Rising senior Sommer Hallquist, a double major in art history and anthropology with a minor in French, has been setting goals and making plans for an exciting and challenging summer. "One large goal of mine has been to receive an internship position in a museum to gain more practical experience in the field," Hallquist explained. She recently checked that goal off her list when she was offered one of eight highly competitive summer internships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Cloisters Museum in New York. Dr. Jennifer M. Feltman, Assistant Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture said, "This is such great news for her professional development and future in museum studies and art history. She will be also a wonderful ambassador for our department, college and UA." Hallquist has netted several awards and honors lately. She received an Honorable Mention for her poster research project at UA's Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Conference in April. Titled “Images of Antichrist within Bible moralisée Codex Vindo bonensis 2554, Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek,” the poster outlining her research on apocalyptic imagery in a 13th-century illuminated Bible was also recognized in March at the new Undergraduate Poster Session at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History where she won third place for the Harrison Award for Excellence in Research. These awards, as well as her recent study abroad experiences, have come about in part because of the goals Hallquist has set for herself. "I have most definitely been setting goals to accumulate experiences that will be useful to me both in graduate school and hopefully within my career." Last summer Hallquist went on two big adventures. First, she studied at the National University of Ireland, Galway, on the west coast. She took courses in Late Bronze Age and Early Medieval Irish art and in Archaeology in Ireland. “We visited numerous sites on the Burren in County Clare that included wedge and chambered tombs that had been excavated by the professor himself!” Hallquist was also invited, along with two other UA students, to accompany Professor Ian Brown of UA’s anthropology department to participate in excavations in Greece. The program is part of the College of Arts and Sciences' Alabama-Greece Initiative, in which UA professors and students collaborate with their peers at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. Hallquist had worked with Dr. Brown on gravestone iconography in 2015 through UA’s Emerging Scholars Program. That year, she and fellow anthropology major Madeline Anscombe won second place for their gravestone iconography research project in the Emerging Scholars Division of Fine Arts and Humanities at the URCA Conference. Also last summer, Hallquist spent two weeks working on excavations in Vergina, Greece, known for the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. Hallquist elaborated, "The goal of our project was to learn more about the city’s layout, daily life in the time period and the role of the people who lived within the city and used this sanctuary." Hallquist’s days were divided between fieldwork in the morning and early afternoon and laboratory work and scholarly lectures in the evening. Lectures were by the project archaeologists, including one who had been on the original excavations of Philip II’s tomb in the 1970s. As part of her goal of gathering more archaeological experience, Hallquist also has a job as a lab assistant at PanAmerican Consultants in Tuscaloosa, where she is able to work with Woodland, Mississippian and historic period artifacts. Looking ahead to her summer of medieval art at the Met Cloisters in New York, Hallquist is enthusiastic. "I am beyond excited for this incredible experience. I will have the opportunity to conduct my own research project and public presentation incorporating materials from the museum's collections and in conjunction with the museum professionals at the Cloisters." As for the future, Hallquist wants to continue her studies in Early Medieval art, specifically in illuminated manuscripts and so will apply to graduate schools in art history this fall. "I am very drawn to Insular art, so I may focus my attention there, but have yet to set that in stone." Go to our website for more information about UA's Department of Art and Art History's art history and other degree programs. ###
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.
Art History Symposium Announces Two Calls for Proposals
The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama at Birmingham Joint Program for the MA in Art History announces a Call For Paper Proposals and a Call for Poster Proposals for its 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History. The 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History will take place at The University of Alabama, March 3, 2017. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Kristin Schwain, Associate Professor of American Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Missouri. This year two different types of proposals are sought: paper proposals are invited from MA students in all fields of art history and may include completed research as well as works in progress. This year the faculty of the joint program also invite undergraduate art history majors to submit proposals for presentations of senior-level or thesis work in a poster session. More information on each follows below: Paper proposals are invited from MA students in all fields of art history and may include completed research as well as works in progress. Presentations are limited to 20 minutes and will be followed by discussion. Please submit a 250-word abstract and a one-page c.v. on or before Friday, January 20, 2017 (by e-mail) to both: Dr. Lucy Curzon (lcurzon@ua.edu) and Dr. Cathleen Cummings (cathleen@uab.edu). Notification of acceptance will be made by January 30, 2017. Please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Curzon or Dr. Cummings with questions. Undergraduate Poster Session Proposals -- To encourage the work of emerging scholars in the discipline, , to be held during the day of the M.A. Symposium. Proposals should consist of a 250-word abstract regarding the project and be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the student’s advisor or major professor. Please submit completed proposals Friday, January 20, 2017 (by e-mail) to Dr. Tanja Jones (tljones10@as.ua.edu). Notification of acceptance will be made by January 30, 2017. Please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Jones with questions. This year the symposium is hosted by the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama on Friday, March 3, 2017, and will take place on The University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa. For more information, go to this page. For past symposia hosted on the UA campus, go to this page.
