Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Pin (Fibula), Risd Museum, Boris Bally, Jonathan Migliori

Channel

This fibula (pin), used for closing or securing garments, is a masterpiece of ancient gold-working. Tiny animals and figures, mythical and real, cover the pin. They were formed using tiny beads of gold (a process called granulation) fashioned in a fluid, curving style reminiscent of pottery of the seventh century BCE, when the Etruscans reached the height of their technical virtuosity in granulation. In the center of the decoration is a figure common in Etruscan art: the ‘master of the beasts,’ a winged man with two faces. The figure originated in the Near East and became especially prominent in Etruscan …

The Festive City, Evelyn Lincoln, Emily J. Peters

Books

In early modern Europe (1500-1800), festivals enlivened civic spaces with a frequency, scale, and magnificence unrecognizable to us today. Festivals marked ritual moments, praised political agendas, and provided public entertainment. Europe’s papal court, sovereign powers, civic governments, and high aristocracy sponsored festivals for all sorts of occasions, staging joyous entry processions when foreign dignitaries entered a city, celebrating coronations, marriages, royal births, and funerals, and honoring saint’s days and Carnival season. Festivals shaped the public spaces of European cities. Buildings, plazas, stairways, and roadways were constructed specifically with festivals in mind. Likewise, festivals put the social structure of the city …

Risd Business: Sassy Signs & Sculptures, Alejandro Diaz, Judith Tannenbaum

Journals

Exhibition Notes, Number 42, Fall 2012. Ranging from quaint stereotypes of Mexican identity to current socio-economic and art-world commentary, Alejandro Diaz’s text-based works and installations use language as a form of cultural critique and resistance. Conceptual and campy, his humor infused politics and choice of everyday materials are emblematic of his ongoing involvement with art as a form of entertainment, activism, public intervention, and free enterprise. His projects take place outdoors on city streets as well as inside galleries and museums.

Portrait Of Antoine-Georges-Francois De Chabaud-Latour And His Family, Risd Museum, Robert Babigian

Channel

This handsome portrait was subtitled “filial piety” when it was exhibited at the 1806 Paris Salon. Set in the gentle landscape of the département of Gard, in the south of France, it depicts Antoine-Georges-François de Chabaud-La Tour who is seated on a marble bench with his daughter Rosina perched on one knee and his son James-Hippolyte posed on the other. His wife, Juliette Verdier de la Coste, stands at their side holding her infant son François-Ernest-Henri to her breast. Their attention is directed to a herm bearing a bust of the children’s grandfather, Antoine Chabaud, a distinguished military man who …

Portrait Of Agrippina The Younger, Risd Museum, Natalie Kampen, Lisa Anderson

Channel

Agrippina (15–59 CE), the subject of this portrait, was related to four different Roman emperors: she was granddaughter to Augustus, sister to Caligula, mother to Nero, and niece and later wife to Claudius. It is therefore not surprising that many portraits of her survive. They invariably depict her with a broad forehead, a square jaw, large eyes, thin lips, and a sharp chin, all features shared by many members of the imperial family. Ancient pieces were sometimes combined with other sculptural elements to create “new” composite sculptures. This ancient portrait head was inserted into a bust composed of different-colored marble …

Respondent Amicus Curiae - Asu, Rhode Island School Of Design

Advocacy | Amicus Briefs + Comments

No abstract provided.

The Dorothy And Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works For Rhode Island, Alison W. Chang

Journals

Exhibition Notes, Number 41, Summer 2012. RISD Museum was the recipient of fifty contemporary works from the celebrated collectors Dorothy and Herb Vogel. Both worked as civil servants throughout their lives so they never had extraordinary means with which to build a collection, but acquired more than 4000 works since their marriage in 1962. Their commitment to minimal and conceptual art is well-known, but their taste was much broader and included work rooted in Abstract Expressionism as well as figurative compositions. Most of the collection was given to the National Gallery of Art. The gift to Rhode Island is part …

Dan Walsh | Uncommon Ground, Judith Tannenbaum

Journals

Exhibition Notes, Number 40, 2012. Dan Walsh has been devoted to abstract painting since he arrived in New York in the early 1980s. Naturally his work has evolved over the past three decades, but he has remained consistently attached to Minimalism’s basic language of geometry and grids.

