CAA News Today
National Arts Index Results Released
posted by Christopher Howard — January 22, 2010
In 2008 the National Arts Index fell 4.2 points to a score of 98.4, reveals Americans for the Arts, a national nonprofit arts group. This means, among other things, that charitable giving and attendance at larger cultural institutions have declined, even as the number of artists and arts-related businesses grew.
Other findings from the index tell us that nonprofit arts organizations expanded from 73,000 to 104,000 between 1998 and 2008, but a third of them failed to balance their budgets. Also, demand for the arts has been mixed. Although millions of Americans attended concerts, plays, and museum exhibitions last year, the overall percentage of those who participate in such activities, compared to the total population, is decreasing. The good news is that those who create art, whether that’s making music, taking photographs, or drawing, is up. The demand for arts education is also strong.
Those involved in the National Arts Index herald its usefulness in shaping the future of the arts in the United States. “As with key business measures like the Dow or the GDP, we now have a way to measure the health of the arts in America,” said Albert Chao, a member of the Business Committee for the Arts, a business leadership program of Americans for the Arts. To that end, the Kresge Foundation has awarded a $1.2 million grant to Americans for the Arts to support that vision.
Read more about the index on the PR Newswire. The Americans for the Arts website has more detailed information, as well as PDF downloads of a detailed summary and the full report. There is also discussion and opinions on the organization’s blog.
Opt-Out Deadline for Google Book Settlement Approaching
posted by Christopher Howard — January 20, 2010
Following the submission of the amended Google Book Settlement in November 2009, the deadline for opting out was extended. The new deadline is January 28, 2010 (postmarked or submitted online on or before that date).
Those who had not opted out of the settlement may still do so, and those who had opted out may now opt in, if they so wish. If you wish to maintain your previous status, you need not do anything. (Under a class-action settlement, all class members remain in the class unless they opt out.)
Opt-out forms (to mail in) and instructions for opting out online are available at the settlement website. You may also read the settlement FAQ for more information.
Woman’s Art Journal Focuses on Paula Modersohn-Becker
posted by Christopher Howard — January 20, 2010
The first American anthology of writings on the work of Paula Modersohn-Becker has just been published by Woman’s Art Journal (Fall/Winter 2009) in an issue devoted to the artist.
Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) was a German painter who worked in styles ranging from Postimpressionism to early Expressionism. Influenced by Cézanne, Gauguin, and van Gogh, she is recognized today for her early feminist imagery.
The two lead articles were originally written for the catalogue of the Modersohn-Becker exhibition that was to have opened at the Neue Galerie in 2009 in New York (postponed): Anne Higonnet (Barnard College, Columbia University), “Making Babies, Painting Bodies: Women, Art, and Paula Modersohn-Becker’s Productivity”; Diane Radycki (Moravian College), “Pictures of Flesh: Modersohn-Becker and the Nude.”
The three following articles were first presented as talks at the 2009 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. The session, chaired by Radycki, was called “Paula Modersohn-Becker: Art, Risk, Fame”:Rainer Stamm (Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum), “Paula Modersohn-Becker and the Body in Art”; Monica Strauss (author of Cruel Banquet: The Life and Loves of Frida Strindberg), “Helen Serger’s Galerie La Boetie: Paula Modersohn-Becker on Madison Avenue”; Michelle Vangen (Graduate Center, City University of New York), “Left and Right: Politics and Images of Motherhood in Weimar Germany.”
Published semiannually—May and November—since 1980, Woman’s Art Journal continues to represent the interests of women and art worldwide. Articles and reviews cover all areas of women in the visual arts, from antiquity to the present day.
Image: Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-Portrait (Semi-Nude with Amber Necklace and Flowers II), 1906, oil on canvas, 61 x 50 cm (artwork in the public domain)
First Issue of a New Journal on Art Historiography Published
posted by Christopher Howard — January 20, 2010
On New Year’s Eve, the first issue of the Journal of Art Historiography was published online. This peer-reviewed open-access ejournal, published in June and December of each year, is devoted exclusively to the study of the practice of art-historical writing. Supported by the Institute for Art History at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, the journal has a distinguished editorial advisory board drawn from a broad range of specialist areas. Richard Woodfield, senior honorary research fellow at the University of Glasgow, is the editor.