Art Students Find Synergy in European Study Abroad
In May, UA instructor of photography and digital media Lee Black and students delved deep into art and the psyche. Black and co-director Dr. Joy Burnham, Professor of Counselor Education, led eleven UA students on a May interim course to Switzerland and Austria titled, “UA in Europe: Finding Meaning - Synergy of Psychology & Art through Mind & Soul.” Describing the course, Burnham said, “This journey into Europe explores the rich history of psychology’s roots while also focusing on art from the same time period.” UA undergraduate and graduate students in art, psychology, counseling, speech and hearing, New College and business did assigned readings, research, art projects and writing, focusing on the theories of Freud, Adler, Jung and Frankl, leaders in the new field of psychology, and their contemporaries in art, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Black and Burnham led their students through museums and historic sites in the two countries and taught courses in digital media and counselor education. In art museums in Vienna, Zurich and Basel, the group viewed works by major artists such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele who were influenced by the new psychological ideas. They also visited sites such as the burial places of Beethoven and Mozart and toured the Mauthausen concentration camp. One of the highlights of the trip was their visit to the Jung Institute, once the home of Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, just outside of Zurich. There they attended a private lecture and were invited into Jung’s study where they met his grandson, who lives there now. Lee Black said she was inspired to be in the place where Jung studied and came up with his influential ideas about the human mind. “I was standing next to his desk where he wrote the Red Book [in which he developed his principal theories of the psyche]," she added, "He had books that were 400 to 500 years old in his library…it was profound.” New College senior SARAH JOHNS is working on her depth study in art therapy, which, she explains, "combines art and psychology - so this study abroad program was perfect for me!" Although apprehensive about traveling overseas, Johns' favorite experience turned out to be an unexpected ride up Mount Pilatus in Lucerne, Switzerland (6,982 feet above sea level). She added, "At the very least, I think I grew in terms of my confidence in my ability to operate independently." Senior BFA major in digital media and photography ALEX GREEN (who minors in art history) said that one of the best things about the trip was being able to see art works in person. “I’d never seen any major artists before this,” he said. His most memorable pieces were by Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali and Claude Monet in the Kunsthaus in Zurich and sculpture by Donald Judd in the Kunstmuseum in Basel. After the group trip, Green was able to stay on a few days and travel to Berlin, where he got to see the famous bust of Nefertiti at the Neues Museum. When he returned to Alabama, he took Art After World War II (ARH 381) with Tom Wegrzynowski during the summer semester (“I loved that class!”) and said that he reabsorbed much of what he had learned in Europe in a different way. When asked how this trip has affected him, Green expressed well the “synergy” of the experience of travel: “Honestly, my perspective on life has changed by being immersed in another culture.” Burnham and Black are working with UA Study Abroad to take another group of students in May of 2017. To find out more about this and other UA study abroad programs, check the Study Abroad “Start” page on the UA Study Abroad website or email studyabroad@ua.edu. Photo captions, top to bottom: 1. Sarah Johns and Megan Goldman in the Secession Building, Vienna. Photo by Lee Black. 2. Lee Black teaches Courtney Potts' a tutorial in Photoshop during their trip. Photo by Joy Burnham. 3. UA students in Vienna, May, 2016, with Dr. Peter Hlebowitsh, Dean of the College of Education at UA. Photo courtesy of Lee Black. 4. Instructor Lee Black in the Leopold Museum in Vienna. Photo courtesy of Lee Black.