Model Of A Funerary Boat, Risd Museum, Peter Dean, Peter Johnson

Channel

During the funeral, the deceased took a last earthly journey, traveling by boat to the cemetaries on the west bank of the Nile. The next voyage then began: a spiritual pilgrimmage to Abydos, the religious center and burial place of the god Osiris. For this reason, wooden model boats were often placed within tombs as substitutes for large-scale vessels in the afterlife. This model boat mimicked papyrus funerary barks. The wedjat-eyes painted on the hull were meant to guide the vessel safely through the perilous journey to the afterlife. 2100-1900 BCE

Office Of Multicultural Affairs (Oma) / Office Of Intercultural Student Engagement (Ise) Annual Report 2011-2012, Intercultural Student Engagement Office, Anthony Johnson

Intercultural Student Engagement (ISE) Annual Reports

This Annual Report 2011-2012 marks the transition and renaming of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) to the expanded Office of Intercultural Student Engagement (ISE). This expansion brought to ISE the Office of International Student Services (OISS) and a diversity coordinator- a new position focusing on underserved student communities including LGBTQ, religious/spiritual, and first generation to college. These important shifts and incredible staff members have poised the office and RISD to respond more broadly and deeply to the needs, hopes, and development of our collective student body. The ISE 2011-2012 Annual Report is a year in review containing a message …

Grand Arabesque, Second Time, Risd Museum, Julie Strandberg, Jeff Hesser

Channel

Transitional poses such as this one were constant themes of Edgar Degas’s numerous sculptural studies made in wax, wire, and plastilene. Collected from his studio following his death, these models became the sources of small editions cast in bronze, including this one of a dancer posed in a grand arabesque. In the classic ballet position, the dancer bends forward while standing on one straight leg, with the opposite arm extended forward and the other arm and leg extended backward. In the 1890s the British artist Walter Sickert visited Degas in his studio and was shown the wax model for this …

2012 Program Booklet, Rhode Island School Of Design

Collection (annual runway show) 2007-2017

Official Collection 2012 Program distributed at the event.

Painting Air: Spencer Finch, Spencer Finch, Judith Tannenbaum

Journals

Exhibition Notes, Number 39, Winter 2012. Spencer Finch, an artist known internationally for artwork that captures fleeting or intangible natural phenomena and sensory experiences, received his MFA in Sculpture from RISD in 1989. In the two decades since, Finch has created drawings, watercolors, photography, and video as well as sculpture and installations—selecting mediums and methods that seem best suited to conveying his fascination with light, color, and atmosphere. His focus of attention ranges from a speck of dust seen in a shaft of light in his studio to grand glaciers in New Zealand.

As a graduate student Finch worked in …

Pilgrims Of Beauty: Art And Inspiration In 19th Century Italy, Crawford Alexander Mann Iii

Journals

Exhibition Notes, Number 38, Spring 2012. In the 19th century Italy was the most desirable destination for travelers from every corner of Europe and beyond. Thousands crossed mountains, even oceans, to go there, leaving their "barbarous” homelands to study and admire Italy’s unsurpassed aesthetic and cultural riches. A poem in the New England Magazine in 1831 described the goals and ideals of visiting Italy on a European Grand Tour, calling those who did so "pilgrims of beauty.” Like religious pilgrims of centuries past, these lovers of art participated in a ritual journey, a powerful shared experience of Italy’s magnificent landscape, …

Diptych With Scenes Of The Nativity, The Crucifixion, And The Last Judgement, Risd Museum, Robert Brinkerhoff

Channel

This diptych was intended for private devotional viewing by privileged members of the French court and the Roman Catholic Church. Composed of four arcaded compartments once embellished with gold leaf and colored pigments, it narrates Mary’s role as mother and intercessor. The Annunciation and the Nativity of Christ at lower left face the presentation of the Infant Jesus to gift-bearing Magi. Above, Mary swoons at the Crucifixion, then reappears enthroned to be crowned by Christ. In the final panel at the upper right she kneels beside Christ on Judgment Day as souls arise from tiny sepulchers below. 1275-1325

Travel Photographie 2006-2012, Franziska Stetter, Fleet Library, Special Collections, Jan Baker

Stories

This book was completed for Jan Baker's artists' book class.

This Is An Emergency! : A Reproductive Rights + Gender Justice Portfolio, Meredith Stern, Judy Kashoff, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Printmaking

1 portfolio : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 47 cm. Colophon page title. This portfolio contains a hand sewn 'zine' with text by Meredith Stern and Judy Kashoff, a colophon page, and a collection of 17 prints. Horizonal and vertical red bands surround the colophon, text, and 17 prints. "Seventeen artists created a print for this project. Third Termite Press in Pittsburgh printed the colophon and Ladyfingers Letterpress printed the covers. The participants are: several members of the Justseeds Cooperative including: Melanie Cervantes, Thea Gahr, Bec Young, Favianna Rodriguez, Mary Tremonte, Molly Fair, and myself (Meredith Stern). Also participating are: Ian …

Judgment, Justice, And Art Criticism, Jolanta Nowak

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The purpose of this article is to expose a gap in the current academic discussion of visual art criticism: the lack of serious attention to the role of ethical judgment. Critics tend either to avoid discussing the judgment of art or they dismiss it as a contemporary impossibility. However, ethical criticism is nonetheless practiced, albeit only occasionally and in an under-theorized manner. This paper calls for a reconceptualization of ethical judgment in art criticism, a reconceptualization that brings art into explicit relation with ethics.

