Congratulations Professor Geronimus!

Announcement from Professor Sullivan:

April 21, 2021

TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE DAH COMMUNITY

I had the privilege of being Chair of the Promotion Committee for Professor Dennis Geronimus. The committee’s work has very happily resulted in his being named to the rank of FULL PROFESSOR as of today’s memo from Provost Katherine Fleming. We are all extremely pleased and proud of Dennis. As you all know, Dennis Geronimus is one of the leading scholars in the world of the art of the Italian Renaissance. Specializing in artists from Central Italy, he has contributed ground-breaking research on such figures as Piero di Cosimo, Bronzino, Pontormo and Leonardo da Vinci, among many others. He is also a scholar of modern art, successfully blending in his books and essays, deep knowledge of the historical phases of European art history with the achievements of modern and contemporary figures from both sides of the Atlantic. Dennis has served multiple functions as scholar in residence in prestigious venues in the U.S. and Europe, organizer of path-breaking conferences and commentator on the developments in the art world for audiences both general scholarly. As an administrator Dennis has taken the lead in so many initiatives that have strengthened the position of the field of art history at New York University and beyond. He is widely recognized (and admired) for his humane, just and intelligent leadership of the Department of Art History, serving as Chair for an extended period of time. As a teacher and mentor he is virtually without parallel; his legions of students have gone out into the worlds of academe, commerce and non-profit, owing so much of their success to the training they received from Dennis. Everyone connected to the DAH is grateful for the kindness and intelligence of Dennis as a colleague, professor, friend and fellow scholar. This promotion is so richly deserved.

Edward J. Sullivan

Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the History of Art

Department of Art History and Institute of Fine Arts

Message from the Chair

To our Department of Art History-URDS community,

 

Our program was founded on a belief in the transformative power of art, but it is made up of people. We are witnessing some of the darkest and most difficult days for our nation, one riven with division — and we cannot claim neutrality. We mourn and grieve with you. We are with you in sharing the heartbreak and outrage at the senseless loss of Black American lives, including those of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and so many other victims of apalling brutality, each precious life senselessly taken. Despite whatever gains have been made in the last several decades, there have been too many symbolic victories. The terrible truths of which we are being starkly reminded have plagued our society for centuries in many forms.

 

We have been forced to confront these truths while grappling with a global pandemic — that in turn has laid bare shocking anti-Asian and anti-immigrant violence — and while caring for our loved ones, tending to our communities, and continuing to work, persevering as best we can as we continue to witness intolerable abuses. And that which we have witnessed we cannot unsee. 

 

Our own Department and University at large cannot divorce itself from the struggle. We stand in solidarity with the Black community and all the people of New York and those around the country and the world appealing for an end to racism, inequality, brutality, and fear. We do so in recognition of the great amount of work to be done to achieve true social justice and to fight institutional and structural racism. In our own right, the DAH-URDS is committed to be a place of inclusion, diversity, and equality for everyone in our community. This is a time to raise our voices in a loud cry for social justice and to be accountable for our shared humanity. It is also the time to listen and learn. To this end, we look forward to hosting forums as early as this fall to bring together diverse voices in the spirit of community. 

 

We draw inspiration from the power of human expression and the courage, openness, and commitment of those who continue to advocate for progress through word and action. And we draw inspiration from all of you, our students past and present, in harboring the hope for a more just and equitable future.

 

In solidarity and support,

 

Dennis Geronimus

Chair, Department of Art History

Letter from the Chair

Dear Students, Alumni, Colleagues, and Friends,

A great department deserves a great blog.  Thus, it gives me real pleasure to inaugurate the blog of the Department of Art History and Program in Urban Design and Architecture Studies, Fields of Vision.  As the subtitle of this blog suggests, we hope that all readers – faculty, staff, students, and alumni — will consider Fields of Vision a vehicle for sharing their news and their views, whether reports of travels to sites of art historical or archeological importance, reviews of museum exhibitions, accounts of professional experiences and achievements, or anything else of interest to the Art History and Urban Design communities.  Please send your text, photos, videos, podcasts, and links to Kathryn Smith at kathryn.smith@nyu.edu, with a copy to Peggy Coon at peggy@nyu.edu.

2010-11 has been a banner academic year for the Department of Art History and Urban Design Program in many respects.  More than 2,300 undergraduates from across the University – including the College of Arts and Science, Tisch, Steinhardt, Gallatin, the Liberal Studies Program, and Stern – enrolled in a broad range of departmental courses in the history and criticism of the visual arts and architecture.  Both the Art History and Urban Design and Architecture Studies majors have grown steadily:  with over 320 majors and 150 minors, our department is currently the seventh largest major in the College and one of the largest undergraduate art history programs in the United States.

