Art History

Summer 2010 – Jessica Blau

Jessica with the big stone in Sacsayhuaman - the last Inca stronghold against the Spanish - in Cusco

With the advent of the Haiti earthquake in January, I was very keen to volunteer there with the relief aid; however due to political tensions in Haiti, the organization I was set to volunteer with suggested that I also look into volunteer opportunities in Pisco, Peru, which had been victim to an earthquake of similar magnitude in 2007 and was still undergoing serious reconstruction. My first week there was spent working with Pisco Sin Fronteras, an all-volunteer organization that works on different reconstruction and construction projects while providing social services and working to create sustainability as well.  From my first moments there, I was impressed by this beautiful and ancient city.  At 11,600 feet above sea level high up in the Andes (compare to Denver at 5,200 ft.), one feels close to the sky, the sun, and the mountains.  It is unsurprising that Pachamama, the Inca mountain goddess who represents the mother, and Inti, the sun god who represents the father, have historically been such important figures in Peruvian culture. I was fortunate enough to attend the Inti Raymi sun festival, which happens every year during the winter solstice (June 21^st).  It is the largest festival in South America, second only to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.  Thousands of people flock to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, the last Inca stronghold against the Spanish, to watch the five hour-long theatrical ceremony ending with the sacrifice of a llama to Inti, much of which is performed in Quechua, the dialect of the Incan social elites.  There are simply too many things to say about the art, archeological sites, natural wonders, and the people of Peru.  I have not even scratched the surface of the amazing things I experienced there and how meaningful they were to me.  All I can say is that having sat in the dark in Susan Aberth’s Survey of Latin American Art class, looking at slides of the very things that I got to see this past summer, I am incredibly grateful to have had that art historical background and the passion of such a fabulous professor to enrich my knowledge and my travels.   For an art geek, like myself, Peru did not disappoint.

INTERNSHIPS FOR COLLEGE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS:

Summer internships, long-term internships, unpaid internships.

The Goddess Durga as Slayer of the Buffalo-Demon Mahisha, gift of Alice and Nasli M. Heeramaneck

For more information about specific offerings, application forms and deadlines click on the link below:

http://www.metmuseum.org/education/er_internship.asp

Please note that posted on the Requirements section of this blog is a link, under the Senior Project section, to a pdf that contains an abbreviated style sheet for formatting footnotes and bibliographic citations.  This will be especially useful for seniors working on their project.

Film Screening: “Avigdor Arikha,” a documentary film by Patricia Wheatley for the BBC.

self-portrait in raincoat

Followed by a discussion with panelists:

• John Bjerklie, Independent Artist, New York
• Burt Brody, Professor, Dept. of Physics, Bard College
• Rosanna Warren, University Professor and Professor of English and Romance Studies, Boston University

Moderator: Noah Chasin, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Art History, Bard College

Tuesday, November 16, 2010
5:00 PM
Weis Cinema

Free and Open to the Public

Cress Gallery

Artist: Gao lei

Curated by Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky, O. Munsterberg Chair of Asian Art, Bard College, and Professor of Art History, Lehman College with assistance from the Director and Curator, UTC Cress Gallery of Art, Chattanooga, TN.

CHINA SHOW
November 9 – December 14, 2010
“le deluge, après mao”
China’s Surging Creative Tide:
An Exhibition of Work by Significant Contemporary Chinese Artists

Lecture by Curator Patricia Karetzky followed by a reception
Thursday, November 18, 2010, Room 356 UTC Fine Arts Center

China Show card

Summer 2010 – Isabelle Coler

I spent the summer interning at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Indian and Himalayan art department, as a part of the Museum Studies Internship program. My work ranged greatly, from small tasks like rearranging files and cropping pictures to creating a binder that organized the department’s collection of paintings by region. However, my major project for the summer consisted of researching the department’s textile collection. After being trained in textile handling, I spent two afternoons a week with the assistant curator, photographing the hundreds of scraps, rolls and cloths tucked away in storage. The other part of this project entailed actually researching, both the textiles that I photographed and those with images already in the system. Using other museum’s online collections, and the large number of catalogs and books I had piled up on my desk, I was able to identify the state and sometimes city that many of the textiles came from, as well as the process used to make the cloth and sometimes the date.

This internship was a part of a general museum studies program which was great! Monday and Thursday afternoons were spent with the program’s 37 other interns, who came from every department (such as curatorial, development, education, editorial, conservation, archives, the library, the legal department, the gift shop and Rights and Reproduction). The program is meant to leave you with a very broad and thorough impression of what it is like to work in a museum and all the possible positions that exist, and this was exactly what it achieved. It was a fantastic experience and I highly encourage others to apply.

Portrait of Ivan Karp, Portrait of Allan Kaprow, 1961

Lots of great shows in NYC now, including a chance to get a great dose of one of the masters of Pop, Roy Lichtenstein, who currently is featured in three choice exhibitions.  If you only can only see one of them, pick The Black and White Drawings at the Morgan Library (225 Madison Ave. at 36^th St.), which also has the virtue of being on view until January 2.  But Mostly Men at Leo Castelli (18 East 77^th) and Reflected at Mitchell Innes & Nash (534 West 26^th) both through October 30, are well worth seeing.  Both include rare early works, as well as stunning recent pieces.

Also on view are two exhibitions of works by masters of abstract art:  Gerhard Richter:  “Lines which do not exist,” at the Drawing Center (35 Wooster Street) through November 18.   The 50 drawings in the show reveal a lesser-known side of Richter, most famous for his paintings.  They are mostly abstract, mostly small, mostly black and white, with a wide range of marking techniques, from thin lines to broad tones, from erased strokes to flurries of graphite spots.  They amount to grisaille versions of his abstract paintings, which are supplemented by a few representational images, a wall of large-scale drawings, and several watercolors where the paper is flooded with blazing color, sometimes played against barely visible passages of line.

Last month the Pace Gallery flexed its considerable muscles with a four-gallery show honoring its fiftieth anniversary, featuring great works by artists such as Calder, Pollock, Johns and on.  This month it opens a new space, 510 West 25^th, with a show of abstract paintings by Thomas Nozkowski, who fills the big spaces with dozens of drawings and paintings that show a range of wit and inventiveness that make Richter’s drawings look austere—through December 4.

Broom: The Full Sweep 

The upcoming exhibition in our vitrines in Stevenson Library presents all twenty-one volumes of Broom, the legendary avant-garde periodical from the 1920s. In order to display the full range of the innovative art and literature published by Broom, this exhibition presents the magazine’s most radical and renowned works by changing the materials in the cases weekly.  The exhibition has been curated by recent Center for Curatorial Studies graduate Daniel Mason, and is faculty sponsored by Prof. Tom Wolf, Art History. This exhibition will be on view at the Stevenson Library from November 3 to December 13.

We encourage all to attend the Opening Reception on Wednesday, November 3rd, 5:00-7:00 pm in the lobby of Stevenson Library.

First Annual
FEMINIST ART HISTORY CONFERENCE
AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, Washington, D.C.

“CONTINUING THE LEGACY: HONORING THE WORK OF
NORMA BROUDE AND MARY D. GARRARD”

Friday and Saturday
November 5 and 6 , 2010

10 sessions with 40 papers

Conference is free and open to the Public

For more information and registration, see http://www.american.edu/cas/art-history/femconf/index.cfm