CAA News Today
Anne L. Schroder: In Memoriam
posted Apr 13, 2011
ulie-Anne Plax is professor of art history in the School of Art at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Anne L. Schroder (photograph by Chris Hildreth, Duke Photography, 2006)
Anne L. Schroder, curator and academic program coordinator at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art died on December 23, 2010, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after a brief, unexpected illness. She will be fondly remembered as a remarkable scholar and curatorial “sleuth” of eighteenth-century French art; a vibrant, generous member of the scholarly community; and a warm, kind, and cheerful friend. In the words of one colleague: “For a serious scholar, Anne Schroder certainly laughed a lot.”
Schroder published widely on Jean-Honoré Fragonard, the subject of her dissertation, and on gender issues, prints and the print market of the eighteenth century, and the debate over theories of copying, originality, and artistic property following the French Revolution. Her astute intellect, fertile imagination, and sheer love of her work are perceptible in all her writings.
Schroder’s keen curatorial eye led to the Nasher’s purchase of a late-eighteenth-century history painting, Clytemnestra Hearing the News of Iphigenia’s Impending Sacrifice (1787), attributed to the studio of Jacques-Louis David. Her painstaking scholarly detective work led to its attribution as an early work by François Gérard. She also curated and oversaw many installations from the permanent collection, including the inaugural exhibition Nature, Gender, Ritual (2005). With a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2009, she increased Duke faculty and student involvement with the museum’s collection.
Schroder received her BA at Smith College and her MA and PhD degrees in art history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, under the direction of Mary Sheriff. Before taking on her position at the Nasher, Schroder was curator of exhibitions at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida, and assistant curator at the Michele and Donald D’AmourMuseum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts. An adjunct faculty member at Duke, she had also taught art history at the University of Florida and the University of Minnesota.
Known for her professionalism and a willingness to serve, Schroder was the president of the Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture, a CAA affiliate, from 2005 to 2009, and a member of the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies. Her warm connection with everyone endowed the organization with a sense of community and camaraderie.
Schroder is survived by her beloved husband Eric and her son Spaulding. We shall all miss her optimism, intelligence, and that great smile.
Spring Deaths in the Arts
posted Apr 13, 2011
CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, scholars, teachers, filmmakers, curators, museum directors, and other men and women whose work has had a significant impact on the visual arts. Of special note are two obituaries—on the curator Anne L. Schroder and the art historian Francesca Weinmann—that are published by CAA.
- Meredith Allen, a photographer based in New York best known for her series of Melting Ice Pops, died on March 17, 2011. Born in 1964, Allen showed her work at Edward Thorp Gallery and Sarah Bowen Gallery
- Jihmye Collins, an activist, poet, and painter who helped found two nonprofit organizations in southern California—African American Writers and Artists and San Diego Writers, Ink—died on March 15, 2011. He was 71
- Donny George, an archaeologist, professor at Stony Brook University, and former director of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad who fought against its looting in 2003, died on March 11, 2011, at age 60. CAA News published an interview with George in 2007 and the text of his 2008 Convocation address about the looting
- Gabriel Laderman, a New Realist painter based in New York whose 1971 article in Artforum highlighted the like-minded figurative work of Sidney Tillim, Jack Beal, and Philip Pearlstein, died on March 10, 2011. He was 81 years old
- Sidney Lumet, the celebrated director of such films as Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico, 12 Angry Men, and The Wiz, died on April 9, 2011, at the age of 86
- John McCracken, a sculptor and painter who emerged in the 1960s making a West Coast brand of Minimalism often called “finish fetish” or “light and space,” died on April 8, 2011. He was 76 years old
- Anne L. Schroder, curator and academic program coordinator at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art, died on December 23, 2010, at the age of 56. Julie-Anne Plax has contributed a special text on her
- Leo Steinberg, an eloquent, erudite art historian whose articles and books on Renaissance, Baroque, and modern art—among them Other Criteria and The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion—have influenced innumerable students and scholars, died on March 13, 2011, at age 90. Steinberg was honored as CAA’s Distinguished Scholar in 2002
- Hedda Sterne, an artist associated with the original Surrealists and the first-generation New York School but whose paintings often resisted such styles and categorizations, died on April 8, 2011, at age 100. She also appeared in the famous “Irascibles” photograph in Life magazine in 1951
- Toshiko Takaezu, an award-winning ceramic artist based in Honolulu who had taught for many years at Princeton University and the Cleveland Institute of Art, died on March 9, 2011. She was 88
- Peter Thursby, an English artist who created sculpture in bronze, aluminum, and stainless steel, often placed in public locations, died on January 6, 2011. He was 80 years old
- George Tooker, a Magic Realist artist known for mysterious, haunting work, including The Subway (1950), in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, died on March 27, 2011. He was 90
- Françoise “Francesca” Weinmann, founder of the Art History Department at the American University in Paris who taught there for three decades, died on March 4, 2011. George A. Wanklyn has written a remembrance on Weinmann, who was born in 1932
Read all past obituaries in the arts in CAA News, which include special texts written for CAA.
