Art History MA candidate symposium

This Friday (May 25th), the UC Davis Art History Program will hold its annual MA candidate symposium under the title “Aesthetics and Affects in Ages of Crisis.” Six candidates will present their final thesis research:

Sheena Campbell: “Little Venus in a Blue Armchair: Reclaiming Mary Cassatt’s Avant-Garde Gambit”
Monica Butler: “Chinese Painting Translated: Lang Jingsan’s Composite Photographs and the Creation of a Modern Chinese Art, 1934-1949″
Kamal Zargar: “Art as Power: Exhibitions of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art 1999-2005/2009-2012″
Nicoletta Rousseva: “A Parallel Space, A Common Space: Rethinking Sovereignty through the Work of Alban Muja”
Geoffrey Wildanger: “Andrea Fraser and the Affects of Catastrophe”
Anne-Catherine Titus: “Paul Delaroche’s ‘Execution of Lady Jane Grey’: Restaging History”

The symposium will be held in the Art Annex (TCS Building), Main Room from 1-4 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Symposium poster available here.

Congratulations 2012 MA graduates!

Art History colloquium: September 30th

Join us for the Art History Program’s colloquium “Art Between Europe & Asia in the First Global Age of Trade.” This colloquium will be held Friday, September 30th at 3:00 pm in Art 217. Timothy Brook, chair in Chinese Research at the Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, will present “China on Vermeer’s Table: The Cultural Impact of Early Global Trade” and Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Frederick Marquand Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, will address “Reflections on World Art History.” The colloquium has been made possible by the generous support of Alan Templeton (UC Davis alum 1982), and by the Art History Program, the  Davis Humanities Institute, the Department of East Asian Studies and the Mellon Initiative in Early Modern Studies.

The VRF has some copies of material written by Brook and Kaufmann for review as well as their CVs. You may also want listen to this podcast interview of Brook by Russ Roberts on EconTalk.  For a flyer, click here. For more information, contact Jeffrey Ruda, Chair, Art History Program.

Visiting the Art and Art History Masters’ shows will improve your health

A recent study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health concluded that men who participate in cultural activities, such as visiting museums and attending the ballet, are happier and healthier. Finally, it pays to be artsy.

And with perfect timing, our Art History and Art Studio Masters candidates are here to help you along your path to well-being. This week, the Art History Program will hold its annual MA candidate symposium, Constructing Identity: Image and Ownership, this Friday, May 27 from 1:30 to 5 pm in Art 217. Boghan Damian, Andrea Lesovsky, Graham McLean, Brittany McKinney, Melissa Gustin, Kristen Koch, Crystal Fountain and Nick Nabas will present their final thesis research.

The following Friday, June 3 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm marks the opening of the Art Studio MFA thesis exhibition, The House of Other at the Richard L Nelson Gallery. The show will feature the work of Jen Cohen, Lisa Rybovich Cralle, Manuel Fernando Rios, Matthew Taylor, Paul Taylor and Mathew Zefeldt.

Congratulations to our 2011 MA and MFA graduates! Both events are free and open to the public and are guaranteed to increase your fitness levels and maybe even turn-around a bad hair day. (source: msnbc.com, May 23, 2011)

Welcome back students, faculty & spring!

Happy Spring Quarter everyone! In the spirit of Springtime, we thought it appropriate to include an image of our resident chicken who makes her home behind the VRF. There’s a lot going on this quarter: the Art Studio Lecture Series continues with talks by artists Desiree Holman (April 7) and Anders Ruhwald (April 21) and a conversation between writer and critic Bill Berkson and the Nelson Gallery’s Renny Prtikin (April 28). The Nelson Gallery is showing “Across the Great Divide: a Photo Chronicle of the Counterculture”, an exhibition of photographs by Roberta Price and guest curated by Professor Simon Sadler (Art History and Design Programs).  Don’t miss the panel discussion on March 31 that accompanies the exhibition. The “Touching Base” exhibition continues at the Pence Gallery until April 21. “Touching Base” is curated by Professor Robin Hill (Art Studio) and includes 11 former UCD art majors.

And of course the VRF is open too: Spring Quarter hours are 8:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Thursday and Friday by appointment. Hope to see you soon in the VRF.