Arts and Humanities Commons^™

'The Rhythm Of Our Time Is Jazz': Popular Entertainment During The Weimar Republic, Sharon L. Jordan

Publications and Research

“’The Rhythm of Our Time is Jazz’: Popular Entertainment during the Weimar Republic” examines the widespread interest and influential role held by American ragtime and jazz music throughout German culture from the 1910s until World War II. Many artists incorporated minstrel imagery as a potent indicator of their outsider status during this period or used new materials and rhythmic forms inspired by jazz to fully reflect the technological achievements and dynamic environment of the modern metropolis.

Robot Saints, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

In the Middle Ages, articulating religious figures like wooden Deposition crucifixes and ambulatory saints were tools for devotion, techno-mythological objects that distilled the wonders of engineering and holiness. Robots are gestures toward immortality, created in the face of the undeniable fact and experience of the ongoing decay of our fleshy bodies. Both like and unlike human beings, robots and androids occupy a nebulous perceptual realm between life and death, animation and inanimation. Masahiro Mori called this in-between space the “uncanny valley.” In this essay I argue that unlike a modern person apprehending an android (the uncanny human-like object that resides …

On The Origin And Future Of Poetry: Notes Towards An Investigation, Carlos Aguasaco

Publications and Research

An exploration on the historical and material conditions that allowed the emergence of metaphors and poetry alongside language. This article analyzes the historical relation between poetry and technology across history. It discusses the so-called ontological crisis of poetry and opens the conversation on its future.

"Epidermic" And Visceral Works: Lygia Pape And Anna Maria Maiolino, Claudia Calirman

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Embodiment Of The Halaf: Sixth Millennium Figurines From Northern Mesopotamia, Ellen H. Belcher

Publications and Research

This dissertation answers the question, "What are Halaf figurines?" In response to that question, this study examines a corpus of anthropomorphic figurines from archaeological sites dating to the Halaf period (Sixth Millennium cal BCE) known from excavations in Turkey and Syria. Included in this dissertation is a detailed catalog of 197 figurine examples, both whole and fragmented, and analysis of their excavated contexts from seven Halaf sites in Turkey and nine sites in Syria. The study also reviews and discusses existing literature on Halaf and figurine studies and examines and critiques modern biases, assumptions, and influences, especially as related to …

Reading With The Grain: On Vin Nardizzi’S Wooden Os: Shakespeare’S Theatres And England’S Trees, Steven Swarbrick

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Dance In The Museum, Claire Bishop

Publications and Research

This paper argues that the art world’s current fascination for dance follows on from a previous high point of interaction in the late 1960s and 1970s, and before that, a moment in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It traces these first, second and third waves of dance in the museum at three institutions: the Tate in London, and the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Three institutional histories are sketched, drawing out the differences between their approaches. The conclusion presents the four most pressing possibilities/problems of presenting dance in the museum: …

Technology And Wonder In Thirteenth-Century Iberia And Beyond, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

As the desire for affective experiences of the sacred increased in communities across Europe in the late Middle Ages, the Christian faithful crafted lifelike, mechanized figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints for use in religious festivals. Although each devotional culture evidences unique body/object relationships and meanings, in general animated ritual objects encouraged lay participation in the celebration of saints and the Passion by engaging the senses, and, consequently, an emotional sense of God. In this essay I investigate the ritual alliances between moveable, prop-like saints and their Iberian devotees, in particular the performative meanings that arose from encounters …

Preserving The Historic Garden Suburb: Case Studies From London And New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

The garden city or garden suburb was a response to the social and environmental ills of cities at the turn of the twentieth century. Letchworth Garden City, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Welwyn Garden City were built outside London in the early 1900s, and each remains a highly desirable place of residence today. From the start, each was tightly regulated, and remains so a century later. By protecting the appearance and enhancing property values, the strict application of historic preservation principles contribute to the long-term sustainability of each place. Similar garden suburbs were built in the borough of Queens in New …

La Touche Satirique Du Bernin: Dessin Et Caricature Comme Acte Performatif Au Début De L'Époque Modern, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

This short article examines the performative aspects of Gianlorenzo Bernini's caricature production.

