Fine Arts Society Chelsea 2% Gallery Tour this Saturday, April 5th!

Discovering Margate with the MA students in the London Historical and Sustainable Architecture Program

Alumni News, Spring 2014

Dear Alumni,

Thank you for your tremendous response to our recent call for news, and hearty congratulations on all of your impressive achievements!  It is wonderful to hear from you and to learn about your activities.  We hope to hear from more of you for our next Alumni News round-up, which we’ll post sometime in Fall 2014.   Thanks also go to the Department of Art History faculty who contributed to this post.

Please send your news, links, photos, videos, and podcasts (and corrections) to Professor Kathryn Smith (kathryn.smith@nyu.edu) with a copy to our Administrator Peggy Coon (peggy@nyu.edu).  Thank you again, and best wishes for happiness, fulfillment, and success to all!

Dr. Gabriel P. Weisberg (B.A. Art History, Fine Arts Department, Washington Square College, ’63; Ph.D. The Johns Hopkins University), Professor of Art History at the University of Minnesota, is serving as the Guest Curator of a major international exhibition on The Resonance of Japan: Nordic Japonisme, to open in 2016 at the Ateneum Museum in Helsinki, Finland. The show will tour throughout Scandinavia, visiting the National Museum of Art (Oslo, Norway) and the National Museum (Stockholm, Sweden).  The first exhibition devoted to this phenomenon in Scandinavia, The Resonance of Japan will examine painting, decorative arts, prints, drawings, and sculpture.  Along with Dr. Weisberg, all of the primary curators in these museums are participating in the exhibition and in writing the accompanying catalogue. Anna Maria von Bonsdorff of the Ateneum Museum is serving as Chief Exhibition Coordinator. There is more about Dr. Weisberg’s activities and publications here.

Dr. Erika Naginski (B.A. Art History, ’87; Ph.D. History of Art, University of California, Berkeley, ’97) is Professor of Architectural History at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In December 2013 she returned to New York to deliver a lecture titled “Impossible Design: Porsenna’s Tomb and French Visionary Architecture” in the Columbia University Department of Art History and Archaeology’s Bettman Lecture series. Dr. Naginski’s research interests include Baroque and Enlightenment architecture, early modern aesthetic philosophy, theories of public space, and the critical traditions of architectural history. Her books and edited volumes include Sculpture and Enlightenment (2009), Polemical Objects (2004), and Writing on Drawing (2000). In 2007, Naginski was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for her current book project on the intersections of architecture, archaeology and the conception of history in the eighteenth century.  Before joining the GSD faculty, Naginski taught in the Architecture Department at MIT and the Art History Department at the University of Michigan.  She has been a junior fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University as well as a research fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte. She serves on the editorial board of Res.

Johanna Goldfeld (B.A. Art History, ’00) designs graphics and exhibitions for museums and cultural organizations.  She recently launched her new website.  Her article, “How can we get the most from our designer or printer?” was featured in the November/December issue of museum magazine, the publication of the American Alliance of Museums.  Johanna has been working in the arts for over ten years and has designed graphics and exhibitions for clients including the Forbes Galleries, the Connecticut Historical Society, and the American Friends of the Louvre. She holds an M.A. in Exhibition and Graphic Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. Beginning her career on the curatorial side at The Jewish Museum in New York provided an opportunity for publication in two exhibition catalogues as well as a strong foundation in exhibition development and collections management.  She is based in Brooklyn and works with clients around the country.  Johanna invites NYU students and alumni to sign up for her bi-monthly newsletter, “Pointers,” which features tips and inspiration in exhibition and graphic design.

Michele F. Saliola (B.A. Art History, ‘01; M.A. Institute of Fine Arts, ‘03) is pleased to announce the successful opening of 101 Spring Street, the SoHo home and studio of American artist Donald Judd (1928-1994).  As Project Manager for the three-year restoration of a landmark façade and building upgrades to allow public access, Michele oversaw strategic planning and the development of signature programs for 101 Spring Street.  Today a team of twenty artists guides visitors through Judd’s living and working spaces as part of a unique tour program.  Since the opening of 101 Spring Street in June 2013, public visits have been booked for several months in advance.  Look here to learn more about visiting 101 Spring Street, including how to arrange a group tour.

