyn Museum’s Raw/Cooked series, Ulrike Müller asked queer and feminist artists to create drawings based on slogans from historical feminist t-shirts found in the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The resulting one hundred drawings are both a valentine to the work of queer and feminist activists of the past and a testament to the ongoing struggle faced by the contributing artists. In addition, Müller also culled the museum’s permanent collection to find objects that spoke to her project, displaying these alongside the drawings.
Joana Vasconcelos Versailles
Palace, Museum, and National Estate of Versailles
Versailles, France 78646
June 16–September 30, 2012
The Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos’s installation of large-scale sculptures in the Palace of Versailles addresses history and politics with a child’s sense of wonder and a master craftsman’s feel for material and form. Starting from the idea that the “world is an opera and Versailles embodies the operatic and aesthetic ideal,” Vasconcelos has installed her work, made from everyday objects and materials, in primary locations throughout the palace and its gardens. Mary Poppins (2010), a colorful creature composed of handmade and industrial fabric, hovers expectantly above a grand staircase. A pair of giant-sized high-heel shoes, made entirely from stainless-steel pots and pans, occupies the Hall of Mirrors, adding an Alice in Wonderland element to the ornate surrounding.
Sharon Hayes, Beyond, 2012, research/ production still (photograph © Sharon Hayes and photograph provided by the artist and provided by the artist, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, and the Whitney Museum of American Art)
Sharon Hayes: There’s So Much I Want to Say to You
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021
June 21–September 9, 2012
Sharon Hayes uses photography, film, video, sound, and performance to investigate the critical relationships among politics, history, speech, and desire. In her largest museum installation to date, Hayes worked with a collaborator, Andrea Geyer, to build an environment on the Whitney Museum’s third floor for staging a collection of the artist’s “speech acts,” which date from 2000 to today. The radical conceit of the installation calls to mind moments in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, such as Dawn Kasper’s studio residency, while also evoking the contemporary protest culture that the biennial displaced outside the museum.
Burnt Breakfast and Other Works by Su Richardson
Constance Howard Gallery and Women’s Art Library
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, United Kingdom
July 6–September 9, 2012
Curated by Alexandra Kokoli for the Constance Howard Gallery and Women’s Art Library at Goldsmiths, Burnt Breakfast and Other Works by Su Richardson is the latest in a string of exhibits and symposia around London that have been dubbed the “Feminist Art Spring.” Richardson’s crocheted plate of a typical English breakfast of sausage, egg, bacon, and tomato was created in 1975 as a transatlantic exchange with other women artists. It has since become an iconic work and been reclaimed as a precursor of the contemporary use of crafts in fine art by artists working in the United Kingdom.
Niki de Saint Phalle on Park Avenue
Park Avenue between 52nd and 60th Street, New York, NY
July 12–November 15, 2012
Ten years after Niki de Saint Phalle’s death and forty-four years since her art was exhibited in Central Park’s Conservatory Garden, residents of and visitors to New York can once again commune with her sculptures of mosaic-bejeweled figures, installed in the traffic islands that line Park Avenue from 52nd to 60th Street. The parade of nine sculptures includes signature de Saint Phalle pieces, such as her everywoman “Nana” figures, as well as work from a series that celebrate African American jazz musicians and athletes. This outdoor exhibition is sponsored by Nohra Haime Gallery.
Exhibitor and Advertiser Prospectus for the 2013 Annual Conference
posted by CAA — August 10, 2012
The Exhibitor and Advertiser Prospectus for the 2013 Annual Conference in New York is now available for download. Featuring essential details for participation in the Book and Trade Fair, the booklet also contains options for sponsorship opportunities and advertisements in conference publications and on the conference website.
The Exhibitor and Advertiser Prospectus will help you reach a core audience of artists, art historians, educators, students, and administrators, who will converge in New York for CAA’s 101st Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013. With three days of exhibit time, the Book and Trade Fair will be centrally located at the Hilton New York, where most programs sessions and special events take place. CAA offers several options for booths and tables that can help you to connect with conference attendees in person.