On The Social Construction Of Hellenism Cold War Narratives Of Modernity, Development And Democracy For Greece, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

Hellenism is one of those overarching, ever-changing narratives always subject to historical circumstances, intellectual fashions and political needs. Conversely, it is fraught with meaning and conditioning powers, enabling and constraining imagination and practical life. In this essay I tease out the hold that the idea of Hellas has had on post-war Greece and I explore the ways in which the American anti-communist rhetoric and discussions about political and economic stabilization appropriated and rearticulated Hellenism. Central to this history of transformations are the archaeologists; the archaeologists as intellectuals, as producers of culture who, while stepping in and out of their disciplinary …

From Genre To Portrait: The Etymology Of The 'Conversation Piece', Ching-Jung Chen

Publications and Research

During the late 1720s and early 1730s, a new type of portrait painting, called the conversation piece, became fashionable in England. This article will trace the origin and evolution of the term "conversation piece" from its earliest appearance in the English language to the present. First used in English for genre pictures in the Dutch tradition as well as Watteau's fetes galantes, the term was adopted for small-scale group portraits around 1730 when this type of portraiture became popular. Long after the rise of the portrait conversation, the term continued to be used for genre pictures. The use of …

The Socialist Design: Urban Dilemmas In Postwar Europe And The Soviet Union, Elidor Mehilli

Publications and Research

Taking a cue from two books—Stephen Bittner’s account of the “many lives” of the Soviet Thaw and Greg Castillo’s study of the Cold War as a series of battles in design and the domestic sphere—as well as a recent explosion of interest among historians in the Khrushchev era, “spatial history,” material culture, and East–West exchanges, this article addresses the paradoxes of the Thaw as exemplified in urban form. It argues for the interconnected nature of domestic, international, and Eastern bloc- level dynamics by viewing processes of the Thaw simultaneously from the angles of neighborhood, city, and empire. These angles capture …

Delegated Peformance: Outsourcing Authenticity, Claire Bishop

Publications and Research

An essay is presented on delegated performance in which nonprofessionals are hired to perform at a particular time on behalf of the artist on his or her instructions. The author stated that this social turn started since 1990s in contemporary art against the tradition of 1960s and 1970s where artists like Chris Burden, Vito Acconci and Gina Pane performed themselves. The author referred to the trend of live installation started in Europe in 1990s in which guards for exhibition were hired. The Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan assembled a soccer club of foreigners to play local matches in 1991.

The Customer At The Brothel: Student Enlightenment Through ‘Degenerate Art, Cheryl Hogue Smith, Maya Jimenez

Publications and Research

This article explores how community college students learned to engage with art and succeed in a learning community class comprised of first-year composition and art history.

The Cult Of The Monstrous: Caricature, Physiognomy, And Monsters In Early Modern Italy, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

Caricature emerged as a pictorial genre in early modern Italy and became a potent form of social satire practiced by the period’s foremost draftsmen, including the Carracci and Guercino. The deformed and misshapen subjects of caricature drawings coincided with a fascination with monstrosity. Monsters, aberrations, and anomalies reflected a cultural appreciation for the curious. The monster that slowly took shape in scientific literature was first alluded to in comparative physiognomic texts that related man to beast, then made brief appearances in the discourse on medical conditions, and finally became the primary focus of specialty publications. The attention given to physical …

Online Instruction For Art History Research, Ching-Jung Chen, Amrita Dhawan

Publications and Research

At the City College of New York (CCNY), the Art and Architecture Visual Resources Librarian (VR Librarian) teamed up with the Information Literacy Librarian to design an online tutorial for conducting library research in Art History. The tutorial is created using Google Sites and is linked to the College’s Blackboard site for ease of access by students.

Halaf Bead, Pendant And Seal 'Workshops' At Domuztepe: Technological And Reductive Strategies., Ellen H. Belcher

Publications and Research

Almost a thousand beads, pendants and seals have been excavated from the site of Domuztepe over the past decade. This paper is based on an examination of the general typology and technology of this assemblage. Manufacturing systems based upon social networks of decentralised organisation of small production ‘workshops’ are explored. It is suggested that these networks shared a system of sequenced actions according to raw material and finished products. A group of unfinished beads in the preliminary phase of production suggests evidence of batched reduction and finishing strategies that balanced breakage risk with a high level of proficiency. At Domuztepe …

Archaeology Not Much Like Indiana Jones, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Tea Parties In Early Georgian Conversation Pieces, Ching-Jung Chen

Publications and Research

Conversation pieces were produced in large numbers in England from 1730 onward. In contrast to the grand manner of formal portraiture, the conversation piece depicts groups of small full-length figures engaged in conversation, music, tea, or cards within a detailed, naturalistically described landscape or architectural setting. This article examines how tea party conversation pieces, among the most popular subject of the genre, engage contemporary discourses about status. Differences between the actual practices of the tea party and the pictorial representations of it reveal the degree to which these pictures highlight the social standing of those portrayed.

