Art History

The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild is seeking talented interns for its Fall 2012 and Winter 2013 Internship program. Participants gain hands-on experience in the arts, working closely with Byrdcliff’s small staff to assist in the organization’s daily operations, including exhibitions, events, marketing and development. Internships can be focused to meet individual interests and availability.

For more information click on this link:  ByrdcliffeWinterInternships

Bard’s Career Development Office and the Art History Program
invite you to:

Christie’s Internship and Graduate Program Information Session

When:   Thursday, November 1 at 1:00 pm
Where:  Weis Cinema
Led By: Hilary Smith, Academic and Admissions Coordinator

Come learn more about Christie’s semesterly, summer and winter
internship programs, as well as entry-level positions! Also hear
about Christie’s Education, an international team of dedicated
art-world experts, academics and practitioners, who are
committed to educating and inspiring the next generation of
art-world professionals.

October 2, 2012
Professor Tom Wolf

School is back, and so is the art season in New York, in full swing.  On my way around some much talked about shows in Chelsea and uptown, I have found a couple of gems that aren’t getting so much buzz but that are well worth visiting.  They also afford the great pleasure that when you see them you are not among throngs of people, but almost alone with the works of art.

In Chelsea you should definitely catch Thomas Hirschhorn’s dramatic capsized installation at Barbara Gladstone (530 West 21^st, through October 20), Richard Phillips’ glamorous Hollywood treatment of Lindsay Lohan at Gagosian, with some immense paintings by Anselm Kiefer and two huge sculptures by Baselitz in the side gallery (for those of you who like Wagnerian sturm und drang), (555 West 24^th, through October 20), plus Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman‘s dystopian funhouse at Marlborough (the favorite of my Contemporary Art students, 545 West 25^th, through October 27).  But a less trafficked show at Bruce Silverstein offers different pleasures.  Modestly titled Seven Americans after a 1925 exhibition, it features a group of major American modernist artists, those grouped around the great photographer and art impresario, Alfred Stieglitz.

Maine Seacoast Still Life, Hartley

Equivalent, Alfred Stieglitz

The gallery includes several works by each of the now historic Seven Americans included in Stieglitz’s original show:  Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Paul Strand, Stieglitz himself, and Georgia O’Keeffe, the one woman.  The modest sized works usually take nature as their subject, and often feature close up views, as these early 20th century modernists, especially Dove, come daringly close to total abstraction, while also retaining some reference to the real world.  Stiegltiz’s nine photographs from his Equivalents series exemplify this:  black and white expanses of sky and clouds with celestial light playing across them, they are tiny (around 3 1/2” X 4 1/2”) monochrome prints that capture infinite space.  In the show they are given equal status to the paintings, honoring Stieglitz’s early 20^th century campaign to have photographs accepted as works of art, hardly an issue today.  Among the paintings, the exhibition features two compact nature abstractions by O’Keeffe, and a rare opportunity to see four Hartley still life paintings in a row.

Meanwhile, uptown the Regarding Warhol show at the Metropolitan Museum is a must, as it features a mini-retrospective of one of the most important and entertaining artists of the late 20^th century, plus assorted works by 60 other celebrity artists who, like almost all of their contemporaries, could claim to be influenced by him.   Pick your time carefully—when I went for a second look this Saturday afternoon the entrance to the exhibition was so crowed you had to stand and wait to get in, and most of the exhibition is not spaciously installed (I looked at the splendid, recently re-installed 19^th century American paintings instead).

Mike Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #49

Mark Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #41

Peter Scheldahl, in his review of the Warhol show in The New Yorker agreed with the general consensus that another 60 artists could just as easily have been chosen as influenced by Warhol—but he singled out Los Angeles artist Mike Kelley as a particularly conspicuous omission (and suggested a curatorial bias against the West coast).  By coincidence you can walk a couple of blocks south of the Met and see a splendid show of Mike Kelley’s Memory Ware Flats at Skarstedt Gallery, (20 East 79^tth, through October 20).  I was alone in the gallery when I went on a Tuesday afternoon.   These works are rectangular conglomerations packed top to bottom with small mass produced found objects:  plastic jewelry, plastic toys, buttons, etc., held in place with tile grout. Between 6 and 7 feet in their longest dimension their frenetic surfaces recall Jackson Pollock paintings or Alfonso Ossorio’s combines, but their imagery evokes the bargain stores of Middle America as much as Warhol’s soup cans evoke supermarkets.  The assorted stickers, peace signs, and buttons include slogans such as “I know 50 Ways to Taco Bell,” “Drug Use Is Life Abuse,” “Mom’s Taxi—Buckle Up,” “I Was ‘Gangster’ Rocked,” and “Vote for Secretary Rachel Cortes—‘Cuz Character Counts.” In juxtaposition they suggest the rich diversity of everyday American life—the subject matter of Pop art in the 1960s.  Depending on the artist’s choice of objects, the works range from buoyantly multicolored to elegantly restrained–like Memory War Flat # 49, (2008), on the second floor, the most recent piece in the show, which the artist restricted to just black, white and gold objects.  The little plastic death’s head, positioned just below the middle on the central axis of the piece, can’t help reminding us of Kelley’s recent suicide; recalling the loss of this talented artist it adds an elegiac note to a handsome and exuberant exhibition.

