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.
Kristin Schwain to Keynote Art History Symposium at UA
Dr. Kristin Schwain, Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Missouri, will give the keynote address at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History at UA on March 3, 2017. Schwain's talk at 3:45 p.m. is titled, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club.” The symposium, a shared production of the departments of art and art history at The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will take place this year at the Bryant Conference Center on UA's campus. Schwain will discuss African American artist Samuel Albert Countee (1909-1959), focusing on a mural he painted for the Black Officers' Club at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri in the 1940s. She asserts that the mural is a powerful expression of African American equality and distinctiveness in an era and place marked by racism and segregation. Schwain writes that Countee’s academic style and visual references to Greek democracy and the Christian tradition underscore middle-class values shared by European and African Americans alike, while his choice of specific images in the painting underscore black contributions to American life. Schwain received the PhD from Stanford and is Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She won critical praise for her book Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age from Cornell University Press. Schwain has been guest curator at the Museum of Art and Archaeology, Columbia, Missouri, for several exhibitions including most recently, "Mendive, Chaco, and the Havana Renaissance." Schwain describes her research: "[It] seeks to complicate the story of American modernism by showcasing that the roots of the twentieth-century art world are mired in the complexities of lived experience and visual culture. I do so by examining the roles played by religion, race, region, and consumption in art’s production, display, and reception." Schwain will speak at 3:45 p.m., rounding out a full day of research presentations by graduate students from UA, UAB and from institutions around the country, including George Washington University, Case Western Reserve and the University of Georgia. This year, undergraduate students in art history have been invited to present their research in a poster session. Prizes for Best Paper and Best Poster will be awarded just before the keynote speaker's address. 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). 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. Image credit: Samuel Albert Countee (1909-1959), mural, Black Officers’ Club, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Image courtesy of Kristin A. Schwain.
Black is Beautiful Exhibition Places “People of Color at Center Stage”
“In a world dominated by white protagonists, we’re placing people of color at center stage,” said Tanesha Childs, a senior majoring in photography. TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (from UA's College of Arts & Sciences) — University of Alabama students have curated an art exhibition that responds to stereotypical portrayals of African-Americans. The exhibit, titled “Black is Beautiful,” opens Friday, March 4 at the Paul R. Jones Gallery of Art in downtown Tuscaloosa and will be on display until April 29. A reception will be held March 4 at the gallery from 5:30–7:30 p.m. Both the reception and the exhibit are free and open to the public. The students curated the exhibit as part of an African-American art class taught by Dr. Wendy Castenell, assistant professor of art history at UA. Upon coming to the University last semester, Castenell immediately incorporated visits and projects involving the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art into her classes. The collection, housed at UA, includes more than 2,100 pieces and is one of the largest collections of African-American art in the world. “Last semester, with the help of Emily Bibb, the collection’s manager, my African-American art class curated an online exhibition of works from the Jones Collection,” Castenell said. “It was only on Blackboard, and only the students registered in the class could see the work, but it was a success.” Bibb was so impressed with the class’s work that in December she offered Castenell’s students the opportunity to curate a live exhibit. “I immediately accepted her offer,” Castenell said, “because it would clearly be an amazing opportunity for the students.” “Black is Beautiful” investigates the various ways that artists have used the black image to counter stereotypical portrayals found throughout popular culture. After looking through the entire Jones Collection, each student chose one piece for the show—making 12 in total. The exhibit will showcase the photography, sculptures and paintings of Elizabeth Catlett, James Van Der Zee, P.H. Polk, Sheila Pree Bright, Floyd Atkins, Joyce Owens, Artis, Ming Smith, Otis G. Sanders and Lori Crawford. “In a world dominated by white protagonists, we’re placing people of color at center stage,” said Tanesha Childs, a senior majoring in photography. Read the original press release here. The Paul R. Jones Gallery honors the late Paul R. Jones who, during his lifetime, amassed one of the largest collections of African-American art in the world. Jones donated more than 2,100 pieces of his collection, now valued at $10.3 million, to UA in 2008. Jones was known as a passionate collector who sought to collect from both well-known and lesser-known artists, a quality which makes his collection distinct. The Paul R. Jones Gallery is located at 2308 6th St. in downtown Tuscaloosa. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the first Friday of every month from noon to 8 p.m. The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team. CONTACT: Courtney Corbridge, communications specialist, College of Arts and Sciences, 205/348-8539, courtney.a.corbridge@ua.edu SOURCE: Wendy Castenell, 205/348-1904, wcastenell@ua.edu
Cassandra Speaks to the University