The central purpose of the Journal of Art Historiography is to understand why the history of art gets written in the way that it does. How has it taken shape as a discipline? What are the grounds of its inclusions and exclusions? What are its modes of writing? How does it relate to and intersect with other disciplines?
Though the journal has much wider ambitions, the first issue reflects its editor’s preoccupation with German and Viennese art historiography and is dedicated to the memory of Ernst Gombrich. Already, though, it has material on the debates surrounding the emergence of Australian Aboriginal art as contemporary artistic practice, the role of the journal Zodiaque in the promotion of notions of French Romanesque art, and the reception of Aby Warburg’s work in Argentina.
There are also translations of Julius von Schlosser’s famous account of the Vienna School, along with Moriz Thausing’s pronouncements on the objective study of art history. Studies on Fritz Novotny, Max Dvořák, Alois Riegl, Michael Baxandall, Fritz Saxl, John Shearman, and John White have been published as well.
The next issue, due in June this year, is already extending its scope to cover Indian and Chinese art, Baltic and Polish art history, classical archaeology, and more.
The Journal of Art Historiography welcomes contributions from young and established scholars and is aimed at building an expanded audience for what has hitherto been a much-specialized field of investigation.
January CAA News Published
posted by Christopher Howard — January 13, 2010
The January CAA News—the last issue before the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago—has just been published. You may download a PDF of it immediately.
This issue announces Barbara Nesin of the Art Institute of Atlanta as president-elect of the CAA Board of Directors. The current president, Paul B. Jaskot of DePaul University, interviews her about the direction CAA may take during her two-year term.
You too can help steer CAA’s direction in the coming years. Read about the proposed changes to the CAA By-laws (pp. 12–13), cast your vote in the Board of Directors election, which ends during the Chicago conference (p. 26), and attend the Annual Members’ Business Meeting at the conference, where you can voice your concerns (pp. 24–25).
The January newsletter also contains the first of a new series of articles, entitled Centennial Celebration, that will consist of profiles and interviews with longtime CAA members. For the inaugural feature, CAA News talks to Ruth Bowman.
The deadline for submissions to the March 2010 issue is January 31; please review the guidelines before sending in your information. Questions? Contact Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor.
New Issue of Visual Resources Published
posted by Christopher Howard — January 13, 2010
“Digital Crossroads: New Directions in 3D Architectural Modeling in the Humanities” is the title of the December 2009 issue of Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation (published by Taylor & Francis/Routledge). This special issue, guest edited by Arne R. Flaten and Alyson A. Gill, includes essays covering a broad range of approaches, periods, regions, and projects that utilize 3D digital models to examine architectural forms.
After the editors’ brief overview of the papers, Gill presents synopses of various innovative programs nationally and worldwide employing digital modeling. Next, David Johnson’s article evaluates the methods of critically assessing the accuracy of computer reconstructions and proposes criteria for such appraisals. An article by Flaten follows with his description of the Ashes2Art program in which 3D models of ancient Delphi are built by undergraduates.
Sheila Bonde and Clark Maines examine movement and uncertainty in digital models and online paradigms through the virtual medieval monastery of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes. Paula Lupkin’s analysis of her reconstructed New York YMCA building raises questions about the diverse role(s) assumed by digital modelers. Finally, Christopher Johanson explores multiple realities and ontologies, and the problems and opportunities presented by geo-referenced models of Republican Rome.
Visual Resources is published in print and electronically. CAA members are eligible for the special reduced subscription rate for individuals.
December 2009 Issue of The Art Bulletin Published
posted by Christopher Howard — December 15, 2009
The December 2009 issue of The Art Bulletin, the leading publication of art-historical scholarship, has just been published. It will be mailed to those CAA members who elect to receive it, and to all institutional members.
For the first time, a work of twenty-first-century art graces the cover of the esteemed journal—Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Andries Stilte (2005). The painting accompanies an essay by Krista Thompson exploring how contemporary artists such as Wiley and Luis Gispert combine the visual language of hip-hop with late Renaissance and Baroque painting techniques.
Four essays precede Thompson’s. Leading off is Michael Schreffler, who analyzes how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spaniards described the practice of Aztec painting by looking through the lens of European art theory. Next, Emma Barker contends that Jean-Baptiste Greuze evokes both the innocence and vulnerability of children in his A Child Playing with a Dog, while implicating the viewer in the child’s fate.
