Upcoming BGC Events

Aby Warburg’s 'Mnemosyne Atlas': the Story of an Unfinished Project

Claudia Wedepohl will be coming to speak in the Book Arts Seminar Series, Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 on: “Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas’: the Story of an Unfinished Project.” Dr. Wedepohl is currently Archivist at The Warburg Institute in London, a position she has held since 2006. She received her Ph.D from the University of Hamburg in Art History in 2005 She is the author of In den  glänzenden Reichen des ewigen Himmels:  Cappella del Perdono und Tempietto delle Muse im Herzogspalast von Urbino ( München: Scaneg, 2009) and editor, with Davide Stimilli, of  Warburg’s "Per Monstra ad Sphaeram:" Sternglaube und Bilddeutung: Vortrag in Gedenken an Franz Boll und andere Schriften 1923 bis 1925 (Munich and Hamburg, 2008). She is the author of many articles on Warburg including, most recently, “Wort und Bild: Aby Warburg als Sprachbildner,“ in Peter Kofler (Ed.): Ekstatische Kunst - Besonnenes Wort. "Aby M. Warburg und die Denkraeume der Besonnenheit, and Agitationsmittel für die Bearbeitung der Ungelehrten: &bdquo;Warburgs Reformationsstudien zwischen Kriegsbeobachtung, historisch-kritischer Forschung und Verfolgungswahn,“ in: Gottfried Korff (Ed.), Kasten 117. "Aby Warburg und der Aberglaube im Ersten Weltkrieg."  In this seminar Dr. Wedepohl will analyse three aspects of Aby Warburg’s much discussed Mnemosyne project, which was conceived in 1924, and left unfinished when the art and cultural historian died on 26 October 1929: its ideological origin, its genesis, and its aims. The picture-atlas – Warburg’s opus magnum – has often been misunderstood as a purely ‘visual’ product: as self-explaining constellations of images, arranged in an almost artistic fashion. Yet, the well-known picture-boards owe their design to the preliminary status of the project, and Warburg was determined to publish a substantial commentary. Of the envisaged accompanying texts only a drafted introduction to the atlas has come down to us. Other explanations and statements can be gleaned from dispersed records, in which Warburg addresses certain aspects of the project or formulates his notions about the psychology of human perception (in Warburg’s terms “orientation”) and expression in general. Among the sources for interpreting the picture-atlas are hundreds of folio sheets with notes: keywords or highly condensed aphorisms in Warburg’s characteristic, idiosyncratic shorthand. She shall use these mostly unpublished writings in order to shed some light on the little-researched period of conceiving the atlas, intended as both a summary of the scholar’s work, and a theoretical base for the earlier case studies. Additionally, the picture-atlas as a didactic medium in its own right, common as an instructional aid around 1900, will be discussed. Finally a case study will demonstrate how Warburg developed his ideas and how he used reproductions of artefacts to highlight his line of thought, which aimed at nothing less than a new cultural theory. For additional information contact Alex Phelan, <a href="/content/structured-data/event_list/All That Glitters">phelan@bgc.bard.edu</a>.

Hydraulic Engineering, Emperorship, and Ecology in 10th and 11th Century China: Evidence from the Visual Arts