In addition, sponsorship packages will allow you to maintain a high profile throughout the conference. Companies, organizations, and publishers may choose one of four visibility packages, sponsor specific areas and events such as the Student and Emerging Professionals Lounge, or work with CAA staff to design a custom package. Advertising possibilities include the Conference Program, distributed to over six thousand registrants, and the conference website, seen by thousands more.
The priority deadline for Book and Trade Fair applications has been extended to Friday, November 16, 2012; the final deadline for all applications and full payments, and for sponsorships and advertisements in the Conference Program, is Friday, December 7, 2012.
Questions about the 2013 Book and Trade Fair? Please contact Paul Skiff, CAA assistant director for Annual Conference, at 212-392-4412. For sponsorship and advertising queries, speak to Helen Bayer, CAA marketing and communications associate, at 212-392-4426.
FIELD REPORT
posted by CAA — August 07, 2012
Doralynn Pines is an independent scholar and consultant based in New York and a member of the CAA Board of Directors. She served as associate director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was chief librarian of the museum’s central research library.
The Digital World Meets Art History at Princeton University
On July 12, 2012, the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University in New Jersey sponsored a one-day conference that covered topics of digital archiving, research, and technical innovation in art history. Entitled “The Digital World of Art History: Databases, Initiatives, Policies, and Practices,” the conference was attended by almost one hundred art historians, art librarians, and museum and visual-resources curators. The year 2012 marks the ninety-fifth anniversary of the index, which was founded in 1917 by Charles Rufus Morey. The anniversary also celebrates the fact that the index’s information, held in library reserves for decades, has evolved into a growing digital database for use by scholars all over the world.
Organized by Colum Hourihane, director of the index, the conference featured eighteen invited speakers who discussed topics as varied as the future of art bibliography (Carole Ann Fabian, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University), copyright, scholarship, and fair use in the fine arts (Gretchen Wagner, ARTstor), art-historical research (Gwen David, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Queens College, City University of New York), and a database of performances of medieval narratives (Evelyn [Timmie] Birge Vitz and Marilyn Lawrence, both from New York University). Melitte Buchman, also of NYU, spoke about current best digital practices. The Morgan Library and Museum was represented by curators and librarians (Maria Oldal, Elizabeth O’Keefe, William Voelkle), who described their recently completed collaboration with the index. Approximately 58,000 images from over nine hundred Western medieval and Renaissance manuscripts will soon be available through the Morgan Library’s website and through the index.
Several talks outlined exciting new digital projects currently underway at Princeton, including databases and new initiatives at the index (Judith Golden, Jessica Savage, Beatrice Radden Keefe, Jon Niola, Henry Schilb), in the Visual Resources Collection (Trudy Jacoby), and in the Digital Humanities Initiative (David Mimno). Sandra Ludig Brooke, a librarian at the Marquand Library of Art and Archeology, spoke about the Blue Mountain Project, a team effort of scholars and librarians to catalogue, and make freely available, digital editions of avant-garde arts journals produced in Europe and North America between 1848 and 1923. The project is off to a running start with a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
To wrap up the conference, Eleanor Fink of the World Bank Group presented “Art Clouds: Reminiscences and Prospects for the Future,” a look back at the well-known projects she oversaw during her tenure at the Getty Information Institute, including the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN), the Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), and the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA). She also noted how far the field had come, with collaborative and cross-platform efforts being the norm. In looking to future prospects for seamless access to art information, Fink pointed to Linked Open Data and some recent projects that have begun to use it.
Hourihane has just announced the online publication of the papers on the Index of Christian Art website.
Jens T. Wollesen: In Memoriam
posted by CAA — July 23, 2012
The following obituary was submitted by Jill Caskey, associate professor in the Department of Art at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and PhD coordinator for the school’s Centre for Medieval Studies.
