CAA News Today
First Issue of a New Journal on Art Historiography Published
posted by Christopher Howard — January 20, 2010
On New Year’s Eve, the first issue of the Journal of Art Historiography was published online. This peer-reviewed open-access ejournal, published in June and December of each year, is devoted exclusively to the study of the practice of art-historical writing. Supported by the Institute for Art History at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, the journal has a distinguished editorial advisory board drawn from a broad range of specialist areas. Richard Woodfield, senior honorary research fellow at the University of Glasgow, is the editor.
The central purpose of the Journal of Art Historiography is to understand why the history of art gets written in the way that it does. How has it taken shape as a discipline? What are the grounds of its inclusions and exclusions? What are its modes of writing? How does it relate to and intersect with other disciplines?
Though the journal has much wider ambitions, the first issue reflects its editor’s preoccupation with German and Viennese art historiography and is dedicated to the memory of Ernst Gombrich. Already, though, it has material on the debates surrounding the emergence of Australian Aboriginal art as contemporary artistic practice, the role of the journal Zodiaque in the promotion of notions of French Romanesque art, and the reception of Aby Warburg’s work in Argentina.
There are also translations of Julius von Schlosser’s famous account of the Vienna School, along with Moriz Thausing’s pronouncements on the objective study of art history. Studies on Fritz Novotny, Max Dvořák, Alois Riegl, Michael Baxandall, Fritz Saxl, John Shearman, and John White have been published as well.
The next issue, due in June this year, is already extending its scope to cover Indian and Chinese art, Baltic and Polish art history, classical archaeology, and more.
The Journal of Art Historiography welcomes contributions from young and established scholars and is aimed at building an expanded audience for what has hitherto been a much-specialized field of investigation.
January CAA News Published
posted by Christopher Howard — January 13, 2010
The January CAA News—the last issue before the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago—has just been published. You may download a PDF of it immediately.
This issue announces Barbara Nesin of the Art Institute of Atlanta as president-elect of the CAA Board of Directors. The current president, Paul B. Jaskot of DePaul University, interviews her about the direction CAA may take during her two-year term.
You too can help steer CAA’s direction in the coming years. Read about the proposed changes to the CAA By-laws (pp. 12–13), cast your vote in the Board of Directors election, which ends during the Chicago conference (p. 26), and attend the Annual Members’ Business Meeting at the conference, where you can voice your concerns (pp. 24–25).
The January newsletter also contains the first of a new series of articles, entitled Centennial Celebration, that will consist of profiles and interviews with longtime CAA members. For the inaugural feature, CAA News talks to Ruth Bowman.
The deadline for submissions to the March 2010 issue is January 31; please review the guidelines before sending in your information. Questions? Contact Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor.
New Issue of Visual Resources Published
posted by Christopher Howard — January 13, 2010
“Digital Crossroads: New Directions in 3D Architectural Modeling in the Humanities” is the title of the December 2009 issue of Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation (published by Taylor & Francis/Routledge). This special issue, guest edited by Arne R. Flaten and Alyson A. Gill, includes essays covering a broad range of approaches, periods, regions, and projects that utilize 3D digital models to examine architectural forms.
After the editors’ brief overview of the papers, Gill presents synopses of various innovative programs nationally and worldwide employing digital modeling. Next, David Johnson’s article evaluates the methods of critically assessing the accuracy of computer reconstructions and proposes criteria for such appraisals. An article by Flaten follows with his description of the Ashes2Art program in which 3D models of ancient Delphi are built by undergraduates.
Sheila Bonde and Clark Maines examine movement and uncertainty in digital models and online paradigms through the virtual medieval monastery of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes. Paula Lupkin’s analysis of her reconstructed New York YMCA building raises questions about the diverse role(s) assumed by digital modelers. Finally, Christopher Johanson explores multiple realities and ontologies, and the problems and opportunities presented by geo-referenced models of Republican Rome.
Visual Resources is published in print and electronically. CAA members are eligible for the special reduced subscription rate for individuals.
December 2009 Issue of The Art Bulletin Published
posted by Christopher Howard — December 15, 2009
The December 2009 issue of The Art Bulletin, the leading publication of art-historical scholarship, has just been published. It will be mailed to those CAA members who elect to receive it, and to all institutional members.
