CAA News Today
January Picks from CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts
posted Jan 11, 2012
Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts produces a curated list, called CWA Picks, of recommended exhibitions and events related to feminist art and scholarship in North America and around the world.
The CWA Picks for January 2012 include five solo shows of women artists at museums and galleries across the United States. The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, presents Jenny Saville, and the Tufts University Art Gallery in Medford, Massachusetts, will exhibit the work of Nancy Holt. Cathy Wilkes is on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery of New Jersey City University in Jersey City has organized a survey of Margaret Murphy’s work. Last, Zoe Strauss receives a midcareer retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania.
In California, the performance artists Andrea Fraser and Vaginal Davis will stage one-day events for Pacific Standard Time’s Performance and Public Art Festival, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting an exhibition of work created between 1931 and 1968 by female Surrealist artists living in the United States and Mexico.
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.
Image: Jenny Saville, Stare, 2004–5, oil on canvas, 120⅛ x 98½ in. Collection of the Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica (artwork © Jenny Saville)
Committee on Women in the Arts Picks for January 2012
posted Jan 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.
January 2012
Jenny Saville, Bleach, 2008, oil on canvas, 99 5/16 x 73 11/16 in. Collection of Lisa and Steven Tananbaum (artwork © Jenny Saville)
Jenny Saville
Norton Museum of Art
1451 South Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
November 30, 2011–March 4, 2012
Jenny Saville is the inaugural exhibition of the Norton Museum of Art’s Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) series, and the first solo American museum exhibition of the British figurative artist. This exhibition will bring together her most recognizable monumental figure and portrait paintings along with drawings from her recent series Reproduction drawing (based on the Leonardo cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and John the Baptist from the National Gallery, London) depicting mother and child images. The presentation will include twenty-eight canvases and drawings dating from 1992 to 2011 and smaller studies, not previously shown, from the artist’s studio.
In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
January 29–May 6, 2012
The Surrealist movement in art is most often identified with male artists, many of whom objectified women in their paintings. Numerous female artists at the time, however, developed their own identity-based imagery. This exhibition looks at female Surrealists working in the United States and Mexico and contains 175 works in a variety of media that were created between 1931 and 1968 by artists such as Lee Miller, Yayoi Kusama, and Frida Kahlo.
Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels: Sunset, 1976, Great Basin Desert, Utah, 1976, detail of composite of four photographs reproduced from original 35mm transparencies, (artwork © Nancy Holt)
Nancy Holt: Sightlines
Tufts University Art Gallery
Aidekman Arts Center, Tufts University, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
January 19–April 1, 2012
Since the late 1960s, Nancy Holt has created a far-reaching body of work, including Land Art, films, videos, site-specific installations, artist’s books, concrete poetry and major sculpture commissions. Nancy Holt: Sightlines showcases the artist’s transformation from the perception of the landscape through the use of different observational modes in her early films, videos, and related works from 1966–80.
Cathy Wilkes
Carnegie Museum of Art
4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
November 12, 2011–February 26, 2012
Carnegie Museum of Art presents the first solo American museum exhibition to combine the painting and sculptural installations of the Irish artist Cathy Wilkes. Often examining personal experiences, including motherhood, Wilkes is best known for vulnerable, haunting sculptures and installations in which sculpted and found objects are altered and arranged into humanistic—if sometimes disturbing—domestic scenes. Including nine paintings, a recent sculpture, and a newly commissioned installation, this exhibition provides a comprehensive view of Wilkes’s practice.
Margaret Murphy, Reclining Woman (after Kurosawa), 2007, watercolor and acrylic on paper, 20 x 14 in. (artwork © Margaret Murphy)
Margaret Murphy, A Ten-Year Survey; Decoding the Marketplace: coupons, dollar stores, and eBay
Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery
New Jersey City University, Hepburn Hall, Room 323, 2039 Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ 07305
January 30–March 7, 2012
This exhibition highlights varied bodies of work created during the last decade by the artist Margaret Murphy. Included in the exhibition are the Tarot Cards series (1997–2000), the Sweet 16 series (2005–7), and the Parlor Paintings (2006–7). Seen together for the first time, these paintings and collages demonstrate Murphy’s insightful feminist critique of the American consumer culture and misrepresentation of women as seen through commodity objects such as porcelain figurines and product packaging.
Andrea Fraser, Men on the Line, KPFK
National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
111 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
January 23, 2012
Vaginal Davis, My Pussy is Still in Los Angeles (I Only Live in Berlin)
Bullock Department Store Wilshire
3050 Wilshire Boulevard, Fifth Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010
January 29, 2012
In late January, West of Rome Public Art will host performances by two legendary and controversial feminist artists as part of Pacific Standard Time’s Performance and Public Art Festival. Both works are part of a series inspired by the Los Angeles–based Woman’s Building (1973–81), whose history and influence is currently explored in the PST exhibition Doin’ It in Public.
Zoe Strauss, South Philly (Mattress Flip Front), 2001/2003 (negative/print), chromogenic print, image: 6⅞ x 10⅛ in./sheet: 8 x 10⅜ in. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Purchased with funds contributed by Theodore T. Newbold and Helen Cunningham, 2003 (artwork © Zoe Strauss)
Zoe Strauss: Ten Years
Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130
January 14–April 22, 2012
This midcareer survey of the work of Zoe Strauss, a resident of south Philadelphia, focuses on her decade-long public art project in which each year on the first Sunday in May she exhibited more than two hundred of her photographs in a space beneath a section of Interstate 95 in south Philadelphia. Most of her subjects are disenfranchised people or places.
