Associate Professor Lucy Curzon has published the first full-length study of the British group Mass-Observation's engagement with visual culture. Mass-Observation and Visual Culture – Depicting Everyday Lives in Britain (Routledge, 2017) critically analyses the role that visual culture played in the early development of the innovative British anthropological research group founded in 1937. In Curzon's new book, she explores the paintings of Graham Bell and William Coldstream; the photographs of Humphrey Spender (brother of Stephen Spender); the paintings, collages and photographs of Julian Trevelyan; and Humphrey Jennings’ photographs and widely recognized Mass-Observation film, Spare Time, among other sources. Her research positions these works as key sources of information with regard to illuminating the complex character of British identity during the Depression era. Curzon is associate professor of art history in the UA Department of Art and Art History. Her research focuses on issues of identity politics as they concern the production of visual culture in twentieth-century Britain. She has previously published work on LGBTQ+ portraiture, as well as articles or chapters on the Ashington Group and Humphrey Spender’s photographs of Blackpool in the 1930s. She regularly presents her work at national and international conferences. She received the PhD in Visual Culture Studies from the University of Rochester in 2006 and holds a doctoral certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies. In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Curzon has organized numerous exhibitions showcasing the work of both regional and nationally recognized artists. She serves as Director of Graduate Studies for Art History and is editor-in-chief of FutureForward, the journal of Integrative Teaching International. For more information about The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History degree programs, go to our website.
Art and Art History Students Present Research at URCA
FLIGHT SIMULATION Senior BFA major Kalypso Homan made a head-spinning presentation at the recent Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference held at UA. Art history majors Nadia DelMedico, Sommer Hallquist and art history minor Reed O’Mara presented their research in posters during a session held in the Heritage Ballroom at Ferguson Student Center on UA campus. Homan explained how her dizzying idea was brought to life: “The aim of this project is to use a HTC Vive headset to bring the viewer on a 3D time-based immersive virtual reality experience. With our research we are exploring the possibility for a realistic flight simulation from the point of view of a bird. This simulation takes the form of a predatory chase. The player will enter the role of the prey fleeing a supernatural force, the goal being to add a sense of speed, urgency and fear to the simulation. The entire experience should be so intense that the player might suspend disbelief for long enough to believe that they are flying, or even flying for their life.” ART HISTORY RESEARCH POSTERS Junior art history major Nadia DelMedico presented original research into extant slave dwellings on the antebellum UA campus. Her poster titled, “Too Close to Home: The History of Slavery on the University of Alabama Campus,” was selected as the third place winner in the Arts & Humanities category of the URCA poster sessions. DelMedico’s poster also won second place in the Harrison Awards for Excellence in Research at the Undergraduate Poster Presentation during the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History at UA’s Bryant Conference Center. Other presenters at the URCA poster session included senior double major in art history and anthropology Sommer Hallquist. Hallquist's poster was titled "Images of Antichrist within Bible moralisée Codex Vindobonensis 2554, Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek." Economics and German major Reed O'Mara presented her art history research poster, "Getting Ahead: The Roles of Headless Saints in the Contest for Coronation Site."
22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History
About the 2017 Symposium Photos: Flickr.com | Facebook.com 2017 Graduate Student Presentations and Keynote Speaker Ariana Panbechi, George Washington University, “Projections of Prestige: Aristocratic Portraiture of Qajar Iran” Isabel Lee-Rosson, University of North Texas, “American Diplomacy and Lebanese Art, ca. 1970: Contextualizing Paul Guiragossian’s Exhibitions in the United States” Mariana Gómez, University of South Florida, “Safe Conduct Pass (Paiza): Apotropaia and Human Representation in Islamic Art” Erin Hein, Case Western Reserve University, “Uncovering Roman Activity at the Aquae Apollinares through The Vicarello Goblet” Margaret Hankel, University of Georgia, “The Photographer as Author: Albert Renger-Patzsch and Die Welt ist schön” Rebecca Teague, The University of Alabama, “Nanni di Banco’s St Luke as a Statement Against Albizzi Control” Kelby M. Cox, The University of Alabama, “Stitching Agency: Enslaved African American Quiltmaking and the Prejudicial South” Carmen Gonzalez Fraile, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Photographs of the Children’s March and Their Afterlives” Allison Springer, The University