In her current role as Director of Programs at the Judd Foundation, Michele has overseen a remarkable period of growth, helping to transform a private artist foundation into an award-winning public charity that enjoys 20,000 visitors each year.  Currently, Michele oversees the operation of 101 Spring Street as a public arts-programming space, as well as the Foundation’s programs and preservation work in New York and Marfa, Texas. A new patron program for businesses and individuals will be announced this spring. It will feature opportunities for patrons to experience Judd’s installed space in new ways.

101 Spring Street by Joshua White © Judd Foundation 2013

 

Michele F Saliola

 

Dr. Beth Citron (B.A. Art History, ’02; Ph.D. History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, ‘09) writes, “I’m pleased to report that in my capacity as Assistant Curator at the Rubin Museum of Art, I am organizing two exhibitions that will open this fall.” The first show, Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India, which opens on September 5^th, focuses on aspects of the artist’s work in India since the late 1970s. The second is Witness at a Crossroads: Photographer Marc Riboud in Asia. This exhibition, which opens October 17^th, chronicles the important French photographer’s journey from Turkey to Japan between 1955 and 1958.  There is  more information about the Rubin Museum’s exhibitions, programs, and activities here. Some lucky Department of Art History students and alumni had the opportunity to study with Dr. Citron, who taught a special topics course on “Contemporary South Asian Art” in Spring 2011.

Dr. Sarah Laursen (B.A., Art History/East Asian Studies, ’02; Ph.D. History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, ’11), who teaches Chinese art and Museum Studies in the History of Art and Architecture Department at Middlebury College, shares the news of her recent reinstallation of the Asian gallery at Middlebury’s Museum of Art.  Here’s an excerpt from the latest newsletter published by ISAW, NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, where Dr. Larsen was a postdoctoral fellow in 2011-12 (and as some lucky students and alumni will recall, she also taught in the Department of Art History that year):  “After assessing roughly 300 objects in the Asian collections and surveying the needs of faculty in various departments, I decided to shift the display’s emphasis away from the Chinese literati aesthetic of the previous installation, toward a more inclusive view of Asia. An important first step was augment­ing the collection in certain key areas, including early Korean and Japanese ceramics. A few long-ne­glected loans and items in the permanent collection [were] brought on view for the first time. The South and Southeast Asian portion of the gallery now features a ninth- or tenth-century stone sculp­ture of the elephant-headed god Ganesha, which was previously misidentified as a late Indian work but is now attributed to the kingdom of Champa in Vietnam.

“Following the repainting of the sandstone temple wall, the remaining powder blue walls were dark­ened to a dramatic teal, making an aesthetic signal of the transition from temple to tomb. Four arched text panels distributed throughout the gallery, which were written collaboratively with faculty in Middle­bury College’s Religion and History departments, introduce visitors to the major religions of Asia.  The remaining cases are configured thematically, addressing subjects such as the spread of Buddhism, early ceramic technology, conceptions of the after­life, and the impact of steppe cultures on the arts of Asia.”

 

View of East Asia

South Asia Wall

Art of the Nomads

Korea Japan

Buddhism Case

 

Stephanie Swinton (B.A. Art History/Urban Design & Architecture Studies, French Minor, ‘02; M.A. Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, Visual Culture: Costume Studies, ’06) sends this news: “I recently returned to New York City following a month-long trip to Europe, where I was in Switzerland, France and Spain.  As a former Urban Design and Architecture Studies major, one of the highlights was visiting all of the Gaudi sites in Barcelona!  And, as a former Art History major, another place I find interesting each time I visit is Montreux, Switzerland — the “Swiss Riviera” — where there are always new public art installations along Lake Geneva.  I continue to work in Consulting for Luxury and Fashion brands, along with companies in the Arts, and have most recently been working in Strategy for Digital Marketing and Social Media.  Previously I was in LA, where two of my Europe photographs were part of the recent exhibition, Snap to Grid, held at the Los Angeles Center For Digital Art (LACDA). See recent photographs and follow my adventures on my blog! – How to be Fabulous. I also manage a fun tumblr called The Hipster Bakester – check it out!”

