The Russian Club at NYU and Urban Design and Architecture Society have invited Professor Bokov from Parsonsto present on “Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920-1930”. Professor Bokov is one of the leading scholars on Vkhutemas, a Soviet interdisciplinary school of design (also known as the Soviet version of Bauhaus). The lecture will begin this Thursday at 5:30PM NY time and requires registration. Please follow the link below to register and to reserve a spot.
When: Dec 3, 2020 05:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Register in advance for this meeting: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJModu2orTItHtLWSXDaN1wLw7VeUuqGKTbm After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with meeting details. Best wishes, Urban Design and Architecture Society / The Russian Club at NYU
[Online] Silsila Fall 2020 Lecture Series, Islam in Africa: Material Histories
Gold jewelry from tumulus 7, Durbi Takusheyi, Nigeria, 13th-15th century. National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abuja, Nigeria.
Gold bullion, as either raw dust or cast ingots, was the main driver of trans-Saharan trade from the eighth to the sixteenth centuries. Collected at several river sites across West Africa, the incorruptible material allowed the medieval empires of North Africa to mint their exceptionally fine gold coinages. Yet, in addition to its role as a monetary instrument, gold was also worked into exquisite pieces of fine jewelry, although extant pieces are exceptionally rare. The fragmentary remains of a thriving tradition of goldsmith work south of the Sahara alludes to the networks of technical practice that existed within and across the desert, linking West Africa to the Mediterranean system.
Sarah Guérin is Assistant Professor of Western Medieval Art and Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught since 2016. Her research focuses on the materials of medieval art, and the systems of exchange that contribute both to provisioning those material and the dissemination of techniques. Since 2012, she has contributed to the exhibition project, Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, which is currently fully installed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art and is awaiting visitors as soon as museums are once again able to open (provisional closing date July 30th 2021).Date: Wednesday, December 2nd Time: 12:30-2:30pm EST Location: Online
This event will take place as a live Webinar at 12:30pm EST (New York time). To register as an attendee, please use the following link: https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tas2ko75QqWqXfFrqkVZYA Only registered attendees will be able to access this event.Silsila: Center for Material Histories is an NYU center dedicated to material histories of the Islamicate world. Each semester we hold a thematic series of lectures and workshops, which are open to the public. Details of the Center can be found at:
Please join us at 12:30 pm on Thursday, Nov. 19 for an information meeting about opportunities in the Department of Art History, Urban Design and Architecture Studies. Professors Meredith Martin (DUS, Art History) and Jon Ritter will discuss the requirements and curriculum for our programs, including the fields of study, abroad courses, internship opportunities, and writing an honors thesis, as well as directions for graduate study and professional life with our degree. Please join us on zoom at this address:
[Online] Silsila Fall 2020 Lecture Series, Islam in Africa: Material Histories
The Sankoré Mosque Timbuktu (tenth century H/sixteenth century CE and later), and a folio from the Jalb al-ni’ma wa daf’ al-niqma (1589) held in the Aḥmad Bābā collections in Timbuktu.
Aḥmad Bābā (d.1627) is the most famous scholar from the West African desert-edge, Sahelian town of Timbuktu. He was recognized as a scholar well-beyond his town and the immediate region; his name was known among scholars also in Marrakesh. When the Sa’adian rulers based in that town ordered the invasion of Timbuktu and other locations in its environs Bābā was captured and sent into exile in Marrakesh along with his family and his books were seized. Dozens of works are attributed to him but hardly any of his works have been edited and published or translated. His fatwa (legal opinion) dealing with slavery has been edited and translated into English, and two texts edited and translated into French. The availability of his material is obviously a challenge to a greater appreciation of his work. The presentation shall focus on a text by him on the relationship of scholars with rulers. Why did he write it when he did? What are the specific sources he uses in the work? Is it possible to say anything about its circulation or readership? I shall also discuss issues relating to the material conditions (codicology) of extant copies of the text I have worked with to this point.
