Stephanie Porras awarded grants and fellowships for research and publication

Assistant Professor Stephanie Porras' forthcoming book Pieter Bruegel’s Historical Imagination (Penn State University Press, 2016) proposes a new understanding of Bruegel as an artist deeply concerned with history. For this work Dr. Porras has received a Millard Meiss Publication Award from the College Art Association, a Kress publication grant from the Renaissance Society of America, as well as a Historians of Netherlandish Art Fellowship award. 

Dr. Porras has also been awarded a short term fellowship at the New York Public Library this May, where she will be conducting research on her next book project, Maerten de Vos: a Renaissance Life in between. This project is a micro history of an understudied yet ubiquitous early modern artist, considering the impact of travel, the wars of religion and the dawn of globalization on artistic identity and visual culture.

[Peasant Dance, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, Austria]

Allison Caplan joins the Getty Graduate Internship Program

Allison Caplan, a Ph.D. student in Art History and Latin American Studies, will be joining the Getty Graduate Internship Program for 2015-2016. She will be conducting research for the upcoming Pre-Columbian art exhibition, “Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas,” and its accompanying catalogue. The exhibition is part of the Getty’s initiative, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, and will show at the Getty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017. Allison’s research for the exhibition builds on her work for her Ph.D. dissertation on central Mexican indigenous aesthetics and materiality.

Unorthodox: Morris Hirshfield and Modern Art in the 1940s

Unorthodox: Morris Hirshfield and Modern Art in the 1940s
A lecture by Richard Meyer, Stanford University
Thursday, April 9 at 6:30pm
Stone Auditorium, Room 210, Woldenberg Art Center, Uptown Campus

Please join us for a lecture by Richard Meyer, Professor of Art History at Stanford University, who will speak on Morris Hirshfield and Modern Art in the 1940s. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.

A tailor, slipper manufacturer, and Orthodox Jew, the self-taught artist Morris Hirshfield created a series of female nudes and animal paintings  that were exhibited in a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943.  Widely ridiculed by critics, the Hirshfield exhibition contributed to the firing of Alfred Barr as the museum’s director that same year.

This paper considers the strange visual logic of Hirshfield’s paintings and the critical scorn they attracted when shown at MOMA.  Hirshfield was referred to as “The Master of the Two Left Feet” in the press because of his penchant for depicting the female body in that fashion.  In his lecture, Meyer will suggest that several forms of confusion (between right and left, back and front, fantasy and reality, figuration and decoration) structured both Hirshfield’s paintings and their critical reception in the 1940s.

Erin McCutcheon awarded grants to research feminist art in Mexico City

Erin L. McCutcheon, PhD Candidate in Art History and Latin American Studies, has recently been awarded research grants from both the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund and the Organization for Research on Women in Communication in support of her dissertation project, “Strategic Dis-Positions: Feminist Art in Mexico City, 1975–90.”  

The Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund was established in 1991 in honor of the anthropologist Ruth Schlossberg Landes, and provides support for interdisciplinary research on subjects including gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, minority populations, culture and education. 

The Organization for Research on Women and Communication provides grants to assist feminist scholars in completing research projects that privilege and advance an understanding of the intersectionalities and complexities that define women’s lives.  

Erin is currently completing her fieldwork in Mexico City.  She is conducting an oral history project with feminist artists residing there, and has been assisting in planning the upcoming retrospective exhibition for the artist Mónica Mayer, to be held at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in 2016.

Jane Cassidy (MFA 2014) exhibition at the Work Gallery, Ann Arbor

Jane Cassidy:
Fits of Easy Reflexion
March 14–April 5 | Work Gallery | 306 S. State St.

An exhibition of three visual music installations by Jane Cassidy is on view at the Work Gallery in association with the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Square Ball and Purple Tinged Pearl Buttoned Bangled-Billy are works for stereo sound, video projector, and fog machine; They Upped Their Game After The Oranges employs stereo sound and projection mapping onto a corner.

Originally from from Galway, Ireland, Jane Cassidy studied music composition and animation, earning her Masters in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin in 2008 and and an MFA in Digital Art from Tulane University. Her work explores visual music, live visuals, electro-acoustic composition and multi-channel video.

Tulane Glass welcomes visiting artist Mick Meilahn

Dave Hickey leads group critique for MFA students

Dave Hickey brought his unique brand of art criticism and writing to New Orleans at the invitation of members of The Front, a cooperative gallery on St. Claude Avenue, with support from Tulane University, and Press Street.  While in town in mid-March, he led a group critique with Tulane's studio art graduate students.  Quotations from that critique include, "Don't wear dorky clothes!" as well as, "You have to make a lot of work," and "Look people in the eye" along with solid technical advice, and suggestions for selling one's work.  Mr. Hickey was very generous with his time and his unfiltered opinions, as his followers have come to expect. 

