Lecture by Charles Starks, Urban Planning and Policy at Hunter College; Research Fellow, New York Preservation Archive Project

New York’s Forgotten Planning and Preservation Pioneer: Piecing Together the Legacy of George McAneny

 

Charles Starks, Adjunct Lecturer in Urban Planning and Policy at Hunter College; Research Fellow, New York Preservation Archive Project

 Tuesday, March 21, 6:30 pm

New York University Department of Art History

Silver Center, Room 301

100 Washington Square East (entrance on Waverly Place)

George McAneny (1869–1953), New York’s most celebrated city planner and preservationist in the first half of the 20th century, had an extraordinarily diverse and consequential public career that spanned from the height of the Progressive Era to the early Cold War. He was elected to the presidencies of the Borough of Manhattan and the New York City Board of Aldermen, and led, at various times, the City Club, the Municipal Art Society, the Regional Plan Association, and the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, among other groups. As a public official and advocate, McAneny expanded streets and subways, institutionalized planning and zoning, fought to preserve historic buildings, and, in his last years, was a central figure in the creation of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

This lecture will bring into focus the complex career of a man known to architects as an early champion of zoning, to preservationists as a hero who successfully battled Robert Moses, and to subway buffs as a dogged negotiator of the contracts that built the IRT and the BMT. Drawing on material from archives and published sources, the lecture will aim to show that McAneny’s vision and legacy, obscured in the decades after his death by the dominating figure of Moses, are worth remembering as New York struggles with the challenges of city building in the 21st century.

The manuscript on which the lecture is based can be downloaded from http://www.nypap.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/New-Yorks-Pioneer-of-Planning-and-Preservation-How-George-McAneny-Reshaped-Manhattan-and-Inspired-a-Movement.pdf. Research for this manuscript was generously supported by the New York Preservation Archive Project.

Sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians, New York Metropolitan Chapter, and the NYU M.A. in Historical and Sustainable Architecture.

–Free and open to the public–

 

Meredith Martin to Give Scholars Lecture with Gillian Weiss

THURSDAY, MARCH 2, Irving H. Jurow Lecture Hall, Silver Center 5-6 pm

BETWEEN PORT AND PALACE: MARITIME ART AND MEDITERRANEAN SERVITUDE IN LOUIS XIV’S FRANCE

Meredith Martin, Associate Professor of Art History and the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU; Gillian Weiss, Associate Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University

Mediterranean maritime art, and the forced labor on which it depended, was fundamental to the politics and propaganda of France’s King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715). However, most studies of French art in this period focus on Paris and Versailles. By examining a wide range of artistic productions—e.g., ship design, artillery sculpture, medals—this lecture draws attention to neglected genres of Mediterranean maritime art and to the varieties of forced labor such as convicts and enslaved Turks integral to the creation of artistic forms proclaiming the power of the Sun King.

Meredith Martin to Speak at Harvard

A talk by Daud Ali, South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Roundtable Discussion: Exhibition, Environment, Performance

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Red Grooms’s Burning Building, Delancey Street Museum, New York, 1959.
Photograph: © John Cohen. Courtesy L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, NYC

In conjunction with the exhibition Inventing Downtown:
Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965

This roundtable discussion will consider how artists in New York expanded both modes of artmaking and varieties of presentation in the alternative art spaces of the 1950s and ’60s. Moderated by Bruce Altshuler, director of Museum Studies, NYU, with speakers Claire Bishop, professor of Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY; André Lepecki, associate professor of Performance Studies, NYU; Julie Martin, director, Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.); and artists Red Grooms, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Whitman.

Co-sponsored by NYU’s MA Program in Museum Studies, Department of Performance Studies (TSOA), MA Program in Visual Arts Administration (Steinhardt), and Grey Art Gallery.

Free of charge, tickets required. Tickets available at the box office starting at 12 pm on the day of the event. Limit 2 tickets per person.

Starts 2/28/17 6:30 pm

Ends 2/28/17 8:00 pm

ParticipantsBruce Altshuler, Claire Bishop, André Lepecki, Julie Martin, Red Grooms, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Whitman

LocationNYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place

CostFree of charge, tickets required (see above for more details)

The Fine Arts Society: People, Places, and Events 2016-17

 

Anyone who follows our blog knows that the Fine Arts Society has had an extraordinarily busy year thus far. The goal of the Society is the creation of a community of NYU students interested in art, art history, and visual culture. Through visits to museums and galleries both within and without New York City as well as walking tours, lectures, symposia, and film screenings, the Fine Arts Society brings art history majors and non-majors together, with lively discussions. Tremendous thanks and hearty congratulations go to all of the club’s officers and board members for their seemingly inexhaustible energy as well as their organization and commitment. This year’s officers include Co-presidents Emma Holter (Art History’17) and Austin Bowes (Art History; Gender & Sexuality Studies minor ’18), Treasurer Chantal Chan (Art History; French minor ’19), Secretary Grace Lubin (Art History/Politics ’18), Marketing Chair Shoshana Edelman (French; Art History minor ’18), and E-Board members Summer Perlow (Art History ’17), Julia Oxman (Art History ’17), and Emiliya Trakhtenberg (Art History/Chemistry ’17).

