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Students in Dr. Lynn Jones‘s undergraduate semin

Students in Dr. Lynn Jones‘s undergraduate seminar, “Objects of Desire: Islamic Luxury Arts” will present their research in a symposium, tomorrow, on Tuesday, April 19th at 6:30 pm in room G40 WJB. The students have spent the semester delving into the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp , one of the best-preserved late medieval Book of Kings (1520-1540).

Each student has one folio as their focus. They have spent the semester identifying and researching the “objects of desire” that are given visual expression in their folio. Students will highlight the role played in this extraordinary manuscript by depictions of textiles, ceramics, gems and gemstones, metal vessels, and horse tack, among other types of objects. All are welcome, and refreshments will be provided!

Please join us in support of these emerging scholars: Skylar Andersen, Sam Boddie, Tara Bracken, Gabriella Hamada, Mia Jackson, Kendal McDowell, Abby Perpich, Brittney Pieper, Bailey Ratliff, Ava Romano, and Victoria Weaver.
The event is sponsored by the Medieval Studies Organization.

The faculty and graduate students of the Florida S

The faculty and graduate students of the Florida State University Department of Art History invite you to our annual Graduate Symposium, April 8 & 9, 2022. Scholars from around the country will present 20-minute papers, each followed by open discussion with the audience over Zoom. The sessions conclude with a Museum & Cultural Heritage Studies Roundtable on Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm: Cultural Heritage Careers and Thinking Outside the Museum.

Our keynote speaker this year is Roland Betancourt, Professor of Art History and Chancellor’s Fellow, University of California, Irvine. Dr. Betancourt will present “The Case of Manuel I Komnenos: Gender, Sexuality, and Racialization in Byzantium” on Friday afternoon, April 8 at 5:00 pm (EST).

A reminder that TODAY the Art History Anti-Racism

A reminder that TODAY the Art History Anti-Racism & Equity Committee invites you to a celebration of LGBTQ+ excellence with a screening of Paris is Burning, the iconic documentary of 1980s ball culture in New York City.

Friday, March 25 at 2 pm
Room 2005 WJB

The Art History Association will host the annual B

The Art History Association will host the annual Book Sale this week, Tuesday through Thursday, March 8–10, in the WJB atrium.

Because of the pandemic pause we’ve accumulated hundreds of book donations that don’t fit in the Rose Library (duplicates, coffee table books, textbooks, & novels, for example), and most will be sold for $1.00. We will accept cash and Venmo! Proceeds support AHA workshops, promotional items (like those cool tote bags) and networking events.

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Baez, who earns he

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Baez, who earns her PhD in Art History this spring and has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Washington. Jennifer will join the UW faculty in September 2022 as Assistant Professor in Latin American art history.

Dr. Baez specializes in the visual and material culture of colonial Latin America and the African diaspora, with a focus on the Caribbean in the eighteenth century. She is especially interested in how origin stories, historical memory, and collective subjectivities were formed in extractive, Black Atlantic geographies. She completed her dissertation, “Painting the Miracles of Altagracia: Art, Piety, and Memory in Hispaniola (1751-1795),” under the direction of Dr. Paul Niell.

In remembering her time at FSU, Jennifer said, “I found life-long friends and co-conspirators here, as well as teachers who became friends and who modeled the type of educator, researcher, and professional that I aspire to become.”

Do you have alumni news to share? Drop us a line by direct message or on our website Contact form at http://arthistory.fsu.edu. #fsu #fsuarthustory #fsualumni #universityofwashington #latinamericastudies #phd

“My inclination to paint, especially from life,

“My inclination to paint, especially from life, is a completely political one. We belong here. We deserve to be seen and acknowledged in real time. We deserve to be heard and to be imaged with shameless generosity and accuracy.”

As we continue to celebrate Black History month we highlight Jennifer Packer, an American Painter living and working in New York City. The Whitney Museum of American Art is currently showing , "The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing," the largest survey of Packer's work to date with more than thirty paintings. Packer paints intimate renderings of friends, family and flowers to evoke the art historical genres of portraiture and still life, while also highlighting the politics of representation.

“It’s really important for me, as an artist, t

“It’s really important for me, as an artist, to have a representation of myself so that youth could see themselves in these particular environments like museums. When they see my work, with all the art history…that when they’re standing here that they see themselves.” - Mickalene Thomas

We open Black History month with the artist Mickalene Thomas, who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She works in multiple medias: painting, photography, collage, print, film, and sculpture. Her artworks “...draw on art history and popular culture to create a contemporary vision of female sexuality, beauty, and power.” Thomas received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and Master of Fine Arts from Yale University. Some of her solo shows have taken place in the United States, Canada, Spain, France, and Japan. In December of 2021, Thomas released her book Mickalene Thomas; this monograph includes many of her works. Currently, she is on the cover of Whitewall Magazine where she discusses her recent international exhibition entitled Beyond the Pleasure Principle.