Heping Liu will be coming to speak in the Seminar in Comparative Medieval Material Culture (China, Islam, Europe) Wednesday, March 10, 2010, on “Hydraulic Engineering, Emperorship, and Ecology in 10th and 11th Century China: Evidence from the Visual Arts” Heping Liu is associate professor of Asian art history at Wellesley College.  Born in China and among the first post-Cultural Revolution college students, Professor Liu received his B.A. in English in 1982 from Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages (China). He came to the United Stated in 1986 to pursue graduate study in art history, respectively at Southern Methodist University (M.A. 1988), University of California at Berkeley (1988–90), and Yale University (M.A. 1991, M.Phil.1995, Ph.D. 1997). Among his many awards are a graduate assistantship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1987), Starr, Rockefeller, and Ford foundation fellowships and grants from Asian Cultural Council (1989–93), an Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Fellowship (1995), an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (2002), and several Wellesley faculty research grants. Professor Liu’s research focuses on art and society in Northern Song dynasty China (960–1126). His major publications include “The Water-Mill and Northern Song Imperial Patronage of Art, Commerce, and Science” in Art Bulletin (2002), “Empress Liu’s Icon of Maitreya: Portraiture and Privacy at the Early Song Court” in Artibus Asiae (2003), and “Juecheng: An Indian Buddhist Monk Painter in Early 11th-Century Chinese Court” in Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology (2007). He is currently working on a book project entitled, “Painting and Empire in Early Song Dynasty China, 960-1063." Dr. Liu will speak about Hydraulic Engineering, Emperorship, and Ecology in 10th and 11th Century China: Evidence from the Visual Arts. Tenth and eleventh-century China saw a “revolution in science and technology” through a systematic experimental investigation of nature or exploitation of natural resources. The main driving force was the government. The emperor and his court officials defined which technology was emblematic of imperial power and which resources commanded state control and enhanced its image and prestige. Hydraulic engineering was such an imperial technology employed to align political and economic interests, as in the utilization of water resources, flood control, and other imperial hydraulic projects. Such exploitation raised environmental concerns. This seminar talk examines the contemporary political and scientific discourse and surviving evidence of court-sponsored pictures of water mills, flood control, hydraulic astronomical clocks, and landscape and explores how all things were interrelated and produced as representations of emperorship in service to the public good.  Please join us in the Lecture Hall at 38 West 86th Street, between Columbus Ave and Central Park West, at 5:45pm for a reception before the talk. For additional information contact Alex Phelan, <a href="mailto:phelan@bgc.bard.edu">phelan@bgc.bard.edu</a>.

Writing the History of Polish Jews: the Case of Emanuel Ringelblum

Samuel D. Kassow will be coming to speak to the Seminar in Cultural History Wednesday, March 17, 2010, on “Writing the History of Polish Jews: the Case of Emanuel Ringelblum.” Dr. Kassow is the Charles Northam Professor of History at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, where he has taught in the History Department since 1972. He received his B.A. (cum laude) from Trinity College, M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is also the Adjunct Professor of Jewish History at the University of Connecticut and has taught as a Visiting Professor at Princeton University, Wesleyan University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Moscow Humanities University in Russia and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Kassow has published four books: Who will Write our History: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oyneg Shabes Archive (Indiana University Press, 2007); The Distinctive Life of East European Jewry (YIVO, 2004); Between Tsar and People: the Search for a Public Identity in Tsarist Russia, edited with Edith Clowes and James West (Princeton University Press, 1991); and Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia: 1884-1917 (University of California Press, 1989). He is currently working on, Two Jewish Cities: Vilna and Warsaw, to be published with Indiana University Press. Dr. Kassow will be talking about his most recently published book project on Emanuel Ringelblum. In interwar Poland Jewish historians such as Emanuel Ringelblum saw themselves as both scholars and fighters. On the one hand these historians - barred from academic careers in Polish universities - organized a "counterprofession" that imposed high scholarly standards and rigorous peer review. On the other hand they also saw their scholarship as a weapon against anti-Semitic slanders and as a catalyst to fashion a new secular Jewish identity. One way of overcoming the natural tension between scholarship and cultural politics was to introduce new agendas that were professionally challenging but that also held out the promise of transforming popular perceptions of Jewish identity. The new agendas included material culture, social history and the conscious decision to shift focus from traditional elites to previously slighted groups such as women and the Jewish poor. This talk will examine how one historian tried to balance sometimes clashing priorities, both in interwar Poland and in the Oyneg Shabes archive in the Warsaw ghetto. Please join us in the Lecture Hall at 38 West 86th Street, between Columbus Ave and Central Park West, at 5:45pm for a brief reception before the talk. For additional information contact Alex Phelan, <a href="mailto:phelan@bgc.bard.edu">phelan@bgc.bard.edu</a>.