Art Journal Publishes New Issue
posted Jan 10, 2012
The Fall 2011 issue of Art Journal, CAA’s quarterly of modern and contemporary art, was published and mailed in late December. A benefit of CAA membership, the journal is sent to those individual members who elect to receive it and to all institutional members.
The issue opens with a state-of-the-field essay by Krista Thompson, “A Sidelong Glance: The Practice of African Diaspora Art History in the United States.” The third of four Centennial essays commissioned with funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Thompson’s study offers an extraordinary range of reference and comprehensive citations that suggest it will be highly useful to historians, students, and artists alike. The art historian Amelia Jones organized a forum for the issue, “Performance, Live or Dead,” with texts by the artists Ron Athey, Sharon Hayes, and William Pope.L, the historians Sven Lütticken and Branislav Jakovljević, and the curators Sophia Yadong Hao and Helena Reckitt. Each writer considers the phenomenon of reenactment, which has been prominent in the performance art of recent years.
The cover essay, Miwako Tezuka’s “Experimentation and Tradition: The Avant-Garde Play Pierrot Lunaire by Jikken Kōbō and Takechi Tetsuji,” examines the 1955 collaboration of vanguard visual and performing artists in Tokyo on a staging of Arnold Schoenberg’s song cycle Pierrot Lunaire. Tezuka sees the production, little known in the West until now, as a major catalyst in the reinvigoration of new arts following destitution and stagnation in postwar Japan.
A final feature considers broadcast radio as a medium for public art. Sarah Kanouse’s “Take It to the Air: Radio as Public Art” explores works by Jon Brumit, Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga, and the collective LIGNA to emphasize the surprising ways in which they treat radio as a participatory, two-way medium. The Art Journal website includes audio and video documentation that complements the printed piece.
The Reviews section includes Lisa Florman’s assessment of the Guggenheim exhibition catalogue Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918–36; Jaleh Mansoor on Rosalyn Deutsch’s Hiroshima after Iraq: Three Studies in Art and War; and Lara Weibgen’s analysis of Boris Groys’s History Becomes Firm: Moscow Conceptualism. Available both in print and online is Robert Slifkin’s review of two recent books and an exhibition on the artist Paul Thek.
Affiliated Society News for January 2012
posted Jan 09, 2012
American Council for Southern Asian Art
The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) held its fifteenth biennial symposium from September 22 to 25, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A report of the proceedings is available online.
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries
Registration has opened for the annual conference of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), to be held April 28, 2012, at the Weisman Art Museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Titled “Tools of Engagement: Securing Commitment on Campus,” the event will focus on positive strategies for getting the buy-in needed from our faculty, academic administrators, presidents, and other campus stakeholders.
In addition, AAMG has recently been granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service. This status will allow the organization the opportunity to gain access to new funding sources in order to execute its mission to establish and support best practices, educational activities, and professional development, enabling member organizations to fulfill their educational missions.
Association of Historians of American Art
The Association of Historians of American Art (AHAA) is sponsoring two sessions at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. The professional session, “Ideology, Industry, and Instinct: The Art of Labor,” cochaired by Wendy Katz and Brandon Rudd, is scheduled for Friday, February 24, 2012, 12:30–2:00 PM, Concourse Meeting Room 402AB at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The scholarly session, “American Symbolism,” chaired by Erika Schneider, will take place on Saturday, February 25, 2012, 9:30 AM–NOON, West Hall Meeting Room 502A. Following this session, the AHAA business meeting will be held 12:30 PM–2:00 PM in the Concourse Meeting Room 408B. Light refreshments will be served. All members and other interested parties are invited to attend these events.
Save the date for the second AHAA symposium, “American Art: The Academy, Museums, and the Market,” to be held October 12–13, 2012, hosted by the Boston Athenaeum and Boston University in Massachusetts. For more information, contact the symposium cochairs: David Dearinger and Melissa Renn.
Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art
The Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA) will sponsor several activities at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Scott Allan, assistant curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, will moderate the annual “Future Directions” panel on Thursday, February 23, 12:30–2:00 PM in the Concourse Meeting Room 402AB at the Los Angeles Convention Center. David O’Brien of the University of Illinois will chair AHNCA’s main session, the two-part “Civilization and Its Others in Nineteenth-Century Art,” taking place on Thursday, February 23, and Saturday, February 25. Finally, AHNCA’s annual business meeting will take place on Thursday, February 23, at 5:30 PM in Concourse Meeting Room 402AB.
In addition, AHNCA invites its members to attend a free private tour of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena on Wednesday, February 22. The curator Leah Lehmbeck will present highlights and rarely exhibited holdings from the museum’s collection. The visit will conclude with a reception generously hosted by the Norton Simon. There is no cost for AHNCA members, but space is limited. To reserve your place, please contact Elizabeth Mansfield. Deadline: January 15, 2012
Foundations in Art: Theory and Education
Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE) will hold a regional workshop, titled “Spicing It Up: Critique Strategies,” at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, on January 28, 2012. FATE urges those who teach art foundation courses and are located in Texas, Oklahoma, or Louisiana to consider attending. The workshop, to be held 10:00 AM–3:00 PM, will focus on practical techniques and strategies for critiquing theme-based and idea-driven artwork created in foundation courses. If interested, please contact Valerie Powell at 936-294-4451. Deadline: January 15, 2012.
Please save the date for FATE’s next national conference, to be held during the spring of 2013. The Savannah College of Art and Design in beautiful Savannah, Georgia, will host the event.
For a limited time you can review past issues of FATE in Review online. You can also find FATE Newsletters and information about submitting a paper for inclusion in the next issue of FATE in Review.