Matthew Rampley’s essay expresses an opposing view of the Vienna school of art history, not as progressive and aesthetically liberal, but as a proponent of an imperialist outlook, related to the cultural politics of Austria-Hungary in the early-twentieth-century. The next contributor is Roberta Wue, who investigates the ways late-nineteenth-century Chinese artists positioned themselves in the marketplace through the classifieds in the Shanghai newspaper Shenbao. She also examines the changing relationship between artists and urban audiences in the late Qing era.
The December issue of The Art Bulletin also contains six reviews of books about tapestries at the Tudor court, engravings of Native American Indians, the gardens of Versailles and panoramic landscape painting, Buckminster Fuller, Tony Conrad, and issues on museum ownership of antiquities. Please read the full table of contents for more details.
Executive Summary of the New CAA Strategic Plan
posted by Christopher Howard — December 10, 2009
The executive summary for CAA’s Strategic Plan 2010–2015 is now available for download from the CAA website. During the strategic-planning process, a task force comprising members of the Board of Directors, CAA staff and committees, and more reviewed the mission, needs, and long-term goals of CAA. The 2010–2015 plan contains new mission, vision, and values statements and identifies seven important goals of the organization that are intended to meet the needs of all members in the visual arts.
The seven goals outlined in the plan focus on promoting the visual arts and meeting the needs of CAA’s membership, while expanding the programs, publications, and finances in order to do so. Some important strategies for accomplishing these goals include strengthening CAA’s ability to represent the visual arts, improving communication with national and international members, and establishing and identifying new sources of earned revenue. In his letter prefacing the summary, Paul B. Jaskot, CAA president, states, “With the plan in place, CAA will be able to advocate for the visual arts nationally and internationally and create new opportunities for dialogue among our members.”
For more details, see Jaskot’s letter, download the executive summary, and read the new mission, vision, and values statements.
New CAA Member Benefit: Humanities E-Book
posted by Nia Page — December 04, 2009
Humanities E-Book, a project of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), offers unlimited access to its collection of nearly three thousand cross-searchable, full-text titles across the humanities and related social sciences. Titles, which include fifty-six CAA Monographs on the Fine Arts, have been selected and peer reviewed by ACLS constituent learned societies for their continued importance and value in teaching and researching. The collection, which grows by about five hundred books a year, includes both in- and out-of-print titles published from the 1880s to the present. Humanities E-Book titles also link to publishers’ websites and to online reviews in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other sites.
Individual Subscriptions
As a special benefit of CAA membership, individual members can acquire a twelve-month, renewable subscription to Humanities E-Book for $35, which helps sustain the resource for the entire scholarly community.
Individual subscriptions are an attractive option for those whose institutions do not already subscribe to Humanities E-Book, or for CAA members who might not be affiliated with a subscribing institution. Please check this list to see if your institution subscribes.
When completing the Humanities E-Book’s online purchase module, choose the College Art Association from the Society Affiliation pull-down menu and enter your CAA member number. Be sure to review the terms of service before subscribing. For inquiries, please write to subscriptions@hebook.org or call 212-697-1505.
Institutional Subscriptions
Humanities E-Book offers a special 10 percent discount on subscriptions to institutional CAA members. Subscriptions range from $450 to $3,125, depending on the size of your institution.
Institutional subscription information, including pricing, is available on the Humanities E-Book website. For a free trial, a subscription for your school, museum, or organization, or further information, please write to info@hebook.org and mention that you are an institutional CAA member.
CAA Announces 2009 Wyeth Publication Grant Recipients
posted by Christopher Howard — December 02, 2009
CAA is pleased to announce four recipients of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant for 2009:
- Hiroko Ikegami, The Great Migrator: Robert Rauschenberg and the Global Rise of American Art, MIT Press
- Kevin D. Murphy, Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, Maine: Commerce, Culture, and Community on the Eastern Frontier, University of Massachusetts Press
- David Raskin, Donald Judd’s Local Orders: Art, Principles, and Activism, Yale University Press
- Alison Syme, A Touch of Blossom: John Singer Sargent and the Queer Flora of Fin-de-Siècle Art, Pennsylvania State University Press
Since 2005, Wyeth grants have annually supported one or more book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art, visual studies, 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 purposes of this grant program, “American art” is defined as art created in the United States, Canada, and Mexico prior to 1970.
Application criteria and guidelines for the Wyeth Grant are available at www.collegeart.org/wyeth or from nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2010.