CAA News Today
Abstracts 2011 Available for Download
posted by Emmanuel Lemakis — January 20, 2011
Registrants for the 2011 Annual Conference in New York can now download Abstracts 2011. This publication, available as a PDF, summarizes the contents of hundreds of papers and talks that will be presented in program sessions.
Reading the abstracts in advance can help you plan your daily schedule at the conference. Program sessions are alphabetized by the chair’s last name and appear in the contents pages. An index in the back of the publication names the speakers. Alternatively, use your Adobe Reader to conduct a keyword search for terms relevant to your interests.
After registrants log into their CAA account, they can click the “Abstracts” image in the middle of the screen to download the PDF (1.5 MB). Abstracts 2011 is part of the registration package; there is no cost for paid or complimentary registrants.
Conference attendees who purchase single-time slot tickets, or those who want Abstracts 2011 but are not coming to New York, may attain the document for a charge: $30 for CAA members, $35 for nonmembers. Abstracts 2011 will remain on the CAA website for download or sale through July 31, 2011.
Beginning with the 2010 conference in Chicago, CAA offers its Abstracts exclusively as a PDF download. Past issues of the printed publication from 1999 to 2009 are also available. The cost per copy is $30 for CAA members and $35 for nonmembers. For more information and to order, please contact Roberta Lawson, CAA office coordinator.
Sale on CAA’s Directories of Graduate Programs in the Arts
posted by CAA — December 15, 2010
CAA’s two Directories of Graduate Programs in the Arts, covering MA, MFA, and PhD programs in art and art history, are now on sale: $15 for CAA members and $20 for nonmembers, plus $4 shipping.
Published in late 2008 and early 2009, the directories remain the most comprehensive resources available for prospective graduate students in the visual arts, listing hundreds of programs in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere worldwide. CAA will introduce revised, online versions of the directories in fall 2011, with a price to be determined.
The directories come in two volumes, each sold separately: Graduate Programs in Art History includes art history, visual studies, museum studies, curatorial studies, arts administration, and library science; and Graduate Programs in the Visual Arts comprises studio art, graphic design, applied arts and design, film production, art education, and conservation. An index lists schools alphabetically and by state and country for quick reference. An introductory essay presents a detailed description of the elements of a program entry, including explanations of the various kinds of programs and degrees offered, helping place your search and selection process in context.
CAA accepts online purchases from individuals only. If you are ordering on behalf of a school, department, library, museum, or other institution, please download and complete this form and submit it via mail or fax to: CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; 212-627-2381.
Updated on February 23, 2011.
2010 Recipients of the Meiss and Wyeth Publication Grants
posted by Christopher Howard — November 29, 2010
CAA has awarded grants to the publishers of nine books in art history and visual culture through two programs: the Millard Meiss Publication Fund and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant.
Meiss Grants Winners
This fall, CAA has awarded four grants from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund. Thanks to the generous bequest of the late Prof. Millard Meiss, these grants are given to publishers to support the publication of scholarly books in art history and related fields. The 2010 grantees are:
- Cynthia Hahn, Strange Beauty: Issues in the Making and Meaning of Reliquaries 400–circa 1204 (Pennsylvania State University Press)
- Megan E. O’Neil, Engaging Ancient Maya Sculpture at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (University of Oklahoma Press)
- J. P. Park, Ensnaring the Public Eye: Painting Manuals of Late Ming China and the Negotiation of Taste (University of Washington Press)
- Stephen C. Pinson, Speculating Daguerre: Art and Enterprise in the Work of L. J. M. Daguerre (University of Chicago Press)
Books eligible for a Meiss grant must already be under contract with a publisher and be on a subject in the arts or art history. Authors must be current CAA members. Application criteria and guidelines for the Meiss grant are available online or from Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate.
Wyeth Grant Winners
CAA is pleased to announce five recipients of the annual Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant. Thanks to a second generous three-year grant from the Wyeth Foundation, these awards are given annually to publishers to support the publication of one or more book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art, visual studies, and related subjects. Receiving 2010 grants are:
- Marianne Kinkel, Races of Mankind: The Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman (University of Illinois Press)
- Analisa Leppanen-Guerra, Children’s Stories and “Child-Time” in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Trans-Atlantic Avant-Garde (Ashgate)
- Leo Mazow, Thomas Hart Benton and the American Sound (Pennsylvania State University Press)
- Maurie McInnis, Slaves Waiting for Sale: Visualizing the Southern Slave Trade (University of Chicago Press)
- Marian Wardle, ed., The Weir Family, 1820–1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art (University Press of New England)
For the purpose of this program, “American art” is defined as art created in the United States, Canada, and Mexico prior to 1970. Books eligible for a Wyeth grant must already be under contract with a publisher. Authors must be current CAA members. Application criteria and guidelines for the Wyeth grant are available online or from Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate.