Imen Djouini: "Flutter"

The Carroll Gallery presents:

Newcomb Art Department – Tulane University

MFA Thesis Exhibition

FLUTTER

Imen Djouini

exhibition dates:  March 18 – 27, 2015

closing reception:  Thursday, March 26, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

walkthrough with the artist: 6:00 pm

Gallery hours:  M – F, 9 am – 4 pm

Gallery closed on official Tulane holidays.

Call for Entries: Undergraduate Student Show

The Carroll Gallery at the Newcomb Art Department is seeking entries for the 2015 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition. This year's juror is Dr. Andrea Andersson, Chief Curator of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans.

This exhibition is limited to undergraduate students currently enrolled at Tulane University. Submissions are to be delivered to the Carroll Gallery on Monday, April 20, from 9am - 3pm. Works in all media are encouraged. A maximum of five pieces per student may be entered. Cash prizes will be awarded.

Questions? Please call 314.2228.

Jenna Turner to exhibit in the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in South Korea

Jenna Turner, Subversion (detail)

Jenna Turner (MFA 2014) has been accepted into the 8th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in South Korea. A total of 2,629 entries by 1,470 artists from seventy-four countries were received, among which 108 pieces by 101 artists from twenty-eight countries were selected after the preliminary screening.​

Turner's entry, Subversion, was completed in 2014 as part of her thesis show and is currently on view at Good Children Gallery. 


In order to attend the biennial, Jenna will be traveling to South Korea at the end of April with an Alberta Foundation for the Arts Cultural Relations Grant.

The Status of the Copy and Posthumous Work in the Museum

In conjunction with their current exhibition Degas: The Private Impressionist, the Newcomb Art Gallery presents a panel discussion

"The Status of the Copy and Posthumous Work in the Museum"

with Stephanie Porras, Assistant Professor of Art History, Tulane; Michael Kuczynski, Associate Professor of English, Tulane; and

Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, New Orleans Museum of Art.

Wednesday, March 18, 6:00 pm

Freeman Auditorium

205 Woldenberg Art Center 

Jennifer Saracino named Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellow

Jennifer Saracino, a Ph.D. candidate in Art History and Latin American Studies, has been appointed as a Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellow in Pre-Columbian Studies for the academic year of 2015-2016. 

As a fellow, she will be pursuing research for her Ph.D. dissertation project entitled, "Shifting Landscape: Depictions of Environmental & Cultural Disruption in the Mapa Uppsala." The Mapa Uppsala is one of the earliest maps of post-Conquest Mexico City painted by indigenous hands. By combining studies of Mesoamerican and European cartography with a formal analysis of the Mapa Uppsala, she plans to demonstrate how the Mapa Uppsala is a testament to the lived experience of early colonial artists living in Mexico-Tenochtitlan.​

Second Saturday at Good Children Gallery

Good Children Gallery is proud to present "Lost in the Foundry,"  the works of Dan Alley, Jane Cassidy, Patrick Coll, Weston Lambert, Patch Somerville, and Jenna Turner in an exhibition curated by Good Children Gallery member Srdjan Loncar. The exhibition showcases the diverse practices of these emerging artists (all stemming form the Tulane MFA program), whose work is arranged in in juxtaposition, creating new narratives, in the space of the gallery. ​

The opening reception will be Saturday, March 14, from 6-10pm. Good Children Gallery is located at 4037 St. Claude Avenue.

Art Therapy: photos from Jeffrey Stenbom's gallery talk

Army veteran Jeffrey Stenbom, center, speaks to visitors about To Those Who Have, a kiln-cast glass, acrylic and vinyl-coated steel cable sculpture, during a tour of his MFA exhibit, “Thank You,” at the Carroll Gallery on Friday (March 6) on the Tulane University uptown campus. Creating art helps Stenbom cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. The show honors soldiers and the sacrifices they make to preserve freedom.

Mary Silva and Emily Acker stand on two of several kiln-cast glass slabs, titled Endless Imprint, scattered throughout the main gallery. The slabs were designed to resemble the base of traditional toy soldiers. Bootprints on the slabs were made from Stenbom’s combat boots and from the boots of fellow soldiers. Visitors are encouraged to stand on the slabs.

Everlasting Impact, also cast from Stenbom’s boots, stands alone in the back right gallery. The mirrored display case reflects the boots, multiplying them into the distance.