Madeline Turner ’11  has curated an exhibit at the Thomas Cole House:  Postcards from the Trail
Thomas Cole’s beloved home, Cedar Grove, is abuzz with excitement. This summer, Thomas Cole National Historic Site invited artists to visit one or more of the 22 sites on the newly expanded Hudson River School Art Trail, and to create and submit an original postcard-sized painting or drawing based on one of the iconic sites painted by the Hudson River School artists. All of the artworks made will be presented in an exhibition titled “Postcards from the Trail”,  that will on view at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site on September 23, from 1 to 4pm. The response to the call for work was phenomenal and there were nearly 250 artworks submitted by adults, as well as area kids, by the August 31^st deadline! The exhibition was organized with help from Patti Ferrara, the Thomas Cole Fellows: Margot Mache and Madeline Turner, and TCNHS Collection and Exhibition Manager. A preview of the works will be held on Saturday September 22^nd at The Greene County Council on the Arts Annual Garden Party at Beattie-Powers place in Catskill, NY. Call 518-943-3400 for more information about GCCA Garden Party preview; for more information about the “Postcards from the Trail” exhibition at the Thomas Cole site, please visit: www.thomascole.org/

In Her Eyes: Women Behind and in Front of the Camera
Opens September 12, 2012 at the Newark Museum in Newark, NJ

Lalla Essaydi, Converging Territories #9, 2003

This exhibition, curated by Shlomit Dror ’06, features photographs by women who examine female identity in their work. Representing a wide range of styles and interpretations, the images on view suggest an intimate collaboration between artist and sitter. The photographs also evoke a range of ideas related to acts of veiling, masquerade and role-play.  Drawn from the Newark Museum’s collection, many of these works have never before been on view. Artists include both historical and contemporary practitioners such as Cindy Sherman, Sally Mann, Dorothea Lange, Lalla Essaydi and Ana Mendieta.

For more information visit: http://www.newarkmuseum.org/hereyes.html

“The Alchemical Kitchen: At Home with Leonora Carrington” is a commemoration of the artist by Prof. Susan Aberth, published in Nierika: Celebrando a Leonora Carrington.  Nierka is a new Mexican on-line art journal.

Nierika cover

NIERIKA-29JUN

Femininity in Asian Women Artists’ Work from China, Korea and USA
If the Shoe Fits
by Patricia Karetzky

ISBN: 978-0-9536541-2-3
c. 46 pages, 40 + illus. (2012)
.epub format
£4.50

Prof. Patricia Karetzky discusses the metaphor of the shoe and how it is present in different women artists’ work in China, Korea and USA.  The artists discussed are: Peng Wei, Nina Kuo, Yin Xuizhen, Cai Jin, Xin Song, Il Sun Hon, Betty Yaquin Zhou and Mimi Kim.

This ebook is the first in a new series from KT press and is available as an .epub only. It is compatible with Apple ibooks and can be read on many different color e-readers.

Curated by Patrica Manos ’12

Selected images from the works of Olin Dows (1904-1981)

Olin Dows Painting Mural in Private House, ca. 1935

This exhibit displays samples from a collection of photographs from the Estate of Olin Dows donated to the Bard College Archives .  Included are images of Dows’ murals in Rhinebeck and Hyde Park post offices, decorative wall murals, and WWII paintings completed as part of his military service. This display compliments the launch of a digital collection of Dows’ work viewable at www.bard.edu/archives or hrvh.org.

Opening reception: August 28, 2012 at 11:00 am
August 28-September 28, 2012
The Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library
Vitrine Display Cases

McDaris Fine Art, located on Warren Street in Hudson, is looking for an intern beginning as soon as possible.  This is an excellent opportunity for students interested in contemporary art.  McDaris Fine Art represents artists domestically and abroad working in all media including photography, video, and performance art. The gallery also holds special events from time to time – poetry readings, screenings, artists’ presentations, musical performances, preservation workshops and the like. Please contact Wendy McDaris directly at [email protected]

To visit the gallery and gallery website:     http://www.mcdarisfineart.com/

The APS has awarded a Franklin Grant to Laurie Dahlberg to support the development of her  manuscript:

Amateur v. amateur: Photography and the Devolution of a Gentleman’s Art.