Just opened: Bête Noire Exhibition, MUSART-BERLIN 29 Apr 2016 – 27 May 2016
Curated by SCAN Spanish COntemporary Art Network
Bête Noire is an art exhibition that reflects on conceptual positions and creative opportunities of the colour black (and de-saturation) in the context of contemporary art practices. Includes the work of nine multidisciplinary emerging artists from Spain: Ruben Guerrero, Alain Urrutia, Maria Leon, Ubay Murillo, Anna Talens, Inma Femenia, Alex Marco, Maria Tinaut and Fernando Martin Godoy.
From the 7th of January 2016, I spent forty days in London conducting research on Spanish art in the United Kingdom, thanks to an ARTES scholarship granted last year. The first week was almost entirely consecrated to preparing the talk “Architectural Practice in Spain, 1370-1450: Documents, Drawings and Historiography”, delivered on the 18th of January at the Courtauld Institute. After that, I conducted my research in the Warburg Library and in the Courtauld Library, where I found new and very useful papers about several historiographical problems within my field of academic interests. Moreover, the stay was a superb opportunity to attend lectures and seminars related to medieval art, for example Mary Carruthers’ seminar on the Art of Invention in Cambridge (“Vividness, Evidence, Proof: the Role of Visions”), and Lina Bolzoni’s talk about Memory Palaces in the Renaissance at the Courtauld Institute. Besides, I was kindly invited by Nicola Jennings and Tom Nickson to join their lessons in the V&A about Spanish Medieval Art and Gothic architectural drawings, respectively. I could visit, too, the medieval collections of the British Museum and the National Gallery, and prominent architectural monuments such as Ely Cathedral and Saint Alban’s Abbey. Furthermore, in addition to the aforementioned scholars, I met researchers as Susie Nash, Barry Taylor, Rose Walker and Kirstin Kennedy, who all gave me sound advice about my work.
Sir John Charles Robinson, by John James Napier, National Portrait Gallery
The main focus of my research in London was the altarpiece of Saint George (Victoria and Albert Museum, 1217-1864), an exceptional work of art and very well preserved. The piece was bought in Paris art market in 1864, and was said to have been removed from a church of Valencia. Little more is known about its original context. In order to discover more about the circumstances of its purchase, I reviewed the files referring to Saint George’s Altarpiece in the Prints and Drawings Study Room of the V&A, as well as other documents lent by the Conservation Department of the Museum. Key information was provided by Blythe House Archives, particularly the files of Sir John Charles Robinson, John Webb and Juan Facundo Riaño. Robinson’s words on the altarpiece put its acquisition into context: Spanish medieval art had begun to be greatly appreciated in France and Britain ca. 1864, partly because of the influence of the French Empress, and partly because of the 19th century’s love affair with the exoticism of Southern Europe. Robinson’s voyages to Spain testify to this allure (exemplified by the V&A’s cast of El Pórtico de la Gloria ). Webb was summoned
Robinson files, Blythe House, V&A
by Robinson to examine the Altarpiece of Saint George, and his diagnosis was key: the piece was deemed worthy of its asking price. The reports of Juan Facundo Riaño, who wasn’t directly involved in the issue, reveal also a whole world of antique dealers, painters, diplomats and connoisseurs operating in Spain. The reading of bibliography related to the art market in mid 19th-century Europe completed this survey of the vicissitudes of the Saint George Altarpiece. I hope that the outcome of this research will be published soon in a forthcoming paper.
Call for Participation: 12 junior scholars to join the research group “Spanish Italy and the Iberian Americas”
A Getty Foundation Connecting Art Histories Project
co-directed by Michael Cole and Alessandra Russo,
Columbia University
Deadline: Mar 31, 2016
The co-directors of the Connecting Art History project “Spanish Italy
and the Iberian Americas” seek twelve junior scholars to join the
research group during the period June 2016 to October 2017. Project
participants will collaborate to discern the common dynamics and study
the artistic ties that developed between these two regions in the early
modern period, especially during the sixteenth-century. Moving beyond
the concerns of national heritage and microhistory, the project depends
on scholars interested in changing their conceptions about their “home”
fields of “Renaissance” Italian or “Colonial” Latin American art. The
project will unfold in multiple stages, centered on travel and
conversation. Throughout the project, the junior scholars and a group
of senior faculty will collaborate and communicate regularly, sharing
bibliographies and contributing monthly to a research blog. As a group,
participants will travel to Italy in January 2017 to visit and discuss
works in historically Spanish regions of Italy. Each member will be
responsible for introducing a series of works, engaging information
across multiple fields. Six months after the visits in Italy, in a
second phase of the project, participants will convene in New York City
for a workshop. Each scholar will present a paper responding to the
conversation and insights elicited during the trip, and considering how
those ideas might provide prospects for the study of arts in Iberian
Americas. While in New York, the group will also visit archives and
museums in the city. The project will cover travel expenses to Italy
and New York.
