FSU Department of Art History | Contact

Florida State University | College of Fine Arts

This is your Donation message.

Home » Contact

arthistoryfsu

Instagram post 2174144093231547181_1664427769

What better place than FSU for a Circus Symposium? FSU is home to the Flying High Circus, one of only 2 collegiate circuses in the country, as well as an extensive Circus Museum at the University’s Ringling complex in Sarasota. This Thursday evening, guest scholars will describe the history and influence of popular entertainment in "Circus Performers and Popular Media in Fin de Siècle France," a symposium sponsored by the Winthrop King Institute with support from the Department of Art History.⁣
⁣
Talks will range from the origins of aerial acrobatics to the evolution of performance culture and print material and the profound impact 19th-century circuses had on the way audiences perceived the peoples of other parts of the world. Our guest scholars include Art History alumna Jennifer Lemmer Posey, Tibbals Curator of Circus at The Ringling.⁣
⁣
A circus poster printed in 1900 will be displayed in the WJB Library during the Symposium, on loan from The Ringling exhibition 𝘛𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘶 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦, which was curated this year by Art History’s Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies interns.⁣
The symposium takes place Thursday, November 14, 5–8 pm, in room 2009 William Johnston Building, and is open to the public.⁣
⁣
more details at arthistory.fsu.edu/circus

Instagram post 2172809098923860304_1664427769

Last month, Florence permanently installed the largest painting by female Renaissance artist Plautilla Nelli. Painted in the 1560s, the monumental Last Supper by Nelli and her workshop of nuns has entered the public sphere after 450 years in storage. Nelli and her convent established their artistry in a time when females were prohibited from professional training in the field, especially the study of the male anatomy.⁣
⁣
The four-year restoration project of Nelli’s Last Supper was undertaken by the organization Advancing Women Artists (AWA). The painting is one of 2,000 works by female artists inventoried by AWA within the past decade, all of which are coming to light after centuries of obscurity.⁣
⁣
“It’s not just about restoring the works of art. It’s about restoring women’s place in art history,” states director of AWA, Linda Falcone. Alongside this recovery of works by women artists, the art restoration field itself has shifted from a previously male-dominated to a 90%-female profession. “Women’s liberation in Florence is deeply linked to the art restoration effort,” Falcone adds. After the catastrophic flood of 1966 in Florence, the loss and damage of millions of artworks and books required an international and diverse effort to restore, rebuild, and in this case rediscover history.⁣
⁣
On the reverse of Nelli’s The Last Supper, conservators identified an inscription below the signature left by the artist that reads, “Pray for the Paintress,” a message that resonates with the ongoing battle for women artists to be seen.⁣
⁣

The painting can be seen on display at Santa Maria Novella Museum.⁣
⁣
Further reading: https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/plautilla-nelli-last-supper-1681627⁣
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/advancing-women-artists-1313612⁣
AWA site: http://advancingwomenartists.org/

Instagram post 2170584999014977600_1664427769

Students are hard at work to bring you Stories Laid in Stone: Modern Architecture in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, opening this Thursday at 6 pm in the WJB Gallery.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
This installation, entirely curated by undergraduates in the Art History Museum Object class, explores the myths, cultures, and identities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem through the lens of modern architecture. The show will be open through November.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Visit https://arthistory.fsu.edu/stories/ for gallery hours.