 

Stephanie_Swinton_Bird_Montreux Switzerland

Stephanie_Swinton_Water and Mountain Yvoire France

 

Julie Ann Engh (B.A. Urban Design and Architecture Studies, ’05) was awarded one of three Associates Awards given by the American Institute of Architects.  As the AIA’s website puts it, the Associates Award “is the highest award given to individual associate AIA members who best exemplify the highest qualities of leadership and have demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to their component or region’s membership, in the community, in professional organizations, and/or in the design and construction industries.” In 2012, Julie earned an AIANYS Intern-Associate Award.

Chris Rawson (B.A. Art History, ’05) sends this news:  “Since graduation, I have been mostly working in Chelsea for art dealers such as James Cohan and (currently) David Zwirner.  In 2010, I co-founded a gallery in Brooklyn called Rawson Projects, which is now located in Greenpoint. The gallery has grown considerably in the last few years, with several of our artists showing in museums (Sam Martineau’s second solo exhibition Fair Touching traveled to the Columbus College of Art and Design last year and receiving outdoor public commissions (Allen Glatter’s stainless steel sculpture Tally-Ho! is currently installed in Dumbo through August.  The gallery is a member of NADA and has participated in many art fairs, and will be presenting new work by painters Halsey Hathaway and Jamian Juliano-Villani at this year’s edition of NADA New York during Frieze Week in May.  Here is more information about upcoming exhibitions at the gallery and other off-site events.”

Jonathan Tiu (B.A. Art History/Computer Science, ‘06)reports, “I am entering my final year at Tulane University School of Medicine this spring. At Tulane, I served as project leader for Anna’s Arts for Kids, an after-school volunteer program catering to New Orleans’ inner city schoolchildren. A few of my schoolmates and I published our latest issue of Arbor Vitae, an anthology of medical student art and creative writing. I plan to do my residency in neurology.”

Ben Baccash (B.A. Urban Design and Architecture Studies, ’08) recently accepted the position of Associate at Taconic Investment Partners here in New York, working on the Essex Crossing project on the Lower East Side.  Ben writes, “I am beyond excited to have finally landed a job with a developer that does not shy away from preservation-related work.”  Ben begins his new job on March 31st.

Ksenia Nouril (B.A. Art History, ’09) is a third-year doctoral candidate at Rutgers University, where she holds a Dodge Fellowship and works as a Curatorial Assistant at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.  In 2013, she helped organize the exhibitions Leonid Sokov: Ironic Objects, a retrospective of the Russian-American Sots artist, and Putting a Face to the Name: Artist Portraits from the Dodge Collection, a selection of Soviet nonconformist photographs from the 1970s and ’80s.  She currently is curating an exhibition on art and technology in the Cold War, slated to open at the Zimmerli in 2016.  This summer, Ksenia will begin research for her dissertation “The Operative Object: Investigating the Historical Turn in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Art,” which she is writing under the direction of Dr. Jane A. Sharp.

Alicia Caticha (B.A. Art History, ’12) is a doctoral candidate in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European art at the University of Virginia.  At NYU she wrote a senior honors thesis with Professor Kathryn Smith and will be presenting this research, “Notre-Dame de Paris: Iconoclasm, Spoliation, and Sign Transformation in Revolutionary France,” at the University of Virginia French Department’s Graduate Conference, Art and Conflict, this spring. Alicia writes, “I am also working more closely on the dechristianization movement during the French Revolution and attempting to understand the religiosity of the Revolution through theories of sacred space. With the exception of these projects, however, my studies are going in a very different direction: I am very interested in female portraiture from the mid-eighteenth century through the Revolution. I’m currently TA-ing, and sitting in on lecture floods me with memories of the third floor of Silver!”