Support CAA with a Donation to the Centennial Campaign
posted Apr 12, 2011
The year 2011 marks the College Art Association’s one-hundredth anniversary, a celebratory occasion for any organization but particularly so given CAA’s dynamic influence in shaping the study and practice of the visual arts over the past century. Without dedicated members like you, CAA would not be where it is today. Show your support with a donation to the 2011 Centennial Campaign.
The Centennial Campaign is an opportunity for you to help CAA support the field and give back to its members. Your contributions allow us to provide fellowships to MFA students, keep conference rates affordable, and subsidize the memberships of student, retired, and low-income members. Donations also help publish an information-packed website, which features calls for entries and papers and listings for grants and fellowships in the Opportunities section, as well as job classifieds in the Online Career Center. Additionally, your donations support advocacy at a time when art is, once again, under political attack.
Contributions at every level are appreciated and will be acknowledged publicly; they are also 100 percent tax deductible. Your generous gift will both sustain the organization now and guarantee its leadership role over the next one hundred years.
Ask Your Congressional Representatives to Sign a Dear Colleague Letter Supporting the NEH
posted Apr 11, 2011
Jessica Jones Irons, executive director of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA), emailed the following Humanities Action Alert on April 8, 2011. Founded in 1981, NHA is a nonprofit organization that works to advance national humanities policy in the areas of research, education, preservation, and public programs.
House and Senate Dear Colleague Letters
Please help support the humanities by taking a few minutes to write your Members of Congress and ask them to sign a Dear Colleague letter regarding FY 2012 funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. As you may know, President Obama’s FY 2012 Budget proposes $146.3 million in funding for NEH—more than $21 million in cuts to the agency. Although funding for FY 2011 (the current fiscal year) still remains uncertain today, the FY 2012 appropriations process is in full swing, and we must continue our advocacy efforts for the next fiscal year.
House Dear Colleague Letter
Representative David Price (D-NC) is currently circulating a Dear Colleague letter in support of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The letter, addressed to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee, requests $167.5 million in FY 2012 funding for the NEH. This is the same level of funding the agency received in FY 2010. A copy of the letter is available here. Please ask your Representative to sign on to this letter. Click here to send an email today. The Alliance has set up a template message for you to customize for your Representative.
Senate Dear Colleague Letter
Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) is currently circulating a Dear Colleague letter in support of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The letter, addressed to leaders on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee, requests $167.5 million in FY 2012 funding for the NEH and the NEA. This is the same level of funding both agencies received in FY 2010. A copy of the letter is available here. Please ask your Senators to sign on to this letter. Click here to send an email today. The Alliance has set up a template message for you to customize for your Senators.
Thank you for your assistance on this important issue. The signatures on these letters will provide an important record of support for federal humanities funding in both the House and the Senate.
Sincerely,
Jessica Jones Irons
Executive Director
National Humanities Alliance
Millard Meiss Jury Seeks Specialist in Non-Western Art
posted Apr 11, 2011
CAA seeks nominations and self-nominations for scholars with a specialization in non-Western subject matter to serve on the jury for the Millard Meiss Publication Fund for a four-year term, July 1, 2011–June 30, 2015. Candidates must be actively publishing scholars with demonstrated seniority and achievement; institutional affiliation is not required.