Shamil Jeppie – PhD (Princeton University 1996). Associate Professor, Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town. Author of studies on aspects of the histories of South Africa (especially Cape Town), Sudan (legal history), and Mali (Timbuktu manuscripts). Various visiting academic affiliations over the years including Amsterdam, Oxford, EHSS (Marseilles), and for 2020-21 Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. For further details and access to materials go to Shamil Jeppie on Academia.edu.Date: TUESDAY, November 24thTime: 12:30-2:30pm EST Location: Online
This event will take place as a live Webinar at 12:30pm EST (New York time). To register as an attendee, please use the following link: https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vTojAaWITEmH-uGxbYQnVw Only registered attendees will be able to access this event.Silsila: Center for Material Histories is an NYU center dedicated to material histories of the Islamicate world. Each semester we hold a thematic series of lectures and workshops, which are open to the public. Details of the Center can be found at:
Our warmest greetings go to all of our alumni. We hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and well during these challenging times. We are heartened that so many of you responded to our call for news: many congratulations on all of your achievements and activities. We hope to hear from more of you for our next Alumni News round-up, which we’ll post sometime in spring 2021. Great thanks also go to departmental faculty Mosette Broderick, Carol Krinsky, and Jon Ritter, and to our fabulous Undergraduate Student Assistant, Geoff Tortora, all of whom contributed news to this post.
Nancy Ruddy (B.A. Urban Design & Architecture Studies ‘70s; M.Arch. CUNY), a founding partner of the architectural firm CentraRuddy Architecture, sent this news about their award-winning adaptive reuse project, Fotografiska NYC:
“Fotografiska New York is the New York outpost of the internationally renowned destination for photography based in Stockholm. The adaptive reuse of the 1894 Landmark houses a museum crafted with the DNA of Fotografiska. The goal of the project was to create a space for New Yorkers to meet, eat, drink, and experience photography through an immersive series of rotating exhibitions, while simultaneously returning the landmark to the public.
“The ground floor welcomes the community with a public café, wine bar, and art bookstore, featuring reading nooks and seating areas to allow for personal connection. The museum serves as a container for culture—part educational and part entertainment, which aims to expose visitors to the art of photography through a multi-sensory experience. The intimate chapel space, located next door, serves as an adjoining bar connected to the lobby, one of four F&B service locations within the building, including the second-floor restaurant, Veronika, with interiors designed by a local interior design firm. The integration of F&B into the museum experience is a key part of the Fotografiska DNA.
“The ground floor was also designed to increase connectivity with the upper floors via a new elevator and grand staircase which welcomes visitors up the gallery floors. Lined with large wall graphics, the stairway itself serves as a preview and vertical extension of the exhibits on floors 3 through 5. Above the galleries, the sixth-floor space has been repurposed and expanded to create a unique environment for public gatherings such as lectures, concerts and events. The low ceiling on the sixth floor was removed, exposing the iron structural columns, and revealing the terra-cotta wall and ceiling tile in the building’s attic. These alterations required substantial upgrades to the original structural system. Finally, the addition of an inner set of walls on floors 3 through 5 surrounding the galleries was designed to create a flexible viewing experience that can evolve with the changing exhibitions but also creates a projection surface visible from the street, allowing the building’s iconic window apertures to serve as the frames for a new type of public art show.
“Most recently, Fotografiska New York was awarded the New York Landmarks Conservancy Lucy G. Moses Awards.”
Isabel Bolivar (B.A. Art History ’91; M.A. Studio Art, Adelphi University ’07) writes, “I have been working for the federal government for the last twenty-six years and have been developing my artwork for all these years with the Art Students League. My last show was during Art Basel week in Miami last year through Spectrum. I have participated in many group shows in Chelsea and at the United Nations.” In 2019 Isabel was the recipient of the Blue Dot recognition from the Art Students League group show. She is an Associate Member of the Society of Illustrators, New York.
Isabel has shared images of some of her paintings, which were created using acrylics. The drawing is done in silverpoint, a craft Isabel learned under the direction of artist-teacher Sherry Camhy at the Art Students League. Isabel also studied pastel painting, figure drawing, and oils with teachers Peter Cox, Americo DiFranza, and Dean Hartung. In 1989 she studied with Colombian artist and illustrator Guillermo Galvis Santos.
Victoria Young (B.A. Urban Design & Architecture Studies ’95; M.A. Architectural History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville ’97; Ph.D. University of Virginia, Charlottesville ‘03), who is currently Chair of the Department of Art History and Professor of Modern Architecture and the Allied Arts at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, was recently elected President of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH). Founded in 1940, the SAH “is a nonprofit membership organization that serves a network of local, national, and international institutions and individuals who, by profession or interest, focus on the history of the built environment and its role in shaping contemporary life.” The organization’s mission is to promote “the study, interpretation, and conservation of architecture, design, landscapes, and urbanism worldwide for the benefit of all.”