Jens T. Wollesen, a professor and a specialist in the art of medieval Italy and Cyprus, died in Toronto on April 22, 2013. He received his BA from the University of Hamburg, his PhD from the University of Heidelberg, and his Habilitation from the University of Munich before traversing the Atlantic to join the Department of Art at the University of Toronto in 1985. For the rest of his life Wollesen remained firmly anchored to Toronto, where his contributions to the pedagogical and scholarly missions of the university took many forms. At various times he directed the undergraduate and graduate programs in art and also served on the Art Committee of the University of Toronto’s Victoria University, where he was a fellow.
Wollesen’s work probed several salient issues in medieval art, from the devotional function of panel paintings to images of everyday life. Among his many articles and books are the influential Die Fresken von San Piero a Grado bei Pisa (Bad Oeynhausen, Germany: Theine, 1977), Pictures and Reality: Monumental Frescoes and Mosaics in Rome around 1300 (New York: Peter Lang, 1998), and Patrons and Painters on Cyprus: The Frescoes in the Royal Chapel at Pyrga (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2010). He had recently completed a second book on Cyprus, entitled Acre or Cyprus: A New Approach to Crusader Painting around 1300.
Wollesen could discourse equally on Asian painting, contemporary art, and the medieval artists and patrons who commanded most of his scholarly attention. His intellectual range and curiosity served him well in the classroom. Literally thousands of undergraduates first encountered the discipline of art history in his legendary Intro lectures at Toronto. He garnered legions of fans in such adventurous courses as “The Body: An Exercise,” “The Practice of Art History,” and “Is There Crusader Art?” Wollesen flourished outside the classroom and study as well as within: he was an accomplished painter and photographer, and a passionate sailor who commanded the waves of Lake Ontario at the first sign of spring.
He is survived by his wife, Elena Lemeneva, and his children, Leon Wollesen, Hanna Wollesen, Christina Wollesen, Victor Wollesen, and Kate Wollesen.
Affiliated Society News for July 2012
posted by CAA — July 09, 2012
American Council for Southern Asian Art
The Bulletin of the American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) will be available to all ACSAA members this summer. As printed versions of the bulletin were discontinued in 2011, members should visit the ACSAA website to download the latest edition in PDF format, as well as all past Bulletins and Newsletters that have now been digitized.
American Society of Hispanic Art Historical Studies
The American Society of Hispanic Art Historical Studies (ASHAHS) announced its awards winners at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference. Jessica Weiss of the University of Texas at Austin is the recipient of the Photographs Grant, given to support the acquisition of photographs by graduate students who are preparing their doctoral dissertation or MA thesis on the topic of Spanish or Portuguese art history. Weiss’s dissertation is entitled “Juan de Flandes and the Commoditization of Aesthetics in Isabelline Spain.”
The Eleanor Tufts Award, which recognizes an outstanding English-language publication in the area of Spanish or Portuguese art history, went to Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011), edited by Ilona Katzew. In addition, the jurors selected two books for honorable mention: Book of Honors for Empress Maria of Austria: Composed by the College of the Society of Jesus of Madrid on the Occasion of Her Death (1603) (Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2011), edited by Antonio Bernat Vistarini, John T. Cull, and Tamás Sajó; and Maruja Mallo and the Spanish Avant-Garde (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), by Shirley Mangini.
Art, Literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence
Art, Literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence (ALMSD) thanks everyone who helped make its recent conference, “The Symbolist Movement: Its Origins and Its Consequences,” a success. The event took place April 25–28, 2012, at Allerton Park in Monticello, Illinois. Visit the conference website for complete program information and to watch a video of the opening. ALMSD has signed a contract with a publisher to publish an annual journal, to be called Art, Literature, and Music in Symbolism, Its Origins, and Its Consequences, beginning in 2013. The organization invites interested scholars working on aspects of the Symbolist movement to learn more about membership in the organization. Please contact Rosina Neginsky to contribute to the annual newsletter.
Association for Textual Scholarship in Art History
The Association for Textual Scholarship in Art History (ATSAH) seeks papers for a special session during CAA’s 101st Annual Conference in New York, taking place February 13–16, 2013. The session will examine how stained glass evolved as an art form between the years 1400 and 1900. Papers may also address how images are derived from the Bible, mythology, history, and literature. Please send abstracts to Liana Cheney, ATSAH president.