Lindsey Davis (B.A. Art History, ’12), Arts + Culture writer and founder of WanderArt.org, sends this news: “My public art startup just completed Art on BART, its first successful Kickstarter campaign that’s turning six BART cars into moving art galleries for a month. We curated a selection of six artworks to replace the six ads inside the cars and set our minimum funding goal at the amount required to purchase six cars — the number we’d need to reach one million people in a month.  The ads are going up on March 24^th; attached is one of the ad creatives we made for the artwork.” Apparently, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) was unhappy with the inclusion of its name in the gallery, so Lindsey used the name of the project as a whole on the ad copy instead, Art not Ads, in the hopes that Art on BART will just be the first installation.

 

Art on BART

 

Hillary Pearson (B.A. Art History/French, ’12) left her job at Lenox Hill Hospital and has since been working as a publicist at February Media, a PR and marketing firm for books and authors in New York.  She specializes in fiction and memoirs and wears many hats, including positioning books, pitching media, writing press materials, and working directly with writers to run campaigns.  This summer, Hillary will be leaving her job to start medical school. She is not sure where she is headed yet, but upstate New York and Miami are among the likely and very exciting possibilities.  During her senior year, Hillary was an editor of Ink & Image, the Department of Art History’s journal of undergraduate research in the history of art, architecture, and urban design (see our May 23^rd, 2013 blogpost.

Rachel High (B.A. Art History, ’13) reports that she recently began working at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as the Assistant for Administration in their Editorial Department. She is particularly delighted that her new position affords her the opportunity to do a bit of writing and research. Before joining the Met, she was a front desk assistant at Hauser & Wirth.  During her senior year, Rachel served as an editor of Ink & Image, the Department of Art History’s journal of undergraduate research in the history of art, architecture, and urban design (see our May 7^th, 2012 blogpost.  “Many thanks to everyone in the department for being so supportive during my first year out of school,” writes Rachel.

Hsiang-Yi (Melody) Ho (B.A. Urban Design and Architecture Studies, ’13) is now enrolled in the three-year M.Arch program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.  She expects to continue her interest in environmental design and is hoping to work and become licensed here in New York City.  As one of her graduate school projects, she designed a dramatic and curvilinear, sparkling white recreation center for public housing (although not a real building).

Riad Kherdeen (B.A. Art History, ’13) sends this news:  “After graduating, I interned at the Met for several months in the Department of Merchandising. I then left that internship for a full-time position at MoMA in the Department of Membership, where I’ve been since October.  I have just recently accepted an offer, however, at TrialGraphix (a graphic design and litigation consulting firm) to be the Administrative Assistant for their New York office, so I will be leaving the museum for this new job.

“And in more recent news, I have just accepted an offer for admission to the Institute of Fine Arts’ M.A. program in Art History and Archaeology. I will be starting classes this fall, and I could not be more excited!  I aspire to specialize in modern art, architecture, and design, with a focus on technical studies, and the M.A. program at the IFA will allow me to embark on the long journey toward becoming a specialist.”  During his senior year, Riad was co-president of the Fine Arts Society, the Department of Art History’s CAS student club (see our April 17^th, 2013 blogpost.

Michael Storm (B.A. Urban Design and Architecture Studies, ’13) has been accepted to the M.Arch Program in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

Michelle Vassallo (B.A. Art History, Chemistry Minor, ’13) writes, “Throughout my junior and senior years (2012-2013) I interned at Chowaiki & Co., a private art gallery in midtown dealing primarily with Impressionist through Modern and Contemporary artists.  After graduation this past spring, I lived in Madrid, Spain, for the entire summer with a homestay family, teaching English to two adorable boys and traveling all over Spain and Europe on the weekends.  On returning to New York at the end on August, I was taken on as staff at Chowaiki & Co. as gallery assistant and researcher.  I’ve been working here seven months as staff but have been a part of the gallery for just shy of two and a half years.  Our gallery is small — we are a staff of four, myself included — but our client and dealer base is huge, so I am a huge part of daily gallery operations, client meetings, and art research studies.”

