Vanderbilt University History of Art Blog

Leonard Folgarait to Explore “Edgar Degas: A New Vision” with VU Alums at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts

The Houston Vanderbilt Club is hosting an evening at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts with Leonard Folgarait, professor of history of art, as he explores Degas: A New Vision on Thursday evening, October 27, at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

On view through January 16, the exhibit offers the most significant international survey in nearly 30 years of the work of Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834–1917). The reputation of this celebrated French artist has often focused on his ballet imagery, and yet Degas’s rich, complex, and abundant oeuvre spans the entire second half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th.

The exhibit features more than 200 works of art and spans Degas’s 50-year career as a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and photographer, revealing his evolution as a towering figure of modern art and unparalleled observer of everyday life.

Edgar Degas. The Dance Class, oil on canvas, ca. 1873, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Corcoran Collection.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 26, 2016 in Events, HART, Lectures, Student/Alumni, VRC

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Neil Silberman to Deliver AIA Lecture on Thursday, October 27, at the Nashville Parthenon

There’s a revolution happening today in the way we value, discover, and imagine the past. On the negative side, ancient sites by the thousands—not only in the Middle East but all over the world—are being bulldozed, looted, vandalized, or blown up or merely vandalized. Feature films, bestsellers and specialized cable documentaries hopelessly muddle archaeological fiction and fact. Yet on the positive side, advanced satellite imagery and LIDAR sensors are uncovering complex civilizations in deserts and jungles where none were assumed to ever exist. Virtual reality environments and 3D digital reconstructions are now used both for scientific documentation and immersive museum experiences, and the sheer social reach of Facebook, Twitter, and research-by-crowd sourcing is offering archaeologists unprecedented opportunities to engage the general public in their work.

Neil Silberman, author and heritage interpretation professional with a special interest in emerging trends and techniques for public engagement, will address “Rebooting Antiquity: How Holy Wars, Media Type, and Digital Technologies Are Changing the Face of 21st Century Archaeology” in a lecture scheduled for Thursday, October 27, at 6 pm at the Nashville Parthenon. Silberman will highlight some recent discoveries and ongoing controversies in the Americas, Europe, and Asia that exemplify the dramatic new directions that archaeology is taking in our globalized, internet age.

In 2008, Silberman joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and became one of the founders of its Center for Heritage and Society. He also served as co-editor of its journal Heritage & Society (2008-2014) and is a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Cultural Property and the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies.

This lecture, free and open to the public, is cosponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, the Vanderbilt University Program for Classical and Mediterranean Studies, and The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park. Those who plan to attend the AIA lecture are encouraged to call the Nashville Parthenon at 615.862.8431 to reserve a seat.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 24, 2016 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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Leonard Folgarait Explores Mexican Muralism at Cheekwood Workshop on October 21

Leonard Folgarait, professor of history of art, and Brian Greif, creator of the Nashville Walls Project, will offer a professional development workshop at Cheekwood on Friday, October 21, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The workshop is entitled “Street Stories: Urban Art in Mexico and Nashville.”

Folgarait will explore Mexican muralism with workshop participants, and Greif will talk about the murals found on walls all over Nashville. Participants will engage in an interactive art activity as well as practical classroom application to a variety of grades and subject areas.

For more information about the workshop, email Brooke Griffith, School & Outreach Program Manager, at bgriffith@cheekwood.org.

Scene from Diego Rivera’s mural “La conquista y revolución” at Palacio de Cortez, Cuernavaca

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 20, 2016 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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Elizabeth Moodey’s “Art of the Book” Student-Curated Exhibition Cited as Successful Collaboration with Vanderbilt Library

Elizabeth Moodey, associate professor of history of art, and her HART 2288 seminar students this past spring chose and researched the works in an exhibition, Book as Art: Medieval Necessity and Modern Invention, currently on view in the lobby of the Heard Library through March 2017. They investigated medieval and contemporary artists’ books to deduce common threads and broader stories. They also acquired new skills to share oral histories and digital resources.

The exhibition, curated by students Anna Childress, Mary Helen Johns, BA’16, Ariana Parrish, Danielle Pettiti, Francesca Salvatore, BA’16, Sharon Si, Rebekah Smith, and Daniel Weitz, BA’16, represents a successful collaboration between the library and the department of history of art. Composed of seven cases, two interactive touchscreens and a website, the exhibition will be part of a panel discussion at the Southeastern Museums Conference in Charlotte and the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association in Pasadena later this fall.