Publications Committee and caa.reviews Welcome New Members
posted by Christopher Howard — November 22, 2010
The Publications Committee, which oversees CAA’s scholarly journals and related projects, welcomes two new members who will serve through June 30, 2013. Anthony Elms is editor of WhiteWalls, a publisher of innovative books and a journal, and assistant director of Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Cynthia Mills is executive editor of American Art, the scholarly journal of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. She is also academic programs coordinator for the museum, where she supervises the fellowship program and publications prizes and organizes scholarly symposia.
caa.reviews, CAA’s online journal for reviews of books, exhibitions, and projects in art history and visual studies, has added Elizabeth Marlowe to its editorial board, to serve through June 30, 2014. Marlowe is visiting assistant professor of art and art history at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. In addition, Janet Kraynak, assistant professor of art history at New School University, has become a field editor for the journal. She will commission reviews of exhibitions on modern and contemporary art in New York and internationally though June 30, 2013.
Over the summer, CAA made additional appointments for all three journals. Editors and members of editorial boards and committees are chosen from an open call for nominations and self-nominations, published on the CAA website from January to April each year and publicized through CAA News.
December 2010 Issue of The Art Bulletin Features Raphael, Rauschenberg, and Hōgai
posted by Christopher Howard — November 19, 2010
Insightful studies that reframe a Raphael fresco, Robert Rauschenberg’s Combines, and Kano Hōgai’s best-known work are among the six essays in the December 2010 issue of The Art Bulletin, the leading publication of international art-historical scholarship. The issue has been mailed to all individual CAA members who elect to receive the journal, and to all institutional members.
The final issue of the year comprises six essays, two of which delve into art from the Italian peninsula. In “Reflections of Imperialism,” Brenda Longfellow examines the Meta Sudans fountain in Rome, built during the Flavian dynasty, as a signifier of imperial legacy in both Rome and its provinces. For her contribution, Patricia Reilly contends that Raphael’s often-maligned Fire in the Borgo presents the artist’s argument for a new theory of painting. Looking across the Atlantic, Angélica Afandor-Pujol studies the illustrated manuscript known as the “Relación de Michoancán” and investigates issues of mimicry and the appropriation of European artistic traditions by indigenous artists in colonial Mexico.
Moving to the modern times, Chelsea Foxwell reconsiders the iconographic and historical significance of Hōgai’s Merciful Mother Kannon (1888), a masterpiece of Japanese painting, and Tom Folland argues that Rauschenberg’s Combines represent a queering of Abstract Expressionism and, by extension, the culture of postwar modernism. In “The State of Art History,” Terry Smith explores ideas of the contemporary within discourse on modern art and proposes a framework for globally considering the art of today.
In the Reviews section, Gabriela Siracusano assesses Veiled Brightness, a multiauthored book on the history of Maya color. Charles Darwin’s relationship to the visual arts is the focus of Rachael Delue four-book analysis, and Erika Naginski reviews The Blind Spot: An Essay on the Relations between Painting and Sculpture in the Modern Age.
Please read the full table of contents for more details. The next issue, to be published in March 2011, will feature essays on the Bocca della Verità in Rome; the “finger-bone” relics of a Buddha found in Shaanxi Province, China; and relationships between German painting and Czech Cubism.
Conference Information and Registration Booklet Mailed
posted by Emmanuel Lemakis — November 01, 2010
The recently published Conference Information and Registration booklet provides important details, deadlines, and directions for attending the 99th Annual Conference and Centennial Kickoff, taking place February 9–12, 2011. The booklet was mailed last week to all current individual and institutional CAA members; nonmembers and those wanting a digital file may download a PDF.
Following sections on registration and CAA membership, Conference Information and Registration explains basic processes for candidates seeking jobs and employers placing classified advertisements and renting interview booths. In addition, it lists topics for seven professional-development workshops and content for the Student and Emerging Professionals Lounge. If you want to connect with former and current professors and students, consult the Reunions and Receptions page.
The booklet includes paper forms for CAA membership, conference registration, workshops, special events, and mentoring enrollment. You may also choose to join CAA and register online.
The contents of Conference Information and Registration are published on the conference website, which is being updated continuously between now and the February meeting.
Fall 2010 Art Journal Published
posted by Christopher Howard — October 13, 2010
The Fall 2010 Art Journal, CAA’s quarterly of cutting-edge art and ideas, has just been published. The issue explores the broad theme of “war and other disasters” in six essays, three artists’ projects, and an interview.
Katy Siegel, Art Journal’s editor-in-chief, observes that the contributors “point to ways in which we are still living in a postwar world, working through the rubble of the atomic bomb and under the shadow of its future use.” David McCarthy writes on David Smith’s Spectres sculptures from the mid-1940s, and a pen-and-ink sketch by Smith graces the issue’s cover. Cécile Whiting’s essay explores early-1960s works by Californian artists who were intrigued by World War II, and Jung-Ah Woo frames On Kawara’s Date Paintings as manifestations of tragedy, violence, and death. Through the lenses of politics, reenactment, and memory, Claire Gilman looks at drawings by Andrea Bowers, Sam Durant, and other contemporary artists.