of Alabama, “Commemorating Freedom with Spectacles of Race: Abolitionist Propaganda during the American Civil War” Keynote Lecture: Dr. Kristin Schwain, University of Missouri, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club” Undergraduate Poster Sessions Alea Bondarenko, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “The Queen’s Stepwell at Patan, Gujarat” Nadia DelMedico, The University of Alabama, “Too Close to Home: The History of Slavery on The University of Alabama’s Campus” Sarah Faulkner, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “The Crux of Cultural Crossroads: Indigenous Elements in the Mahabat Maqbara” Sommer Hallquist, The University of Alabama, “Images of Antichrist within Bible moralisée Codex Vindobonensis 2554, Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek” Riley E. B. Kliethermes, University of Tennessee, “Artemisia Gentileschi: Criticisms of the Feminist Perspective” Victoria Klouda, University of Tennessee, “The Luttrell Psalter: Medieval Marginalia and Viewer Visual Literacy” Reed O’Mara, The University of Alabama, “Getting Ahead: The Roles of Headless Saints in the Contest for Coronation Site” Rachel Polaniec, Case Western Reserve University, “To Engage, Educate, and Entertain: Living History Museums and the Visitor Experience” Chandler Roberts, Marian University, “The Uncreated Image: The Omission of Authentic Birth in Art” Jessica Shieh, The University of Alabama, “The Lasting Significance of Springtime: Julian Onderdonk’s Dynamic Legacy as an American Impressionist” More about the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History Program for the 2017 symposium: PDF | Issuu.com Past Symposia
UA Art and Art History Hosts 22nd Graduate Symposium
Graduate students from UA and around the country will present their research at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History at The University of Alabama on March 3, 2017. Art history grad students from UA, UAB and from institutions including George Washington University, Case Western Reserve and the University of Georgia, will present papers at UA's Bryant Conference Center. In addition, this year, undergraduate students in art history have been invited to present research in a poster session. After prizes for Best Paper and Best Poster are awarded, Dr. Kristin Schwain, Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Missouri, will give the keynote address at 3:45 p.m. Schwain's talk is titled, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club.” This year’s symposium is generously supported by the College of Continuing Studies; Robert Olin, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Tricia McElroy, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Roger Sidje, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; The University of Alabama Graduate School; The Kirby Endowment (Department of Art and Art History), the Department of American Studies, and Harrison Galleries LLC. Download this year's program here (PDF). Issuu.com version here. Photos: Flickr.com | Facebook.com | List of presenters and award winners Now in its 22nd year, the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History provides a forum for the presentation of graduate student research drawn from all areas of art history. The symposium also features a keynote lecture by a leading scholar of art history. Previous speakers have included Paul Barolsky (Italian Renaissance art), Allison Kettering (Dutch Baroque art), Michael Yonan (18th-19th century European art), and Graham Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. The symposium alternates campuses each year. The Master of Arts degree in art history is offered jointly by The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The MA degree in art history prepares students for further academic study at the doctoral level or for professional careers in teaching, museums, galleries and other arts-related fields. Students may enroll on either campus and must take at least 6 hours of course work on the other campus. Contact: Dr. Lucy Curzon, Director of Graduate Studies, lcurzon@ua.edu, (205) 348-6458.
Online Catalog Features UA Art Resources
Image Resource Center student assistant Delilah Marshall recently catalogued her 915th item in The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History's online catalog at LibraryThing.com, a crowd-sourced organizational tool. Marshall has spent the last two years building an online catalog to make departmental educational resources more accessible to art and art history faculty and students. Along with research and image search services, the Image Resource Center offers DVDs and videos, as well as books and journals to faculty, instructors and grad students in the Department of Art and Art History for check out. Undergrads must have a faculty or instructor sponsor in order to check out IRC materials. For old-school users, our Excel database of DVD and videos is attached here. To access DVDs, videos, books and journals of the IRC, go to LibraryThing.com, create an account (free) and search through more than 700 titles at our online catalog: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/UA-ImageResources. If you have questions or need help, contact Visual Resources Curator Rachel Dobson, 348-1893 or rachel.dobson@ua.edu.
