Thursday, September 28, 2017

Ivory for Copper: Sculpture between West Africa and France, circa 1300

The Newcomb Art Department presents the 2017 Stern Lecture, "Ivory for Copper: Sculpture between West Africa and France, circa 1300," by Sarah Guérin, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania. The lecture will be held on Monday, October 2 at 6:00pm in Stone Auditorium, 210 Woldenberg Art Center.
 
By focussing on the materials imported into sub-Saharan Africa in the Middle Ages, Ivory for Copper examines the extraordinary long-distance, inter-continental trade routes that link two remarkable yet distant sculptural traditions, those of fourteenth-century Ife in modern Nigeria and Gothic France. Considering the socially-construed values of imported commodities reveals medieval African’s active role in the ‘World System.’
 

Friday, September 15, 2017

Why We Give: Learning Firsthand from the Masters

Through the generous support of Tulane parents Diane and Mark Wladis, Tulane students hoping to pursue careers as art curators now have an exceptional opportunity. They can learn about the profession from leaders in the field who are experts at bringing art in public spaces to life.
In 2013, the Wladis family created The Wladis Seminar on Curatorial Careers, a School of Liberal Arts lecture and seminar series. Its goal was for students to be able to gain perspective on the day-to-day reality of careers in a museum or art gallery.
Their daughter Jackie, who graduated in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in art history, attended the first Wladis lecture, featuring Helen C. Evans—a 1965 Newcomb College graduate and the Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For Mark and Diane, their daughter’s experience at Tulane, where she developed her passion for fine arts, inspired their generosity to the university.
“For Jackie, the opportunity to learn firsthand from a curator from the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a particularly unique opportunity that she wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to,” says Mark Wladis. “We hope our gift will give other art history students the opportunity to learn from and meet leaders in their field.”
The Wladises have long been involved with Tulane. Both Diane and Mark served on the Parents Council while Jackie was a student, and Mark currently sits on the School of Liberal Arts Dean’s Advisory Council. “When your child leaves for college,” says Diane, “it is a time for independence for them. You hope you have given them the necessary tools and it’s now up to them to forge their way. By supporting the school, it is an ideal way to stay connected and continue to support their community without getting in their way. You have your finger on the pulse of their new world without interference. You are involved in a way that is separate and yet still elevates their experience.”
The gift made by the Wladis family also demonstrates their strong support for a liberal arts education. According to Mark, “The complex world that our children will be confronting requires critical thinking, cultural sensitivity, and the diverse perspectives that a grounded liberal arts education provides. The broad skill set that a liberal arts education cultivates makes for the most successful and adaptable professionals in any career.”

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Friday Nights at NOMA: Artist Perspective with Teresa Cole

Friday, September 15 at 6pm, Professor Teresa Cole will discuss her work as a printmaker in conjunction with the New Orleans Museum of Art's exhibition Jim Steg: New Work. This Artist Perspective lecture is part of a full evening of events at NOMA.
For more information see:  https://noma.org/event/friday-nights-noma-music-smoke-n-bones-artist-perspective-teresa-cole/

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Tulane/Newcomb artists featured in New American Paintings

The most recent edition of New American Paintings features the work of Ronna S. Harris, Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing. Harris works in oils and soft pastels, playing with light and its affect on color. Her paintings communicate a state of controlled chaos as she combines two divergent forces and approaches: realism and abstract expression. By a proficient handling of light, a mastery of images, and a skillful mark making method, the paintings confer an illusion of reality to something that's not real. The end result is a spatial between magic and illusion rooted in the American Realist tradition.

Issue 130 of New American Paintings also features the work of two Tulane/Newcomb alumnae, Maysey Craddock (BA 1993) and Anastasia Pelias (BFA 1981).