Association of Historians of American Art
The Association of Historians of American Art (AHAA) will sponsor two sessions at CAA’s 2013 Annual Conference in New York. Elizabeth Lee of Dickinson College and Robin Vedder of Pennsylvania State University will chair the scholarly session, “The Body of the Artist and the Artist as Body in American Artistic Practice.” Jaleen Grove and Douglas Dowd, both of Washington University in Saint Louis, will chair the professional session, “The Art History of American Periodical Illustration.” See the AHAA website for more information on the two panels.
The second AHAA symposium, “American Art: the Academy, Museums, and the Market,” will feature Holland Cotter, art critic for the New York Times, as the keynote speaker. The event will take place at the Boston Athenaeum in Massachusetts on October 11–13, 2012. The full schedule of speakers and registration information can be found online. Registration opened on June 1, 2012.
Association of Research Institutes in Art History
The Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH) invites nominations and self-nominations for the newly established ARIAH Prize for Online Publishing. This award, which carries a $1,000 cash prize, seeks to encourage and promote scholarly standards in online publishing in all fields of art history. The prize will be awarded annually to the author(s) of a distinguished article or essay published online in the past three years in the form of an ejournal or a short-form epublication that advances the study of art history and visual culture. The article should either appear exclusively online, or should be substantially distinct from any print version, creatively capitalizing on the potential of digital publishing.
Community College Professors of Art and Art History
Community College Professors of Art and Art History (CCPAAH) is reaching out to new members: please visit the new blog and watch for a Facebook page that is being developed. The organization seeks papers for a symposium, “Teaching All of Our Students: Few Majors, Fewer Transfers, Many Others,” to be held at the next CAA Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013, in New York. The symposium will explore the diverse make-up of the community-college student body and consider how best to teach art and art history to students who may have no interest in pursuing a major in the field. Panelists will be asked to share an example of a “best practice” that they feel addresses this concern. For more information about the upcoming symposium and for general inquiries about CCPAAH, please write to communitycollegeart@gmail.com.
CCPAAH invites its members to submit proposals for papers for Foundations in Art: Theory and Education’s next conference, “postHaus,” taking place April 3–6, 2013, in Savannah, Georgia. The session topic, “The Value of Writing in the Foundation Year: Exploring New Approaches,” will examine the importance of writing in both studio and art-history courses in the foundation year. Paper topics might include: how writing is integrated into your studio course; writing assignments beyond the standard art-history research paper; and using technology to get students writing. Please address all questions regarding FATE proposals to communitycollegeart@gmail.com.
Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture
Michael Yonan, associate professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia, has been elected the new president of the Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture (HECAA).
HECAA will be represented at the next American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies conference, taking place April 4–7, 2013, in Cleveland, Ohio, with two panels, chaired by Christopher Johns and Heather McPherson. Proposals for papers are due by September 15, 2012, and should be sent directly to the seminar chairs. HECAA will also host its annual luncheon and its business meeting at the conference.
Historians of Islamic Art Association
Registration is open for “Looking Widely, Looking Closely,” the third biennial symposium of the Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA), hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, October 18–20, 2012. Early registration ends on August 1. For more information about registration, travel tips, and hotels, please visit the website.
HIAA welcomes Jennifer Pruitt to the organization’s executive board as interim webmaster, succeeding Lara Tohme, who served for two years, from 2011 to 2012.
International Sculpture Center
Registration is now open for the twenty-third International Sculpture Conference of the International Sculpture Center (ISC), taking place October 4–6, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. The conference will bring together people from around the world and across the field of contemporary sculpture to Chicago for ARTSlams, mentoring sessions, and an invigorating roster of presenters, including two keynote speakers: the artists Sophie Ryder and Sanford Biggers. This is an event you don’t want to miss!
