Emily Conklin wins Borgman Prize for best thesis in the Humanities

Join us in congratulating Emily who wrote this thesis supervised by Professor Jon Ritter!

 

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution created a worldwide social and economic shift, and cities today are filled with the remnants of the structures of industry, from factories and warehouses to the canals and docks that serviced them. Buildings form an integral part of the fabric of urban communities, and the histories and robust material makeup of the often overlooked vernacular architecture of South Brooklyn, and notably Red Hook, are at risk.

This thesis will examine the industrial architecture of Red Hook, Brooklyn and the potential of intangible heritage to preserve and repurpose its architectural character as a community asset for economic and cultural vitality in the immediate neighborhood, as well as for the greater New York City. This thesis is based heavily on site-specific research and tangible evidence gathered from visits to prominent sites on the peninsula, discussions with local residents and business owners, and physical interaction with the structures and streetscapes. My work connects field research with studies of waterfront regeneration, philosophies of space, and architectural theory.

Industrial buildings serve their communities in nuanced, yet invaluable and economically viable ways that are impossible to replicate with newly built structures: Their demolition results in a loss of local history and community identity. Red Hook has the potential to realize radical grassroots transformations for and by its residents, as its low-lying brick structures are rare examples of well-preserved heavy timber and iron framing technologies in architecture, and of the working-class experience itself. They suggest an intangible heritage and a distinct genius loci in a historically blue collar, immigrant community.

In examining Red Hook’s architectural legacy, this thesis argues that intangible heritage can be a benchmark indicating the immediate and future success of waterfront regeneration, embodying preservation ideals of inclusivity and visual representation that build upon, rather than erase, vernacular tradition.

 

Tom Sokolowski (1950-2020): former Director of The Grey Art Gallery and Lecturer in Contemporary Art at the Department of Art History

Photo Courtesy Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers

Thomas W. Sokolowski, who received his MA from the NYU Institute of Fine Arts in 1975, died in New Brunswick, N.J. on May 6^th 2020. Tom was a pioneering curator and a courageous museum director who, throughout his career, created exhibitions that sought to advance the cause of social justice. His professional life was deeply connected with NYU. The years during which he served as Director of the Grey Art Gallery on Washington Square East were extremely fruitful for him professionally. His ground-breaking exhibitions attracted large audiences and critical acclaim. They included, among many others, the 1985 “Precious.” This show examined art from the opposite side of the aesthetic coin from trends related to Minimalism and other forms of severe abstraction to consider artists who used the “more is more” approach to highly decorated surfaces and neo-religious references in their paintings, sculptures and installations, taking their work beyond the “decorative” into the realm of the “dazzling.” “Against Nature: Japanese Art of the Eighties” and his survey of “Modern Indian Art from the Chester and Davida Hurwitz Collection” introduced aspects of global contemporary art before globalism took on the importance that it has today.

At the IFA, Tom studied Early Modern European art. His particular interest (fostered at the University of Chicago where he did his undergraduate degree) was the art of seventeenth and eighteenth century Italy. He studied with Anthony (Tony) Clark, former Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Curator of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum. Clark became adjunct professor at the IFA in 1973. After Clark’s untimely death in 1976 Tom worked with Donald Posner on a dissertation (which he did not finish) on Roman painter Sebastiano Conca.

During his time at the Institute (and before going to the American Academy in Rome for dissertation research) he took classes from Clark and Posner, Peter von Blanckenhagen, Gert Schiff, Jonathan Brown, and Ann Sutherland Harris, among others.

Tom held teaching positions at the University of British Columbia and, in the late 1980s and early 90s, at NYU’s Department of Art History. At the DAH, he lectured on contemporary art to great praise from his students who learned in Tom’s classes the same lessons as his ground-breaking exhibitions were teaching to the general public. For Tom, contemporary art was a world-wide phenomenon, not simply an invention of the U.S. art world.

Tom joined the staff of the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia in 1982 and eventually became Chief Curator before returning to New York to assume the directorship of the Grey. At the Grey (1984-1996), and later, during his fourteen-year tenure as Director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh as well as in his final position, Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (2017 until his death), Tom organized many exhibitions that investigated the theme of artists and the AIDS crisis. In 1988 along with three other professional colleagues (including William Olander, NYU/IFA PhD) he founded the organization known as Visual AIDS, initiated the “Red Ribbon” project and was responsible for the First Day Without Art. At the time of his death Tom was working on an exhibition (to open in September of this year) of the achievements and images in art of the Civil Rights activist Angela Davis, for the Zimmerli (Davis is a former Professor at Rutgers)

Tom’s many classmates and colleagues, personal and professional friends, remember his acute intelligence and his razor-sharp wit. His sudden passing is a great sadness for the entire NYU community.