Today marks the anniversary of the Paris Peace Acc

Today marks the anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords and the start of the end of the Vietnam War. The signing of the accord on January 27, 1973 provided for an exchange of prisoners and for the unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Vietnam.

Art History doctoral candidate Mallory Nanny researches artists whose work centers on remembrances of the Vietnam War: Vietnamese American artists An-My Lê and Tiffany Chung, and American artist Jessica Hines. These artists reconstruct fragmented memories into photo-based narratives of the wartime experience.

Featured works from Mallory’s research are Rescue, from An-My Lê‘s Small Wars; Tiffany Chung’s illustrated map Operation Lam Sơn 719, 30 Jan. – 6 April 1971; and a section of Chung’s Remapping History: an autopsy of a battle, an excavation of a man’s past. And finally, a photo of Mallory in Hanoi during a research trip to Hanoi in 2019. Mallory has determined that the Vietnamese landscape is central to the visual narratives inherent in these works. She conducts on-site research to locate the artists’ exact positions in relation to the places they photographed, allowing her to draw conclusions about the relationships between spaces, the sequence of photos with respect to narrative order, and the ways in which the works represent sites of memory in the postwar context.

Happy 171st Birthday FSU! On January 24, 1851, th

Happy 171st Birthday FSU! On January 24, 1851, the Florida Legislature established Florida State College for Women which would become Florida State University. Today we feature the Dodd Hall Memorial Window, the centerpiece of a series of windows celebrating our history, designed and built by the Master Craftsman Studio. It was commissioned by President Emeritus Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte and designed by Professor Emeritus Ivan Johnson. #fsu #fsubirthday #artoncampus #artofinstagram #arthistory

Today is the birthday of Barbara Hepworth (1903-19

Today is the birthday of Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), the influential modernist British sculptor known for enigmatic forms carved in wood and stone. Her early representational sculptures inspired by the natural world eventually gave way to abstractions focused on the flow of space and volume, convex and concave forms, solids and voids. She sought to “project into a plastic medium some universal or abstract vision of beauty.”

Unlike traditional sculptural practices of working with preliminary models or through transitional phases in clay or plaster, Hepworth utilized direct carving—introduced by Brancusi around 1906—allowing her to explore the innate rhythm of her material. Her work was concerned with the investigation of “absence” in sculpture as much as “presence,” and deep contemplation of the relationship of her sculptural forms to the larger spaces surrounding it. By complicating these modernist aesthetics she was able to distinguish herself as a world-recognized sculptor in a period where female artists were rarely given consideration. She remained a leading figure in the international art scene for over fifty years.

Welcome back everyone! We hope you all had a restf

Welcome back everyone! We hope you all had a restful holiday and a Happy New Year! As we get back in the swing of things let’s remember to wear a mask and pay close attention to our health so as to keep everyone around us as safe as possible. Cheers to a wonderful semester!

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, Art Hi

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, Art History MA student Natasha Zabala created the piece “Re(visions),”which is on display through January, 2022, in the Art & Design Library (2020 WJB). Natasha writes:⁣
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“'Re(visions)' draws on the epistemologies of Indigenous curators, scholars, and artists to correct museums that continue to misrepresent Indigenous identity and culture today. Reminiscent of a corrected draft, the red corrections are superimposed on museum texts, deauthorizing their content and giving them new, accurate, meaning. It is a call-to-action to all cultural institutions, waving a banner for these spaces to make necessary changes and acknowledgements to make the vision of a brighter and inclusive future, highlighting the survivance and resilience of Indigenous people across the globe, a reality.⁣
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In this piece, I draw inspiration from the work and initiatives of Indigenous artists like James Luna (Luiseño), Kent Monkman (Cree), Wendy Red Star (Crow), Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂ ), Chris Pappan (Osage, Kaw, Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux), Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho) and Peter Morin (Tahltan), among others. These artists directly interact with the misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples within various institutions to create Indigenous presence and sovereignty for themselves and their communities. In many cases, their work directly responds to the institutions’ texts and collections housing Indigenous cultural objects and histories.”⁣
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Natasha Zabala graduates this fall with her MA in Art History. Her focus is on museum and cultural heritage studies, specifically in how implementing decolonial practices within museum spaces can dismantle ongoing institutional racism within the art field.