ISConnects is hosting three upcoming summer and fall events in 2012. On July 21 in Omaha, Nebraska, ISC, KANEKO, and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts will present a full day of discussions and artist-led tours with Nathalie Miebach and Michael Jones McKean, coinciding with McKean’s Bemis exhibition, The Rainbow: Certain Principles of Light and Shapes between Forms. On August 25, ISC and Grounds for Sculpture will host tours and an exciting panel discussion exploring the evolution and transformation of sculpture, followed by a reception in the Grounds for Sculpture Museum in Hamilton, New Jersey. Funded in part by the Johnson Art and Education Foundation, ISConnects explores the unique perspectives on sculpture in the contemporary art world. With partner organizations, ISC offers intimate programming that addresses cutting-edge, timely trends in sculpture through lively and insightful discourse.
Italian Art Society
The Italian Art Society (IAS) seeks nominations and self-nominations for various committee positions; please review the list of vacancies for more information on how to apply for a position. The deadline for nominations is November 1, 2012. Those interested in submitting proposals for papers for four linked sessions at the forty-eighth International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, taking place May 9–12, 2013, should review the online call for additional information.
Leonardo Education and Art Forum
Patricia Olynyk, an artist and chair of the Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF), will moderate a panel, “Eco-Art + the Evolving Landscape of Social and Situated Practices,” at the eighteenth International Symposium on Electronic Art, to be held September 19–24, 2012, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The panelists include Linda Weintraub, Sam Bower, and Saul Ostrow, and the focus will be on education and the complex triad of ecoart, situated practices, and project-based public work that embraces various democratic processes and inspires progressive social, cultural, and environmental change. Jill Scott and Ellen K. Levy are cochairs of another ISEA panel, “Synaptic Scenarios for Ecological Environments,” which addresses cognitive issues in relation to ecology with the goal of gaining a greater embodied sense of place within the ecological environment. The panelists include Patricia Olynyk, Nicole Ottiger, Angelika Hilbeck, and Alison Hawthorne Deming.
LEAF seeks panelists for its session at CAA’s 2013 Annual Conference in New York. Entitled “Re/Search: Art, Science, and Information Technology (ASIT): What Would Leonardo da Vinci Have Thought?” and moderated by Joe Lewis of the University of California, Irvine, the session takes a close look at art projects that involve the intersection of science and technology. When Leonardo da Vinci introduced himself to the Duke of Milan, he did not reveal himself as an artist but instead presented a proposal to create military weapons to protect the duke’s city in times of siege. What entrepreneurial ideas have contemporary artists developed to provide funding for their projects? Please submit proposals to Joe Lewis by July 31, 2012.
Mid-America College Art Association
The Mid-America College Art Association (MACAA) will hold its biannual conference from October 3 to 6, 2012, in Detroit, Michigan. The James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University will host the conference. Programming will include three featured speakers; panels on art, design, art history, and visual resources; and studio workshops, member exhibitions, and museum visits. The conference will have two content areas, “Meaning and Making” and “Community and Collaboration.” Visit the Detroit conference website to learn more about the event, travel and hotel information, and how to become an MACAA member.
National Alliance of Artists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Lee Ransaw, chairman and founder of the National Alliance of Artists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (NAAHBCU), was a panelist on the 2012 James A. Porter Colloquium at Howard University in Washington, DC. He presented on “The Growth and Development of the National Alliance of Artists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” The James A. Porter Colloquium is the leading forum for scholars, artists, curators, and individuals in the field of African American Art and Visual Culture. Established at Howard University in 1990, the colloquium is named in honor of James A. Porter, the pioneering art historian and professor, whose 1943 publication Modern Negro Art laid the foundation for the field.
The annual NAAHBCU meeting was held June 29–30, 2012, in Atlanta, Georgia. Coinciding with the meeting was an exhibition, Influence and Legacy: Shaping the Future while Preserving the Past, featuring NAAHBCU artists and held at the Stewart McClain Gallery in Atlanta.