Edward J. Sullivan

Grey Gallery ZOOM Webinars

Taking Shape: New Perspectives on Arab Abstraction, A Zoom Webinar SeriesUntil the late 1960s, 20th-century art from the Middle East and North Africa was greatly understudied. Yet by the turn of the millennium, scholars, museum curators, and collectors were actively engaged in creating a global art history. Among questions to be considered are: Why did modern artists from these regions choose to create nonfigurative works? How can we approach Arab abstraction without falling back on borrowed methodologies? Taking Shape: New Perspectives on Arab Abstraction, A Zoom Webinar Series is being recorded and will be made available captioned on our website at a future date. Co-organized by NYU’s Grey Art Gallery and Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and co-sponsored by ArteEast. Offered in conjunction with the exhibition Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s, on view at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery in early 2020. Session 1: The Barjeel Art Foundation and Taking Shape Thursday, May 28, 12:00 pm EDT Register Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, will discuss this independent, UAE–based initiative, which he established in 2009 to study, preserve, and exhibit modern art from the Arab world, and to foster critical conversations about regional modernisms. Suheyla Takesh, a curator at Barjeel and co-curator of Taking Shape, will discuss her role in organizing the exhibition, framing her investigation of modernism’s development in mid-20th century North Africa and West Asia within today’s rethinking of the canon of abstract art. Moderated by Lynn Gumpert, director of NYU’s Grey Art Gallery and co-curator of the exhibition. Session 2: Arab Abstraction and Arabic Letterforms Thursday, June 4, 6:00 pm EDT Register Iftikhar Dadi, Associate Professor of History of Art, Cornell University, and Nada Shabout, Professor of Art History, University of North Texas, will explore how the artists in Taking Shape “reterritorialized” the Arabic alphabet and made its aesthetic more accessible to the larger world, not only in detaching Arabic letterforms from Islamic calligraphy and religious history but also in liberating them from their semantic functions. In stripping Arabic letters of their former meanings, artists enabled them to signal modern (pan-)Arab identity and the decolonization of culture. Moderated by Pepe Karmel, Associate Professor of Art History, New York University. Session 3: Modern Art in Algeria and Egypt Thursday, June 18, 6:00 pm EDT Register Between the 1950s and the 1980s, Arab countries were transformed through decolonization, the rise of nationalism, socialism, rapid industrialization, and wars and mass migrations. At the same time, artists were revitalizing their practices, finding inspiration in Arabic calligraphy, geometry and mathematics, and local topographies. Hannah Feldman, Associate Professor of Art History, Northwestern, will focus on abstract art in Algeria; and Alex Dika Seggerman, Assistant Professor of Islamic Art History, Rutgers University–Newark, on figurative art in Egypt. Moderated by Sarah-Neel Smith, Assistant Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, Maryland Institute College of Art. The Grey Art Gallery is temporarily closed. To view our current exhibition online, Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s, go to our website for a complete collection of images as well as the checklist and exhibit labels along with related content. Join the conversation! @NYUGrey #TakingShapeNYU #BarjeelArtFoundation Facebook Instagram Twitter Image: Madiha Umar, ”Untitled,” 1978 (detail). Watercolor on paper. Collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

 

Student News, 2019-2020

During these difficult times, it is gratifying to be able to celebrate the outstanding achievements of so many of our students.  Congratulations to all of our Art History, Urban Design and Architecture Studies, and Historical and Sustainable Architecture students, and especially to those students who are graduating this year.  We will miss you, and we hope that you will keep in touch with the department. Many thanks go to those students who responded to our call for news, and to Professors Mosette Broderick, Dennis Geronimus, Carol Krinsky, Michele Matteini, and Jon Ritter; Geoff Tortora, our department’s Undergraduate Student Assistant; and Rose Olivito, Academic and Student Services Administrator in the CAS Office of Student Affairs, for their contributions to this post.  Please send additions or corrections to Kathryn.smith@nyu.edu with a copy to peggy@nyu.edu.

Iyad Abdi (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’20) earned a CAS Rudin Internship Scholarship in fall 2019.

Talia Abrahams (Art History ’20) wrote an honors thesis under the supervision of Professor Prita Meier. She is the recipient of the Sam Gates Award in Art History, presented to a graduating senior for excellence in the field of art history.

Milly Grace Ames (Art History ’20) is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History.  She wrote an honors thesis under the supervision of Professor Kathryn A. Smith, and presented her research at this year’s first-ever virtual CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference. Milly was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this spring.

Talia Bush (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

 Alexus Castaneda ((Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

 Max Chavez (Historical and Sustainable Archiecture ’20) was awarded a Mildred Colodny Scholarship from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Bob and J. Bonnie Bowman Scholarship from the Charter Oak Community Foundation, and a Tuition Incentive Program matching grant and a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Wayne Chen (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’20) is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History and Program for Urban Design and Architecture Studies.

