Tag: American Art

International Symposium | Parallel Histories: Nineteenth-Century Australian and American Landscape Painting |

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The landscape of ideas, explorer artists, the pastoral arcadia of settlers, and the natural wilderness will be surveyed in Not As The Songs Of Other Lands exhibition at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne. Recalling sentimental landscapes in the manner of Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) and so-called ‘improved landscapes’ with the inclusion of mercantile, agricultural and industrial iconography, this Symposium will highlight the introduction of American theories of perception and visual representations of materiality and ideology in the landscape, especially when positioned alongside the Australian interpretation of Indigenous landscapes and cultures. There are many parallels to be found in the representation of such complex cultural heritage. This symposium will activate these ideas beyond the scope of the exhibition space. Join us as we examine the connections between the depiction of landscape, and the visual representation of myth and…

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Exhibition Review | Whistler’s Mother | NGV International

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The National Gallery of Victoria’s latest loan exhibition is based around a single painting by James McNeil Whistler – his Arrangement in grey and black no. 1 of 1871, popularly known as the Portrait of the artist’s mother, or just ‘Whistler’s Mother’. Compared to the just-closed Warhol/Wei Wei summer blockbuster, this is a small, intimate exhibition. The painting is on loan from the Musée d’Orsay and the exhibition is filled out with etchings, prints, paintings, furniture and decorative arts from the NGV’s permanent collection. The exhibition sets this single painting into a fresh context, one that enriches our understanding of Whistler and allows us to see works from the NGV collection in a new light. I find it impossible to really talk about this exhibition without first dealing with the language being used to promote it. We are told (in the marketing…

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Floor Talk Series | Redefining Whistler | NGV International

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Starting this Sunday there are several floor talk from curators and other experts on aspects of the current ‘Whistler’s Mother’ exhibition at NGV. With his long mane of curly dark hair, monocle, tailored coat and French top hat, James McNeil Whistler was a showman and self-described ‘dandy’ Along with his theatrical public persona, he was an extraordinary painter and printmaker; creating some of the nineteenth century’s most radical and influential works. At a time when moral lessons and storytelling dominated British art, Whistler was an uncompromising aesthete. He believed in the visual and sensual qualities of art and design over practical, moral or narrative considerations. Hear contemporary voices and curators explore the mark made by Whistler on style, art and design in this floor talk series Redefining Whistler. Sun 10 Apr, 11am | Printmaking Past and Present Speakers Martin King, Senior…

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Lecture | Sol Le Witt: Arcs and Tangents – Janet Passehl | University of Melbourne

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A photo of Janet Passehl

A free public lecture by Janet Passehl on Sol Le Witt. Sol LeWitt (1928- 2007) was a leading figure of Minimalism and pioneer of Conceptual art. LeWitt’s work was characterized by serialization, repetition, and progression, exemplified by his iconic open-grid structures. Studying systems of line and color, his prolific output of wall drawings represents a breakthrough in his career and solidified his engagement with two-dimensional practices spanning painting, drawing, photography, and printmaking. This lecture will take a behind-the-scenes look at Sol LeWitt’s life and practice. Passehl will discuss LeWitt’s studio practice and his methods for developing structures and wall drawings through working drawings, with a focus on works in Australian collections. The lecture will include glimpses of his home, studio, the art collection warehouse, the diaries he carried everywhere from 1969 through 1993, and rarely seen early work. Passehl will also…

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News | NGV announces Andy Warhol | Ai Wei Wei Summer Exhibition

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The National Gallery has announced that their summer exhibition this year will feature Andy Warhol and Ai Wei Wei. The exhibition has been developed by the NGV and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and Ai Wei Wei himself. The exhibition will open in December at the NGV and then at The Andy Warhol Museum in June 2016. From the NGV  Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei, developed by the NGV and The Warhol, with the participation of Ai Weiwei, will explore the significant influence of these two exemplary artists on modern and contemporary life, focussing on the parallels, intersections and points of difference between the two artists’ practices. Surveying the scope of both artists’ careers, the exhibition at the NGV will present over 300 works, including major new commissions, immersive installations and a wide representation of paintings, sculpture, film, photography, publishing and social media. Presenting the work…