Jeffrey Hebert (B.A. Urban Design & Architecture Studies ’02) recently was named President of HR&A Advisors. HR&A is a consulting firm “providing services in real estate, economic development, and program design and implementation.” Its mission is to “improve economic opportunity, quality of life and the built environment for people in urban communities.”
Sarah Laursen (B.A. Art History/East Asian Studies ’02; Ph.D. Chinese Art History/East Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania ’11) recently began a new position as Alan J. Dworsky Associate Curator of Chinese Art at the Harvard Art Museums (for more information, please look here).
Jonathan Tiu (B.A. Art History ’06) sent this news: “This summer, I completed my neurology fellowship training in the rehabilitation of stroke and traumatic brain injury at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Following this, I have joined the faculty at WashU as Assistant Professor of Neurology.”
Albert Godetzky (B.A. Art History ’07, Ph.D. Courtauld Institute of Art ’20) was recently appointed Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute after completing his doctoral dissertation there on Haarlem “Mannerism.” Previously, Albert was the Harry M. Weinrebe Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery, London.
Lynn Maliszewski (BA, Art History/Studio Art, ’09; MA, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, ’17) recently secured the position of Archives and Collection Manager at the Queens Museum in Corona, New York. As steward of the Museum’s extensive collection of World’s Fair materials (1939/40 and 1964/65), Lynn will be responsible for making novel connections between these cultural phenomena and the contemporary dialogues in art, visual culture, and architecture.
Carolyn Keogh (B.A. Art History, ’12; M.A. Art History, The City College of New York, ’19) has joined The Olana Partnership as the new Director of Education & Public Programs at Olana, the home and studio of Frederic Church. Carolyn joins Olana from the Guggenheim Museum where she managed gallery and studio programs for youth and teen audiences. As Director of Education and Public Programs at Olana, Carolyn oversees programs for youth, family, and adult audiences, as well as a new distance-learning initiative to support school curricula during this challenging time.
Nora Boyd (B.A. Art History/Urban Design & Architecture Studies ’13) writes, “Along with four other women in New York (and one other NYU Art History alumna!), I founded the Cura Collective, a nonprofit connecting local food businesses with hospitals. Our funds provide meals for hospital workers, ensuring work for restaurant workers while supporting frontline medical workers. We’ve been operating in New York City since April and expanded to Dallas in August. Alumni can donate and see what we’re doing on our site.
“While I continue to work for an art advisor based in New York and California, I’m also starting an alternative arts space in San Francisco this fall, called Upper Market Gallery. In addition to hosting in-person shows in our space, we collaborate directly with underrepresented and emerging artists to create limited edition fine art prints. We hope to provide some passive income to these artists while also engaging young collectors more directly with the art world. You can see our first set of prints this November.”
Karen Zabarsky (B.A. Urban Design & Architecture Studies ‘13) was featured in New York Magazine about efforts that she and a colleague are spearheading to reuse huge former gas tanks along the East River for recreational purposes within a park. There is some opposition from people who had formed other plans, but plenty of support, too. As Professor Krinsky commented, “We are glad to think that Karen’s work continues her honors thesis studies about adaptive reuse.”
Linse Kelbe (B.A. Art History/Economics ‘14, French minor) was admitted to the MBA program at HEC Paris in France with an option to pursue a dual degree MAM (Masters in Advanced Management, a post-MBA degree) at Yale University in the class of 2022. She currently works in Finance at Goldman Sachs.
Ariel Bi (Urban Design & Architecture Studies ’17) graduated from the Masters program in Landscape Architecture in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and has been accepted into the graduate program in Urban Planning there.
Naomi Lubash (B.A. Art History ‘17) was accepted to the Courtauld Institute of Art’s M.A. History of Art program for the Italian Renaissance special option, “Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo,” led by Dr. Scott Nethersole and Dr. Guido Rebecchini.
