CAA News Today

Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.

How to Be an Unprofessional Artist

No one likes being called an amateur, a dilettante, a dabbler. “Unprofessional” is an easy insult. The professional always makes the right moves, knows the right thing to say, the right name to check. Controlled and measured, the professional never sleeps with the wrong person or drinks too much at the party. (Read more from Momus.)

The Complicated Relationship between Animals and Art

At this year’s CAA Annual Conference, I organized a session on “The Art of Animal Activism” with Keri Cronin of Brock University. The session explored art since the nineteenth century that has taken nonhuman animals seriously as subjects with sentience and agency—not just as decorative ornaments or symbols. I was pleased, and somewhat surprised, that the session was so well received. (Read more from National Public Radio.)

Volume, Weight, and Pigment to Oil Ratios

Oil painters concerned with fat over lean will often turn to information about the oil absorption values for particular pigments as a way to compare how oily or lean certain colors might be. This has led to many misconceptions and outright wrong conclusions that seem to persist in various forums and articles. (Read more from Just Paint.)

Can an Art Critic Fairly Review an Artist Friend’s Work?

There’s no upside for an artist to be friends with an art critic. The personal connection means the critic must pass on reviewing the artist’s work, and while the loss of critical wisdom may be negligible, the loss of exposure is a nuisance for the artist. I have wanted to write about Maggie Michael’s work for years now but can’t without first offering the reader a huge caveat. (Read more from the Washington Post.)

Hundreds of Looted Ancient Artifacts Are Returned to Italy

Hundreds of looted archaeological artifacts that officials say were handled by the London dealer Robin Symes and destined for markets in the United States, Japan, and Britain have been returned to Italy. The artifacts—dating from the seventh century BC to the second century AD—were found two years ago in a storage unit at the Geneva Freeport that investigators traced to Symes. (Read more from the New York Times.)

Business Looms Larger in Art Classes

The new art expert is not necessarily an expert in art. Art-history students used to tackle questions of symbolism, social context, and style in art. Now, many young scholars are at least as focused on prices as they are on the art itself. (Read more from the Wall Street Journal.)

What You Teach Is What You Earn

A new assistant professor of computer science at a public four-year college or university in 2015–16 earns, on average, a little more than $85,000. A full professor of history—likely with twenty-plus more years of teaching experience—earns on average a little less than $90,000 and will likely have his or her salary passed by the new computer-science professor in a few years. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)

University Press Redux: Preserving Heritage, Charting the Future

University presses in the United Kingdom are enjoying something of a renaissance. Over the past few years, established presses such as Cambridge, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, and Wales have been joined by a raft of new publishers. (Read more from the Scholarly Kitchen.)