National Council of Arts Administrators
The National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA) board seeks proposals for the presentation of case studies for its annual conference, “Granting Permission,” taking place November 7–10, 2012, and hosted by Ohio State University and Columbus College of Art and Design. Topics might include but are not limited to: leadership and management; interpersonal communication; succeeding with external constituencies; budget management; personnel evaluation; issues related to promotion and tenure; personal growth; career paths; and any topical area related to arts administration and leadership. Please outline your proposal, or send an actual case study, in 350 words or less to Lydia Thompson or Amy Hauft. Proposals are due by Friday, July 31, 2012. Selected entries will be notified by September 1, 2012. Confirmation of presenters will be posted at NCAA’s website and formally acknowledged by the NCAA board.
New Media Caucus
The New Media Caucus (NMC) extends a warm welcome to its new board members: Elizabeth Demaray, Rutgers University; Margaret Dolinsky, Indiana University Bloomington; Conrad Gleber, La Salle University; Claudia Hart, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Krista Hoefle, Saint Mary’s College; Meredith Hoy, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Patrick Lichty, Columbia College Chicago; Gail Rubini, Florida State University; and Joyce Rudinsky, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. These outstanding artist practitioners, educators, and academics will join continuing board members and officers.
Public Art Dialogue
Public Art Dialogue (PAD) has published the latest issue of its eponymous journal, which features a theme of “Audience Response.” Public art today is often commissioned with community input, but very little is known about how such art is received initially and over time. Although “the public” is often invoked, the actual audience is rarely consulted after a work is in place. In this issue, Public Art Dialogue aims to document this elusive but critical aspect of public art and suggest a methodology for its study.
The fourth annual PAD award for achievement in the field of public art was presented to the media artist Ben Rubin at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Rubin treated all in attendance to a unique glimpse into the behind-the-scenes happenings of his new public project, Shakespeare Machine. Commissioned by New York City’s Percent for Art program, the site-specific sculpture will be installed in the lobby of the Public Theater in New York. After the presentation, Rubin shared some of the joys and obstacles of the public art process in an intimate question-and-answer session.
Society for Photographic Education
This fall the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) will host regional conferences in Rochester, New York; Jersey City, New Jersey; Daytona Beach, Florida; Starkville, Mississippi; Cincinnati, Ohio; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Eugene, Oregon. Photographic artists, educators, students, and professionals will gather on an intimate scale for discussions on programming, photography critiques, exhibitions, tours, receptions, and more. Regional conferences are great opportunities to meet other members of the organization. If you are not an SPE member, you can still attend the conferences at a nonmember rate. Visit the SPE website to find out more about the regional conferences, including registration and proposal deadlines.
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women
The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women (SSEMW) has elected the following officers for the current year: Allyson M. Poska, professor of history, University of Mary Washington, president; Jane Couchman, professor emeritus, York University, vice president; Deborah Uman, professor of English, Saint John Fisher College, treasurer; Abby Zanger, independent scholar, secretary; and Karen Nelson, Center for Literary and Comparative Studies, University of Maryland, webmaster.
Society of Architectural Historians
At its sixty-fifth annual conference in Detroit in April 2012, members of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) warmly welcomed a new slate of officers: Abigail A. Van Slyck, Connecticut College, president; Kenneth Breisch University of Southern California, first vice president; Ken Tadashi Oshima, University of Washington, second vice president; Gail Fenske, Roger Williams University, secretary; and Jan M. Grayson, treasurer. SAH also welcomes the following incoming board members, who will serve three years: Michael J. Gibson, Greenberg, Whitcombe & Takeuchi; Duanfang Lu, University of Sydney; Robert Nauman, University of Colorado, Boulder; Donna Robertson, Illinois Institute of Technology; and Gary Van Zante, MIT Museum.