Historians of Islamic Art Association
The Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA) has elected Ladan Akbarnia to the position of secretary for the next two years. Akbarnia previously served as interim secretary in 2011. HIAA also would like to draw attention to the recent establishment of the Oleg Grabar Memorial Fund to support the annual award of Grabar Grants and Fellowships. This new program, in honor of the late eminent historian of Islamic art and architecture, is intended to encourage and further the professional development of graduate students and recent postdoctoral scholars in all areas of the history of Islamic art, architecture, and archaeology. Contributions from CAA members are most welcome. Instructions for contributing to the Grabar Memorial Fund can be found online.
Historians of Netherlandish Art
The Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, a peer-reviewed, open-access ejournal published by the Historians of Netherlandish Art, has announced its next formal deadline for the submission of manuscripts for articles: March 1, 2012. Please consult the journal’s submission guidelines and contact Alison Kettering for additional information.
International Association of Art Critics
The International Association of Art Critics (AICA) has elected Marek Bartelik as its new president during its general assembly in Asunción, Paraguay, on October 20, 2011. Bartelik succeeds Yacouba Konaté from Ivory Coast, who had served as AICA’s president since October 2008. Originally from Poland, Bartelik is the association’s fifteenth president. Previous presidents include: James Johnson Sweeney (American, 1957–63), René Berger (Swiss, 1969–75), Jacques Leenhardt (French, 1990–96), and Henry Meyric Hughes (British, 2002–8).
International Sculpture Center
The International Sculpture Center (ISC) seeks papers for the twenty-third International Sculpture Conference, called “Process, Patron, and Public” and taking place October 4–6, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. The conference will bring together artists, educators, art administrators, museum directors, collectors, patrons, students, and sculpture enthusiasts to explore how sculpture becomes part of contemporary culture. ISC invites individuals to submit proposals for papers and panel discussions that can provoke critical exchange and debate in relation to the broad thematic areas referred to in the conference title. Presenters are encouraged to support opportunities for interaction among participants and to enable conference attendees to engage a truly international exchange of ideas and viewpoints. For more information, please call 609-689-1051, ext. 302.
Italian Art Society
The Italian Art Society (IAS) will hold its business meeting at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference on Friday, February 24, 7:30–9:00 AM in Concourse Meeting Room 406AB of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Those interested in Italian art and architecture from the prehistoric period to the present are welcome to attend. IAS congratulates the recipients of its 2012 travel grants: Karen Lloyd will present “A New Samson: Scipione Borghese and the Representation of Nepotism in the Vatican Palace” at CAA, and Kristin Huffman Lanzoni will speak on “Ducal Fraternity and Family Glory: Girolamo and Lorenzo Priuli” at the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America. IAS welcomes exhibition reviews, short articles, and announcements related to Italian art and architecture for its winter newsletter. Please send your contributions to the newsletter editor. Deadline: January 15, 2012. Please like IAS on Facebook.
Leonardo Education and Art Forum
The Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF) has recently sponsored several events. The LEAF chair Patricia Olynyk and the former chair Ellen Levy hosted a post-Thanksgiving NY LASER (Art/Sci Salon) on Sunday, December 11, at Levy’s studio. To encourage deeper discussion, the meeting focused on summarizing projects presented at NY LASER events throughout 2011.
Paul Thomas, an international LEAF affiliate, moderated LEAF Education Workshops in collaboration with the Australian Forum at the 2011 International Symposium on Electronic Art in Istanbul, Turkey, and at Rewire, the fourth International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science, and Technology in Liverpool, England. The workshops focused on transdisciplinary visual arts, science and technology renewal, and post–new media assimilation.
The LEAF business meeting will be held at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, February 23. Other panels of potential interest to Leonardo members include: “Is It Time to Question the ‘Privileging’ of Visual Art?” on Friday, February 24, chaired by Levy and Greta Berman of Juilliard School; “Headlines! Environmental News, Artist Presenters, Audience Respondents,” on Wednesday, February 22, chaired by Linda Weintraub of Artnow Publications; “Sustainable Futures: New Cultural Movements in Art and Ecology,” on Saturday, February 25, chaired by Olynyk; and a LEAF Education Roundtable, “Education at the Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology,” on Thursday, February 23, led by Eddie Shanken.
Mid-America College Art Association
The James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University will host the next Mid-America College Art Association (MACAA) conference, to be held October 3–6, 2012, in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Programming will include three featured speakers and numerous panels on art, design, art history, and visual resources, as well as studio workshops, MACAA member exhibitions, and museum visits. The conference will have two areas: “Meaning and Making” and “Community and Collaboration.” The call for session proposals, and for the MACAA membership exhibition, has been announced online.
National Council of Arts Administrators
The National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA) held its 2011 annual meeting, called “Push/Pull: The Artistic Engine of Innovation,” from November 2–5, in Savannah, Georgia. The organization owes a debt of gratitude to the conference chair, Steve Bliss of the Savannah College of Art and Design, and to Carolyn Henne, NCAA’s executive director, for organizing a first-rate affair.
NCAA wishes to thank outgoing board members Cora Lynn Deibler of the University of Connecticut, Georgia Strange of the University of Georgia, and Carolyn Henne of Florida State University. Three new board members have been elected: Amy Hauft of Virginia Commonwealth University, Lydia Thompson of Mississippi State University, and Mel Ziegler of Vanderbilt University. Returning board members include: Andrea Eis of Oakland University, treasurer; Jim Hopfensperger of Western Michigan University, president; John Kissick of the University of Guelph; Sally McRorie of Florida State University; Kim Russo of the Ringling College of Art and Design, secretary; and Sergio Soave of Ohio State University.