1968/1989: Political Upheaval And Artistic Change, Claire Bishop, Marta Dziewanska

Publications and Research

Anthology of texts proceeding from the conference "1968/1989: Political Upheaval and Artistic Change" held at the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, in 2008.

Donning The Cloak: Safavid Figural Silks And The Display Of Identity, Nazanin Hedayat Munroe

Publications and Research

Introduction

In a red world bathed in shimmering gold light, a man sits with his head in his hand as wild beasts encircle him. He is emaciated, has unkempt hair, and wears only a waistcloth—but he has a dreamy smile on his face. Nearby, a camel bears a palanquin carrying a stately woman, her head tipped to one side, arm outstretched from the window of her traveling abode toward her lover. Beneath her, the signature “Work of Ghiyath” is woven in Kufic script inside an eightpointed star on the palanquin (Fig. 1).

This depiction of the literary characters Layla and …

Fifth Millennium Anthropomorphic Figurines In Southeastern And Central Anatolia: Comparative Museum Research., Ellen H. Belcher

Publications and Research

The Halaf cultural horizon occurred during the fifth millennium B.C. (uncalibrated) and extended throughout upper Mesopotamia, including southeastern Anatolia. Halaf material culture is well-known for its imaginative and beautifully made architecture, polychrome-painted pottery, geometric stamp seals and figurines. The regional character and variation of Halaf figurine assemblages however, is poorly understood, particularly in southeastern Anatolia. My research and study of these figurines reveals distinct southeastern Anatolian styles and technologies, some of which demonstrate direct connections to central Anatolia.

This article presents preliminary conclusions from a comparative analysis of contemporaneous anthropomorphic figurines belonging to the Halaf and Chalcolithic cultures …

Participation, Claire Bishop

Publications and Research

An anthology of key writings on the topic of participation in art, from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Antagonism And Relational Aesthetics, Claire Bishop

Publications and Research

A critique of relational aesthetics, as theorized by Nicolas Bourriaud, and exemplified in the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija and Liam Gillick. Using Laclau and Mouffe's theory of democracy as antagonism, the paper proposes instead a 'relational antagonism' found in certain projects by Santiago Sierra and Thomas Hirschhorn.

William Henry Aspinwall (1807-1875), Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

William Henry Aspinwall (1807-1875) was a 19th century New York City "merchant prince."

Review Of Treasures Of Castilla Y León: A Cultural Season In New York, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Spanish religious art tends to be theatrical in nature. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, for example, the original setting of sculpted figures invariably emulated a stage in order to create a dramatic environment in which light, smells, and sounds were controlled for effect. Just consider the religious sculptures frequently paraded in processions or the statuary placed in chapels and niche-like recesses. Or think also of the dramatic paintings that functioned almost as backdrops for what amounted to the "staging" of the Catholic liturgy. Medium and message, thus, went hand in hand, a dependence that was made even stronger …

Review Of 1900: Art At The Crossroads, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

There is probably little doubt that the fissure between "high" and "low" culture is more conspicuous nowadays than it ever was. Clement Greenberg, that dashing arbiter of contemporary art, had already sensed it in 1939 when he wrote the seminal essay quoted above, as Adorno also perceived it decades before him. Their foreboding premonitions, however, could not hinder the relentless success of popular culture and the retreat of so-called high art into the safe harbors of the university campus, the museum, and the private sphere.

Review Of La Imagen De Nuestros Músicos: Del Siglo De Oro A Edad De Plata, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

La imagen de nuestros músicos: Del Siglo de Oro a la Edad de Plata is a hefty compilation of 681 portraits of Spanish composers from the Renaissance to the present. The illustrations are organized in four large chapters: "Del siglo de oro a la ilustración", covers the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries; "El primer romanticismo" and "El segundo romanticismo", deal with the first and second half of the 19th century; the final section, "Los músicos de nuestro siglo" focuses on the 20th century. If my numbers are correct, the earliest composer included in the study is the polyphonist Cristóbal de …

Villas On The Hudson: An Architectural And Biographical Examination, Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

A study of Villas on the Hudson: A Collection of Photo-Lithographs of Thirty-One Country Residences (D. Appleton & Co., 1860) depicts floor plans and views of stately homes of 19^th century country gentlemen that were located in today's upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester County, Dutchess County, and even Hoboken, NJ. When published, architecture was in its infancy as a profession and we see representative works of A.J. Davis, J.C Wells, T.R. Jackson and D. Lienau, and others. The accomplishments and interests of the villa’s owners are discussed; and the current status and use of the surviving eleven villas are …