The Meiss jury awards grants that subsidize the publication of book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects. Members review manuscripts and grant applications twice a year and meet in New York in the spring and fall to select the awardees. CAA reimburses jury members for travel and lodging expenses in accordance with its travel policy.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on another CAA editorial board or committee. Jury members may not themselves apply for a grant in this program during their term of service. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name; self-nominations are also welcome. Please send a letter describing your interest in and qualifications for appointment, a CV, and contact information to: Millard Meiss Publication Fund Jury, College Art Association, 275 Seventh Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; or send all materials as email attachments to Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate. Deadline: April 22, 2011.
Committee on Women in the Arts Picks for April 2011
posted Apr 10, 2011
Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts selects the best in feminist art and scholarship. The following conversation and three exhibitions 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.
April 2011
Diane Burko
“Global Warming: Women in Science and Art Discuss Climate Issues and Activism”
Rutgers University
Center Hall Auditorium, Busch Campus Center, 604 Bartholomew Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854
April 20, 2011
A discussion between the artist Diane Burko and Åsa Rennermalm, assistant professor in the Geography Department at Rutgers University, takes place on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 7:15–8:30 PM. Kathryn Uhrich, a professor and dean of Math and Physical Sciences at Rutgers, is the moderator.
Sheila Hicks: 50 Years
Institute of Contemporary Art
University of Pennsylvania, 118 South 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
March 24–August 7, 2011
A student of Joseph Albers at Yale University, Sheila Hicks was inspired by the Bauhaus principle of ignoring traditional boundaries separating art, craft, and design. Her work with fabric, fiber, and found objects came to prominence in the 1950s, and this retrospective, first mounted at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts, features more than ninety of her most important pieces, including a major installation on loan from Target’s headquarters in Minneapolis. Sheila Hicks: 50 Years offers insights into the artist’s thinking and her approach to materials.
Lynda Benglis, The Graces, 2003–5, cast polyurethane, lead, and stainless steel, dimensions from left to right: 103 x 26 x 26 in.; 113 x 21½ x 23 in.; 95 x 30 x 27 in. (artwork © Lynda Benglis, DACS, London/VAGA, New York)
Lynda Benglis
New Museum of Contemporary Art
235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002
February 9–June 19, 2011
This exhibition, Lynda Benglis’s first retrospective in New York and her first solo show in the city in twenty years, spans the range of her career. The survey covers her early wax paintings and brightly colored poured latex works, the Torsos and Knots series from the 1970s, and her recent experiments with plastics, cast glass, paper, and gold leaf. Lynda Benglis also contains a number of rarely exhibited works, such as Phantom (1971), an installation consisting of five monumental sculptures that glow in the dark, and Primary Structures (Paula’s Props), an installation first shown in 1975. Because throughout her career Benglis was constantly experimenting with materials and techniques, some of which were ephemeral or less than permanent, a few of the works exhibited are the only survivors of some series of works.
Reviewing the show for the New York Times, Roberta Smith wrote, “This exhibition stresses Ms. Benglis’s dual role as innovator and commentator, adept at extending ideas of her mostly male contemporaries while also skewing and skewering them with her own implicitly libidinous sensibility.”
Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster 1964–1966
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
March 13–June 5, 2011
Vija Celmins is best known as a painter of soft, monochromatic images of stars and spider webs. However, as a young artist in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, she created a series of brightly colored works with violent themes such as crashing warplanes, smoking handguns, and other images of death and disaster influenced by the violence of the era and mass media representations of it. Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster 1964–1966 is the first exhibition to concentrate on these paintings and sculptures made during this brief period.
CAA Letter Regarding the Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei
posted Apr 08, 2011
CAA sent the following letter regarding the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei to the editor of the New York Times on Friday, April 8, 2011. Read more about the international art community’s response at CultureGrrl.
Letter to the Editor
To the Editor:
The College Art Association, the world’s largest organization of visual arts professionals, is extremely concerned about the fate of Ai Weiwei since he was taken into police custody when attempting to board a plane to Hong Kong on April 3rd. He has not been accused of specific crimes.
We are deeply alarmed that Ai would be subject to such extreme methods of repression because of his unfettered work and outspokenness. Ai’s work has garnered international accolades, recognized as an indication of the vitality of the visual arts in China. He is well known in art circles in New York, where he lived for a number of years, and his choice to return to Beijing was seen as part of the renewal of the arts in China.
The College Art Association supports freedom of expression for all artists and looks forward to Ai’s prompt release.