Organizational activities at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles include the annual NCAA reception, a lively forum for networking on issues related to arts leadership and management, to be held on Thursday, February 23, 5:30–7:30 PM. The session “Hot Problems/Cool Solutions in Arts Leadership” will be a series of five-minute presentations on problem solving and leadership, taking place on Friday, February 24, 12:30–2:00 PM. NCAA enthusiastically welcomes new members, current members, and all other interested parties to its events.
Society for Photographic Education
Registration is now open for the ninth annual conference of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE), called “Intimacy and Voyeurism: The Public/Private Divide in Photography” and taking place March 22–25, 2012, in San Francisco, California. Join over one thousand artists, educators, and photographic professionals for presentations, industry seminars, and critiques designed to stimulate and engage. Explore a fair of over seventy exhibitors showcasing the latest equipment, processes, publications, and schools with photo-related programs. Participate in one-on-one portfolio critiques or informal portfolio sharing. For reduced admission, take advantage of student volunteer opportunities. Other conference highlights include a print raffle, silent auction, film screenings, exhibitions, tours, receptions, and a dance party. Sally Mann will be the keynote speaker; other featured speakers include Sharon Olds and Trevor Paglen. Preview the conference schedule and register online.
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women
At its most recent annual meeting, held on October 20, 2011, the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women (SSEMW) formally announced the recipients of its awards for books, catalogues, articles and other scholarship published in 2010. The Book Award went to Margaret P. Hannay, Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010); Honorable mention was awarded to Marie-Louise Coolahan, Women, Writing and Language in Early Modern Ireland (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). The Collaborative Project award went to Caroline Bicks and Jennifer Summit, eds., The History of British Women’s Writing, Volume 2: 1500–1610 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). The Josephine A. Roberts Scholarly Edition was awarded to Michael G. Brennan, Noel J. Kinnamon, and Margaret P. Hannay, eds., The Correspondence (ca. 1626–1659) of Dorothy Percy Sidney, Countess of Leicester (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010). The Translation or Teaching Edition award was given to Domna Stanton and Rebecca Wilkin, eds., for Gabrielle Suchon, A Woman Who Defends All the Persons of Her Sex: Selected Philosophical and Moral Writings (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010); Honorable Mention went to David F. Hult, ed., for Chirstine de Pizan, Debate of the “Romance of the Rose” (Chicago: University of Chiciago Press, 2010). The award for Essay or Article went to Paula McQuade, “A Knowing People: Early Modern Motherhood, Female Authorship, and Working-Class Community in Dorothy Burch’s“A Catechism of the Several Heads of the Christian Religion,” Prose Studies 32, no. 3 (December 2010): 167–86; Honorable Mention went to Allyson M. Poska, “Babies on Board: Women, Children and Imperial Policy in the Spanish Empire,”Gender and History 22, vol. 2 (August 2010): 269–83. Finally, for Arts and Media, the award was given to the compact disc for La Donna Musicale, with Laury Gutierrez (director), Julianne Baird (soprano), and Renee Rapier (contralto), Anna Bon: La virtuosa di Venezia.
Society of Architectural Historians
Registration will open January 4, 2012, for the sixty-fifth annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), to be held in Detroit, Michigan, April 18–22, 2012. The conference will present more than 140 scholarly papers and thirty-five special thematic sessions. The local committee has planned numerous tours of Detroit and cities in the surrounding region, including Cranbrook, Dearborn, and Ann Arbor. A daylong preservation seminar will examine the challenges of “right-sizing” this historic city in light of its current economic pressures and shrinking population. At the meeting, SAH will launch a revised edition of its award-winning book, Buildings of Michigan, as well as a new online encyclopedia of American architecture called SAH Archipedia. Developed in collaboration with the University of Virginia Press, SAH Archipedia is a richly illustrated database of all the building histories, illustrations, maps, sidebars, interpretive essays, glossaries, and bibliographies contained in fifteen authoritative books produced as part of SAH’s Buildings of the United States series. SAH Archipedia will be available to individual SAH members and to the public through library subscriptions. Concurrently, SAH will launch an open-access version of the database, SAH Archipedia Classic Buildings, which will contain a subset of one hundred of the most representative buildings from each state.
Visual Resources Association
The Visual Resources Association (VRA) will host the session “Paint, Prints and Pixels: Learning from the History of Teaching with Art” at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles, Thursday, February 23, 12:30–2:00 PM. The session will explore how historic and current imaging paradigm shifts have informed twenty-first-century classroom teaching; the implications of increased access to digital images; intersections of photographic and scientific technologies; interdisciplinary uses of images for teaching and research; and recently developed visual literacy competency standards. The session will conclude with a question-and-answer session.
Online registration starts on December 7, 2011 for the thirtieth annual VRA conference, to be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 18–21, 2011. Headquartered at the Hotel Albuquerque in historic Old Town, the conference is within easy walking distance to restaurants, museums, and notable landmarks. As part of the “Broadening Horizons” theme, the opening speaker will be Todd Martin, the founder of Tagasauris, an online image-tagging source. Amy Herman, who uses art to teach observation and communication skills, will deliver the closing talk at the conference.
Women’s Caucus for Art
This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA), a momentous occasion not only for WCA but for all women. For forty years, WCA has fought to ensure the future of women in the arts. The 2012 WCA conference—a diverse celebration that will include panels, speakers, exhibitions, bus tours, workshops, awards, and a gala—will be held February 23–27, 2012, in Los Angeles, in conjunction with the 2012 CAA Annual Conference.