As a result of the renovation and expansion of our physical plant accomplished during the chairmanship of my predecessor, Pepe Karmel, the Department of Art History now offers an increased number of advanced undergraduate research seminars each semester, and Art History majors may take two (or even more) seminars during their careers here.  Our students continue to produce impressive work, including well-researched, insightful term papers, independent studies, and honors theses, and they constitute a strong presence at important College events such as the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference.  Our CAS student club, the Fine Arts Society, is enjoying an exceptionally active year, thanks to the energetic leadership of its current officers and the vibrant guidance of its Faculty Adviser, Julia Robinson.  The department’s annual, student-edited journal of undergraduate research in art and architectural history, Ink & Image, will publish its third issue this spring.  Our graduates continue to be admitted to the top graduate programs in art history, architecture, and urban planning.  It gives us the greatest satisfaction that so many of our former students make the effort to keep in touch, whether their paths lead them to art-related professions or to careers in law, medicine, business, journalism, publishing, education, the not-for-profit sector, or other fields.  Indeed, we hope that alumni and current students alike will view this blog as an opportunity to make contact and stay in touch with an even wider circle of the Art History and Urban Design communities.

Our faculty continues to be exceptionally productive in research and scholarship.  In addition to articles, essays, and reviews, they have produced numerous important books and edited volumes this year.  Mosette Broderick’s long-awaited Triumvirate:  McKim, Mead & White: Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America’s Gilded Age, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2010.  Globalizing Cultures: Art and Mobility in the Eighteenth Century, a special volume of the journal Ars Orientalis co-edited by Barry Flood, appeared this spring.  Other faculty members, including Miriam Basilio, Elizabeth Mansfield, and Kathryn Smith, completed book projects.  Department of Art History faculty lectured on four continents and curated major exhibitions at important museums and galleries.  Kenneth Silver’s guest-curated show, Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918-1936, opened at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on October 1, 2010, and at the Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao, on February 21, 2011, and both the show itself and the accompanying catalogue continue to garner accolades.  Edward Sullivan co-curated or contributed significantly to several exhibitions and their allied catalogues, including Rafael Ferrer and Nueva York 1613-1945 at New York’s El Museo del Barrio and Concrete Improvisations:  Esteban Vicente.  Collages and Sculptures at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery.  Julia Robinson’s exhibition, John Cage and Experimental Art: The Anarchy of Silence, traveled to three European cities in 2010; another show that Robinson curated, New Realisms — 1957-62:  Object Strategies Between Readymade and Spectacle, opened at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofia in summer 2010.  The achievements of several current faculty and emeriti, including Kenneth Silver, Shelley Rice, Ann Roth, and Lucy Freeman Sandler, were recognized by major national and international awards and fellowships.

The Department of Art History continues to be a vibrant center for research, teaching, and learning.  Thanks to the efforts of faculty coordinators Louise Rice, Elizabeth Mansfield, and Julia Robinson, our departmental lecture series brought several internationally renowned scholars and museum professionals to speak to students, scholars, and others in the NYU and wider New York academic communities. As in years past, in 2010-11 the department hosted numerous lectures on visual culture, the arts, and architecture co-sponsored with other CAS departments and New York City organizations, including the departments of Anthropology, Italian Studies, Museum Studies, the Grey Art Gallery, the Medieval and Renaissance Center, the Center for Religion and the Media, and the New York Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.  Faculty members Mosette Broderick, Dennis Geronimus, Pepe Karmel, Carol Krinsky, Elizabeth Mansfield, Jon Ritter, and Kenneth Silver were valued participants in the Presidential Scholars Program, the NYU-co-sponsored symposium, “Alfred Stieglitz:  Photographs of the Changing City,” the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference, and/or the Borgman Thesis Prize Selection Committee.

And, 2010 witnessed the successful launch of the department’s first Master’s program, the London-based M. A. in Historical and Sustainable Architecture. Developed by Mosette Broderick, Director of the undergraduate Urban Design and Architecture Studies Program, and implemented with the invaluable assistance of Jon Ritter and Peggy Coon, the M.A. in Historical and Sustainable Architecture is the first academic program to unite the topics of sustainable architecture, adaptive reuse, and historic preservation within a single curriculum.

There are many who deserve thanks for their assistance in making this blog a (virtual) reality.  Foremost among them is Peggy Coon, our Departmental Administrator, who has done much of the difficult work to design and shape this blog, and who coordinated the collection of the information published in it.  Hannah Thomas, Maya Dean, Miriam Basilio, Shelley Rice, and Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt lent their sharp eyes and expertise to the task of designing it.  Dima Todorova-Lilavois, Manager of Interactive Communications, FAS, provided critical assistance and advice as we got started, as did Christine Mladic of NYU’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), whose attractive blog served as an inspiration and a model.  And, I owe a large debt of gratitude to former department chairs Pepe Karmel, Kenneth Silver, Edward Sullivan, and Lucy Freeman Sandler; to our Director of Undergraduate Studies, Carol Krinsky; and to Mosette Broderick, Director of our Urban Design and Architecture Studies Program.  Without the benefit of their insight, assistance, and advice, this blog would not have been possible.

Kathryn A. Smith