Instagram post 2169951528961902059_1664427769

This Wednesday: Join us for "Stories in the Stacks: Student Opportunities at the Newberry Library." Graduate students Rachel Carlisle, Caitlin Mims, and Emily White will speak about their experiences in the Art History department's ongoing partnership with the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Wednesday 11/6, 4PM in G40

Instagram post 2162538100995571708_1664427769

Student curators and Prof. Lynn Jones refreshed & reopened “Identity in the Ottoman Empire” at FSU MoFA on Oct. 24. Thirty students researched and installed additional architectural plates and online exhibits linked to the show via QR codes on the wall texts. Be sure to visit this multifaceted exhibition before it closes on Nov. 9. ⁣
⁣
The Museum of Fine Arts is open Saturday & Sunday afternoons. Pregame at MoFA this Saturday 10-4!⁣ (closed 10/25 for FSU’s #18 ranking celebration) ⁣
More info:⁣
- arthistory.fsu.edu/ottoman⁣
- mofa.fsu.edu⁣
⁣
Picture credit: Preston McLane

Instagram post 2160428976354733947_1664427769

#onthisday Robert Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1925. After brief studies in pharmacology and a tour in the Navy, he found his way to Black Mountain College and the powerful New York art scene. He absorbed Albers’ lessons in color juxtaposition and the energetic breakthroughs of the Abstract Expressionists. Then he threw in everything but the kitchen sink, subverting and mocking the serious business of macho artmaking angst. Rauschenberg’s combines are at once an irreverent ride through American culture, an homage to the revolutionary readymade, and a celebration of the transformative power of art. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/artistraus

Instagram post 2159624379713444259_1664427769

The MoMA officially reopens today! After several months of renovation, the museum proudly presents an expansion of its galleries and spaces, as well as a remix of its entire collection. The museum is stepping towards a future of more socially-engaging art experiences, unveiling a “performance studio” at the heart of the museum and a “creativity lab” as a center for discussion and exploration.⁣
⁣
Ultimately, the expansion allows for the museum to include a more diversified collection of works, reflecting in a press release, “a radical reinvention of the art object and a renewal of the social environment through art and design.”⁣
⁣
Copy and paste this link to watch behind-the-scenes of the renovation: ⁣
👉 https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYVzk0sNiGHJWrRF2YQlMKVSUZ5nYuvz

Instagram post 2157520492416079100_1664427769

Dr. Grant Mandarino will present "Political Spectacles: Looking through the Illustrieter Beobachter" Wednesday 10/23 at 4pm in G40 WJB. This talk in our Fall Lecture Series explores how conflicting political viewpoints were visualized as spectacles in illustrated magazines produced in Germany during the 1920s and what these works might tell us about our own increasingly polarized world of images.

Instagram post 2155293370620347060_1664427769

Time is melting away as we navigate the fall semester. Join UAHA and Art History faculty for “Life After Graduation” this Wednesday. We will discuss graduate school, future jobs, and internships.⁣
⁣
Keep an eye out for upcoming events and don’t forget your UAHA $10! Dues will cover our club tote bags and food for upcoming events.

Instagram post 2154575392522166447_1664427769

In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, today we celebrate Jeffrey Gibson, an interdisciplinary artist and member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw with Cherokee ancestry, who was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship this fall. Working in a variety of mediums and materials, Gibson expresses his Native-American heritage and his global experience growing up in the major urban centers of the U.S., Germany, Korea, and England.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Gibson’s inspirations are as inclusive as his materials. He combines glass beads, quartz, barbed wire, nylon fringe, embroidery, acrylic paint on rawhide. He refers to influences as diverse as Indigenous customary handwork traditions, contemporary popular music, and the geometric formalism of Josef Albers. His colorful constructions embrace and express a new hybrid visual vocabulary that resists preconceived notions about what the work of a Native American artist should look like, prompting a shift in how Native American art is perceived and historicized.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Further reading: www.macfound.org/fellows/1036/⁣⁣illuminatives.org/⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Follow the artist here: @jeffrune

