Art History

Kurt Seligmann on Mountain, Untitled Film Still, 1938

Seligmann in Sugar Loaf
The Kurt and Ariette Seligmann Trust and Rowland Weinstein
are sponsoring a patron event at the Seeligmann Homestead.

Saturday, October 3, 2015
2:30 pm – Stroll the Seligmann Center Grounds, 23-26 White Oak Drive, Sugar Loaf, NY 10981
845.469.9459, Kurtseligmann.org

3:30 pm Roundtable Discussion with Susan L. Aberth,
Jonathan P. Eburne, Stephen Robeson Miller, Celia Rabinovitch and Martica Sawin
Moderated by Daniel Mack.
Followed by a Reception and Printmaking Demonstration by Artist Jonathan Talbot

Dr. Mark Konecny, Associate Director and Curator of the archives and library of the Institute of Modern Russian Culture, a unique collection of twentieth century books, art, and cultural artifacts. His area of expertise is the interdisciplinary study of Russian and European culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is currently putting together a digital exhibition of Russian art collections in America, concentrating on the first half of the twentieth century. With Lorin Johnson, he curated the exhibition, “Dance in Los Angeles”, which traveled from Los Angeles to the Bakhrushin Theater Gallery on Malaia Ordynka, 10-26 July. He is on fellowship with the Jordan Family Center, New York University.

Dr. Konecny will examine how Russian choreographers and dancers tried to adapt dance to the new medium of film (both silent and talkies) while democratizing their chosen art for mass culture. While most historians have concentrated on the elitist dances of Ballets Russes, Michel Fokine, and George Balanchine as emblematic of the influence of Russian choreographers on ballet, he would like to suggest an alternate history with an unlikely father: Nijinsky. While Russian dance is often associated with the flawless technical virtuosity of classical ballet, the actual history is much more a description of the vibrant evolution of modern dance and choreography that Russians were able to present to eager audiences of the new world. Innovators like George Balanchine, Adolph Bolm, and Theodore Kosloff transformed ballet in ways that are, to this day, unimaginable in Russia.

Thursday, September 24, 2015
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
RKC Laszlo Z. Bito ‘ 60 Auditorium (RKC 103)

Stefan Hirsch Painting “The Builder at Work”, unknown photographer, 1931-32

Precisely Not: Works from the Stefan Hirsch and Elsa Rogo Collection

curated by John Ohrenberger ’16

September 17-October 29, 2015
Opening Reception: Tuesday, September 29, 4-6 pm

Charles P. Stevenson Library
Vitrine Displays

Tang Desheng: Educated Youth
curated by Patricia Karetzky

President’s Gallery
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York

Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 16, 2015
5:30-7:00 pm

Show will run September 16, 2015 – October 30, 2015

Norwich, St. Gregory Pottergate: view from the north

Katherine Boivin, Assistant Professor of Art History, Bard College, published an article “The Chancel Passageways of Norwich,”  in the British Archaeological Association’s issue dedicated to Norwich: Medieval and Early Modern Art, Architecture and Archaeology. The article focuses on two important churches in Norwich, St. Peter Mancroft and St. Gregory Pottergate, relating these examples to others in England and continental Europe. Professor Boivin considers the possible ritual uses and meanings of these passageways in relationship to neighboring spaces, the surrounding cemetery, and the wider city.

A lecture by Mark R. Eischeid
Thursday, September 10th
11:50 AM

Mark R. Eischeid is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Oregon where he teaches history, theory, and design. He received his MFA in Art Space + Nature from the Edinburgh College of Art, an MLA from UC Berkeley, and a BS in Applied Earth Science from Stanford University, and he is currently pursuing a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the history, theory, critique, and aesthetics of 20th and 21st century landscape architecture.
Mark has previous professional experience in geology, and is a licensed landscape architect (California).  Mark is also a practicing artist, and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the UK, Japan, Denmark, and Greenland.

Exploding the Infinite: The Sublime Landscapes of Dan Riley

The perception or suggestion of the infinite has been cited as one of the mechanisms by which we judge an object or an environment to be sublime.  In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Edmund Burke described the “artificial infinite” as one of the identifying characteristics of the sublime.  Burke suggests that the artificial infinite can be expressed as a sequence or repetition of uniform elements or as spaces with obscured or indeterminate boundaries or limits.  Dan Kiley, a pioneering and distinguished practitioner of 20th century modernist landscape architecture, consistently spoke of his desire to express a sense of infinity in his designed landscapes.

