Feature Article »
By Bangalore Seshadri Rohini Iyengar, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, Art History »
Photo supplied by Bangalore Seshad Iyengar
Research, publication and participation in conferences and symposia are all part of professional practices in art history. In order to inculcate this professional approach right from an under graduate level, the idea of an art history symposium was spearheaded by two farsighted art historians of the state, Gayle Seymour who is Associate Dean and Professor of Art History at UCA and Floyd Martin, Professor Emeritus at UALR. This year on March 9th and 10th the 33rd Annual Arkansas College Art History Symposium was organized by the Department of Art and Design, UCA, which was generously funded by the UCA Foundation. This was the inaugural event at the brand new lecture hall at the Windgate Fine Arts and Performing Arts building.
On March 9th a keynote lecture presentation titled, “Native American Art in the 21st Century Museum” was made by this year’s guest art historian, Dr. Johanna Minich who is a consulting curator of Native American art at the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio. This well attended event addressed some key issues related to curatorial strategies to Indigenous art and artifacts based on case studies at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Minich foregrounded these via her role as a curator in developing special exhibitions, creating permanent galleries, and building online content development using case studies at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. Other key aspects argued during the presentation included ways to avoid stereotypes while displaying Native American arts and the steps taken towards implementation of US Federal law of NAGPRA, or the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1992.
Photo supplied by Bangalore Seshad Iyengar
Beginning at 9 am on following day, March 10th, with a welcome address by Prof. Gayle Seymour, the symposium was all set for an amazing opening for student presentations. Thematic focus of the first session was on history of Western art with the very first paper by Brooke Horton of UCA taking us to the point of its origin, that is, Greek art. In her work titled, “How the Hellenistic Age Captures True Greek Glory”, Ms. Horton discussed exemplary works from Hellenistic era and elucidated how these sculptures exude naturalism of form and expression thereby contributing to Greek aesthetic legacy and glory. This was followed by a very insightful paper on Michelangelo’s interest in the study of internal organs of human body and their structural as well as conceptual use in his compositions. With her paper, “The Artistic Work of Anatomy” Genesis Cruz from University of Ozarks, therefore brought a new understanding about Michelangelo who is popularly known for perfection of human form as it appears externally. As the session moved further through the art historical periods, a paper that was centered on the Baroque era, titled, “Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes: Inside the Baroque Painting and Her Legacy as a Woman Living in 17th Century Rome” was presented by Aneesha Saeed of UALR. Much like the works of Gentileschi, the presentation too aimed to vehemently critique patriarchal culture as reflected in the then art world. Adding to this tone was the next paper on “Mary Cassatt: Revolutionizing the Role of the Woman Artist” by Katelyn Elliott of UCA, who brought some lesser known works of the artist and opened up the modern Western art all over again with fresh perspectives.
With the second session, the focus moved from Western art to non-Western cultures and artistic traditions as well as the issues therein. For instance, Julia McPeake’s (from UALR) paper brought forth post-colonial perspectives in the analysis of domains that house cultural artifacts, such as the museums. Questions about politics and ownership are central to her paper as she approaches these debates via the work of Cheri Samba as stated in the title of her paper: “Cheri Samba’s Réorganisation: Painting the Politics of Art and its Ownership”. Next paper in this round was that of William Whitledge from UALR whose thought-provoking paper was titled: “Beyond the Image: How Korean Art Progressed and Evolved in North and South Korea between 1953 and 1988”. Whitledge provided an insight into the Twentieth Century developments in North and South Korea by comparing and contrasting the representations in the art works to draw upon the political climate of each nation. Continuing the journey through Asia, but this time with a focus on religion was the next paper titled, “Uncovering Ancient Roots: Tracing Origins of Judaism via Ritual Objects and Artifacts since Antiquity” by Ezra Chaviv from UCA. This paper provided fresh perspectives on how icons and polytheistic gods from ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Persia seem to synthesize in the formation of monotheistic Judaism. Presentation included very rich and rare visual materials making it quite engaging. Another paper that shared some of these aspects was by Kelli Ladwig of UA titled, “Full Circle: Dutch East India Company and its Impact on Asian Trade Goods and Dutch Domestic Home Goods”. This presentation effectively brought out the impact of Seventeenth Century Dutch naval trade in Chinese porcelain and Indian chintz. It also examined how products were created exclusively for these markets and how those goods in turn redefined the interiors of Dutch homes.
In the last session the focus was exclusively on women artists. The first one, “Louise Bourgeois: The Art of Fighting Depression,” was a paper by Emily Granderson of UCA. She explored how the artist draws upon the traumatic aspects of her childhood characterized by a troubled relationship with her father and empathy towards her mother in creating her art works.
This was followed by a Payton Bagwell’s (of UCA) presentation titled, “Hannah Höch: The New Woman” featuring a reading about the only woman artist from the Dada movement. One of the aims of the paper was to reclaim her-stories and creative efforts of this artist in the making of this radical art movement. Also in line with this theme was a paper by Emma Chambers of University of Arkansas at Little Rock titled, “Interrupting Space: Belief+Doubt=Sanity”. The paper deals with the analysis of the artist’s work that incorporate her feminist ideology in creating art spaces that engage the viewer to ponder about questions related to socio-cultural and political identities. Lastly, a paper on “Lee Krasner: No Labels Permitted” was by Courtney Wilson from UALR. Her work brought out the challenges faced by Krasner as a woman artist who was overshadowed by her famous husband/ artist Jackson Pollock in a high modernist culture. Altogether, papers of this session reiterated the strengths of women’s creativity and the continued need for feminist interventions in furthering inclusive practices in writing art histories.
Photo supplied by Bangalore Seshad Iyengar
Soon after the presentations by students concluded, Dr. Joanna Minich gave her expert comments on the papers, which highlighted some key aspects common to the subject choices and the methods of research. In this regard, she rightly observed that a subversive slant was one important shared aspect in most of the papers. She further added that these young researchers have the potential to open new ways and perspectives in art historical approaches.
In addition to these comments, the students also participated in brief discussions related to their works at the end of each session. A brief presentation by the guest art historian on “Untold History: How Indigenous Artists Have Reclaimed Their History Using Comic Books and Graphic Novels” was the final one for the day.
Photo supplied by Bangalore Seshad Iyengar
As a grand finale the student presenters were awarded ‘participation certificates’ by Dr. Minich and were applauded by the attendees including fellow students, faculty mentors and guests who had encouraged them throughout the day.