Two artists’ projects join P-Van, the second comic from Kerry James Marshall’s Dailies series to appear on the inside covers of Art Journal. Walid Raad’s Appendix XVIII: Plates 88–107 obliquely captures three decades of war in Lebanon in letters, script, numerals, indices, and more, set against colored backgrounds. Yun-Fei Ji’s Three Gorges Dam Migration is presented along with photographs and an interview that document the making of the monumental scroll. In an accompanying essay, Jonathan Spence discusses elements of Chinese history, culture, and politics in the scroll. Elsewhere in the issue, Joan Kee theorizes the aesthetic approaches of East Asian artists in “The Curious Case of Contemporary Ink Painting.”
In the Reviews section, Margaret Iversen assesses Douglas Eklund’s catalogue for his exhibition The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984, and William McManus examines three recent books on the dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer.
A benefit of CAA membership, Art Journal is mailed to those individual members who elect to receive it and to all institutional members.
Two Jury Members Needed for the Millard Meiss Publication Fund
posted by CAA — September 23, 2010
CAA seeks nominations and self-nominations for two individuals to serve on the jury for the Millard Meiss Publication Fund through June 30, 2014. The jury awards grants that subsidize the publication of book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects. It reviews manuscripts and grant applications twice a year and meets in New York in the spring and fall to select awardees. CAA reimburses committee members for travel and lodging expenses in accordance with its travel policy.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on another CAA editorial board or committee. Jury members may not themselves apply for a grant in this program during their term of service. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name. Please send a letter describing your interest in and qualifications for appointment, a CV, and contact information to: Millard Meiss Publication Fund Jury, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; or by email to Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate. Deadline: October 15, 2010.
Task Force on Practical Publications Presents Charge and Survey Results
posted by Patricia McDonnell — September 21, 2010
Eager to serve CAA members and curious about the possibility of a new source for earned revenue, CAA recently formed a Task Force on Practical Publications. A committed group of educators, administrators, and staff members has begun studying a potential program devoted to practical publications.
For several years, CAA has considered publishing slim books of an instructional nature devoted to the practical issues so many members face. Questions these publications might address include: What options do scholars have for online publishing? How does someone lead a dual studio-art and art-history department as chair? If I am faced with teaching Baroque or Abstract Expressionism for the first time and it is not my expertise, how do I best tackle this unfamiliar terrain? CAA members confront these and similar problems so often. And we regularly invent ways to resolve them. A program of pragmatic publications that share good solutions or best practices at a modest cost might be a great boon to the field, or so CAA leaders and staff have imagined for some time.
Such programs are already in place at many learned societies, and revenue from sales creates a vital source of organizational income. As CAA maneuvers through a still-unsteady economic climate, it must continue developing new sources of support—earned and contributed—to thrive as an organization. In this context, the Task Force on Practical Publications developed.
This summer, the task force offered an online survey that queried the membership about the perceived viability of this prospective program, as well as a host of related questions. About six percent of CAA members participated, a number within the range of reasonable expectation. A healthy 85 percent of respondents believed that CAA members would purchase this kind of publication, if available, and 65 percent said that they would buy such publications for their own use. Both statistics are impressive, given that people made a positive judgment sight unseen. The responses are also constructive in giving CAA a clearer picture of what needs to be done.
You will learn more about the discoveries and recommendations of the Task Force on Practical Publications on the CAA website in the months to come. Please stay tuned!
Patricia McDonnell is director of the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University in Kansas and chair of the Task Force on Practical Publications.
Apply for a CAA Publication Grant
posted by CAA — September 15, 2010
CAA is offering two publishing grant opportunities this fall—the Millard Meiss Publication Fund and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant—that support new books in art history. Both grant programs have a fast-approaching deadline of October 1, 2010.
The publisher must submit the application to either or both grant, though only one award can be given per title. Awards are made at the discretion of the jury for each fund and vary according to merit, need, and number of applications. The Wyeth grant will be awarded in late November; the Meiss award will be announced shortly thereafter.
Millard Meiss Publication Fund
CAA awards grants through the Millard Meiss Publication Fund to support book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher on their merits but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy. For complete guidelines, application forms, a grant description, and past winners, visit www.collegeart.org/meiss or write to nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2010.
Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant
Thanks to a second generous three-year grant from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, CAA awards a publication grant to support book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art and related subjects prior to 1970. Books eligible for the Wyeth grant have been accepted by a publisher on merit, but require a subsidy to be published in the most desirable form. For complete guidelines, application forms, a grant description, and past winners, visit www.collegeart.org/wyeth or write to nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2010.