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Conversation | Andy Warhol’s Jewish Geniuses | NGV International

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Held in conjunction with The Jewish Museum’s exhibition Andy Warhol’s Jewish Geniuses (20 Nov 2014-24 May 2015), join the Director of the Jewish Museum of Australia Rebecca Forgasz in conversation with the Director of the Jewish Museum Vienna Danielle Spera. Danielle Spera was appointed Director of the Jewish Museum Vienna in 2010. From 1978 till 2010 she worked as a journalist, correspondent, reporter, and anchorwoman at ORF-TV Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation. She is the author of numerous books and articles on contemporary art, Jewish topics, and for the magazine NU. Since 2013 she serves as President of ICOM Austria as well as a member of the council of the Medical University Innsbruck/Austria. For the Jewish Museum Vienna she curated several exhibitions including Jewish Geniuses. Warhol’s Jews (2012, together with Astrid Peterle), A Good Day. Installation Andrew M. Mezvinsky (2013), and The…

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Lecture | The Ruination of Everything: Joseph Pennell, America and Illustration before the Great War – Eric Segal | Sydney University

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The Ruination of Everything: Joseph Pennell, America and Illustration before the Great War Eric Segal The Power Institute with Sydney Ideas is proud to present a talk by Eric Segal, of the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida. Segal’s presentation will focus on the artist Joseph Pennell (U.S.A. 1857-1926). Pennell worked throughout Europe and England illustrating Old World cities and landscapes, whist at the same time rendering great American works of architecture and engineering. His dedication to a shabby Europe of the past and a gleaming New-World modernity, reflected contradictions and disappointments in his chauvinistic concerns about the faltering course of American cultural progress. The talk will explore how Pennell tied together thinking about the preservation of art, encroaching immigration and “wonders” of engineering, in an untidy package that led to complex and sometimes explosive…

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Exhibition Review | ‘America: Painting a Nation’. Reviewed by Diane Kirkby.

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America: Painting a Nation Diane Kirkby  America: Painting a Nation is at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 8th November 2013 – 9th February 2014. At a time when historians are increasingly displacing nation-building as the purpose for knowing the past, it could seem a retrograde step to make this the foundation principle through which to showcase important works of art. Nevertheless, an exhibition organised around the concept of Painting a Nation immediately provokes questions about meaning and definitions that may not have simple answers. Approaching the exhibition as a historian of the United States and its art, I was mindful of the question former Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes asked: ‘What can you learn about America by looking at its art?’ The answer found here is, unfortunately, nothing of depth. It is valuable to have these questions prompted:…

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Symposium | Art Gallery of NSW – Revolutionary ideas Perspectives on the building of an American nation

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Symposium: Revolutionary ideas Perspectives on the building of an American nation This symposium considers the role of the visual arts and other forms of cultural expression in building an idea of nationhood in America from its foundation as a colony through the beginning of the 20th century. It addresses the aims of portraiture, the meanings of landscape, the rise of genre subjects and the significance of garden projects in the contexts of relationships with Britain, claims of independence, pivotal wars and moments of dramatic social change. Presented in conjunction with the Sydney Intellectual History Network at the University of Sydney Date: Saturday 16 November 2013, 10.30am Venue: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Bookings: $65 non-member/ $50 member/ $30 full-time student/ 02 9225 1878 or via the website. Website: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/revolutionary-ideas/ Program 10.30am Registration and morning tea, Domain Theatre foyer 11am…

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Symposium | Minimal, Conceptual, Pop: A symposium on American Art 1960–80

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The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney is joining with the Art Gallery of New South Wales to mount an international symposium on the Gallery’s American art collections of the 60s and 70s. This period of radical experiment gave rise to many practices and aesthetics underpinning contemporary art. Enriched by the John Kaldor gift of 2009, the Gallery boasts the world’s finest museum collection of Sol Lewitt. Major pieces by Lewitt, Carl Andre, Christo, Donald Judd, Edward Ruscha, Richard Serra, Frank Stella and Laurence Weiner are on display during the symposium. Three leading American experts, Alexander Alberro (Columbia), Charles W. Haxthausen (Williams) and Robert Slifkin (NYU) will travel to Sydney for the event. They will be joined by Australian scholars including Sue Best, Keith Broadfoot, Rachel Kent, Chris McAuliffe, Meredith Morse, and Ann Stephen. Convened for the US…