[photos: Paula Burch-Celentano, Tulane New Wave, March 9, 2015]

Tulane Art History Summer Classes in Paris

4-WEEK PROGRAM: JULY 11 – AUGUST 9

ARHS 3911 (3 CREDITS)

IMPRESSIONISM IN PARIS MUSEUMS

PROF. MICHELLE FOA

Paris is the best place in the world to learn about Impressionism!  Not only do the city’s museums have the largest and best collections of Impressionist works, but we’ll be able to see first-hand the many sites that the Impressionists depicted in their images.  In this class, we will explore the work and careers of central figures in the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movement such as Degas, Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, and others, by studying their works in person in museum collections and special exhibitions throughout the city.  Some of the museums that we will visit are the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de l’Orangerie, and the Musée Marmottan Monet.  We will also take a trip to see Monet’s beautiful house, gardens, and water lily pond in Giverny.

ARHS 3913 (3 CREDITS)

ART, MONTMARTRE, AND THE PLEASURES OF PARIS

PROF. MICHELLE FOA

In this class, we will explore the various forms of pleasure and entertainment that were an essential part of Paris’s identity in the later 19^th century, and we’ll analyze different painters’ and writers’ representations of these Parisian pleasures.  We’ll pay particular attention to the world of Montmartre, a center of the city’s pleasure industry and its modern art scene.  From Baudelaire’s writings about Parisian prostitutes to Toulouse-Lautrec’s many pictures of Montmartre’s dance halls, we’ll study the work of some of the key artists of the period and visit some of the entertainment sites and activities that they featured in the work, such as Montmartre cabarets and the beautiful Garnier Opera House.  Other leisure and entertainment venues that we’ll visit are the Eiffel Tower and Paris’s 19^th-century department stores and shopping arcades.  By the end of the class, we’ll see why Paris was thought of as the European pleasure capital of the 19^th century!

• Both classes are taught entirely in English and no art history background is required.
• Program-wide excursions include a 4-day trip through Northern France, a visit to a palace outside of Paris, and a nighttime dinner cruise down the Seine River.

If you have any questions about these classes or the Paris summer program, please feel welcome to contact 

Prof. Michelle Foa (mfoa@tulane.edu) or Joseph Michel in the study abroad office (jmichel4@tulane.edu).

Art and Feminism

In honor of Women's History Month and the ArtAndFeminism Wikipedia Project, the Newcomb Archives & Vorhoff Library Special Collections of the Newcomb College Institute organized and hosted its first Women in the Arts edit-a-thon on March 8, 2015. 

Articles were created and improved for several notable artists of the Gulf South, among them many of our prominent alumnae and faculty:  May Hyman Lesser (BFA 1947), Mary Given Sheerer (Professor of art, 1894-1931), Florestine Perrault Collins, Joanna Harcourt-Smith,  Lynda Benglis (BFA 1964),  Sadie Irvine (NC 1906) Angela Gregory (BA, Design 1925), Caroline Durieux (BA Design 1916), Tee Corinne, Mignon Faget (BFA 1955), Women's Caucus for Art, Newcomb Pottery, Ida Kohlmeyer (BA 1933, MFA 1956), Elizabeth Catlett, and The Boswell Sisters.

[Vase by Mary G. Sheerer and Joseph Meyer, Newcomb Pottery, New Orleans, c. 1895-1897, glazed earthenware - De Young Museum - DSC00762]

Tempted? Summer in Dublin

for more information visit: http://www.tulanesummerindublin.com

Holly Flora named a Villa i Tatti fellow for 2015/2016

Villa i Tatti, Giardino all'Italiana

The Harvard University Center of Italian Renaissance Studies announced that Holly Flora, Associate Professor of Art History at the Newcomb Art Department, was appointed a Villa i Tatti fellow for the academic year 2015-2016.

Fifteen I Tatti Fellowships, each for twelve months, are available each academic year for post-doctoral research in any aspect of the Italian Renaissance. 

Dr. Flora will be continuing her research on Cimabue, the Franciscans, and artistic change at the dawn of the Renaissance.

NOLA.COM: Artist-combat veteran Jeffrey Stenbom uses ghostly sculpture to cope with PTSD

By Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on March 03, 2015 at 3:08 PM

Artist-combat veteran Jeffrey Stenbom's exhibit of ghostly glass sculpture titled "Thank You" is well worth a trip to the off-the-beaten-path Carroll Gallery on the Willow Street side of the Tulane University campus.

Stenbom, who was a combat soldier during the Iraq War, said that for him, producing sculpture is key to coping with posttraumatic stress disorder.