On Thursday, February 23, 7:30–10:00 PM, WCA will present its first Media Award to the filmmaker and feminist Lynn Hershman Leeson. The event will be held at the Democracy Center at the Japanese American National Museum and includes a presentation of the award, a viewing of her film !Women Art Revolution, and a dessert reception. This is a ticketed event. On Saturday, February 25, 6:00–7:30 PM at the Kyoto Hotel, the WCA Lifetime Achievement Awards and Gala will honor Whitney Chadwick, Suzanne Lacy, Ferris Olin, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Bernice Steinbaum, as well as the recipients of the President’s Art and Activism Award: Karen Mary Davalos and Cathy Salser. The awards presentation is free and open to the public. The Momentum Gala will be held from 8:00 to 10:00 PM at Japanese American National Museum. The gala includes three food stations and an open bar, an opportunity to meet the awardees and to network, tours of the museum, and the kickoff of the Sylvia Sleigh Legacy campaign. This is a ticketed event.
Cast Your Vote in the 2012–16 Board of Directors Election
posted Jan 09, 2012
The annual election of CAA members to serve on the Board of Directors has begun. Visit the main board election page or click the candidates’ names below to read their statements, biographies, and endorsements—and to watch their video presentations—before casting your vote.
The six candidates for the 2012–16 term are:
- Suzanne Preston Blier, Harvard University
- Stephanie D’Alessandro, Art Institute of Chicago
- Gail Feigenbaum, Getty Research Institute
- Elizabeth Otto, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
- Doralynn Pines, independent art historian and consultant
- Charles A. Wright, Western Illinois University
To vote, log into your CAA account with your CAA user/member ID# and password. Then click the Vote Now image at the center of the screen to begin the process. If you are already logged in, click the Home link at left, and then the Vote Now image.
You may vote for up to four candidates (including one write-in candidate, if you wish) who will serve on the board for four years. The election ends at 5:00 PM (PST) on Friday, February 24, 2012.
Questions? Contact Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive assistant.
Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members
posted Dec 22, 2011
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.
December 2011
Abroad
Grimanesa Amoros. Galeria Aranapoveda, Centre d’art d’Alcoi, Madrid, Spain, September 22–December 4, 2011. Voyeur/Voyager. Video.
Midwest
Ellen K. Levy. Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Farrell Learning and Teaching Center, Saint Louis, Missouri, September 26–November 15, 2011. Stealing Attention. Mixed media.
Installation view of Sharon Louden’s Merge at the Weisman Art Museum (artwork © Sharon Louden)Sharon Louden. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 1, 2011–May 20, 2012. Merge. Installation.
Northeast
Darla Bjork, Fire on the Mountain, 2010, encaustic and oil stick, 16 x 16 in. (artwork © Darla Bjork)Darla Bjork. SoHo20 Chelsea Gallery, New York, November 1–26, 2011. Fire Series: Recent Paintings. Painting.
Leila Daw, Flow (artwork © Leila Daw)Leila Daw. A.I.R. Gallery, Gallery II, Brooklyn, New York, September 7–October 1, 2011. Ways to Find. Mixed media.
David C. Driskell. DC Moore Gallery, New York, January 5–February 4, 2012. Creative Spirit: The Art of David C. Driskell.
John McDevitt King, The Next Yesterday, 2011, softground, 23½ x 22 in. (artwork © John McDevitt King)John McDevitt King. VanDeb Editions, New York, October 6–28, 2011. Soft Ground: Prints and Drawings. Printmaking and drawing.
Deborah Wing-Sproul. Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Gallery 3, Rockport, Maine, October 1–December 11, 2011. still/moving: Deborah Wing-Sproul. Performance, video, sculpture, printmaking, and photography.
West
Deborah Cornell. Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, California, September 8–30, 2011. Biogems, Species Boundaries, and Games of Chance. Digital printmaking.
Patrick Luber, Picture Window, 2010, mixed media with digital picture frame, 21 x 28 x 10 in. (artwork © Patrick Luber)Patrick Luber. Isaac Lincoln Gallery, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota, November 10, 2011–January 4, 2012. Matter of Belief. Sculpture.
New and Revised CAA Standards and Guidelines
posted Dec 21, 2011
In line with CAA’s practice to update regularly its Standards and Guidelines for professional practices in the visual arts, the Board of Directors approved one new and four revised guidelines at its meeting on October 23, 2011. The Professional Practices Committee, chaired by Charles Wright of Western Illinois University, worked with subcommittees over the past several years. Maria Ann Conelli, CAA vice president for committees, presented the documents to the board for approval.
Professional Practices for Artists
Beauvais Lyons of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chaired the task force to update Professional Practices for Artists, first published in 1977. Extensive changes were made in sections pertaining to the code of ethics, copyright, safe use of materials and equipment, and exhibition and sales.
Standards for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Degrees in Studio Art
Judith Thorpe of the University of Connecticut chaired the task force to update Standards for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Degrees in Studio Art. A section on multidisciplinary curricula was added, and extensive changes were made to sections on the BFA and studio curriculum and on faculty and staff.
Standards for the Associate of Fine Arts Degree
A new document, Standards for the Associate of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art, was developed to recognize that 50 percent of all college students in the United States attend institutions offering two-year degree programs. Bertha Gutman of the Delaware County Community College chaired the task force.
Peer Review in CAA Publications
Susan Waller of the University of Missouri, Saint Louis, and John Klein of Washington University in Saint Louis made up the task force that revised Peer Review in CAA Publications from 2004. The task force consulted the current editors-in-chief and editors-designate of The Art Bulletin and Art Journal as well as members of the Publications Committee that oversees the editorial boards of CAA’s three journals. The standards included a definition of peer review and addressed works submitted to the journals by artists.