Visual Resources Association
The Visual Resources Association (VRA) presented the winners of its highest honors at an awards luncheon on April 19, 2012, which took place during the organization’s thirtieth annual conference, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kathe Hicks Albrecht of American University received the Distinguished Service Award for her contributions to visual resources and image management. The ceremony featured comments from Albrecht’s nominators and a discussion of her engagement with visual resources advocacy, service to the profession, and long term involvement with VRA and the VRA Foundation over her twenty-one year career. In addition, VRA presented two Nancy DeLaurier Awards for distinguished achievement to Sheila M. Hannah of the University of New Mexico and Patti McRae Baley of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Hannah was honored for her early, innovative development of image automation: the Visual Information Checklist, the development of Visual Resources Catalog of Native American Artists, and the implementation of a thriving internship program. Baley was honored for her long and successful role as the “Empress” of the VRA conference; inaugurating the “VRAffle,” which provides income for the Tansey Travel Awards; and immediate involvement in the association for new and veteran conference attendees. You can find images and information about the awards presentation and a selection of multimedia illustrated conference presentations on the VRA website.
Michael Rabe: In Memoriam
posted by CAA — July 09, 2012
Andrew Cohen is a professor and chair of the Department of Art and Design at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
Michael Rabe
At the inquisitively early age of five, Michael Rabe (1947–2012) started his long and passionate engagement with India. His father Rudolph Rabe followed a “calling” to do missionary work and in 1952 moved with his wife Eleanore and their sons Michael and Gregg to the Gadag district in the state of Karnataka, India. The area is home to many art-historical landmarks of the Later Calukyan period, such as the Trikutesvara temple complex built in the eleventh century. Rabe spoke happily of his youth in India, especially his schooling at Kodaikanal International School in Tamil Nadu. While his family stayed in India, he was sent to Minnesota to live with an uncle, where he finished his last year of high school. He continued his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Minnesota, receiving a BA in philosophy in 1969, with a minor in Sanskrit. In 1973 he earned an MA in South Asian languages and literature and completed a PhD in 1987, with the dissertation “The Monolithic Temples of the Pallava Dynasty: A Chronology.” Frederick M. Asher was his advisor, and Rabe was the first of many PhD students to work closely with this professor.
Since 1983 Rabe was an associate professor in the Department of Art and Design at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, where he taught courses in a wide selection of Western and Asian art history. With ease he would explicate the symbolism of global monuments. Eager to share his enthusiasm for South Asian art, he also taught as an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1986 to the present. A passionate teacher who did not limit himself to the classroom, Rabe was a veritable fountain of knowledge who shared freely with students and colleagues. I first met Michael in Chicago during the early 1980s, and from then on I always knew him as a scholar whose love for South Asian art was contagious. No doubt many members of the American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) have their own stories of lengthy, at times overwhelming, conversations with him regarding a full array of Indian art and cultural topics.
Rabe was fearless in the pursuit of learning. While never challenging without good reasons, he insisted on questioning the soundness of scholarship. Among his passions was the study of forged or copied works of art, especially South Indian sculptures. I recall more than one ACSAA panel where he questioned the validity, or originality, of certain artworks. One of the last email correspondences we had concerned a bronze that was being promoted as a Vijayanagara period work. Because certain compositional elements seemed “wrong” to me, I asked Rabe for his thoughts; he immediately and accurately identified inconsistencies with the bronze. Recalling this exchange I remember fondly my friend’s joy that came from looking at art, as well as his pursuit of clear vision. During this exchange, while eloquently sharing his thoughts, he was suffering terribly from a relapse of cancer (which he didn’t bother to mention).
Rabe is perhaps most widely known for his Pallava study, especially the densely researched book The Great Penance at Māmallapuram: Deciphering a Visual Text (Chennai, India: Institute of Asian Studies, 2001). Gathering painstakingly detailed visual and literary references, he argued that the ultimate meaning of the large Māmallapuram relief is a Pallava praśasti, a visual counterpart of a celebratory lineage recitation, while maintaining as secondary meaning the more commonly accepted narratives of Arjuna’s penance and of Ganga’s descent. There are other articles where he ties the literary with the visual, such as in “Sexual Imagery on the ‘Phantasmogorical Castles’ at Khajuraho,” published by the International Journal of Tantric Studies in 1996. In his spare time Rabe was working on a textbook to serve as an introduction to comparative themes in Asian religious art.