Sarah Myers (B.A. Art History ‘17; M.A. Fine Arts ’19, Institute of Fine Arts), was admitted to the Ph.D. program in Art History at Stony Brook and has begun her doctoral studies there. Sarah writes, “I am studying Conceptual Art and Photography in the 60s and 70s.” Sarah sends love to everyone in the Department of Art History. Thank you, Sarah!
Madelaine Momot (M.A., Historical & Sustainable Architecture ’18) was accepted to the M.A. program in Urban Studies, Erasmus Mundus 4Cities Program.
Maame Boatemaa (B.A. Urban Design & Architecture Studies ’19) was accepted to both the MSc program in Environment and Development at the London School of Economics, and the M.A. program in Climate and Society, Columbia University; she is currently in London pursuing the program at LSE.
Rebekah Coffman (M.A. Historical and Sustainable Architecture ’19) earned the Gavin Stamp Memorial Award from NYU’s M.A. program in Historical and Sustainable Architecture.
José C. Hernández(B.A. Urban Design & Architecture Studies ’19) sent the excellent news that the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) chose his digital design of Penn Station as the Student Project of this year’s Stanford White Awards. The ICAA “is a nonprofit membership organization committed to promoting and preserving the practice, understanding, and appreciation of classical design”. José is currently on leave from University of Pennsylvania’s graduate program Historic Preservation.
(Charlotte) Yuyin Li (B.A. Art History ’19) is currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation at the Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department of SUNY Buffalo State College. Previously, she was an intern at the Division of Anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History, participating in the Northwest Coast Hall renovation project in the conservation of objects and textiles.
Jonathan Marty (B.A. Urban Design & Architecture Studies ’19) began the Masters program in Urban Planning in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation this fall.
Alice Sebban (B.A. Art History ‘19) was admitted to both New York Law and DePaul University’s College of Law in Chicago and began her studies in Chicago this fall.
Tairan Shi (B.A. Art History ‘19) was admitted to the Art Business Program at Sotheby’s.
Sabina Vitale (B.A. Art History ’19) was accepted to the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation’s internship program in Venice, where she is living and working for the months of November and December.
Ink & Image, the Department of Art History’s journal of original undergraduate scholarship is currently seeking submissions for its 2021 publication. Submitted works can be term papers, independent research projects, or abridged final theses, with the only criteria that it must be an original idea based on research. As a guideline, papers should be 10-20 pages long.
We will be reviewing papers on a rolling basis. The last day to submit works is February 3rd. Should you wish to submit a paper in progress or a term paper for the fall semester, please send an abstract or sought draft at your earliest convenience.
Selected papers will undergo several rounds of edits with the student co-editors as well as Professor Krinsky. The completed journal will be published in May and sent to libraries around the world, which in the past have included the Getty Research Institute Library, the Library of Congress, the NYPL, and the British Library.
This is a rare opportunity for undergraduates to have their work published and circulated. It is also a competitive advantage when applying for graduate programs and jobs. We highly encourage you to submit and take advantage of this opportunity!
Ink & Image, the Department of Art History’s journal of original undergraduate scholarship is currently seeking cover art submissions for its 2021 publication. We encourage all students to submit quality pieces to the publication. We will choose two student’s works to feature on the front and back cover of the journal. Please feel free to be creative and think outside of the box. The only requirement we have is that you submit your work as a .jpeg.
Please note this is a live-streamed event. You will receive a zoom link in your email upon your registration.
Join NYU professors Pepe Karmel, author of the just-released Abstract Art: A Global History, and Edward J. Sullivan as they discuss new histories of abstraction.
Abstraction was long seen as the pinnacle of modern art. And the path to this pinnacle seemed to be blazed by a handful of white men working in Europe and North America. In recent years, however, historians of Latin American art have uncovered an alternative route to abstraction, running through Buenos Aires, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and Havana, in which women artists played a key role. Today, women, artists of color and non-Western artists are leading protagonists in contemporary abstraction.
A pioneer in the rediscovery of abstract art from Latin America, Edward Sullivan has dramatically changed the narrative of twentieth-century art. Focusing on the subject matter expressed by abstract forms, Pepe Karmel’s new book divides abstraction into five categories – Bodies, Landscapes, Cosmologies, Architectures, and Signs and Patterns – and uses them to explore the work of a more inclusive mix of artists from Vasily Kandinsky to Ibrahim El-Salahi, Carlos Cruz-Diez to Bridget Riley, Anni Albers to Sean Scully, and Julie Mehretu to Wu Guanzhong.