Kiley’s design philosophy parallels Burke’s definitions, as evidenced through selected design projects, writings, and interviews.  Kiley’s use of the grid to repeat landscape elements (trees, hedges, lights, benches) through various landscape types (allées, avenues, bosques, orchards), coincident with the creation of continuous spaces and indeterminate boundaries, exemplify how he intended to create a sense of infinity in his designed landscapes.  This talk will illustrate Kiley’s expression of the artificial infinite through his work at the Miller Garden (1955, Columbus, Indiana), North Christian Church (1964, Columbus, Indiana), and the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park (1988, Kansas City, Missouri) based on recent fieldwork.

Acts of Political Uncertainty: Towards a Daily Practice of Resistance

When : Tuesday, September 8th, 2015, starting at 6:00pm, open to the public
Where: Lázló Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building, Bard College

Jeanne van Heeswijk’s lecture will demonstrate how active forms of citizenship can engage constituencies and communities in critical public issues. Van Heeswijk will describe how the complexities of our cities can be employed as the performative basis for the production of new forms of sociability, collective ownership, and self-organization.

The Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism is made possible through a five year-grant from the Keith Haring Foundation.  The Keith Haring Fellowship is a cross-disciplinary, annual, visiting Fellowship for a scholar, activist, or artist to teach and conduct research at both the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Human Rights Project at Bard College. The Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism was established to allow a distinguished leader in the field to investigate the role of art as a catalyst for social change, linking the two programs and presenting original research in an annual lecture.

Jeanne van Heeswijk is a visual artist who facilitates the creation of dynamic and diversified public spaces in order to “radicalize the local.”  Van Heeswijk embeds herself as an active citizen in communities, often working for years at a time. These long-scale projects, which have occurred in many different countries, transcend the traditional boundaries of art in duration, space, and media, and questions art’s autonomy by combining performative actions, meetings, discussions, seminars, and other forms of organizing and pedagogy. Inspired by a particular current event, cultural context or intractable social problem, she dynamically involves neighbors and community members in the planning and realization of a given project. As an “urban curator”, van Heeswijk’s work often unravels invisible legislation, governmental codes, and social institutions, in order to enable communities to take control over their own futures. Noted projects include Hotel New York P.S. 1 in New York (September 1998 to August 1999); De Strip (The Strip) in Westwijk, Vlaardingen (May 2002 – May 2004); Het Blauwe Huis (The Blue House) in Amsterdam (May          2005 – December 2009); and 2Up 2Down/Homebaked in Liverpool (November 2011 – present); Freehouse, Radicalizing the Local in Rotterdam (September 2008- present).

Her work has also been featured in numerous books and publications worldwide, as well as internationally renowned biennials such as those of Liverpool, Busan, Taipei, Shanghai, and Venice. She has received a host of accolades and awards for her work including most recently the 2012 Curry Stone Prize for Social Design Pioneers, and in 2011, the Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change.

For more information on The Keith Haring Foundation  – www.haring.com
For more information on the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College – www.bard.edu/ccs
For more information on the Human Rights Project at Bard College – http://hrp.bard.edu

Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation
July 1- September 13, 2015
Curator: Tom Wolf
Introduction by Karl Emil Willers

Lecture by Steven Salzman, Wednesday, September 16th, in RKC 101
Reception to follow

STEVEN SALZMAN graduated from Bard College then continued his studies at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. His work has been exhibited at the Hunter College Graduate Center Gallery. William Turner Gallery, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Halwalls, White Columns, and the Nassau County Museum of Art. His Absolut Salzman from the Absolut Vodka Artist series is in the permanent collection of the Spirit Museum in Sweden. Contemporary Physics in Black and White catalogue

Art History Senior Presentations Tuesday, May 19th: art history seniors presented their projects to their peers and faculty and then participated in a celebratory dinner.

Here is the Program, please enjoy!

Professor Julia Rosenbaum has been named Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. for 2015-2016.
The Smithsonian’s year-long research fellowship will support Professor Rosenbaum’s new project examining art, science, and representations
of the body from the Civil War to WWII.