Bill Dooley, associate professor of art and director of the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art and Emily Bibb, collections manager for The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama, spent a few hours one afternoon recently hanging a new art work, Cassandra by Benjamin Smith, in the foyer of Morgan Hall. An unusual example of a wood block print on paper by Smith, who was born in 1941, the framed piece is 97 inches (8 feet, 1 inch) high and 56 ½ inches (4 feet, 8 inches) wide. Recorded as a block print, on closer inspection, it has been painted over, possibly with printing ink on paper, and then mounted on wood. Smith is an Atlanta area artist whose work Paul R. Jones purchased probably just after Smith created it. The artist went on to teach at the Savannah College of Art and Design, according to Bibb. Paul Jones purchased many works by up-and-coming and unknown artists during his several decades of gatheringone of the largest and most comprehensive collections of 20th-century African American art in the world. Jones gave the collection to the University in 2008, with the stipulation that it be used for education and shared with the community. One of the first things a visitor notices is the scale of the image and its striking presence. Collections manager Emily Bibb said that Smith is known for his exceptionally large and detailed prints. Bibb remarked, "This one in particular is well over life size, and due to the bold lines and strong contrasts of the works, it is very arresting when a viewer first interacts with the work." The work is probably named for the Cassandra of Greek mythology, who was doomed by Apollo to predict the future accurately but never to be believed. Bibb commented that this image of Cassandra "is somewhat of an enigma. Her face doesn’t convey much emotion, and her posture is very straight and still, allowing the viewer to enter a contemplative conversation with the piece, noticing the areas of greater intricacy, the swirling lines of one of her feet, the almost topographical detailing of a hand. She’s a subject that can be returned to again and again, which is wonderful for such a large public space, where people may not have time for a single prolonged examination of the work." Cassandra replaces an oil on canvas portrait of Senator John Tyler Morgan, a six-term U.S. senator for whom Morgan Hall was named. Morgan, who had been a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction, "was notable in two arenas of American politics, foreign policy and race relations." Since the 1960s, Morgan's portrait (painted about 1900) hung inside Morgan Auditorium and later in the front foyer of the building. According to information found in Acumen, the digital platform of W.S. Hoole Special Collections, before that time the painting hung in Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library. The painting was moved in mid December from the foyer of Morgan to W.S. Hoole Special Collections after a discussion between the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English, which is housed in Morgan Hall. The space will become one of periodically rotating exhibitions of works from the Paul R. Jones Collection. When asked why the Morgan portrait was exchanged with a work from the Paul R. Jones collection, Bibb explained that Mr. Jones wanted to ensure that parts of the collection "would be on view for the people of Alabama in perpetuity, and that the collection would be used for education. Mr. Jones felt that artwork could inspire not only individual emotions, but social interactions and needed conversations about difficult topics. While those conversations can take place in a dedicated space like an art gallery or a controlled environment like a classroom, I hope that bringing Cassandra to Morgan Hall will also allow people to interact with not only the art, but emotions and each other in a more spontaneous and casual fashion. Just please, no touching." Morgan Hall location The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama John Tyler Morgan in the Encyclopedia of Alabama View the photos in a Flickr.com slideshow
SMGA’s Inaugural Fall Exhibition: ‘Joyce J. Scott: Truths and Visions’
Contemporary sculptural works by Joyce J. Scott featuring meticulous beadwork combined with blown glass, molded glass components and found African wooden artifacts will be on display beginning August 27, 2015, at The University of Alabama Sarah Moody Gallery of Art. Scott will also lecture about her art, Wednesday, August 26, at 7:00 p.m. in 205 Gorgas Library. There will be a reception on Thursday, August 27 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the gallery. The curator, Patterson Sims, will lecture on the work of Joyce J. Scott on October 6 in Lloyd Hall 132 at 5:30 p.m. The exhibition will be on display through October 16. Scott’s art practice spans more than forty years, reflecting her African American, feminine and urban identity. She combines beauty and sophisticated craftsmanship with current cultural issues of race, gender and class. Joyce J. Scott is a Baltimore native and earned her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and M.F.A. from the Instituto Allende in Mexico. Her work is in numerous public collections including the Detroit Institute of the Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Philadelphia Museum of Art. Joyce J. Scott: Truths and Visions is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and curated by Patterson Sims, independent curator. For a slide show of the installation in the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, click here. Image credit: "Look Mom, A Doctor!", 2008 by Joyce J. Scott (American, b. 1948), seedbeads, thread, wooden African sculpture, coins, glass. 17 ¾ x 10 x 10 inches. Image courtesy of Goya Contemporary. Funding support for the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art comes from the Department of Art and Art History and the College of Arts and Sciences. Admission to the gallery is free. Hours are Monday through Friday 9:00 – 4:30 p.m., Thursday evenings: 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. The gallery is located at 103 Garland Hall in the heart of the UA campus on Woods Quad. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. Contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/smga/.