The 20th anniversary of the Arkansas College Art History Symposium will be held Thursday and Friday on UCA campus.
Dr. Christopher Chippindale, a British archaeologist who specializes in prehistoric rock art will kick off the symposium April 8 with his keynote lecture “Stonehenge: 1,000 Years of the World’s Most Famous Ancient Place.” The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Room 143 in McCastlain Art Lecture Hall.
Chippindale will discuss how researchers have looked at Stonehenge since the medieval period all the way up to new discoveries.Chippindale is a research professor in archaeology at the University of Cambridge in England and is the senior assistant curator at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
“UCA is certainly very lucky to have an international scholar of Dr. Chippindale’s stature visit and share his knowledge with our art history students,” said Dr. Reinaldo Morales Jr., an assistant professor of Art History. “My students are very excited about this. Rock art (prehistoric paintings and engravings on rock) is an enigmatic artform that tends to inspire some fanciful speculation about its meaning and function. This is some of the oldest art on earth, and as such is part of a very ancient tradition that is lost to most of us.”
“Dr. Chippindale’s recent work in Australia, among peoples who still make some rock art, has helped to shed light on how these images carry important cultural and personal information–information that for most of the rock art from elsewhere in the world is forever lost,” Morales added.
On April 9, 11 undergraduate students from around the state will present art history research papers ranging in topics from the Renaissance period, Rococo style, 19th and 20th Century art, Arkansas Arts Policy, Ancient Japanese art, Byzantine art and prehistoric African rock art. The presentations will begin at 8:30 a.m. at McCastlain Art Lecture Hall.
A record 21 papers were submitted, but only 11 were chosen. The students are from UCA, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas, Hendrix College and Henderson State University.
This year’s presentations are: Kestin Schulz (Hendrix College), “Bauhaus Beginnings and Application in America;” Mathew Smith (UALR), “Ise: A Study of the Sacred and Profane;” Gabrielle Ray (Henderson State), “The World on the Wall: The Mosaics of Hagia Sophia and San Vitale;” Jessica Day (UCA), “The National Museum of Women in the Arts: How Arkansas Made a Difference;” Janis Stair (UALR), “The Sudarium and Dürer’s Graphic Style;” Robert March (U of A), “North, South, and Personal Style in Jean Pucelle’s ‘Adoration of the Magi’ from The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux;” Héctor Garcia (UCA), “The Heavy Burden: Daumier’s Working-Class Women of Nineteenth-Century France;” Gillian Chastain (UCA), “For the Love of God;” Kathleen Jordan (Hendrix College), “The Absence of Ideas: The Link between Thomas Gainsborough’s Artwork and Edmund Burke’s Philosophy;” Amber Taylor (UALR), “The Symbolic Use of Clothing in Art during the Rococo Period;” and Victoria McKinney (UCA),”Rock Art of the Natal Drakensberg Mountain Range.”
After the presentations, Chippindale will end the day with his lecture, Ancient Autobiographies in Rock Art at 3 p.m. in McCastlain Art Lecture Hall.
All events are free and open to the public.
The Arkansas College Art History Symposium was created by Dr. Gayle Seymour and UALR Art History Professor Dr. Floyd Martin 20 years ago.
“Dr. Floyd Martin and I felt it was important for our students to be recognized for their scholarly achievements and to have a forum to exchange ideas with other students and faculty from around the state,” Seymour said “We still think those opportunities are important today, especially for students going on to graduate study.”
For more information, contact Seymour at (501) 450-3295 or gayles@uca.edu. -Miranda Grubbs