On behalf of Michael Rabe’s family, friends, and colleagues, I will miss his intellectual prowess and his insightful and generous scholarly sharing. His gregarious, good-natured friendship is what remains the most fondly remembered. Rabe is survived by his wife Duangdow Arjsiri and his three children, Rachel, Dylan, and (from a previous marriage) Daniel.
Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members
posted by CAA — June 22, 2012
See when and where CAA members are exhibiting their art, and view images of their work.
Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
June 2012
Abroad
Gesche Würfel, Go for Gold! 2009 The Blue Fence | Olympic Stadium 4, 2007, digital C-type print, 20 x 20 in. (artwork © Gesche Würfel)Gesche Würfel. Underground Gallery, London, United Kingdom, July 26–August 9, 2012. Go for Gold! Photography.
Mid-Atlantic
Serena Bocchino, 99º (Fever) Hold Me Tight, 2012, enamel, graphite, and gold leaf on canvas, 38 x 48 in. (artwork © Serena Bocchino)Serena Bocchino. Simon Gallery, Morristown, New Jersey, May 29–July 31, 2012. Fever. Painting and work on paper.
Midwest
Neil Goodman. Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, April 20–May 26, 2012. Breadth. Sculpture.
Northeast
Michele Brody. Guild Gallery II, New York, April 19–June 12, 2012. Drawing Roots. Drawing on handmade paper.
Lisi Raskin. Churner and Churner, New York, February 23–March 31, 2012. Shots in the Dark. Sculpture, drawing, and collage.
Mira Schor, Now, 2011, ink, oil, and gesso on linen 14 x 18 in. (artwork © Mira Schor)Mira Schor. Marvelli Gallery, New York, March 29–April 28, 2012. Mira Schor: Voice and Speech. Painting.
Dee Shapiro, Comfort Zone, 2011, ink and Flashe paint on paper, 22 x 30 in. (artwork © Dee Shapiro)Dee Shapiro. Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, June 19–July 28, 2012. Sexing the Polymorphs. Drawing.
Annie Shaver-Crandell. SiteImages Chelsea, New York, April 19–28, 2012. Steeds, Sofas, and Pistas: The Figure at Home, Abroad, and Afield. Painting.
Margaret Rose Vendryes, Gelede Cherrelle – African Diva, 2012, oil and cold wax on canvas with paper, 30 x 30 in. (artwork © Margaret Rose Vendryes)Margaret Rose Vendryes. Gelabert Studios Gallery, New York, May 29–June 16, 2012. 33⅓ Pushing the Needle: The African Diva Project. Painting and African masks.
South
Patricia Cronin, Memorial to a Marriage, 2002, over life-sized Carrara marble (artwork © Patricia Cronin; photograph provided by the artist)Patricia Cronin. Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25–June 30, 2012. Patricia Cronin: All Is Not Lost. Watercolor and sculpture.
Patricia Cronin. Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 7–June 30, 2012. Patricia Cronin: Memorial to a Marriage. Sculpture.
Ruth Dusseault. Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, April 20–June 8, 2012. The Innermost Room. Photography and video.
West
Ruth Weisberg, Together Again, 1975, color lithograph, 15 x 22 in. (artwork © Ruth Weisberg)Ruth Weisberg. Sylvia White Gallery, North Gallery, Ventura, California, April 11–May 13, 2012. Then and Now. Monotype.
People in the News
posted by CAA — June 17, 2012
People in the News lists new hires, positions, and promotions in three sections: Academe, Museums and Galleries, and Organizations and Publications.
The section is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
June 2012
Academe
Ellen K. LevyEllen K. Levy, an artist, writer, and former CAA president, has joined the faculty of the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in Portland, Maine, as special advisor on art and sciences.
Museums and Galleries
Colette Crossman (photograph by Rick Hall)Colette Crossman, administrator of arts and programs for the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art of the University of Texas at Austin, has been appointed curator of exhibitions at the museum.
Karen Sherry, previously associate curator of American art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, has been named curator of American art at the Portland Museum of Art in Oregon.