History of Art: Recent Episodes
Oxford University
History of Art at the University of Oxford draws on a long and deep tradition of teaching and studying the subject. The core academic staff of the History of Art Department work on subjects from medieval European architecture to modern Chinese art. Over fifty associated academic staff (e.g. in Anthropology, Classics, History, Oriental Studies, and the Ruskin School of Drawing) include teachers and researchers across the full global and historical range of art and visual culture. This offers students exciting possibilities to take courses and receive supervision on a very wide range of topics, and to develop their own interests in art history.
Professor Amy M. Mooney, Terra Foundation Visiting Professor in American Art Hosted by TORCH. Moderator; Alastair Wright: Alastair Wright is Head of the History of Art Department and Tutorial Fellow in Art History at St John’s College, Oxford. Regarding the Portrait: The Primers
In this four-part lecture series, Professor Amy Mooney examines the central role portraiture played in fostering social change in the United States from the 1890s through the 1950s. Drawing from her forthcoming book, Portraits of Noteworthy Character, Professor Mooney considers the strategic visual campaigns generated by individuals and social institutions that used the portrait to advance their progressive political ideologies. From the etiquette texts used at historically black colleges to the post cards produced by Hull House to the Harmon Foundation’s exhibition of “Portraits of Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin,” this series explores the ways in which the portrait was employed to build social relationships and negotiate modern subjectivity.
This lecture examines the factors that influenced the development of pedagogical strategies for reading and realizing the portrait as conceived for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the post-bellum era. Through engravings illustrating etiquette books and early photography, Professor Mooney traces the precedents for the ideological situating of black subjectivity within the politics of respectability that later inform the rhetorical trope of the New Negro.
Dr John Blakinger speaks about iconoclasm in American history and the vandalism of Confederate monuments. Iconoclasm is an enduring American value. In 1776, a mob destroyed a statue of King George III in Bowling Green, New York, establishing the new American Republic as a nation built on image destruction. More recent acts of visual violence have targeted Confederate monuments, transforming them both physically and digitally. Images of vandalism that circulate online are powerful enough to re-cast bronze and shatter stone.
Dr John Blakinger discusses 'Scaffold', Sam Durant's contentious sculpture. Sam Durant's controversial sculpture Scaffold, a wooden structure recalling specific gallows from American history, ignited a firestorm at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2017. The work resembled the scaffold used in nearby Mankato, Minnesota, where 38 Dakota men were executed just days after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation - it was the largest mass execution ever held on American soil. This historical reference prompted a backlash from Native communities, who called for the work's removal. Can art help us dismantle the past and loosen its shackles? Or are we always forced to remember?
Dr John Blakinger speaks about the controversy surrounding Dana Shutz's painting of the body of Emmett Till exhibited at the 2017 Whitney Biennnial. Who has the right to see in an age of image overload? At the 2017 Whitney Biennial, a painting by the artist Dana Schutz depicting the body of Emmett Till, a fifteen-year-old African-American boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955, incited outrage. The artists Hannah Black and Parker Bright condemned the work as "black death spectacle." The episode resuscitated debates over the use and abuse of traumatic pictures, and the way visual images propelling the Civil Rights movement also exploited their subjects.
Dr John Blakinger talks about demonstrations against the Whitney Museum of American Art related to its connections with the tear gas manufacturer Safariland. In November 2018, an image of migrants fleeing tear gas at the US-Mexico border ricocheted across the internet, inspiring protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies but also against a more unlikely target: the Whitney Museum of American Art. The artist-activist collective Decolonize This Place stormed the museum in demonstration against the Whitney’s connections to Safariland, a manufacturer of tear gas. Andy Warhol’s silkscreen canvases, then on view for a major retrospective, took on new meanings during these events. The artist’s “Death in America” paintings depicting turmoil in the 1960s came to life in the gallery.
This lecture was delivered at the University of Oxford History of Art Department’s Research Seminar series by T.J Clark Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley.
Professor Miguel de Baca gives his final Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on Gilbert Stuart’s unfinished painting of George Washington.
Professor Miguel de Baca gives his third Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the works of Georgia O’Keeffe and Martha Graham. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History.
Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.
Professor Miguel de Baca gives his second Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the work of Dave the Potter. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History.
Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.
Professor Miguel de Baca gives his first Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on two depictions of suicide. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History.
Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.
This lecture forms part of series entitled Introduction to the History of Art, a core course taught to the first year undergraduate History of Art students.
Professor David Lubin gives his final Terra Lecture in American Art on the Kennedys. David M. Lubin is the Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor 2016-17 at Oxford University, as well as the Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Professor Lubin is the author of Act of Portrayal (Yale, 1985), Picturing a Nation (Yale, 1994), Titanic (BFI, 1999), and Shooting Kennedy (California, 2003), which was awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Eldredge Prize for distinguished scholarship in American art. His most recent book is Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War (Oxford, 2016). He also co-edited World War I and American Art (Princeton, 2016), the exhibition catalogue for a blockbuster show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later the New-York Historical Society.
Professor David Lubin gives his third Terra Lecture in American Art on painter George Bellows. David M. Lubin is the Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor 2016-17 at Oxford University, as well as the Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Professor Lubin is the author of Act of Portrayal (Yale, 1985), Picturing a Nation (Yale, 1994), Titanic (BFI, 1999), and Shooting Kennedy (California, 2003), which was awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Eldredge Prize for distinguished scholarship in American art. His most recent book is Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War (Oxford, 2016). He also co-edited World War I and American Art (Princeton, 2016), the exhibition catalogue for a blockbuster show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later the New-York Historical Society.