The club kicked off the new academic year on September 15^th with a “Welcome Meeting” that was attended by over sixty students — that must be a record! Two events followed in rapid succession at the end of the month. On September 25^th, fifteen students took in “Diane Arbus: In the Beginning” at the Met Breuer. Two days later, thanks to Professor Shelley Rice, the Society held an artist talk with renowned South African artist Nandipha Mntambo titled “Nandipha Mntambo: Works and Process.” Mntambo performs in multiple mediums and challenges notions of African and Western cultural identity, gender stereotypes, and femininity; about thirty students attended the event. On October 1^st, a few E-board members led eight students around the “Bushwick Open Studios” event organized by Arts in Bushwick, while on October 23^rd, five students viewed the Alma Thomas retrospective at the Studio Museum of Harlem.

November was jam-packed with exciting events. On the 6^th, ten students saw “Take Me (I’m Yours)” at the Jewish Museum, an interactive exhibition that encouraged viewers to take home pieces of the art on display. On November 15^th and 16^th, the Society promoted and staffed the Grey Fine Arts Library’s book sale. The event was very well attended, and many students went home with gems for their personal book collections. Great thanks to our wonderful librarian, Audrey Christensen-Tsai, for her inspiration, support, and hard work, all of which made the sale such a success. The club treated ten students to admission to the Agnes Martin retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on November 19^th, and the very next day, six students took in “Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest” at the New Museum. Looming term papers and final exams did little to dampen NYU students’ enthusiasm for art. On December 3^rd, about nine students attended “Valentin de Boulogne” at the Metropolitan Museum.

Hunting for bargains at the Department of Art History/Grey Fine Arts Library book sale, November 2016

Spring 2017 looks to be as dynamic a semester as was Fall 2016. The spring “Welcome Back” meeting took place on February 16^th. The club viewed “Seurat’s Circus Sideshow” at the Metropolitan Museum on February 25^th and will take in the Whitney Biennial on March 25th. The tremendously popular, annual Professional Symposium will take place on April 13^th (mark your calendars!). Professor Edward Sullivan will give a talk on Iberian women artists in April. And April 30^th will be a double-header, as the Society plans to visit two exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum: “Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern” and “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women.” The club is planning its end-of-year picnic in Central Park, to be held on May 7th.

The Fine Arts Society at “Seurat’s Circus Sideshow,” February 2017

 

Among its other goals and activities, the club will promote art-related events happening on campus, including the senior showcase in the Tisch Photo Department and the Steinhardt BFA senior show, organized by the IFA’s Curatorial Committee.

Students interested in membership in the Fine Arts Society or desiring further information about the club’s activities should contact co-presidents Emma Holter (eh1515@nyu.edu) or Austin Bowes (adb509@nyu.edu). Please visit the Society’s Facebook page, too.

 

 

Shelley Rice to Lecture at MIT

IFA Guest Lecture with Ridha Moumni Associate Researcher, Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC, Tunis)

European Art in Tunisian Palaces (1837-1881) Monday, March 6, 2017 6:00 PM in the Lecture Hall The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University 1 East 78th Street Please note that seating in the Lecture Hall is on a first-come, first-served basis with RSVP. There will be a simulcast in an adjacent room to accommodate overflow. Latecomers are not guaranteed a seat. About the Lecture: On the occasion of the groundbreaking exhibition L’éveil d’une nation (“The Awakening of a Nation”), held in Tunisia in 2016-17, curator and historian Ridha Moumni will speak about the extensive political and social changes Tunisia experienced during the Great Reforms (1837-1881) and the impact these changes had on art, architecture, and material culture. The mid-nineteenth century was marked by the decline of the Ottoman presence in Tunisia and a concurrent rise in influence from Europe, particularly from France, which shared a common border after the conquest of Algeria. The construction and decoration of new palace complexes reflected the growing economic and cultural influence from Europe as well as the evolving tastes of a new class of Tunisian dignitaries. The result was a cosmopolitan eclecticism, on display at the recent exhibition, that testified to the transformation of Tunisian society prior to its colonization by France in 1881. RSVP Photo Credit: Louis Simil, Sadok Bey, 1859, Department of State, Washington, D.C.