What Galileo Saw and How: Glass and its Challenges for 17th Century Telescope Makers

Sara J. Schechner will be coming to speak in The Paul and Irene Hollister Seminar on Glass, Wednesday, February 10, 2010 on: “What Galileo Saw and How: Glass and its Challenges for 17th Century Telescope Makers.” Dr. Schechner is currently the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University, a position she has held since 2000. She received her B.A. and M.A in History and Science from Harvard University, her M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University and her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University. Dr. Schechner has curated many exhibitions, the most recent being a permanent exhibit that began in 2007 titled, The Rediscovery of the Mind: Harvard and the Cognitive Revolution, at Harvard University. She has received numerous awards and honors including the Joseph H. Hazen Education Prize from the History of Science Society in 2008 and First Place in the International Design Awards in 2007 for her exhibit titled, Time, Life, & Matter. Dr. Schechner is the author of many articles, essays and books including Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology (Princeton University Press, 1997) and she is currently working on Sundials and Time Finding Instruments, vols. 3 and 4 of Historic Scientific Instruments of the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, with Bruce Chandler, to be published in 2010 or 2011. The invention of the telescope announced in The Hague in September 1608 caused excitement throughout Europe. By April 1609, low-power (3x) spyglasses were for sale in Paris, and by June or July, Galileo had made his first three-power instrument. In August, he offered the Venetian Senate an eight-power telescope, and by October or November, Galileo completed a twenty-power instrument. It was at this time that he turned the telescope skyward. His discoveries were stunning! His findings, published in haste in the Starry Messenger in March 1610, opened up the European skies to telescopic observations and whole new areas of astronomical research. Why were some hesitant to accept Galileo’s discoveries or unable to replicate what he saw? Why did telescope magnification seem to stall at about thirty-power? The answers can be found through a better understanding of material culture. Acceptance of the telescope as a tool of scientific discovery and improvements to the instrument were limited by the quality of the glass; the methods of shaping, grinding, and polishing lenses; the difficulties in mounting the lenses and tubes; the field of view through the instrument; and optical aberrations caused by the shape of the glass. When we consider the challenges presented by glass instruments, Galileo’s achievements 400 years ago are even more remarkable. Hands-on activities will be included. Please join us in the Lecture Hall at 38 West 86th Street, between Columbus Ave and Central Park West at 5:45pm for a light reception before the talk. For additional information contact Alex Phelan, <a href="mailto:phelan@bgc.bard.edu">phelan@bgc.bard.edu</a>. The Paul and Irene Hollister Lectures on Glass are made possible through a generous endowment from Irene Hollister in memory of her late husband Paul.

Public and Private in the Art Patronage of Madame de Pompadour

Alden R. Gordon will be coming to speak in the Françoise and Georges Selz Lectures on 18th- and 19th-Century French Decorative Arts and Culture, Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 on: “Public and Private in the Art Patronage of Madame Pompadour.” Dr. Gordon is currently the Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of Art History at Trinity College, a position he has held since 1995. He is also a Professor of Fine Arts, since 1991, at the same institution. He received his B.A. from Trinity College and both his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. From 1983 to 1990 he was the Chargé de Mission au Département des Peintures at the Musee du Louvre. Professor Gordon is the author of many publications including: The Houses and Collections of the Marquis de Marigny et de Menars, Getty Research Institute Press, 2003; “The System Governing Appraised Value in Ancien Régime France,” in Adriana Turpin and Laura Bolick eds., Agents, Auctions and Dealers: The European Art Market 1660-1860, Oxford and London, 2007; and “Subverting the ‘Secret’ of Herculaneum: Archaeological Espionage in the Kingdom of Naples,” in Antiquity Recovered: The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum, eds. Jon Seydl and Victoria Coates, Getty Research Institute Press, 2007.  Dr. Gordon has received numerous awards and fellowships. Most recently, he was on the Comité d’études at the Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles from 2005 to 2008 and the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery in 2005. The precise and differentiated use of works of art in “public” settings at the French court versus in “private” settings in intimate houses is very little understood and is owing to a lack of primary research into the actual locations where works of art were displayed. In particular, Madame de Pompadour’s role as an art patron and as maîtresse en tître – officially recognized mistress of Louis XV – has been gravely distorted by uninformed assumptions that all of the works of art she owned and all of the portraits of her were well known during her lifetime. This lecture describes how, where and why Madame de Pompadour used works of art differently at her court apartments and in her private houses, notably the château de Bellevue. Please join us in the Lecture Hall at 38 West 86th Street, between Columbus Ave and Central Park West, at 5:45pm for a light reception before the talk. For additional information contact Alex Phelan, <a href="mailto:phelan@bgc.bard.edu">phelan@bgc.bard.edu</a>. The Françoise and Georges Selz Lectures in 18th- and 19th-Century French Decorative Arts and Culture are made possible through a generous endowment from Bernard and Lisa Selz.