20th Graduate Symposium in Art History Lecture: Images of Jim Crow
Image Credits
Twentieth Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History Friday, March 6, The University of Alabama Sessions 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Ferguson Student Center, Anderson Society Room 313 Keynote Lecture 3:30 p.m., Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library 205 The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased announce its Twentieth Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History on March 6, 2015. The symposium will feature seven graduate student speakers from the Joint Program for the M.A. in Art History of UA and UAB and from around the region. They will present their research in the Anderson Society Room of the Ferguson Center from 9-3 (see schedule below). In conjunction with the symposium, the Department has invited keynote speaker Barbara Mooney, associate professor of American art and architecture at the University of Iowa and a leading scholar in race and architecture, as well as a distinguished teacher. Dr. Mooney will present "From Jumping Jack to Jump Jim Crow: The Origins of a Pernicious Southern Stereotype?" on the origins and evolution of racist imagery at 3:30 in Gorgas Library 205 with a reception following. Mooney is the author of Prodigy Houses of Virginia: Architecture and the Native Elite (University of Virginia Press, 2008). The public is invited to attend the sessions and the keynote lecture. The 2015 symposium is generously supported by the UA Department of Art and Art History, the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School, the Department of American Studies and Harrison Galleries, Tuscaloosa. Barbara Mooney’s keynote lecture has received funding from the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, Associate Dean Roger Sidje and the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama. The Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History, sponsored and shared by the departments of art and art history at The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama at Birmingham, alternates campuses each year. The symposium was begun in 1995 by faculty on both campuses to bring their students together to hear and be heard by eminent scholars working in the field of art history. Renowned scholars such as Paul Barolsky in the field of Italian Renaissance art, Allison Kettering in the field of Dutch Baroque art, and young, up-and-coming scholars like Michael Yonan, Krista Thompson, and Graham Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art, have been keynote speakers. The Joint Program for the M.A. in Art History began in 1987 between The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The program combines resources from each school and from their communities to provide a stronger program than either could offer alone. The Joint Program offered the first, and still the only, graduate degree in art history in the state of Alabama. Image credit: Scrapbook image, late 19th century, Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, no. 70x1.7, Winterthur Library, Winterthur, Delaware. For further information, contact Rachel Dobson, communications specialist, 205/348-1893, rachel.dobson@ua.edu. The symposium webpage is here: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/graduate-symposium/ ### Symposium Program 9:00-9:30 coffee: Anderson Room, Ferguson Ctr. (302) Session 1 9:30-11:15 Anderson Society Room (313) Welcome and introductory comments Caitlin Huber (UA) "Reinterpreting Alabama’s Greek Revival: The Battle House and Architecture’s Effect on Religion, Race Relations and Slavery Justification" Celeste Paxton (UAB) "Identity, Territorial Demarcation and Self-Defense at Chaturbhujnath Nala" Shane Harless (Tulane) "The Donna Regina Passion Frescoes: A Portrayal of the Interior Altars of Invisible Women" 11:15 to 11:30 coffee break: Anderson Room (302) Session 2 11:30-12:30: Anderson Society Room (313) Lauren Walter (Florida) "The Ambiguity of the Pink Dress in Later Nineteenth-Century French Painting" Amy Williamson (UAB) "‘The Ladies’ Who Founded MoMA: How Three Female Art Collectors Created One of the World’s Leading Museums" 12:30 to 1:30 lunch: Anderson Room (302) Session 3 1:30-3:00: Anderson Society Room (313) Kelly Allen (UAB) "O’Keeffe’s Skyscraper Series as a Symbol of Power and Social Independence" Rachel Fesperman (FSU) "The Devil Behind: Castrated Sodomy and the Sexuality of Uncanny Violence in Man Ray’s Monument à D.A.F. de Sade" Megan Moore (UA) "The Forgotten Beats: Photographing a Generation" Keynote address 3:30: Gorgas Library 205 Dr. Barbara Burlison Mooney, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Iowa "From Jumping Jack to Jump Jim Crow: The Origins of a Pernicious Southern Stereotype?" Reception following
Rebirth at Bryce
Greek Goddess Gets a Makeover For more than a century, a classically-robed goddess greeted newcomers to the place most recently named Bryce Hospital, promising all who entered youth and health as she poured real water from a ewer she held overhead. Now, Bryce Hospital has moved to its new location at the old Partlow State School, and the goddess and her fellow sculptures are moving as well. This summer, Craig Wedderspoon and Arts Technicians Patrick O’Sullivan and Mike Eddins repaired and repainted the antique zinc statue of Hebe, the Greek Goddess of Youth; a six-sided cast iron aquarium and fountain; a horse’s head hitching post; and a cast iron stable boy statue; as well as a few other items. When the renovation process is completed, the refurbished statues will be re-erected in a garden on the new Bryce Hospital’s grounds (old Partlow). The History of Hebe According to Associate Professor emeritus Robert Mellown, the mass-produced statues were brought in by Dr. Peter Bryce to decorate Bryce grounds around the late 1880s or early 1890s. Made by J. W. Fiske, one of the top American large cast-iron producers, the 5-foot-tall statue of Hebe was made from about 72 zinc pieces, molded separately and then stapled together. After more than 130 years, the staples have worn a little thin and her multiple layers of century-old paint weren’t enough to hold her together. To fix her, the renovation crew carefully sandblasted and scraped off layers of paint. They made extensive repairs and will give her several coats of paint before she joins the other pieces in the new Bryce garden. The Aquarium “Elaborate fountains were popular landscape elements at large state asylums during this period.” —Robert Mellown, in his Bryce Hospital Historic Structures Report Another large piece that has been transferred to the new Bryce garden is the cast iron and glass aquarium or fountain. It has a large 4-foot wide hexagonal basin decorated with finely detailed flora and fauna around its brim. Several of those leaves, swans and flowers had been damaged over the decades, but the renovation crew came to the rescue. They made molds from existing pieces to create new ones and gave it all a new coat of paint. “Sambo” - Artifact of Racism Another popular 19th-century cast iron work made by Fiske (and other companies as well) is a statue of an African American stable boy that stood near the main building of Bryce Hospital. Known as “Sambo” then, the work is now viewed as a racist symbol of slavery. Scholars look at it as a valuable cultural artifact to be studied for a deeper understanding of American history. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. recently wrote about the issue of preserving and collecting what he calls “Sambo Art,” so that the art and the attitudes that developed it and made it popular can be studied and written into our history. To read more, click here.