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To artist Marie Watt (Seneca Nation of Indians and

To artist Marie Watt (Seneca Nation of Indians and German-Scot ancestry), wool blankets represent share histories and memories. Watt focuses on collaboration, art as action, biography, and Iroquois protofeminism in her practice. The patterns, colors, weaves, materials, and symbols draw from Watt’s Seneca and German-Scot heritage. Each blanket investigates a shared history and connectedness embodied in the material. The image of the dog is often found in Watt’s textiles as a symbol of the “pack” working in a collective effort.

Watt organizes community sewing circles where Native knowledge is shared through embroidery and beadwork onto the textiles. Scholar Fiona MacDonald calls these circles “cross-generational, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary.” Watt’s collaborative practice emphasizes process and community effort in the product of her work. Watt aims to amplify and make visible these Seneca and Indigenous stories. Everyone’s stiches and experience levels are different but they either follow a prompt or improvise with the individuals’ knowledge guiding their practice. The act of deconstruction and reconstruction of the materials creates new stories and connections between the audience and the community who created these works.

Follow the artist here: @marie_watt_studio

#MarieWattStudio #Each/Other #IndigenousKnowledge #SenecaNation #NativeAmericanArt

Sarah Sense is a contemporary artist who works pri

Sarah Sense is a contemporary artist who works primarily with printed, two-dimensional materials. As a member of the Chitimacha and Choctaw Nations, Sense’s work employs Chitimacha weaving techniques using unconventional weaving materials such as photos, maps, text, and other archival materials to create complex, textured images that look like flattened Chitimacha baskets. In 2004, while completing her MFA at Parsons, the New School for Design in New York, she asked the then chairman of the Chitimacha Nation, Alton D. LeBlanc, permission to continue engaging with the Chitimacha weaving tradition while using these non-traditional materials. After receiving permission, she went on to weave a number of works using those techniques.

Sense’s connection to the land is central to her practice. While completing her work Weaving the Americas, Sense notes that she always felt connected to the land. Weaving photo documentation of art, land, and peoples from Canada to Chile and everywhere in between, Sense writes, “this is America; this is the palette of our people… it is a search for the heart of these lands and a presentation of the artist’s perspective.”

FSU’s Museum of Fine Arts commissioned an original work by Sense entitled Mississippi and Meshassepi (2021) (Images 2 and 3). Be sure to see it in A Shared Body, at MoFA until December 11th, 2021.

#Indigenousart #contemporaryart #art #artist #nativeamerican #nativeamericanheritagemonth #sarahsense #weaving #basketry

In our continuing series of student-generated post

In our continuing series of student-generated posts for Native American Heritage Month, today we celebrate Rebecca Belmore, an Anishinaabe interdisciplinary artist whose artistic interventions speak on Indigenous representation, politics, and resilience. Known foremost as a performance artist, Belmore has been making these interventions internationally since 1987, an example being the Havana Biennial in Cuba. Identifying as a “woman of her people,” her artistic practice is deeply rooted in Anishinaabe legacies. She often speaks of her relationship and respect for her grandmother, mother, and sister. As Indigenous culture is constantly under threat, the significance of women is vital to the passage of knowledge and cultural understanding.⁣
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Using the body, Belmore’s performances and installations work as a form of protest against the violence and murder of Indigenous women. Her work transcends into the space between presence and absence, embodying the history and trauma to address what has often been silenced. With immense symbolic power, the aesthetics she uses captures something that not only speaks but actively ask the viewer to engage with her work. Through the usage of the body, she affects the recipients in a way that resist interpretation[JH4] . When the viewer is engaged with the performance or installation, the roles of viewer and artist are broken. The artist, in turn decentralized colonial spaces, and instead reasserts the Indigenous, the Anishinaabe woman.⁣
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“I am the artist amongst my people. Every society has its artists, and we have the responsibility to speak about how we are collectively in this moment in time. We have the responsibility to carry the past and look towards the future.”⁣
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You can follow the artist on her website: rebeccabelmore.com

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today we celebrate Dion Kaszas, a tattoo artist and member of the Nlaka’pamux First Nation who has been working to revive Indigenous tattoo customs since 2010. Kaszas is co-founder of the Earthline Tattoo collective and founded the long-term project “Taking Nlaka’pamux Tattooing to the World” in partnership with the Canada Council of the Arts. Kaszas’ project and his work as an Indigenous tattoo artist allow him to “dive deeper into the visual and material culture of [his] Nlaka’pamux artistic tradition,” as well as broaden his audience of Indigenous culture to an international audience.