Ad QUADratum: The Art & Science of Cathedral Design
Everyone is invited to witness the harmonious intersection of art and mathematics on a grand scale, Friday, November 4, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, on The University of Alabama's main quadrangle. The beauty and grandeur of medieval cathedrals lies not only in their vast scale, but also in their harmonious proportions, created by the use of ancient principles of geometry. On Friday, Nov. 4, students from Dr. Jennifer Feltman’s ARH 461 Gothic Cathedrals and ARH 361 Late Medieval Art History classes will demonstrate how a cathedral plan was laid-out ad quadratum, from the square, using simple tools such as stakes, string and a measuring rod. This exercise will demonstrate how proportions based on the √2 (square root of two) and the Golden Section find practical application in medieval architecture. Join us on the quad for a live demonstration of how art and mathematics work together! (left) Illustration of Notre-Dame of Laon cathedral with superimposed regulator lines showing that the cathedral has golden proportions. PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16305036 The UA Department of Art and Art History provides an innovative, energetic and interdisciplinary learning environment that focuses on academic excellence in the areas of art history and studio art. We provide specialized education for majors and minors in our department, as well as offer general enrichment to students working within the broader context of a university-wide liberal arts curriculum. For more about our programs, visit our website: http://art.ua.edu/. For more information about the Department of Art and Art History’s art history programs, go here:http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/ba-in-art-history-curriculum/
Buddhist Art Scholar to Keynote Graduate Art History Symposium
The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama at Birmingham Joint Program for the M.A. in Art History announces the 21st Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History, Friday, March 4, 2016, 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. The symposium will feature graduate student research presentations and culminate in a keynote lecture by Dr. Susan L. Huntington of The Ohio State University: "The Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence: Shifting Paradigms and Constructions of Knowledge in Buddhist Art," at 4:30 p.m. The symposium will take place at the Abroms // Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, 1221 10th Avenue, South, Birmingham. The symposium is presented by The University of Alabama at Birmingham, College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Art & Art History, in conjunction with The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History. View the complete schedule here: www.uab.edu/art/symposium. 2016 Symposium Schedule 10:00 am – 10:15 a.m. Coffee 10:15 am – 12:00 p.m. Session One 12:45-2:15 p.m. Session Two 2:45-4:00 p.m. Session Three 4:15 p.m. Award for Best Paper 4:30 p.m. Keynote Talk 20th Annual Graduate Student Symposium press release and links
Students Tour West Alabama Architecture
Students in Dr. Rachel Stephens' ARH 477 (Topics in American Art) traveled through several west Alabama towns on a rainy autumn day to study antebellum planter elite architecture firsthand. Their tour included stops at four plantation homes: Magnolia Grove in Greensboro, Gaineswood and Bluff Hall in Demopolis, and the Moore-Webb-Holmes Plantation in Marion. At the Moore-Webb-Holmes Plantation, they viewed original outbuildings and slave quarters that still stand. The students also visited two Episcopal churches - St. John’s-in-the-Prairie in Forkland and St. Andrew's in Prairieville - built from patterns designed by Richard Upjohn. All of the structures are on the National Register of Historic Places. Many thanks to Dr. Stephens for all the photos. (above left): Dr. Rachel Stephens' ARH 477 class at Bluff Hall in Demopolis, Alabama. The students toured several structures around Hale and Marengo counties in the Black Belt as part of their studies. (above middle): ARH 477 students visit Gaineswood plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama. (above right): Dr. Rachel Stephens' ARH 477 class at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Prairieville, Alabama. (above left): Dr. Rachel Stephens' ARH 477 class at the Moore-Webb-Holmes Plantation and out buildings (circa 1819), Folsom, Perry County, Alabama. (above right): Dr. Rachel Stephens with her ARH 477 class doing some intensive architectural history research at the Pie Lab in Greensboro, Alabama. (above left): Students in ARH 477 at the main entrance of Bluff Hall with their tour guide. (above middle): Dr. Rachel Stephens' ARH 477 class at St. John's-in-the-Prairies (1859), Forkland, Alabama. (above right): ARH 477 students on a tour inside Magnolia Grove, at the spiral staircase, in Greensboro, Alabama. [s16] For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History's art history programs, go here: http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/ba-in-art-history-curriculum/ For more Art History Activities photos, go here: http://art.ua.edu/about/current-students/art-history-activities-at-ua/
Summer Internship Frames A New View of the Future