Wegrzynowski juried into “No Dead Artists” in NOLA
Five paintings by Tom Wegrzynowski are part of the 18th Annual No Dead Artists International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art in New Orleans. The exhibition runs from August 27 to September 27 with an opening reception on Saturday, August 30 from 6 to 9 pm. Click here to view images of a recent exhibition of Wegrzynowski's work on UA campus. Wegrzynowski received his MFA in painting from The University of Alabama and has been a full-time instructor with the UA Department of Art and Art History since 2006.
ROBERT MELLOWN “WEBLIOGRAPHY”
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Dr. Robert Mellown is our resident expert on historic architecture on UA campus and in Tuscaloosa, as well as historic structures in Alabama and beyond. He is the author of The University of Alabama: A Guide to the Campus and Its Architecture, and contributed to The University of Alabama - A Pictorial History by Suzanne R. Wolfe (UA Press, out of print). He has in depth knowledge of the architectural history of The University of Alabama Rotunda (burned in 1865) and Bryce Hospital. Below is a growing web-based bibliography ("webliography") of Dr. Mellown's writings, research and interviews with him. Some of the publications are linked to full text versions; most of the Alabama Heritage articles are linked to the publisher. More about Dr. Mellown... Articles about the author: College of Arts and Sciences Collegian,"Robert Mellown Uncovers the Story in UA's Architectural History" by Kelli Wright (p. 7), Fall 2012 (download PDF) UA Research Magazine, “Layer Upon Historical Layer,” by Richard LeComte, November 15, 2012 Tuscaloosa News, “Longtime Alabama architecture expert is retiring after 44 years," by Wayne Grayson, April 29, 2012 Select articles by the author: Alabama Heritage, "Where Katie Was Born: Adventures in Provenance" with retired UA art professor James K. McNutt for Art in the South (pp. 53-56) Encyclopedia of Alabama, "Dixon Hall Lewis," 2008 (full essay at link) Encyclopedia of Alabama, "Steamboats in Alabama," 2008 (full essay at link) Alabama Heritage, "Variations on a Capitol Plan," Summer 2005 (pp. 8-17) Alabama Heritage, "Richard Upjohn in Alabama," with Robert Gamble, Spring 2002 (pp. 6-15) Alabama Heritage, “The Extraordinary Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard: F.A.P. Barnard and Early Photography in Alabama,” with Gene Byrd, Spring 2000 (pp. 6-17) Alabama Heritage, “The Alabama Rotunda,” Spring 1997 (pp. 32-37) Alabama Heritage, "William Bullock Inge," for Art in the South, Spring 1995 (pp. 42-44) Alabama Heritage, "Mental Health and Moral Architecture," Spring 1994 (pp. 5-17) Alabama Heritage, “A Stained-glass Tiffany Knight,” Winter 1993 (pp. 44-45) Alabama Heritage, “The Jemison Mansion and Longwood, Antebellum Italianate Villas,” Fall 1992 (pp. 24-35) Author as source of information in an article: Crimson White, “UA’s historic mound steeped in symbolism,” by Jared Downing, December 7, 2011 Crimson White, "University buys Bryce hospital, plans to preserve history,” by Chuck Matula, October 25, 2011 Crimson White, “Rediscovering a Lost Legacy – Students, professors paint picture of University before Civil War razing," by Amanda Sams, August 26, 2010 Tuscaloosa News, "UA likely to approve smokestack demolition," February 4, 2010 UA Dialog, “A Question of Shape: Little Round House,” November 9, 2009 Tuscaloosa News: “Michael E. Palmer's Almanac: Inspiration for structure’s shape dates back centuries,” by Michael Palmer, August 8, 2009