Pepe Karmel teaches in the Department of Art History, New York University. His book, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism, was published by Yale University Press in 2003. He organized the 1989 exhibition, Robert Morris: Felt Works, at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, and was co-curator, with Kirk Varnedoe, of the 1998 retrospective, Jackson Pollock, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2004, he organized The Age of Picasso: Gifts to American Museums, which was seen in Rome and in Santander, Spain. His installation, “Dialogues with Picasso” is currently on view at the Museo Picasso Málaga. Karmel was the curator of New York Cool: Painting and Sculpture from the NYU Collection, in 2008, and the co-curator, with Joachim Pissarro, of Conceptual Abstraction, seen at the Hunter College / Times Square Gallery in 2012. He has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues and written widely on modern and contemporary art for publications including Art in America and The New York Times. His new book, Abstract Art: A Global History, is being published by Thames & Hudson on November 17.
Edward J. Sullivan is the Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the History of Art at the Institute of Fine Arts and the (CAS) Department of Art History. He has been awarded the “Great Teacher” citation from CAS and in 2019 was honored with the “Outstanding Teacher of Art History” award from the College Art Association. Professor Sullivan is currently Deputy Director of the Institute of Fine Arts and Provostial Fellow. He has had a decades-long career at NYU and in addition he has taught at such institutions as Trinity College, Dublin, Williams College and the University of Miami. He is author of some thirty books and exhibition catalogues. His most recent publications include The Language of Objects in the Art of the Americas (Yale University Press, 2007); From San Juan to Paris and Back: Francisco Oller and Caribbean Art in the Era of impressionism (Yale, 2014) and, Making the Americas Modern: Hemispheric Art 1910-1960 (Lawrence King Ltd. London, 2018). RSVP
Please note this is a live-streamed event. RSVP to receive the webinar link.Please join the Institute in conversation with Dipti Khera, Associate Professor at NYU’s Department of Art History and Institute of Fine Arts about her new book, The Place of Many Moods: Udaipur’s Painted Lands and India’s Eighteenth Century. Her book looks at the painting traditions of northwestern India in the eighteenth century, and what they reveal about the political and artistic changes of the era. It uncovers an influential creative legacy of evocative beauty that raises broader questions about how emotions and artifacts operate in constituting history and subjectivity, politics and place.
Responding to the book will be Vittoria Di Palma, Associate Professor of Architectural History and Art History at the School of Architecture at University of Southern California, and Kavita Singh, Professor of Art History at the School of Arts and Aesthetics of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Dipti Khera earned her Ph.D. in South Asian art history from Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology in 2013. In 2012–13, she was a postgraduate research associate and lecturer at the South Asian Studies Council, MacMillan Center, Yale University. Her book, The Place of Many Moods: Udaipur’s Painted Lands and India’s Eighteenth Century (Princeton University Press, 2020), received the 2019 Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize for the best book manuscript in Indian Humanities, awarded annually by the American Institute of Indian Studies (http://theplaceofmanymoods.org). She is currently writing essays and entries for the catalogue that will accompany her co-curated exhibition, provisionally titled, A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, India, slated to open at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in November 2022.
Vittoria Di Palma is Associate Professor of Architecture and Art History at the University of Southern California. She specializes in modern European architectural history and theory, with particular concentrations in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture, early modern land use and landscape, and contemporary landscape theory and design. Her research interests include intersections between early modern science, medicine, and aesthetics; questions of perception and representation, and broader issues in the environmental humanities. Di Palma is the author of Wasteland, A History (Yale University Press, 2014), which was awarded five prizes, including the 2016 Herbert Baxter Adams Prize from the American Historical Association, the 2016 Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians.
Kavita Singh is Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics of Jawaharlal Nehru University where she teaches courses in the history of Indian painting, particularly the Mughal and Rajput schools, and the history and politics of museums. Singh has published on secularism and religiosity, fraught national identities, and the memorialization of difficult histories as they relate to museums in South Asia and beyond. She has also published essays and monographs on aspects of Mughal and Rajput painting, particularly on style as a signifying system. In 2018, she was awarded the Infosys Prize in Humanities and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020. RSVP
Fields of Vision 