This semi-regular column features the summer learning adventures of our majors. Erin Hein, a senior double major in art history and chemistry, spent two and a half months as an Andrew W. Mellon Summer Intern in the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum’s Conservation Department this summer. Hein is one of our top scholarship recipients, an art ambassador and, along with her double major, has a minor in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative. She plans to graduate in the spring and has been considering further studies in art conservation. This internship helped her learn more about what a career in conservation might be like. As part of her work at the RISD Museum, Hein restored a frame for an artwork scheduled to go out on loan. Through this work, she acquired new skills such as plaster molding and gilding and she developed an appreciation for the artistry and craftsmanship that go into frame making and framing art. And, Hein learned more about herself in the process. We asked her to tell us more about her summer experiences: EH: I learned how to think critically about the care of objects in the collection. We spent time discussing preventative care, such as the storage of different materials. I was also able to use my chemistry background and synthesize my knowledge of polymers with my art history background to do a survey of the plastics in the collection. We were looking at the level of degradation in the plastics and decided on the needs for each piece. I was able to condition report several objects and research the best course of treatment for those objects based on the materials they were made out of, their function within the collection and the courses of treatment available to us. What skills did you learn? Any unusual ones? EH: As for unusual skills, I would definitely say that gilding is one of them. I also learned how to repair frame liners by stitching together fibers of the liner. I was also trained on and utilized a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to look at the surfaces of degrading plastics and identify the type of plastic used. LEFT: A deaccessioned art work magnified under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Looking at the surface of degrading plastic allowed Hein to identify the type of plastic used and decide on the best course of restorative treatment for the piece. RIGHT: During her internship, Hein repaired a frame liner by delicately stitching together its fibers. Has the experience made you want to go into conservation? EH: While I loved working in the Conservation Department this summer and was planning on going to conservation school as a result...Once the summer was over, I realized that the part of my internship that I loved the most was the research of objects that I was working with and building a story around those objects. Because of this I am going to apply to graduate programs in Art History. Blogging for the RISD Museum At the end of her internship, Hein wrote a blog piece about her experience with the restoration process, which the RISD Museum published recently on its website. In the blog, she described in detail how she restored the frame and what she learned about the role of framing art as a result. "...I gained a new appreciation for the construction of this particular art object. The amount of care that must have gone into creating every delicate detail was incredible, especially considering that the frame would inevitably be overshadowed by its contents. With all of the other steps, I could clearly see the progress I was making. But this time my success was measured by how well my additions disappeared.” -- Erin Hein Read more about Erin Hein's experiences in her blog post: http://risdmuseum.org/manual/384_a_new_frame_of_mind. If you are a returning studio art or art history major and you had an interesting summer learning adventure, contact Rachel Dobson at (205) 348-1893 or rachel.dobson@ua.edu to tell your story!
Students Share Inaugural Art History Prize
UA’s art historians hosted the 20th Annual Graduate Symposium in Art History this year. Amy Williamson, UAB ARH graduate student and Shane Harless, grad student from Tulane (and Alabama native) shared the inaugural prize for the Best Paper. This new award, funded by Jim Harrison III, was presented March 6 at the symposium, held annually since 1996 by UA and UAB’s joint program for the MA in Art History. Harless presented his thesis research in the form of a paper titled “The Donna Regina Passion Frescoes: A Portrayal of the Interior Altars of Invisible Women.” Williamson, from UAB, presented "‘The Ladies’ Who Founded MoMA: How Three Female Art Collectors Created One of the World’s Leading Museums." Each year, the joint art history faculty choose a keynote speaker for the culminating presentation of the symposium. This speaker also participates with UA and UAB faculty in discussions at the end of each student presentation. Dr. 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, presented "From Jumping Jack to Jump Jim Crow: The Origins of a Pernicious Southern Stereotype?" on the origins and evolution of racist imagery. Mooney is the author of Prodigy Houses of Virginia: Architecture and the Native Elite (University of Virginia Press, 2008). She presented her ongoing research in an open manner that invited audience ideas on her work as well as giving students insight into her research process. More info about our symposium here: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/graduate-symposium/. [Loupe Spring 2015]