 

Art History Writing Competition Readings Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 26

Congratulations to Professor Meredith Martin!

 

Please join us in congratulating Meredith Martin. Professor Martin joined the DAH faculty last September and was just promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure effective September 2014. She is the author of Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de’ Medici to Marie-Antoinette (Harvard University Press, 2011), and a co-editor of the anthology  Architectural Space in 18th-Century Europe: Constructing Identities and Interiors (Ashgate, 2010). Dr. Martin is currently working on a new project about art, diplomacy, and cross-cultural exchange in ancien régime France, and this past year she published two articles related to this topic: “Turks’ on Display During the Reign of Louis XIV” (co-authored with Gillian Weiss), L’Esprit Créateur 55.4 (December 2013); and, “Tipu Sultan’s Ambassadors at Saint-Cloud: Indomania and Anglophobia in Pre-Revolutionary Paris,” West 86^th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture 21.1 (Spring-Summer 2014).

 

Whitney Biennial

The Undergraduate Awards invites the students of New York University to submit their undergraduate coursework to the 2014 programme.

We recognise the world’s top students from ALL disciplines.

If you have an excellent piece of coursework then international recognition is only a few steps away!

Who we are

The Undergraduate Awards acknowledges excellence in undergraduate academia across all disciplines.

How it works

Students can submit their coursework online, making sure their name and university is not included in the document. We gather a panel of academics in each field to anonymously assess the work. They select the top 10% in each category, and from that the winner.

 Why should I submit?

As a winner you will receive an exclusive invitation to the 2014 UA Global Summit.

in Dublin, Ireland, your work is published in our academic journal and you are recognised as the top student in your field. Shortlisted students are also recognised for their excellence, which can be a significant catalyst when pursuing further studies or your chosen career.

 What now?

If you’d like to submit your work then you have until June 2^nd to do so. However places fill up fast so we recommend registering NOW to save your place.

 Questions? Email Bella at info@undergraduateawards.com

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

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@UndergradAwards

Congratulations to Professor Miriam Basilio on the publication of her new book!

• From Ashgate Press: 

• Visual Propaganda, Exhibitions, and the Spanish Civil War

• Miriam M. Basilio, New York University, USA
• Visual Propaganda, Exhibitions, and the Spanish Civil War is a history of art during wartime that analyzes images in various media that circulated widely and were encountered daily by Spaniards on city walls, in print, and in exhibitions. Tangible elements of the nation’s past—monuments, cultural property, and art-historical icons—were displayed in temporary exhibitions and museums, as well as reproduced on posters and in print media, to rally the population, define national identity, and reinvent distant and recent history. Artists, political-party propagandists, and government administrators believed that images on the street, in print, and in exhibitions would create a community of viewers, brought together during the staging of public exhibitions to understand their own roles as Spaniards. This book draws on extensive archival research, brings to light unpublished documents, and examines visual propaganda, exhibitions, and texts unavailable in English. It engages with questions of national self-definition and historical memory at their intersections with the fine arts, visual culture, exhibition history, tourism, and propaganda during the Spanish Civil War and immediate post-war period, as well as contemporary responses to the contested legacy of the Spanish Civil War. It will be of interest to scholars in art history, visual and cultural history, history, and museum studies.
• Contents: Introduction: creating, enacting, and recuperating historical memories; Figures of the Republic, the nation, and the Spanish art-historical tradition; The culture of exhibitions: propaganda, painting, and cultural patrimony; Genealogies for a new Spain: nationalist territory, 1936-40; Staging national Spain: exhibitions and cultural patrimony 1936-40; Recuperating historical memory: contemporary art and museums; Selected bibliography; Index.
• About the Author: Miriam M. Basilio is Associate Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, New York University.
•  Extracts from this title are available to view:
  Full contents list

  Introduction

  Index