The Library as Incubator Project has posted an article by Celia Walker, HART MA’85, director of special projects, who plans to offer student-curated exhibitions again next year and is spreading the word to faculty about this opportunity. Walker envisions the library’s exhibition program as a positive part of the students’ academic life, enhancing the collaborative experience at Vanderbilt.

“Art of the Book” exhibition on view in the Central Lobby of the Vanderbilt Library and photographed by Jon Erickson, librarian with the Science and Engineering Library

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 18, 2016 in Events, HART, Student/Alumni, VRC

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Rebecca VanDiver Examines Black Feminist Curatorial Practices of the 1970s

In the fall of 1978, Corcoran Gallery of Art registrar Theresa Simmons, Renwick Gallery museum technician Edith T. Martin, and others organized a national show of black women artists to coincide with the 1979 annual meeting of the College Art Association. The show never secured adequate funding and was canceled.

Rebecca VanDiver, assistant professor of African American art, examines the exhibit Contemporary Afro-American Women Artists through its documentation in the Archives of American Art. Her essay, “Off the Wall, into the Archive: Black Feminist Curatorial Practices of the 1970s,” appears in the fall 2016 issue (volume 55, number 2) of the Archives of American Art Journal, a special issue on African American art that celebrates the opening of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

VanDiver considers the historiographical ramifications of Martin’s decision to lend her research files for the exhibition to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in relation to feminist and black revisionist curatorial practices of the 1970s. VanDiver’s analysis of the failed exhibition and its paper trail offers a critique of the power and the limitations of the archive for the study of African American art.

VanDiver’s research centers on twentieth-century black women artists and African American artistic engagements with Africa. Her work has appeared in the journals Space and Culture and Transition. She is currently completing a book-length manuscript on Loïs Mailou Jones.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 18, 2016 in HART, VRC

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Screening of “The Mill & The Cross” at Sarratt Cinema on October 19

The Mill & The Cross is a film in which director Lech Majewski restages Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1564 painting, “The Way to Calvary.” Majewski, a Polish filmmaker and video artist, brings the viewer inside the painting with immersive period detail and extraordinary digital effects.

The film will be screened in Sarratt Cinema on Wednesday, October 19, at 7:30 pm as part of the International Lens Film Series at Vanderbilt. Robert Mode, professor emeritus of history of art, will lead a discussion of the film following the screening.

The daily life of 16th-century Flanders is rendered with astounding vividness, from the routine of the windmill caretaker to the crusading Spanish militia, who abuse Protestants with brutally violent tactics. Rutger Hauer plays artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, touring inside his own canvas and discussing the origin of his work while his wealthy patron Nicolaes Jonghelinck (Michael York) bemoans the state of his disintegrating country.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 17, 2016 in Events, HART, VRC

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Rebecca VanDiver Moderates Panel on Images of Ferguson at Southern Festival of Books on Saturday, October 15

Rebecca VanDiver, assistant professor of African American Art, will moderate a panel entitled “The Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography: Images from Ferguson” on Saturday, October 15, from 3 to 4 pm as part of the annual three-day Southern Festival of Books in downtown Nashville. The panel, held at the Nashville Public Library, features Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers Robert Cohen and David Carson, both with the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, and VanDiver as moderator.

Cohen’s images of unrest following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, were part of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography awarded to the photo staff. In 2009 Carson was part of a Pulitzer Prize finalist team for coverage of the Kirkwood City Hall shootings, also in Missouri. VanDiver’s research centers on twentieth-century black women artists and African American artistic engagements with Africa. She is currently completing a book-length manuscript on the artist Loïs Mailou Jones.

As part of its continuing partnership with Humanities Tennessee and the Southern Festival of Books, Vanderbilt’s Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities is cosponsoring a special track of sessions related to the Pulitzer Prize, which celebrates its centennial anniversary this year. The panel moderated by VanDiver represents one such session, providing an ideal opportunity to explore what news is today, and whether and how propulsive changes in technology have changed how we perceive what news is and how we receive and consume it.

Rebecca VanDiver with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers Robert Cohen and David Carson at the Southern Festival of Books

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 11, 2016 in Events, HART, HART in Nashville, VRC

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Christopher Johns to Deliver Dickson Memorial Lecture at Penn State on October 13

Christopher Johns, Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Professor of History of Art, will address “Preserving the Patrimony: Cultural Properties and the Rise of Museums in Enlightenment Rome” as part of the Dickson Memorial Lecture Series at Penn State University on Thursday, October 13.