For the first time, a work of twenty-first-century art graces the cover of the esteemed journal—Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Andries Stilte (2005). The painting accompanies an essay by Krista Thompson exploring how contemporary artists such as Wiley and Luis Gispert combine the visual language of hip-hop with late Renaissance and Baroque painting techniques.
Four essays precede Thompson’s. Leading off is Michael Schreffler, who analyzes how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spaniards described the practice of Aztec painting by looking through the lens of European art theory. Next, Emma Barker contends that Jean-Baptiste Greuze evokes both the innocence and vulnerability of children in his A Child Playing with a Dog, while implicating the viewer in the child’s fate.
Matthew Rampley’s essay expresses an opposing view of the Vienna school of art history, not as progressive and aesthetically liberal, but as a proponent of an imperialist outlook, related to the cultural politics of Austria-Hungary in the early-twentieth-century. The next contributor is Roberta Wue, who investigates the ways late-nineteenth-century Chinese artists positioned themselves in the marketplace through the classifieds in the Shanghai newspaper Shenbao. She also examines the changing relationship between artists and urban audiences in the late Qing era.
The December issue of The Art Bulletin also contains six reviews of books about tapestries at the Tudor court, engravings of Native American Indians, the gardens of Versailles and panoramic landscape painting, Buckminster Fuller, Tony Conrad, and issues on museum ownership of antiquities. Please read the full table of contents for more details.
Executive Summary of the New CAA Strategic Plan
posted by Christopher Howard — December 10, 2009
The executive summary for CAA’s Strategic Plan 2010–2015 is now available for download from the CAA website. During the strategic-planning process, a task force comprising members of the Board of Directors, CAA staff and committees, and more reviewed the mission, needs, and long-term goals of CAA. The 2010–2015 plan contains new mission, vision, and values statements and identifies seven important goals of the organization that are intended to meet the needs of all members in the visual arts.
The seven goals outlined in the plan focus on promoting the visual arts and meeting the needs of CAA’s membership, while expanding the programs, publications, and finances in order to do so. Some important strategies for accomplishing these goals include strengthening CAA’s ability to represent the visual arts, improving communication with national and international members, and establishing and identifying new sources of earned revenue. In his letter prefacing the summary, Paul B. Jaskot, CAA president, states, “With the plan in place, CAA will be able to advocate for the visual arts nationally and internationally and create new opportunities for dialogue among our members.”
For more details, see Jaskot’s letter, download the executive summary, and read the new mission, vision, and values statements.
New CAA Member Benefit: Humanities E-Book
posted by Nia Page — December 04, 2009
Humanities E-Book, a project of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), offers unlimited access to its collection of nearly three thousand cross-searchable, full-text titles across the humanities and related social sciences. Titles, which include fifty-six CAA Monographs on the Fine Arts, have been selected and peer reviewed by ACLS constituent learned societies for their continued importance and value in teaching and researching. The collection, which grows by about five hundred books a year, includes both in- and out-of-print titles published from the 1880s to the present. Humanities E-Book titles also link to publishers’ websites and to online reviews in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other sites.
Individual Subscriptions
As a special benefit of CAA membership, individual members can acquire a twelve-month, renewable subscription to Humanities E-Book for $35, which helps sustain the resource for the entire scholarly community.
Individual subscriptions are an attractive option for those whose institutions do not already subscribe to Humanities E-Book, or for CAA members who might not be affiliated with a subscribing institution. Please check this list to see if your institution subscribes.
When completing the Humanities E-Book’s online purchase module, choose the College Art Association from the Society Affiliation pull-down menu and enter your CAA member number. Be sure to review the terms of service before subscribing. For inquiries, please write to subscriptions@hebook.org or call 212-697-1505.
Institutional Subscriptions
Humanities E-Book offers a special 10 percent discount on subscriptions to institutional CAA members. Subscriptions range from $450 to $3,125, depending on the size of your institution.
Institutional subscription information, including pricing, is available on the Humanities E-Book website. For a free trial, a subscription for your school, museum, or organization, or further information, please write to info@hebook.org and mention that you are an institutional CAA member.