Sincerely,
Barbara Nesin, MFA
President, College Art Association
April Picks from CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts
posted Apr 06, 2011
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 April 2011 include three exhibitions: Sheila Hicks: 50 Years in Philadelphia, Lynda Benglis in New York, and Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster 1964–1966 in Los Angeles. The committee also selected a conversation between the artist Diane Burko and the geographer Åsa Rennermalm, who will discuss climate issues and activism.
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.
Federal Judge Rejects Google Book Settlement
posted Apr 05, 2011
Federal Judge Denny Chin rejected the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement, better known as the Google Book Settlement, on March 22, 2011. Citing copyright, antitrust, and other concerns, he stated that the settlement went too far and would have granted Google a monopoly over information without the permission of copyright owners. The US Justice Department and other groups were similarly concerned that the settlement would have given Google exclusive rights to profit from so-called orphan works, books whose right holders are unknown or cannot be found. Download a PDF of Chin’s ruling.
The original lawsuit, Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., had been settled in November 2008 with an amendment approved in November 2009, but this Amended Settlement Agreement will not go forward as stated. Chin left open the possibility for a revised settlement, suggesting that authors opt in rather than opt out. A second class-action suit for copyright infringement brought by visual artists, who had been excluded as plaintiffs in the first suit, is still pending.
Many print and online publications have discussed the decision, its effects, and possible next steps. A selection of recent news and opinion pieces published by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate, and Inside Higher Ed, among others, can be found below. Several articles note that the judge’s decision gives Congress the opportunity to reconsider orphan-works legislation, which CAA has supported in the past. In addition, Roger Darnton, a librarian and professor at Harvard University, and others encourage the creation of a universal digital library, available to all.
Articles and Editorials
Jonathan Band, “A Guide for the Perplexed Part IV: The Rejection of the Google Books Settlement,” Library Copyright Alliance, March 31, 2011, http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org/bm~doc/guideiv-final-1.pdf.
Robert Darnton, “A Library without Walls,” NYR Blog (blog), New York Review of Books, October 4, 2010, http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/oct/04/library-without-walls/.
Robert Darnton, “Six Reasons Google Books Failed,” NYR Blog (blog), New York Review of Books, March 28, 2011, http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/mar/28/six-reasons-google-books-failed/.
Editorial, “Google’s Book Deal,” New York Times, March 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/opinion/31thu2.html.
Amir Efrati and Jeffrey A. Tractenberg, “Judge Rejects Google Books Settlement,” Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704461304576216923562033348.html.
Miguel Helft, “Judge Rejects Google’s Deal to Digitize Books,” New York Times, March 23, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/technology/23google.html.
Miguel Helft, “Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library,” New York Times, April 3, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/technology/04library.html.
Jennifer Howard, “Judge Rejects Settlement in Google Books Case, Saying It Goes Too Far,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 22, 2011, http://chronicle.com/article/Judge-Rejects-Settlement-in/126864.
Steve Kolowich, “Google Who?”, Inside Higher Ed, March 28, 2011, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/03/28/usag.
Steve Kolowich, “Please Refine Your Search Terms,” Inside Higher Ed, March 23, 2011, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/03/23/judge_rejects_google_books_settlement.
Claire Cain Miller, “Book Ruling Cuts Options for Google,” New York Times, March 23, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/business/media/24google.html.
Jeffrey A. Tractenberg, “Google Book Deal Faces Big Hurdle,” Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703362904576218951641845230.html.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, “Google Block,” Slate, March 23, 2011, http://www.slate.com/id/2289155.
CAA Receives Grants from the Wyeth and Tremaine Foundations
posted Apr 04, 2011
In March 2011, CAA received two significant grants to continue offering the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant for three more years and to fund the National Professional-Development Workshops for Artists through 2012.
The Wyeth Foundation for American Art approved funding that will allow CAA to award $40,000 in grants to publishers each year from 2011 to 2013. Wyeth grants support the publication of books on 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. The program has helped publish twenty-two books since 2005.
The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation awarded $70,000 to CAA for sustaining the National Professional-Development Workshops for Artists. This program focuses on supporting visual artists in underserved areas across the United States and providing essential training to emerging, midcareer, and established professionals. CAA has held sixteen Tremaine-sponsored workshops since 2007.