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Pop Up Lecture Cycle | John C. Welchman on Mike Kelley: 1945-2012

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John C. Welchman on Mike Kelley: 1954-2012 Wednesday 22 August  2012 at MUMA, NGV and Ian Potter Museum of Art A pop-up lecture cycle on the life and work of celebrated Los Angeles contemporary artist Mike Kelley delivered by co-director of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts and Kelley scholar, Professor John C. Welchman, University of California San Diego. The cycle of three public lectures are a collaboration between Monash University, National Gallery of Victoria and the University of Melbourne. Extracurricular activities: Mike Kelley’s Day is Done (2005) 10am – 12 noon Venue: Monash University Museum of Art,Lecture theatre G1.04, Monash University Mike Kelley’s epic Day is Done (2005) or Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #2–32 (2004–2005), takes the form of a rambunctious musical-cum-vaudeville video review chopped into thirty-some choreographed numbers and distributed across a series of twenty-five sculptural viewing stations, that are also locations and para-architectures, composed…

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Terra Foundation Grants, Prize and Summer Residencies for studies in American Art

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Terra Foundation Grants, Prize and Summer Residencies Application deadline: Jan 15, 2021 Terra Foundation for American Art Publication Grants These grants provide support for publication projects on historical American art (circa 1500–1980) that make a significant contribution to scholarship and have an international dimension. “International dimension” varies by project, but includes translations of important texts on American art; publications that are written by non-U.S. scholars or that have a significant number of non-U.S. contributors; and publications with a focused thesis exploring American art in an international context. Applications are judged competitively on an annual basis; projects must be under contract for publication. Books may receive a grant up to $30,000; articles may receive a grant up to $3,000. For more information, please visit http://terraamericanart.org/grants/publication. Terra Foundation Doctoral and Postdoctoral Research Travel Grants to the United States These grants provide funding for doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars outside the United States to…

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Funding:Fellowship Opportunities in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Fellowship Opportunities in American Art 2011–12 The Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery invite applications for research fellowships in art and visual culture of the United States. Fellowships are residential and support full-time independent and dissertation research. The collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum spans the nation’s artistic heritage, representing outstanding visual accomplishments from the seventeenth century to the present day. Comprising more than 42,000 objects, this unparalleled collection includes special strengths in nineteenth- and twentieth-century marble and bronze sculpture, nineteenth-century landscape painting, Gilded Age and American impressionist paintings, twentieth-century realism, photography and graphic art, folk art, Latino art, and African American art. Artists represented in depth include George Catlin, William H. Johnson, Sean Scully, Lee Friedlander, Christo, Nam June Paik, and William T. Wiley, among others. The collection is housed in a National Historic Landmark building, shared…

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Funding: Terra Foundation Fellowship and Visiting Professorship

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Terra Foundation for American Art Fellowship and Visiting Professorship at the Courtauld Institute, London The Terra Foundation for American Art is offering a Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Visiting Professorship at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. See details for both below. Postdoctoral Fellowship For period 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2020 Salary – £27,885 per annum (approx US$44,000) (payment will be in sterling, subject to tax and National Insurance deductions).  Additionally a package for research, travel and living expenses is available to the value of up to US$8,200 With sponsorship from the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art’s Research Forum is pleased to announce the 2011-2013 two-year fellowship for the teaching and study of historical American art (pre-1980). The award will enable a recent postdoctoral scholar to teach at The Courtauld Institute of Art and…

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Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize

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Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize Deadline: January 15th, 2011 The Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize recognizes excellent scholarship by a non-U.S. scholar in the field of historical American art (circa 1500—1980). The winning manuscript should advance understanding of American art and demonstrate new findings and original perspectives. It will be translated and published in American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s scholarly journal, which will also cover the cost of image rights and reproductions, and the winner will receive a $500 award. This prize is supported by funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art. The aim of the award is to stimulate and actively support non-U.S. scholars working on American art, foster international exchange of new ideas and create a broad, culturally comparative dialogue on American art. To be eligible, essays should focus…

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