Standards for the Retention and Tenure of Art and Design Faculty
Jim Hopfensperger of Western Michigan University chaired the task force on Standards for the Retention and Tenure of Art and Design Faculty. The revised standards recommend transparency in matters of renewal, retention, promotion, and tenure; specified contact hours; and added the categories of collaborative artworks, situated artworks, online work, commissions, consultations, and/or curatorial work to documentation to be considered for retention and promotion review.
Recent Deaths in the Arts
posted Dec 19, 2011
In its regular roundup of obituaries, CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, scholars, curators, collectors, and other men and women whose work has had a significant impact on the visual arts. Of special note is a text on Nancy Shelby Schuller, a curator of visual resources, published on the CAA website.
- Jerry W. Bates, a photographer who managed the Graphics Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University for thirty years, passed away on September 9, 2011. He was 63
- Adrian Berg, a British landscape painter and member of the Royal Academy who was inspired by Claude Monet, died on October 22, 2011, at the age of 82. The Serpentine Gallery in London hosted a survey of his work in 1986
- Peter Campbell, a writer, editor, illustrator, and book designer who served as the resident art critic and designer for the London Review of Books for more than thirty years, died on October 25, 2011. He was 74 years old
- Manon Cleary, a realist painter and influential professor of art based in Washington, DC, known primarily for her frankly autobiographical subject matter, passed away on November 26, 2011, at age 69. The Washington Arts Museum hosted a retrospective of her work in 2006
- Benjamin “Ben” Day, who taught graphic design and visual communications at Louisiana Tech University, Missouri State University, Boston University, and Virginia Commonwealth University, died on July 14, 2011. He was 68
- Vittorio de Seta, an Italian filmmaker and screenwriter whose work was celebrated in a 2006 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, died on November 29, 2011. He was 88
- Norton T. Dodge, a professor of Soviet economics at the University of Maryland and St. Mary’s College of Maryland and the owner of the world’s largest collection of Soviet dissident art, now housed at Rutgers University, died on November 5, 2011. He was 84
- Alan Haydon, an arts administrator who served on Arts Council England and the London Arts Board, died on October 9, 2011, at age 61. He also directed the De La Warr Pavillion, a contemporary art center in East Sussex, from 1999 to 2011
- Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, an authority on antique and ethnographic textiles and a former curator and head of the Department of Costume and Textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, died on October 27, 2011. She was 71 years old
- Keo Kinal, a Cambodian archaeologist at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, died on November 13, 2011. Born in 1973, he had taught the history of art and architecture after finishing a master’s degree at the Tokyo National University of the Arts
- Gerald Laing, an English Pop artist active in New York who depicted current events and celebrities such as Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse in large-scale painting and sculpture, passed away on November 23, 2011. He was 75
- Jon Lovelace, a financier, philanthropist, and a founding board member of the California Institute of the Arts, died on November 16, 2011. He was 84 years old
- Cargill MacMillan Jr., an heir to the Cargill family’s agricultural business and a benefactor who gifted many works to the Palm Springs Arts Museum in California, died on November 14, 2011, at the age of 84
- William McKeown, an Irish painter of ethereal abstractions who represented Northern Ireland in the 2005 Venice Biennale, died on October 25, 2011. He was 49
- Pat Passlof, an artist of the New York School, the wife of the painter Milton Resnick, and a longtime faculty member of the College of Staten Island, died on November 13, 2011. She was 83
- Nancy Shelby Schuller, who spent thirty-four years as curator of the Visual Resources Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, died on November 8, 2011, at age 71. CAA has published a special text on her
- Dugald Stermer, an illustrator, designer, and teacher who served as art director for the left-wing magazine Ramparts in the 1960s and later as chairman of the Department of Illustration at California College of the Arts, died on December 2, 2011. He was 74
- Bruno Weber, a Swiss architect and sculptor known for his multimedia sculpture park in Dietikon, Switzerland, died on October 24, 2011. He was 80 years old
- George Whitman, the New Jersey–born founder and owner of Shakespeare & Company, a celebrated bookstore in Paris, died on December 14, 2011, at the age of 98
Read all past obituaries in the arts in CAA News, which include special texts written for CAA. Please send links to published obituaries to Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor, for the January listing.
Nancy Shelby Schuller: In Memoriam
posted Dec 19, 2011
Nancy Shelby Schuller, who spent thirty-four years as curator of the Visual Resources Collection in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, died on November 8, 2011, following a long illness. She was 71. Schuller had been receiving loving care at Arveda Alzheimer’s Family Care, with the support of Resolutions Hospice and her family.
Born in 1940 to Joe Aubrey Shelby and Ida Ellenora Anderson Shelby, Nancy maintained her family’s long ties to the Austin area throughout her life. She attended grade schools in the city, graduating from Stephen F. Austin High School in 1958. She also earned a BA in studio art (1963) and an MFA in art history (1969) from the University of Texas at Austin.
Schuller joined the University of Texas staff in 1963 as a teaching assistant, beginning a distinguished career at the institution that would last nearly four decades. She taught graduate seminars in Administration and Development of Fine Arts Slide and Photograph Collections through her department and through the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She also cotaught numerous workshops, on Visual Resources Collection Fundamentals and on Advanced Studies in Visual Resources, both at her school and at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Schuller retired in December 2001. As he accepted her letter of resignation, the department chair Kenneth J. Hale described her tenure as one of “phenomenal accomplishment in the areas of teaching and administration.”