Recent PhDs to junior faculty members working on early modern Italian
or Latin American art are eligible to apply though preference will be
given to those who did degrees or are working in Italian and Latin
American universities. Candidates should submit a statement (maximum
three pages) explaining their interest in participating; a description
(maximum two pages) of a current project; a CV; two letters of
recommendation; and a writing sample.
Application materials should be sent as a single PDF, clearly labeled,
to : connectingarthistories@columbia.edu by March 31st, 2016.
Worcester College, Oxford is pleased to be able to offer a two year residential Fellowship in the study of Renaissance or Baroque architectural history through the generosity of the Scott Opler Foundation.
Applications are invited from scholars of any nationality and academic affiliation in the final year of their dissertation or within the first four years after the completion
of their Ph.D., D.Phil. or comparable degree.
Applicants are asked to demonstrate a high level of skill in research methods and practice in the field of Architectural History, demonstrated via successful completion or near completion of a doctorate in a relevant area, possibly supported by conference papers and publications revealing skills in research practice and presentation.
The person appointed will conduct high level academic research in Architectural History and prepare the results of that work of publication. Conference and seminar attendance may well form part of the programme of research. Topics may include any area or aspect of European architectural history during the Renaissance or Baroque era including urbanism, landscape and garden history, drawing and design method, theory and publication, architectural representation, as well as studies of architecture and related disciplines. Research Fellows do not have a direct reporting line, but the Provost oversees the work and the well-being of all members of College, and is always willing to provide advice on research progress. Members of the Scott Opler Committee can sometimes offer specialist advice and the College Librarian can advise on the extensive holdings in Architectural History of the Old Library.
The Fellow is normally expected to work in Oxford, and to make use of the library resources of the University and the College, but visit to collections elsewhere may be necessary and are encouraged.
The Opler Research Fellow will receive a stipend of £26,537 per annum (revised annually) and will have access to certain travel, research and publication funds. The Fellow is also entitled to accommodation to a value from £11,280 per annum and, when the kitchens are open, to free meals in the College as a member of the Senior Common Room.
Closing date for applications to be received is Thursday 14th April 2016 and should include an official Application Form, a statement of the proposed research programme, and a current curriculum vitae. Applicants must also arrange for two confidential letters of recommendation to be sent direct to the College by the same date. Applications and references may be sent by e-mail as PDF documents. Interviews for a final group of candidates will be scheduled in June.
Further particulars and an application form may be downloaded below or obtained from the Provost’s PA, Worcester College, Oxford OX1 2HB, Tel +44 (0)1865 278362, email ilaria.gualino@worc.ox.ac.uk.
Artistic Dialogue during the Middle Ages. Islamic Art – Mudéjar Art International Conference Casa Arabe, Córdoba
Organized by: Prof. Dr. Alberto León (Universidad de Córdoba), Prof. Dr. Francine Giese (Universität Zürich)
The research about Spain’s medieval cultural heritage has experienced a great development in the last centuries. With the reassessment of the legacy of al-Andalus and of the Reign of Castile and Aragon during the nineteenth century, the historiography focusing especially on cultural connections and disconnections has grown extensively. Concepts like Reconquista, Convivencia and Mudéjar Art, are being interpreted as the result of Spain’s nineteenth century’s particular socio-political interests, related to the debate about national identity, religious intolerance and to an evolutionist conception of history. The special political and cultural reality of the Peninsula and its Middle Ages as a geographical and temporal frame of cultural coexistence, pluralism and heterogeneity has been controversially debated since that time. At present, we assist to a critical revision and to an intense debate on those inherited concepts. While the traditional historiography had delineated several political, religious and artistic frontiers, new conceptions of the medieval reality arise that interpret those frontiers as being permeable and dynamic. This perspective leads to the consideration of an artistic dialogue as the basis of shared vocabularies. Such a dialogue will be the common thread of the present conference: we intend to analyze, share and spread recent results and new research projects on the Islamic and Mudéjar past of the Peninsula. The conference will constitute a platform for novel lines of investigation contributing to the debate on the artistic dialogue of the medieval Iberian Peninsula. The following sections and themes are planned: – Nineteenth century’s historiography: the reassessment of the Islamic and Mudéjar past – Islamic and Mudéjar urbanism – Architectural reuse – The twelfth century: dialogue or confrontation? – The Iberian Peninsula and Europe: cultural connections – Al-Andalus and the three cultures Each presentation will be of 20 minutes, and may be given in Spanish or English. Please submit a proposal of maximum 300 words and a brief curriculum vitae by the 15th of April to the following e-mail address: conference@transculturalstudies.ch
ARTES 