Instagram post 2150979243676689996_1664427769

In September, American artist Kara Walker installed her latest work 𝘍𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘴 (The Fountain of America), for the Tate Modern’s annual Turbine Hall commission in London. After viewing the Queen Victoria Memorial, a 1911 monument to British grandeur, outside of the Buckingham Palace, Walker designed her 40-foot tall fountain as a counter-memorial.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Walker is well known for her silhouette cutouts, drawings, films, and sculptural installations which explore racial and gender history, enslavement, power, and resistance. Her fountain for the soaring public atrium of the Tate includes such shocking scenes as slaves drowning alongside a ship, a noose on a tree, a severed head of Venus gushing water, and the graphic decomposition of Emmitt Till in his open casket. References to the Queen Victoria Memorial are found in the figures of the scowling captain, a kneeling colonial figure, and “Queen Vicky,” pictured as an African figure.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
”Her intention was that it is a memorial that is in the process of being formed,” Tate curator Clara Kim said. “As if emerging from the ground, from the depths of history.” Walker focuses on the immorality and injustices of the “imperial project,” and how the remnants of this period are still relevant today. Using the celebratory context of monuments, Walker questions and exposes empires throughout history, not just in America, but internationally.

Instagram post 2149482675047805418_1664427769

This Wednesday in our Fall Lecture Series, three graduate students will present talks they are taking on the road next week at SECAC. Join us at 4 pm October 9 in WJB G40:⁣
⁣
Emily White explores Isabella d’Este’s portrait medallion as an embodiment of 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 and the realization of herself as a mirror of nature and antiquity.⁣
⁣
Victoria DeBlasio describes George Fred Keck’s steel and glass contraptions from the early 1930s, which serve as an introduction to the Bauhaus inspired international design and America’s first push into the “modern” in domestic space.⁣
⁣
Julia Kershaw investigates processes of sensorial immersion as she rebuilds the Brazilian Pavilion of the 1939 New York World’s Fair using the Pampulha Architectural Complex, which still stands today in Belo Horizonte of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Instagram post 2146713754016201171_1664427769

In October 2011, The Gold Coffin of Nedjemankh (c. 150 BC to 50 BC) was stolen from the Minya region of Egypt following the fallout of the Egyptian Revolution. Smugglers fled with the ancient artifact across Europe, taking it to a Parisian dealer for restoration, later selling it for $4 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017. ⁣⁣
⁣
This past Wednesday (September 25th), Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Hassan announced the repatriation of the gilded coffin to Egypt. The investigation and triumphant return of this cultural treasure is one small step in the many uncovered cases of antiquities trafficking throughout the world.

Instagram post 2145173754015634150_1664427769

Kehinde Wiley unveiled the monumental "Rumors of War" last Friday in Times Square. The piece is Wiley's largest and first to inhabit a public space. The bronze statue is also Wiley's most directly confrontational work. A young black man in modern clothes sits on a rearing horse, forcing an examination of the typical subjects that audiences expect to find in that context. The language of oppression and invented histories has here been replaced by a message of contemporaneity and power. This reclamation is a central motif in Wiley's oeuvre. He has previously gained much public attention for his unconventional portrait of President Barack Obama.⁣
⁣
"'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. This is my America too.'"⁣
- Kehinde Wiley⁣
⁣
"Rumors of War" will be on display in Times Square until December 1, 2019.⁣
⁣
Photo credit:⁣
1. Rumors of War, Kehinde Wiley, 2019. Getty Images.⁣
2. det. back. Rachel Papo.⁣
3. Kehinde Wiley. Getty Images.

Instagram post 2144375839990786059_1664427769

Dr. Jack Freiberg presents “Looking Up in the Churches of Rome,” the first event in our Fall Lecture Series, this Wednesday, October 2, at 4 pm in WJB G40. Art is everywhere in the churches of Rome, even on the ceiling. Coffered wooden ceilings, carved, painted, and overlaid with gold, were introduced in the 15th century and quickly became a major feature of church interiors in the Eternal City. Join us as we explore the intellectual meaning behind these visually stunning architectural embellishments.

Instagram post 2142375502509653202_1664427769

British artist Yinka Shonibare’s photograph series “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” is informed by the Goya etching by the same name. Shonibare’s renditions, however, illicit questions about the connection between the cultures of Africa, America, Asia, Australia, and Europe in post-colonial modernity. Shonibare was born in London and spent his childhood traveling between the UK and Nigeria. His identity as both fully English and fully Nigerian, not straddling a line between cultures, is shown through his unique use of textiles, patterns, and costume in his work.