Minkyoo Chung (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Emily Conklin (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’20) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant this academic year.  Her honors thesis, written under the supervision of Professor Jon Ritter and titled “Reclaiming the Red Hook Waterfront:  An Analysis of the Urban Maritime Architectural Tradition in South Brooklyn,” was the co-recipient of this year’s Albert Borgman/Phi Beta Kappa Thesis Prize, presented for best honors thesis in Humanities. Emily is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History and Program for Urban Design and Architecture Studies, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this spring.

Jacqueline Franks (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Willa Gegelman (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’21) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant this academic year and was named the “NYU CAS Daniel A. and Amy L. Rock Research Scholar”.

Emily Gibson (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ‘20) wrote an honors thesis under the supervision of Professor Mosette Broderick this year.  She was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant this academic year, and will begin the M.Arch proram at Pratt Institute this fall.

Maureen Gozlan (Art History/Politics ’20) will begin the Masters Program in Art Business at Sotheby’s institute of Art this fall.

Gabe Haberberg (Art History ’20) is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History.

Ainsley Hatten (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Lucia Iglesias (Art History ’21) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant this academic year.

Cole Karam (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ‘20) will begin the M.Arch program at Ohio State University this fall.

Anna Leckie (Art History ’21) presented her research at this year’s first-ever virtual CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference.

Zöe Lee (Art History ’21) was awarded the H.W. Janson Scholarship, presented to an accomplished junior for excellence in the study of the history of art.  She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this spring.

Amy Lenkiewicz (Art History/English and American Literature ’20) is the recipient of the Jane Costello Memorial Award, presented to a graduating senior for excellence in the study of the history of art.

Audrey Lin (Art History ’20) is a co-recipient of the Douglas F. Maxwell Award, presented to a graduating senior for excellence in the study of art history.

Nico Lob (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’20) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant this academic year.  He is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History and Program for Urban Design and Architecture Studies.

Niall Lowrie (Art History; Studio Art minor ’22) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant in December 2019, to support a visit to the Louvre exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci as part of a longer research project on his art.  He was also awarded a grant from the Antonina S. Ranieri International Scholars Fund in May 2020, to support participation in the field school at the Greco-Roman city of Hippos-Sussita, Israel.

Olivia McCaughey (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ‘20) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant, and was the recipient of the NYU CAS Count Lorenzo Attolico di Adelfia Research Scholar Award this academic academic year. She wrote an honors thesis under the supervision of Professor Jon Ritter, and presented her research at this year’s first-ever virtual Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference. Olivia earned the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize from the Program for Urban Design and Architecture Studies, presented to an outstanding graduating senior with the highest grade point average and most promise for future success in the field of Urban Design and Architecture, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this spring.  She will begin the M. Real Estate program at Columbia University this fall.

Alice McGinty (Urban Design and Architecture Studies/Psychology ’20) was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this spring.

 Marissa Moxley (Art History ’20) wrote an honors thesis under the supervision of Professor Pepe Karmel. She is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History.

Alisa Nurmansyah (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’21) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant this academic year.

Paul Nussbaum (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ‘20) will begin the M.A. in NYU’s Historical and Sustainable Architecture program this fall.

Natasha O’Byrne (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Elizabeth Ogunsanya (Urban Design and Architecture Studies; Business Studies minor ‘20) will begin NYU Wagner’s Masters of Urban Planning program with a concentration in International Development Planning. She will join the Class of 2022 in Fall 2021.

Niklas Persson (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ‘20) was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this spring. He will begin the Masters Programme in Real Estate and Construction Management at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm this fall.

Wes Purpura (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Ella Senglaub (Art History/Social and Cultural Analysis ’20) wrote an honors thesis under the supervision of Professor Carol Krinsky.  She is the recipient of a Faculty Choice award from the Department of Art History, and is a co-recipient of the Social and Cultural Analysis Program Prize, presented for distinguished academic performance.

Ava Sholl (Public Policy; Urban Design and Architecture Studies Minor ’20) held an internship at BlackRock in New York City during Summer 2019.  She worked on projects ranging from a sustainable energy infrastructure platform to presenting her own deal to the senior executive team.  Ava will join BlackRock’s Real Estate and Infrastructure team full-time this fall.

Zhang (Harry) Shunyao (Art History ’20) is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History.

Kelsey Sprague (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Caroline Suppan (Art History ’20) is the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award from the Department of Art History.

Joe Tuano (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’21) was awarded a CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant this academic year, and presented his research at this year’s first-ever CAS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference.  He is the recipient of the Evelyn Jablow Lillienthal, ’64 Heights Arts and Science Award, presented to an accomplished junior in the Urban Design and Architecture Studies Program.