Open House for Seniors

Seniors are cordially invited to experience our exhibitions in the welcoming environment of our townhouse galleries. Join us for special guided tours, conversation with educators, previews of upcoming gallery programs, and refreshments. Advance registration is required, and capacity is limited. Tours will be given every half hour beginning at 10:30 a.m. Please indicate your preferred tour time when registering. We can accommodate individuals, and groups of up to 15. Groups of 16 or more will bescheduled for a complimentary guided tour on a separate day.   Registration is required to guarantee admission. To register, please call 212.501.3010 or e-mail <a href="mailto:tours@bgc.bard.edu">tours@bgc.bard.edu</a>

Needling: Embroidery and Satire in the Hands of the Saint-Aubins

Melissa Hyde will be coming to speak at the Françoise and Georges Selz Lecture on 18th- and 19th-Century French Decorative Arts and Culture Wednesday, February 16, 2011, on “Needling: Embroidery and Satire in the Hands of the Saint-Aubins.”

Melissa Hyde is an associate professor at the University of Florida and an affiliated faculty member at the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research and the Center for European Studies. She received her B. A. cum laude from Colorado College, Colorado Springs, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She has also taught at Rice University, Houston, and Whittier College, Whittier, CA. Professor Hyde has been an invited fellow at the L’Institut national d’histoire de l’art in Paris, a Clark Fellow at the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute in Williamstown, MA, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Getty Research Institute.

Dr. Hyde is the author of Making up the Rococo: François Boucher and his Critics (2006). With Mark Ledbury, she is the editor of Rethinking Boucher (2006) and, with Jennifer Milam, of Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe (2003). She is the author of articles, book chapters and exhibition catalogue essays including “Troubling Identities and the Agreeable Game of Art: From Pompadour’s Theatrical ‘Breeches’ of Decorum to Drouais’ Portrait of Mme Du Barry en homme,” in Women and Portraits in Early Modern Europe: Gender, Agency, Identity (2008); “Rococo Redux: From Diderot to the Goncourts,” in Rococo: The Continuing Curve (2008); and “Confounding Conventions: Gender Ambiguity and François Boucher’s Painted Pastorals” in Eighteenth-Century Studies (1996).

Professor Hyde’s lecture is entitled “Needling: Embroidery and Satire in the Hands of the Saint-Aubins.” This talk will explore the themes of social satire and self-parody that are to be found in the illicit and uncensored drawings of the Livre de caricatures tant bonnes que mauvaises, a collaborative work produced over several decades of the eighteenth century by the Saint Aubins, a family of artists (and embroiderers). A private, though monumental work comprised of nearly 400 drawings, the Livre engages with a dizzying array of highly topical and often hermetic subjects. This lecture will focus on a few images that satirize “effeminate” men, particularly society men who reputedly practiced embroidery and other forms of needlework. The talk will consider how these images relate to similar thematics in contemporary theater and to broader cultural anxieties about the undue influence of women like Mme de Pompadour – one of the Saint Aubin’s patrons and a favorite target in the Livre de caricatures. Taking into account that the patriarchs of the Saint Aubin family were themselves extremely successful royal embroiderers, this talk will also address some of the ways in which the Livre playfully and self-reflexively parodies the Saint Aubins themselves.

Please RSVP and join us in the Lecture Hall at 38 West 86th Street, between Columbus Ave and Central Park West, at 5:45pm for a reception before the talk.