CAA Announces 2009 Wyeth Publication Grant Recipients
posted by Christopher Howard — December 02, 2009
CAA is pleased to announce four recipients of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant for 2009:
- Hiroko Ikegami, The Great Migrator: Robert Rauschenberg and the Global Rise of American Art, MIT Press
- Kevin D. Murphy, Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, Maine: Commerce, Culture, and Community on the Eastern Frontier, University of Massachusetts Press
- David Raskin, Donald Judd’s Local Orders: Art, Principles, and Activism, Yale University Press
- Alison Syme, A Touch of Blossom: John Singer Sargent and the Queer Flora of Fin-de-Siècle Art, Pennsylvania State University Press
Since 2005, Wyeth grants have annually supported one or more book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art, visual studies, and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher on their merits but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy.
For purposes of this grant program, “American art” is defined as art created in the United States, Canada, and Mexico prior to 1970.
Application criteria and guidelines for the Wyeth Grant are available at www.collegeart.org/wyeth or from nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2010.
Google Books Settlement
posted by Christopher Howard — November 09, 2009
Today is the deadline for a revised settlement agreement to be filed in response to a lawsuit by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, who are protesting the unauthorized copying of in-copyright books by Google.
CAA has prepared a summary article on the Google Library Book Project to better inform you about the issues at stake; included are a brief description of aspects of the settlement and links to articles and editorials from authors and reporters supporting or criticizing the settlement.
CAA’s constituency includes both creators and users of books. The Committee on Intellectual Property has taken up the matter for consideration and is currently considering what position, if any, to recommend.
November CAA News Published
posted by Christopher Howard — November 06, 2009
The November issue of CAA News, your critical guide to life in the worlds of art and academia, has just been published. You may download a PDF of the issue immediately.
On the cover is not a long-lost Hans Namuth photograph of Jackson Pollock at work—it’s a detail of a sculpture by Joe Fig that’s part of the CAA Annual Exhibition, Picturing the Studio. Read an excerpt from the catalogue essay for this important group show, which opens next month in Chicago and will be on view during the CAA Annual Conference.
The newsletter also contains an interview with the creators of Smarthistory, a multimedia art-history website with innovative ideas for supplementing the Western survey class, as well as an article about this fall’s hot intellectual-property topic, the Google Books settlement. You can also check out the latest details about the upcoming conference, browse listings of recent solo exhibitions and books published by CAA members, and much more.
For submissions to the January issue, please review the CAA News guidelines. Questions? Contact Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor.
New Industry Report by NAMTA on Artists and Art Materials
posted by Christopher Howard — November 03, 2009
A recent study on artists and their materials has been published by the International Art Materials Trade Association (known as NAMTA) and American Artist magazine, in conjunction with Hart Business Research. Based on a spring 2009 survey of artists, students, and the retailers and suppliers of art materials, “Artists & Art Materials USA 2009” is the first report published in over a decade that analyzes industry size and trends, business practices, and artist needs.
The most groundbreaking finds published in this report include an increased use of mixed media and digital media, the importance of arts education for both children and practicing artists, and the continued use of magazines and books as a primary source of learning. The results of the survey show that artists are purchasing larger amounts of “nontraditional” art materials such as fabrics, glass, and beads, using more digital products, and incorporating scavenged materials. In 2008, the percentage of artists spending for nontraditional art supplies was almost equal to that for paints.
Unsurprisingly, the study found that artists are increasingly using computers either to create digital art or to assist them in producing nondigital art. However, many artists favor printed materials such as art magazines to their website counterparts as a source for education. Eighty-seven percent of survey participants said they read art-related magazines, making these publications the top source for learning, followed closely by books. Early exposure to art is crucial: well over half of the professional artists who participated in the survey responded that art was a major part of their lives by age 12. The report urges for the support of elementary school art teachers in order to expose children to art at a young age.
The 4.4 million active artists in the United States—professionals, students, and hobbyists—are spending over $4 billion per year on art materials and services. While 28 percent of artists buy their supplies online, almost twice as much shopping (54 percent) occurs at brick-and-mortar businesses. Also, while stores are meeting artists’ need for drawing and painting supplies, an increasing number of practitioners are spending more for classes and workshops, an area underserved by retailers and suppliers.
A free download of the eight-page executive summary is available from NAMTA.