Schuller demonstrated great drive and adaptability with the change from slide and photograph collections to electronic management of visual resources, with digital scanning and cataloguing for delivery and access on the internet. She frequently participated in and delivered papers at national visual-resources and library conferences. She also led workshops on the classification of materials, and on standards and protocols for disseminating visual images in a range of settings, such as libraries, historical archives, and governmental agencies. Several generations of slide librarians and visual-resource curators were trained and mentored by Schuller. Her Management for Visual Resources Collections (1989), which evolved from her earlier edited volume, Guide for Management of Visual Resources Collections (1978), was the standard text used by professionals worldwide. Schuller was active in the Visual Resources Association (VRA) from its inception, and in 2005, she received the Art Libraries Society of North America and VRA Distinguished Service Award.
Her love of art museums, her fine seamstress skills, and her culinary creativity were all evidence of Schuller’s enduring interest in the wider artistic world. She was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, where she sang in the choir for many years and served on the altar guild.
Schuller is survived by her husband, Brian Schuller of Austin; her daughter, Shelby Nicole Schuller of Alexandria, Virginia; and extended family members throughout the United States. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to one of the following: Alzheimer’s Association, 3429 Executive Center Drive, Austin, TX 78731; Resolutions Hospice, 11825 Buckner Road, Austin, TX 78726; or Visual Resources Association Foundation, c/o R. Moss, 3949 43rd Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406.
Report from the October 2011 Board of Directors Meeting
posted Dec 19, 2011
The fall meeting of the CAA Board of Directors took place on Sunday, October 23, 2011, in New York. Twenty-two board members were joined by eight staff members and one guest.
Anne Collins Goodyear was elected by the board as president-elect. Her term of office begins in May 2012 and will conclude at the end of April 2014. Goodyear is associate curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC. She has served on the CAA board since 2006 as vice president for external affairs and vice president for publications and is currently vice president for Annual Conference. As vice president for publications, Goodyear headed a task force that reviewed all editorial safeguards and procedures for CAA’s three journals. She is an art historian who has contributed to the field through major exhibitions, including Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture in 2009. She is only the second art museum curator to lead CAA in thirty years (the first being Joshua C. Taylor, director of the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, in 1981). Before stepping into the presidency, Goodyear will lead a task force on the Annual Conference to explore future web-based extensions.
The Professional Practices Committee, chaired by Charles Wright of Western Illinois University, worked with subcommittees over the past several years and updated five existing but outdated standards and added one new document to CAA’s Standards and Guidelines. Maria Ann Conelli, vice president for committees, presented these standards to the board for approval. The board adopted these standards and commended the subcommittees and the Professional Practices Committee for their outstanding work in providing the field with this critical information. The new standards reflect and correspond to the guidelines of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and regional accreditation commissions where applicable.
Beauvais Lyons of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chaired the task force to update Professional Practices for Artists, first published in 1977. Extensive changes were made in sections pertaining to the code of ethics, copyright, safe use of materials and equipment, and exhibition and sales. The task-force members were: Charles Wright, Western Illinois University, Chair of the Professional Practices Committee; Brian Bishop, Framingham State University; Margaret Lazzari, University of Southern California; and James Hopfensperger, Western Michigan University.
Judith Thorpe of the University of Connecticut chaired the task force to update Standards for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Degrees in Studio Art. A section on multidisciplinary curricula was added, and extensive changes were made to sections on the BFA and studio curriculum and on faculty and staff. The task force comprised: Denise Mullen, Oregon College of Art and Crafts and CAA board; Sergio Soave, Ohio State University; Frederick Cartwright, University of Saint Francis; and Cora Lynn Deibler, University of Connecticut.
Susan Waller of the University of Missouri, Saint Louis and John Klein of Washington University in Saint Louis made up the task force that revised Peer Review in CAA Publications from 2004. The task force consulted the current editors-in-chief and editors-designate of The Art Bulletin and Art Journal as well as members of the Publications Committee that oversees the editorial boards of CAA’s three journals. The standards included a definition of peer review and addressed works submitted to the journals by artists.
Jim Hopfensperger of Western Michigan University chaired the task force on Standards for the Retention and Tenure of Art and Design Faculty, whose members were: Carolyn Cardenas, Utah State University; Dana Clancy, Boston University; Andrea Eis, Oakland University; Amy Hauft, Virginia Commonwealth University; Janet Hethorn, University of Delaware; Robert Hower, University of Texas at Arlington; Patricia Olynyk, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; Sergio Soave, Ohio State University; Adrian Tio, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; and Star Varner, Southwestern University. The revised standards recommend transparency in matters of renewal, retention, promotion, and tenure; specified contact hours; and added the categories of collaborative artworks, situated artworks, online work, commissions, consultations, and/or curatorial work to documentation to be considered for retention and promotion review.
A new document, Standards for the Associate of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art, was developed to recognize that 50 percent of all college students in the United States attend institutions offering two-year degree programs. Bertha Gutman, Delaware County Community College, chaired the task force, whose members were: Carmina L. Cianciulli, Tyler School of Art, Temple University; Sandra Esslinger, Mt. San Antonio College; Martina Hesser, Mesa College; David Koffman, Georgia Perimeter College; and Christina McNearney, Pima Community College.
CAA’s deputy director, Michael Fahlund, announced that CAA had received 168 applications for the Professional-Development Fellowship in Visual Art and 19 for the Professional- Development in Art History. The juries will meet in December to select three visual-art fellows and two art-history fellows with awards of $5,000 each. The awardees will be honored at the Annual Conference in Los Angeles.