The Dying Gaul, known as the Wounded Gladiator in the eighteenth century, was unearthed in the gardens of the Villa Ludovisi in the early seventeenth century, and remained in the family collections until it was acquired by Clement XII for the Capitoline Museum in 1736. A marble copy of a lost bronze Greek original, the Dying Gaul was one of the most famous sculptures in the world during the Age of the Grand Tour.

Johns will discuss the establishment of the Capitoline Museum in Rome in 1734 as the culmination of enlightened papal policies deployed to preserve Rome’s artistic heritage from sale to foreign collectors in the Age of the Grand Tour. The Capitoline Museum was the first modern institution opened to the paying public interested in looking at works of art—the type of museum familiar to us today.

The annual Dickson Memorial Lecture Series in Art History, named in honor of the late Professor Harold E. Dickson, brings leading scholars in art history to Penn State to share their latest research and meet with students.

The Palazzo Nuovo, one of the three main buildings of the Capitoline Museums surrounding the Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 11, 2016 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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Joseph Rife to Examine Religious Life of Vibrant Community at Kenchreai in September 29 Archaeology Lecture

The port of Kenchreai, near Corinth in southern Greece, flourished from the Roman Empire through Late Antiquity (1st-7th centuries) as one of the busiest commercial centers in the region. It was also a crossroads for the exchange of ideas, styles, languages, and beliefs. Like many provincial ports of the eastern Mediterranean under Roman rule, the residents of Kenchreai supported many cults of the traditional Greek and Roman deities. They also engaged in magical practice to assuage interpersonal conflicts and social tensions, and they embraced the spread of Christianity from Saint Paul’s establishment of the local congregation.

Joseph Rife, associate professor and founding director of the Program in Classical and Mediterranean Studies, will present the first Archaeological Institute of America lecture of the academic year on Thursday, September 29, at 6 pm at the Nashville Parthenon. His lecture, entitled “Pagans, Magicians, and Christians at a Port in Roman Greece,” will explore the rich archaeological and textual evidence for the religious life of Kenchreai as it evolved over the long transition from classical antiquity to the Byzantine middle ages.

From 2002 to 2006 Rife directed the Kenchreai Cemetery Project under the auspices of the American School and with the permission of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. It was an interdisciplinary study of a vast cemetery of Roman date near the ancient harbor of Kenchreai. In 2007 he began a second phase of exploration at Kenchreai in collaboration with Elena Korka, then head of the Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities for the Ministry. The new Greek-American Excavations at Kenchreai are studying the northeastern periphery and residential quarter of the ancient port-town, immediately north of the ancient harbor. In 2011 he was appointed director of record for the major excavations conducted in the 1960s by the American School around the harbor at Kenchreai. Rife’s work at Kenchreai aims to explore social structure, cultural diversity, ritual behavior, and their landscapes in a small but prosperous provincial port.

This lecture, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park, and the Program for Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt. Those who plan to attend the AIA lecture are encouraged to call the Nashville Parthenon at 615.862.8431 to reserve a seat.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on September 27, 2016 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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HART Welcomes Shelby Merritt as Assistant Visual Resources Curator

Not everyone realizes this, but Florida is as much rural cattle pastures and dusty orange groves as it is sunny beaches and crowded theme parks. Coming from a proud working-class family of “true Floridians” (not transplants), my artistic tendencies and academic aspirations were initially met with puzzlement. It has taken the course of a bachelor’s degree in Art History, a master’s degree in Library Science, and several museum internships, but I think my family have finally come to appreciate my commitment to the arts. Or at least they’re resigned to it.

As I was deciding what course I wanted my career to take, I often imagined myself locked away in a quiet back room in a museum, surrounded by art. I still love doing that kind of work, but it was during a library assistantship through my graduate program at UNC-Chapel Hill that I finally discovered a previously unknown people skill: collaborating with students and faculty. Whether it was tracking down an obscure bit of information, or discovering a new and dynamic way of presenting a project, I relished helping patrons accomplish their scholarly goals. I am excited to work here with faculty doing research on topics that I’m passionate about and to encourage students to better incorporate visual resources into every aspect of their lives.

I love a vibrant Southern town and I have been fortunate to live in several across the Southeast. Nashville’s laid-back, yet metropolitan vibe already feels like home. I’m looking forward to exploring hiking trails with my black lab mix, Elliott, and taking a grand tour of the finest breweries and coffee shops Nashville has to offer. Insider tips welcome.—Shelby Merritt

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on September 27, 2016 in HART, VRC

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