On 'Shock:' The Artistic Imagination Of Benjamin And Brecht, Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

“Shock” is perhaps the central concept of modernist aesthetics and Walter Benjamin its best known theorist. It has been well documented that Benjamin’s long-lasting friendship with Bertolt Brecht and the latter’s dramatic theory had a profound influence on his thinking about this notion. Brecht's techniques of interruption and juxtaposition in the practice of epic theater were in close relationship with Benjamin’s use of montage as a mechanism to “liberate” meaning. Despite Theodor Adorno’s and Gershom Scholem’s attempt to situate Benjamin’s thought in a different aesthetic tradition, Brecht’s understanding of Verfremdung (estrangement) and Benjamin’s idea of “shock” are often deemed identical. …

Beauty Or Bane: Advancing An Aesthetic Appreciation Of Wind Turbine Farms, Tyson-Lord J. Gray

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

I begin this paper by looking at declining wind turbine sales during the years 2007 to 2010. In an attempt to locate a reason for this decline, I evaluate two claims by wind farm opponents: 1) that wind farms reduce property value, and 2) that wind farms ruin the beauty of nature. The first claim I respond to by looking at three studies conducted on residential property sales located near wind farms. For the second claim, I engage in a comparison of Immanuel Kant’s and John Dewey’s aesthetics. I ultimately advance an aesthetic appreciation of wind farms that seeks to …

Critical Making | Making Critical: Risd Strategic Plan 2012-2017, Office Of Integrated Planning, Risd President

Strategic Plan

No abstract provided.

From Environmental Aesthetics To Narratives Of Change, Nathalie Blanc

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Environmental aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that originated in the English-speaking world and is developing in France. It aims to take a new look at how relationships with the environment are constructed. Often addressed from a landscaping, technical or scientific angle, such relationships have remained largely unaddressed from a cultural perspective, i.e., one that includes a series of practices and values that represent a human group. In this article, I will address environmental aesthetics and how they point up tensions between fixed and static visual representations of the environment in the future and representations that can accommodate ordinary encounters, …

Recent Publications

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Cinematic Imagination, Rafe Mcgregor

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to identify the problem of cinematic imagination, and then to propose a satisfactory solution. In part one I analyze the respective claims of Dominic McIver Lopes and Roger Scruton, both of whom question the scope of imagination in film, when compared to other art forms, on the basis of its perceptual character. In order to address these concerns I develop a hybrid of Gregory Currie’s model of cinematic imagination and Kendall Walton’s theory of make-believe in section two. Section three offers a reply to Lopes and Scruton, examining the problem in terms of …

Risd Fact Book 2012, Institutional Research

RISD Fact Books

The Office of Institutional Research is pleased to present the Rhode Island School of Design Fact Book, 2012; a paperless, accessible, consistent source of information about the RISD community, its resources, and its operations. It is a summary of institutional data gathered from many areas of the College, compiled to capture the 2012 Fiscal and Academic Year. Where appropriate, multiple years of data are provided for historical perspective. While not all-encompassing, the Fact Book does provide pertinent facts and figures and is made available as reference to administrators, faculty, staff, and students.

Pending On Art, Pauline Von Bonsdorff

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Artification is mostly approached from a contextualist perspective where “art” refers to objects that are presented and appreciated within socially recognized art institutions. Artification then means that the notion of art is extended to non-art areas. Yet it can be argued that contextualism is circular, since it starts with an unquestioned assumption about what art is. Another weakness of contextualism is that by privileging theory it tends to downplay the role of creative and appreciative practices. Alternative approaches are possible, and this article explores in a preliminary way what a naturalist approach could mean for how we see art and …

Projective Artistic Design Making And Thinking: The Artification Of Design Research, Stephen A.R. Scrivener, Su Zheng

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Artification concerns the introduction of artistic ways of thinking and doing into non-art domains, such as business, typically because the host domain recognizes that art has something of value to offer that it does not. However, it is by no means easy to establish exactly what it is that the art actually does offer. In this paper, we approach this question by examining problems encountered in what might be called the “researchification” of artistic design. Following an historical and experiential account of the problematic conjunction of artistic design and research, we conclude that the projective making and thinking strategies of …

Artification And The Drawing Of Distinctions: An Analysis Of Categories And Their Uses, Kari Korolainen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The aim of the article is to examine how we distinguish between art, decoration, and furnishing within a research interview. The interview specimens here are examined by adapting the ethnomethodologically oriented method of Membership Categorization Analysis. The results indicate that the speakers rely, for example, on the context of the interview situation and also use flexible logical means, such as conditioning and comparison, to make the discussed issues more comprehensive. The results of the analysis are interpreted in the context of artification, emphasizing in particular the notion of the situated process of categorical resiliency.

Annual Report Of The Risd Fleet Library 2011-2012, Fleet Library, Carol Terry

Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Editorial

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.