Kaszas’ tattooing process includes customary tools, such as bone needles, as well as electric machines. His recent work has primarily focused on Nlaka’pamux Blackwork, including bodysuits, full sleeves, back, and chest pieces in customary Nlaka’pamux motifs. These tattoos and motifs are intended to transform the body into a work of art, prayer, declaration, and embodiment of ancestral resilience. His work is part of a larger movement of Indigenous cultural revival and a resource for future generations of customary practitioners.

Follow the artist here: @dionkaszas

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today we celebrate Hannah Claus, a transdisciplinary artist of Kanien’kehá:ka and English descent, who lives and works in Ontario and is a member of the Tyendinaga Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. Claus’s installation works challenge Western worldviews through her centering of Indigenous sound, materials, imagery, and shapes. Her highly collaborative practice focuses often on the Indigenous communities of the land where her works are presented and Onkwehon:we, the concept of the world’s interconnected relationships.

The relationships between the earth, sky, and water are essential to the creation and understandings of Claus’s works. Her materials often include acetate circles printed with photos of the world around her attached to nylon thread hanging from the gallery ceilings. These installations are reliant on the external forces of air flow, lighting, and viewer interactions, connecting the work to forces that affect our daily experiences.

For more of her works: http://www.hannahclaus.net

Follow the artist here: @cloudmakr

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we cel

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we celebrate Amanda Strong, a Michif (Métis) interdisciplinary artist working primarily in stop-motion animations. Strong is currently based in unceded Coast Salish territories in what is known today as Vancouver, B.C. Strong’s educational background is in illustration, media, and photography. Her films have been screened internationally, most notably at Cannes, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. ⁣
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Strong’s inspirational force is connected to storytelling, a tradition passed on by her immediate ancestors. Strong believes in the sacredness and the permanence of these stories reflected in the lives of her Métis relatives and community. Her protagonists are figurative puppets animated frame-by-frame in a three-dimensional physical scene similar to a small theater. Strong’s puppets are a mixture of allegorical representations, sacred animals, cultural and architectural landscapes, which often interact with her self-representations.⁣
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Strong’s visual language incorporates Métis symbolism and mythology. Strong also reintroduces ancestral language, giving her stories agency. She has owned, directed, and produced the studio Spotted Fawn Productions (SFP) since its foundation in 2010. SFP focuses on illustrations, stop motion, 2D, 3D, and virtual reality animations. In 2013, Strong was the recipient of the K.M. Hunger Artist Award for Film and Video, the 2015 Vancouver Mayor’sArts Award for Emerging Film and Media Artist, and in 2017, the Clyde Gilmour TechnMayor’sicolorAward, selected by Alanis Obomsawi, one of Canada’s most celebrated documentary filmmakers. In 2021 Strong was selected as the first Canadian director and first animated project for the Sundance Institute Indigenous Filmmaking Lab.⁣
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Follow the artist @spottedfawnproductions⁣
#animation #stopmotion #indigenous #shortfilm #puppets #nativeamerican #nativeamericanart

To continue FSU’s celebration of Native American

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today we feature Indigenous artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, a Vancouver-based Cowichan/Syilx Indigenous artist. Yuxweluptun graduated with honors from the Emily Carr School of Art and Design in 1983. His work has been exhibited both internationally and nationally.⁣
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Notable exhibitions include the 1992 and 1993 INDIGENA: Contemporary Native Perspectives, and the 2013 National Gallery of Canada’s special exhibition Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art. His 1993 show, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Born to Live and Die on Your Colonialist Reservations, opened the new Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver and was pivotal for Indigenous art recognition. More recently, his show Unceded Territories (2016) was exhibited at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.⁣
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As the titles of these shows and his works suggest, Yuxweluptun’s art is ,political, timely, and uncomfortable. A self-described history painter and activist, he draws from the persistent backdrop of Indigenous land rights and title struggles within the unceded territories of what is known as British Columbia. Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, his large works depict contemporary Indigenous history of environmental land degradation and its political actors, all the while re-asserting Indigenous presence and relationship to land.⁣
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#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #Indigenousart #LawrencePaulYuxweluptun⁣
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Follow the artist here: @yuxweluptun⁣
Further reading:⁣

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FSU Department of Art History

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

P: 850.644.1250
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E: arthistory@fsu.edu

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