Professor David Lubin gives his second Terra Lecture in American Art on Howard Pyle’s illustrations of Robin Hood and pirates and their representation in movies. David M. Lubin is the Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor 2016-17 at Oxford University, as well as the Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Professor Lubin is the author of Act of Portrayal (Yale, 1985), Picturing a Nation (Yale, 1994), Titanic (BFI, 1999), and Shooting Kennedy (California, 2003), which was awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Eldredge Prize for distinguished scholarship in American art. His most recent book is Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War (Oxford, 2016). He also co-edited World War I and American Art (Princeton, 2016), the exhibition catalogue for a blockbuster show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later the New-York Historical Society.
Professor David Lubin gives his first Terra Lecture in American Art on the Shaw Memorial in Boston. David M. Lubin is the Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor 2016-17 at Oxford University, as well as the Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Professor Lubin is the author of Act of Portrayal (Yale, 1985), Picturing a Nation (Yale, 1994), Titanic (BFI, 1999), and Shooting Kennedy (California, 2003), which was awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Eldredge Prize for distinguished scholarship in American art. His most recent book is Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War (Oxford, 2016). He also co-edited World War I and American Art (Princeton, 2016), the exhibition catalogue for a blockbuster show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later the New-York Historical Society.
This lecture forms part of a series entitled "Antiquity After Antiquity" and is for first year Undergraduate History of Art students. It was delivered at the University of Oxford History of Art Department. An Van Camp (Curator of Northern European Art at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology) explores the practice of Netherlandish artists travelling to Italy from the fifteenth until the seventeenth century. The lecture starts with an overview of the different kinds of Netherlandish artists and their reasons why they went to Italy (illustrated mainly by works on paper from the collections of the Ashmolean Museum). The second part of the lecture focuses on Jan Brueghel the Elder in particular and the different types of drawings he made in Italy after he returned to Flanders, some in preparation of print series.
This lecture forms part of a series entitled "Art History: Concepts and Methods" and is for second year Undergraduate and MSt History of Art students. It was delivered at the University of Oxford History of Art Department. This lecture introduces students to the stylistic and theoretical frameworks of post-modernism, distinguishing its characteristics from those associated with modernism, and exploring its varied expressions in art, architecture and visual culture from the 1960s until the present.
A collaborative venture between the University of Oxford's Edgar Wind Society and the Taylor Institution Library, this lecture discusses Sir Robert Taylor and his collection of architectural books & included a display of selected items from the collection
This lecture forms part of series entitled 'Art History: Concepts and Methods', offered to second year Undergraduate and MSt History of Art students.
This lecture forms part of series entitled Introduction to the History of Art, a core course taught to the first year undergraduate History of Art students.
This lecture forms part of series entitled Introduction to the History of Art, a core course taught to the first year undergraduate History of Art students.
A careers event organised by Lucy Hawkins (Careers Service) and Rachel Woodruff, (History of Art Dept) with speakers from the Arts and Heritage sectors, including recent alumni of the Department, providing insights into their careers. Collections Management in a Historic House: Emily Roy, Assistant Registrar and Joint Collections Manager, Waddesdon Manor, National Trust
A careers event organised by Lucy Hawkins (Careers Service) and Rachel Woodruff, (History of Art Dept) with speakers from the Arts and Heritage sectors, including recent alumni of the Department, providing insights into their careers. Finding Yourself in Advertising: How to decide before you get here, there or nowhere: Elle Graham-Dixon, Senior Planner, Karmarana
A careers event organised by Lucy Hawkins (Careers Service) and Rachel Woodruff, (History of Art Dept) with speakers from the Arts and Heritage sectors, including recent alumni of the Department, providing insights into their careers. Welcome and overview: What do History of Art students do?: Lucy Hawkins, Careers Adviser University of Oxford Careers Service
A careers event organised by Lucy Hawkins (Careers Service) and Rachel Woodruff, (History of Art Dept) with speakers from the Arts and Heritage sectors, including recent alumni of the Department, providing insights into their careers. Welcome and overview: what do History of Art graduates do? Lucy Hawkins, Careers Adviser University of Oxford Careers Service Education in museums and galleries Ruth Millington, Education Officer Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art Production and development of exhibition content and publications at the Victoria and Albert Museum Holly Harris, Freelance Art and Design Research and Writer V and A Becoming a Specialist at Christie's Katharine Arnold, Associate Specialist, Post-War and Contemporary Art Christie's and Toby Monk, Recruitment Manager Regional Visual Arts Development Lucy Phillips, Arts Coordinator OVADA Questions for all speakers
This lecture was delivered at the University Of Oxford History Of Art Department's Research Seminar series by Dr Matthew Walker, History of Art Department, University of Oxford. The paper explores the architectural and antiquarian writings of Francis Vernon, a member of the Royal Society of London and a traveller in Greece and the Ottoman Empire in the 1670s. Vernon wrote the first account of the Athenian Acropolis in the English language and was amongst the very first English people to see the ruins of ancient Greece firsthand. The paper also brings to light the survival of Vernon's travel journal, a remarkable document that contains some of the very first Western descriptions and illustrations of temples such as the Parthenon and the Erechtheion.
This lecture forms part of series entitled Introduction to the History of Art, a core course taught to the first year undergraduate History of Art students.
This lecture forms part of series entitled 'Introduction to the History of Art', a core course taught to the first year undergraduate History of Art students.
This lecture is one of a series of eight relating to an optional third year undergraduate course, 'Painting and Culture in Ming China' which can be taken by History of Art and History students.
In this lecture recorded as a part of the University of Oxford History of Art Department's Research Seminar series, Professor Leonard Barkan (Princeton University) discusses the theme "Michelangelo: A Life on Paper". Recording date - 4th November 2010.