"More than talking in a group or something or taking medication, making artwork's been my therapy," he said. In short, he said, "art saved my life."

 read more + video and slideshow on NOLA.com

Tulane students lead drawing workshop for kids at SoFAB

From 12:00-1:30pm on Saturday, March 7th, students from the Sequential Art course in the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane University will be leading a free drawing workshop for kids 7-14 years of age at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. 

During the program, Tulane students will lead exercises for kids that help create action and narrative in their drawings.  How do you show time passing in multiple images?  How do you draw milk spilling or dragons flying or fish jumping?  Feel free to come tell your own story and learn story-telling techniques used by comic artists, cartoonists, film-makers and more.  Join us for a free Saturday of drawing and fun. This event is also sponsored by the Tulane Center for Public Service.

RSVP to Aaron Collier at acollier@tulane.edu, "RSVP Sequential Art Workshop" in the subject line.

Saturday, March 7

Southern Food and Beverage Museum

(1504 Oretha C. Haley Blvd. New Orleans)

Free Admission

12:00-1:30PM

Summer 2015: Museums, Galleries, and the Art World in New York City

In New York, Tulane professors Holly Flora and Michael Plante will accompany the students and guide some of the visits. Whenever possible, students will be introduced to curators, dealers, and gallerists, particularly those with connections to Tulane. Some possibilities are Julie Saul, an alum who owns and directs a photography gallery; Helen C. Evans, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum; Sanford Heller, a private art dealer and consultant; Douglas Crimp, an art historian; Joyce Menschel, a collector and philanthropist.

Dates: June 8 – July 2, 2015

Pre-req: Sophomore standing

Application Deadline: March 30; 

registration is on a first-come basis

Program Cost: $6,000 - includes travel to New York City

Courses:

ARHS 3980: The New York School

Professor Michael Plante

Following World War II, New York supplanted Paris as the center of the international art 

market. Alongside this development, New York also emerged as a major center of artistic 

production. This course will explore the 

developments in the visual arts in New York since 1945. We will concentrate upon the 

social-historical formations of artistic development, beginning with European emigrés arriving in New York during the war years, and including movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Dada (Johns and Rauschenberg), Color Field abstraction, Pop art, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. Special emphasis will be given to objects that are housed in New York-area 

collections.

ARHS 3920: Medieval and Early Modern Art 

in New York Collections

Professor Holly Flora

This course will examine paintings, sculpture, 

architecture, mosaics, tapestries, metalwork, ivories, and stained glass windows of the late Middle Ages and early modern period in Europe and the Mediterranean ca. 500-1000 CE, with a focus on objects in the collections of the 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters, the Pierpont Morgan Library, and the Frick Collection in New York. Students will gain an understanding of the history of collecting and exhibiting art from this period and be able to reflect on and write critically about current issues of curatorial practice, museum education, and the politics of display surrounding the current presentation of these works in New York institutions. In New York, students will meet curators, conservators, and educators from these institutions, gaining an understanding of the inner workings of major arts centers.

For registration information contact Tinesse Connell, tconnell@tulane.edu or if you have questions, 

contact Professors Plante (mdplante@tulane.edu) or Flora (hflora@tulane.edu).

download brochure

Aficionado

[photo by Ryan Rivet, Tulane New Wave, March 2, 2015]

Coco Zhang, a sophomore at Tulane University majoring in art history, takes time between classes to view the Newcomb Art Gallery exhibit featuring the work of Edgar Degas.

The exhibition, “Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist,” runs until May 24 and features drawings, prints and photographs by and relating to Degas. 

The show also features works by friends and contemporaries of the artist, including Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Gustave Moreau, Alfred Stevens and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Jeffrey Stenbom: "Thank You"

The opening reception for Jeffrey Stenbom's MFA Thesis exhibition will be held on Friday, March 6 from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Carroll Gallery in the Woldenberg Art Center.

Coming soon! Society for Photographic Education conference

The 2015 National Society for Photographic Education conference will be held in New Orleans March 12-15 at the Hyatt Regency.

Tulane University is the host institution and faculty and students from the Newcomb Art Department have been contributing countless hours to its production.

Look for MORE info coming soon!

AnnieLaurie Erickson: recent exhibitions

Assistant Professor AnnieLaurie Erickson's series Slow Light addresses the phenomenon of afterimages – the latent imagery that remains on our retinas after we look at the sun or bright objects in the dark.  Using handmade artificial retinas that register the remains of light, she is able to simulate an essentially 'unphotographable' visual experience.

Photographs from this series were shown in two exhibitions this month. Artifact,  Ohio University’s Biennial Photography exhibition, was curated by juror Judy Natal. Radical Color was curated by Jon Feinstein at Newspace Center for Photography. The exhibition may also be viewed online at the Humble Arts Foundation.