EHF Collection: Fluxus, Concept Art, Mail Art – Exhibition Opening March 7 – 6pm, co-curated by Art History student, Alice Centamore, and alum, Danielle Johnson

FLUXUS FAMILY REUNION – Lying down: Nam June Paik; sitting on the floor: Yasunao Tone, Simone Forti; first row: Yoshi Wada, Sara Seagull, Jackson Mac Low, Anne Tardos, Henry Flynt, Yoko Ono, La Monte Young, Peter Moore; second row: Peter Van Riper, Emily Harvey, Larry Miller, Dick Higgins, Carolee Schneemann, Ben Patterson, Jon Hendricks, Francesco Conz. (Behind Peter Moore: Marian Zazeela.) Photo by Josef Astor taken at the Emily Harvey Gallery published in Vanity Fair, July 1993.

 

EHF Collection Fluxus, Concept Art, Mail Art

Emily Harvey Foundation 537 Broadway New York, NY 10012 March 7  –  March 18, 2017   1PM – 6:30PM or by appointment Opening March 7 – 6pm

The second-floor loft at 537 Broadway, the charged site of Fluxus founder George Maciunas’s last New York workspace, and the Grommet Studio, where Jean Dupuy launched a pivotal phase of downtown performance art, became the Emily Harvey Gallery in 1984. Keeping the door open, and the stage lit, at the outset of a new and complex decade, Harvey ensured the continuation of these rare—and rarely profitable—activities in the heart of SoHo. At a time when conventional modes of art (such as expressive painting) returned with a vengeance, and radical practices were especially under threat, the Emily Harvey Gallery became a haven for presenting work, sharing dinners, and the occasional wedding. Harvey encouraged experimental initiatives in poetry, music, dance, performance, and the visual arts. In a short time, several artist diasporas made the gallery a new gravitational center. As a record of its founder’s involvements, the Emily Harvey Foundation Collection features key examples of Fluxus, Concept Art, and Mail Art, extending through the 1970s and 80s. Grounded in pieces she bought from shows held at her Gallery, as so many gestures of support, Emily Harvey steadily built this collection between 1984 and 2004. This exhibition offers a rare glimpse into that two-decade commitment, recounting the story of the gallery, and the impulses of the artists who became an integral part of it. Though her support for these artists is widely acknowledged, Harvey’s collecting efforts are a lesser-known aspect of this history. Still less appreciated is the extent and comprehensiveness of her collection. These works, many of which have not been shown since their first appearances in exhibitions at the gallery, present a unique opportunity to revisit a key historical moment in the downtown art scene and to re-examine the practices of the artists who converged on this space. Before her premature death in 2004, Emily Harvey took the time to set up the Emily Harvey Foundation, to ensure that the vital activities at 537 Broadway would continue. Her priority was the artists, and those who work in the field to represent their efforts, and this is palpable in the mandate of the EHF: a residency program in Venice, and an art program in both its New York and Venice Galleries.

Artists: Olga Adorno, Eric Andersen, Ay-O, George Brecht, John Cage, Henning Christiansen, Philip Corner, Charles Doria, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Dupuy, Albert Fine, Robert Filliou, Henry Flynt, Simone Forti, Ken Friedman, John Giorno, Jacques Halbert, Al Hansen, Geoffrey Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Ray Johnson, Citizen Kafka, Allan Kaprow, Milan Knizak, Alison Knowles, George Maciunas, Jackson Mac Low, Larry Miller, Charlotte Moorman, Evelyne Noviant, Margaret Leng Tan, Serge III Oldenbourg, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, Jeffrey Perkins, Takako Saito, Carolee Schneemann, Paul Sharits, Berty Skuber, Daniel Spoerri, William Stone, Peter Van Riper, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, Robert Watts, Emmett Williams, Christian Xatrec, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela.

PROGRAM: The Crying Place – Eric Andersen Installation March 9, 7pm George – New York preview of Jeff Perkins film on George Maciunas March 11, 7pm EHF Archive Tour March 12, 2pm & 4pm (RSVP: mailing.ehf@gmail.com) Solo Electric Boogie 1979/1982/2017 – Henry Flynt – Concert / Dance Video March 16, 7pm Curators: Alice Centamore, Danielle Johnson, Agustin Schang, and Christian Xatrec. More information: http://www.emilyharveyfoundation.org/exhibit.html

Lecture by Professor Peter Geimer, FU Berlin