.Manchen Wang (Art History; Studio Art and Business Studies minors ’20) will begin the Masters program in Art Market Studies at Fashion Institute of Technology this fall.

Sarah Weber (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Feeding Laramie Valley Americorps/VISTA Scholarship, as well as a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship and a Tuition Incentive Program matching grant, both from NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Stephen Williams (Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’20) was awarded a Jill Lever Memorial Tuition Scholarship by NYU’s Graduate School of Arts & Science.

Xiaolu (Joy) Wu (Art History ’20) has been accepted to the East Asian Studies Program at Harvard University, where she will pursue a Masters in Buddhist Studies.  Joy’s essay, “The Making of Qing Cosmopolitanism at Wutaishan,” was published in volume 6 of the Bowdoin Journal of Art.  Joy wrote an honors thesis under the supervision of Professor Michele Matteini.  She is a co-recipient of the Douglas F. Maxwell Award, presented to a graduating senior for excellence in the study of art history.

 Jingying Zhu (Urban Design and Architecture Studies ’20) will begin the M.Arch program at the University of Virginia this fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Career Symposium

You are cordially invited to join the DAH’s annual career symposium, organized by the Fine Arts Society and featuring panelists from a variety of professions in the art world sharing their experiences, discussing career trajectories, and offering advice. Please use the following Zoom link to join:

May 20, 7:00 PM Eastern Time

https://nyu.zoom.us/j/7998059639

Webinar: Highlights from the NYU Grey Art Gallery’s Collection of Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Art

Installation view of Modernisms: Iranian, Turkish, and Indian Highlights from NYU’s Abby Weed Grey Collection, exhibition on view at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, September 10-December 7, 2019. Photo: Nicholas Papananias

Monday, May 11, 6:00 pm
Register

Join the NYU Grey Art Gallery’s Lynn Gumpert, Director, and Michèle Wong (STEINHARDT ’80), Associate Director | Head of Exhibitions and Collections, in a discussion and virtual tour of the highlights of NYU’s unparalleled and unique Abby Weed Grey Collection of Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Art.

Donated to NYU in 1974 by art collector and patron Abby Weed Grey, the collection includes some of the largest institutional holdings of Iranian, Indian, and Turkish modern art outside those countries. At a time when few Americans were attuned to contemporary art from the Middle East and Asia, Grey assembled a substantial collection of some 700 works.

This event is presented in collaboration with the NYU Office of Alumni Relations.

This webinar is presented in Eastern Time.

New York University is pleased to provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations for events and services should be submitted to alumni.events@nyu.edu. Online events will be closed captioned and posted on the NYU Alumni website after the recording ends.

The Grey Art Gallery is temporarily closed. To view our current exhibition online, Taking Shape: Abstract Art from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s, go to our website for a complete collection of images as well as the checklist and exhibit labels along with related content.

Join the conversation!
@NYUGrey
#TakingShapeNYU
#BarjeelArtFoundation

Videos from MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORICAL AND SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE in London

Please watch!

 

Congratulations to Professor Dipti Khera!

We are thrilled to announce that Professor Dipti Khera, who joined the DAH in July 2013, has been granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor effective September 1, 2020.

Dipti Khera’s book, The Place of Many Moods: Udaipur’s Painted Lands and India’s Eighteenth Century, forthcoming from Princeton University Press (September 2020), received the Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize for the best book manuscript in Indian Humanities, awarded annually by the American Institute of Indian Studies. She is co-curating the exhibition A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, India that reveals major shifts in the art of place and landscape in South Asia. Organized by the National Museum for Asian Art (Smithsonian) in partnership with the City Palace Museum, Udaipur, the exhibition is slated to open at the Freer and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art, Washington DC in Fall 2021, and travel to the Cleveland Museum of Art in Summer 2022. She is currently finishing writing the exhibition catalog as well as will conclude her article, “Copying Contexts: Circulating Worlds in European Atlases and Indian Miniatures, c. 1700,” upon completing the course “Material Foundations of Map History, 1450–1900” in Summer 2020, offered by the Rare Book School, for which Professor Khera recently received a Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia (BSUVA) Scholarship. Another related project, a coedited issue (with Sarah Betzer) for Journal18 (forthcoming in Fall 2021), takes off from the ubiquity of the phrase “the long eighteenth century” to explore from which vantage points, whether local, regional, or transregional, and for whom, is the eighteenth century long. When the focus on histories of colonialism and slavery forces us to look anew at the bodies, lands, and knowledge presented in art, how does our thinking about the relative length or shortness, narrowness or breadth, of the eighteenth century change?