Patricia McDonnell, vice president for external affairs, presented the first of three reports on membership development to the board. She thanked Nia Page, director of membership, development and marketing, for the work that she and her staff carried out to identify all national and international sources of future CAA members. The board has requested a plan to increase membership revenue over the next three years, and this comprehensive first-phase report was reviewed and accepted by the board. It was also announced that two new full-time staff members have been hired: Hannah O’Reilly Malyn, development associate, and Nancy Nguyen, institutional membership assistant.
The board approved new guidelines for board liaisons to the Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees. The new guidelines include acting in an advisory (without vote) capacity by attending their assigned committee meetings and reporting back to the vice president of committees, thereby bringing issues of critical importance to the vice president and the board and back to the committees from the board.
Paul Jaskot of DePaul University chaired the Task Force on the Use of Human and Animal Subjects in Art and presented its recommendations to the board. Members of the task force included Wayne Enstice, University of Cincinnati; Michael Golec, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Ellen Levy, independent artist; Marlena Novak, independent artist; Bernard Rollin, University of Colorado; and Kristine Stiles, Duke University. The task force researched and presented existing guidelines for the use of animals and humans in experiments and performance; sampled existing practices in the art world; prepared and sent a survey to members regarding attitudes about the use of animals in art; and compiled a short bibliography of ethical and artistic debate on these subjects. The task force produced a set of principles and questions that artists and other professionals in the visual arts can consult when using animals and human subjects in art. The task force suggested that another task force be established to develop formal guidelines on the use of animals in art and to develop a page on the CAA website for related resources in the future. The board accepted the recommendations of the task force, commended Paul and the task-force members for their work on this difficult subject, and decided to postpone the formation of another task force, since five new task forces were being presented at the meeting and needed prioritization by the executive director.
A resolution to establish a Task Force on the Annual Conference was presented to the board by Goodyear. The task force, approved by the board, will address electronic extensions of the conference in order to reach a larger, international membership. The vice president announced that the 2013 Annual Conference Committee has reviewed the 279 session proposals that were submitted and selected 111 for the New York conference. In addition to the 111 peer-reviewed sessions there will be 23 affiliated-society sessions, 3 committee sessions, 20 contemporary issues/studio art sessions, 8 educational and professional practices sessions, 53 historical studies sessions, and 4 Open Forms sessions.
Goodyear also announced that 150 people have applied for the Getty Foundation International Travel Grant Program. The jury will meet in November to select twenty awardees, who will receive a free CAA membership for a year, free registration, and free travel and hotel to the 2012 conference in Los Angeles. The program is intended to acclimate art historians or artists teaching art history in developing college art departments to become acquainted with the session proposal submission process, to assist them in networking with colleagues, and to address common professional issues. The project is supported by a grant from the Getty Foundation. The CAA project manager is Janet Landay.
A resolution was presented by a board member, Jean Miller of the University of North Texas, and approved by the board to establish a Task Force on Design. This group will conduct research on design programs in order to attract more designers to CAA membership. A resolution was presented by another board member, Judith Thorpe, to increase participation in CAA by its affiliated societies. The resolutions were approved with the proviso that the formation of the task forces be delayed until Downs determines when the staff support will be available to assist the task forces.
The Executive Committee approved affiliated-society status for the Diasporic Asian Art Network (DAAN).
The annual audit was presented by EisnerAmper, Accountants and Advisors. There were no recommendations, and the chief financial officer, Teresa López, was commended for her work. Copies of the audit will be made available at the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, taking place on Friday, February 24, 2012, at the CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles; it can also be obtained directly from López. The treasurer, John Hyland Jr., presented a balanced budget. CAA’s investment manager, Domenic Colasecco from Boston Trust, presented a thorough report on the investment portfolio.
At the request of the board, Downs presented a comprehensive report on funding sources at CAA including membership (representing 42 percent of all revenue); earned revenue including grants (45 percent); private contributions (.5 percent); and investment drawdown (9.4 percent). The board will set a specific date to discuss ideas on increasing private contributions to CAA funds.
Downs commended the CAA staff for a successful move to the new office at 50 Broadway and especially thanked Fahlund, who coordinated the move; López, who managed the move’s financial aspects; and Michael Goodman, director of information technology, who oversaw the installation of the new phone system and all the office computers, copiers, and machines, and also helped make necessary changes to the website. The move will assist in a budget reduction because of a five-year lease reduction rebate provided by the City of New York through the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
Open House
Open House at the CAA office, from left: Minerva Navarrete, Michael Fahlund, and Sydelle Zemering
As part of the meetings taking place that weekend for the three journals’ editorial boards, the Annual Conference Committee, and the full Board of Directors, the CAA staff organized an Open House for members at the organization’s new office on Saturday, October 22, 2011. Close to fifty members visited the office and met board and staff members. Two delightful visitors were Minerva Navarrete and Sydelle Zemering, former CAA staff members who regaled us with stories of their experiences at CAA during the 1950s, when the office was in a Madison Avenue townhouse. One board member, Roger Crum of the University of Dayton, introduced several members to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and the World Trade Center construction site from the vantage point of the twentieth floor of the Club Quarters, World Trade Center hotel. (CAA belongs to the Club Quarters network in major cities around the world, and members receive discounts on room reservations.) This particular Club Quarters is on the southern edge of the World Trade Center site and has extraordinary views of the construction of the towers and the memorial’s fountains. Crum made a presentation on the concept of memorializing September 11 and the skyscraper engineering and safeguards going into the seven towers. After the Open House, several members also visited Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, just a few blocks north. CAA’s new neighborhood is very lively, with many tourists, commemorators, construction crews, and demonstrators.