Instagram post 2140181572305274553_1664427769

The Department of Art History and the Hispanic Graduate Student Association will host a free screening of the critically acclaimed film “Birds of Passage” in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The film is an intimate portrayal of and collaboration with the indigenous Wayúu people in Colombia. Stunning cinematography and powerful acting unite in a story about narco-trafficking in the 1960s and 70s and its effect on the community.⁣
⁣
The film will be screened at the FSU Askew Student Life Cinema on Sunday, September 29th at 5 pm. An introduction before the film and discussion afterward will be guided by Art History professor Dr. Kristin Dowell and PhD student Ileana Olmos. Food will be provided by local restaurant La Tiendita after the film screening.

Instagram post 2139468882980962865_1664427769

#happybirthday Louise Nevelson, truly an icon. ⁣⁣A Ukraine-born, American sculptor who built mountainous structures out of found objects and discarded wood, finishing them with a flood of monochromatic paint to create a majestic and mysterious experience.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Early on in her artistic career Nevelson dealt with a fair amount of naysayers, as she inserted herself into an overwhelmingly male sphere. In fact, during her first solo exhibition in 1941, an unnamed critic wrote, "We learned the artist is a woman, in time to check our enthusiasm...otherwise we might have hailed these sculptural expressions as by surely a great figure among moderns." 🤔🧐⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Not only did Nevelson break barriers for female sculptors later to come in the 1960s and 1970s, she also set precedent for abstract installation art.

Instagram post 2137937278659784944_1664427769

Congratulations to Art History department chair Dr. Adam Jolles, who received the 2019 FSU Graduate Teaching Award. Only eight of these prestigious awards are given each year. Dr. Jolles is admired among his students for creating an academically challenging, constructive, and welcoming environment both inside and outside the classroom.⁣
⁣
Dr. Jolles is also working on his second book about the emergence of photo-criticism as a genre of writing after the 1950s. He was awarded two research grants for this work over the summer, the Minor White Archives Research Grant and the Harold Jones and Frances Murray Research Fellowship.⁣
⁣
Further reading:⁣
Graduate Teaching Award⁣
arthistory.fsu.edu/jolles-graduate-teaching/⁣
Research fellowships⁣
arthistory.fsu.edu/professor-adam-jolles-awarded-two-photo-history-research-fellowships/⁣
⁣
Photo credit:⁣
Professor Adam Jolles.⁣
Graduate teaching award plaques.⁣
Minor White laying out an exhibition at MIT, 1974.

Instagram post 2135970103443072279_1664427769

Climate Pods is an installation designed for the upcoming UN Climate Action Summit in New York (9/23). British artist Michael Pinsky has created a ring of six domes that mimic the air pollution in cities such as Delhi, London, and Beijing. The work brings awareness to “pollution [that] is driven by the insatiable appetite of capitalist consumerism.”⁣
⁣
As part of her continued activism efforts in the US, Greta Thunberg will visit the installation during the summit. Her work has inspired numerous artists and museums, and shows the interconnectivity between the arts, curatorship, and activism.⁣
⁣
Further reading:⁣
Pollution Pods by Michael Pinsky⁣
www.climart.info/pollutionpods⁣
Greta Thunberg⁣
news.artnet.com/art-world/greta-thunberg-climate-art-1645336

Load More... Follow on Instagram

Send us a message

FSU Department of Art History

1019 William Johnston Building
143 Honors Way
Tallahassee, FL
32306 - 1233

P: 850.644.1250
F: 850.644.7065
E: arthistory@fsu.edu

Submit News
Newsletter Sign-up
Request Information
FSU Bookstore
Help Desk
Schedule CFA Tour »
View Campus Map

>