Art and Its Spaces is Subject of Collaborative Lecture Series by Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University

Art and Its Spaces, a lecture series planned for the 2011-12 academic year, marks the fourth collaboration between the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University in addressing contemporary issues in art history. Organized by Yve-Alain Bois, Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute, and Nathan Arrington, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at the University, the series will present four lectures beginning on December 5 and ending on April 17, 2012. All lectures will begin at 5 p.m.

“In recent years the disciplines of art history, architecture and archaeology have examined how objects and images are framed and shaped, limited and enabled by their spaces, both physical and conceptual,” said Arrington. “This series brings together speakers with expertise in a rich variety of geographical and chronological fields to explore the interaction between things and their spaces, from museum gallery to cityscape, from the body of a vase to the prejudices of the mind.”

Professors Bois and Arrington have invited leading scholars from a broad range of art historical disciplines to present the lectures. The series will open on December 5 in 101 McCormick Hall at Princeton University with Juliet Koss, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art History at Scripps College, who will speak on Model Soviets. Koss specializes in nineteenth- and twentieth-century European art, architecture, and related fields, with an emphasis on German and Russian modernism.

The remaining lectures will be held in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus. On January 24, 2012, the series will continue with Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Professor of Art History at the University of California, Berkeley. Grigsby specializes in 18th- through early 20th-century French art and visual and material culture, particularly in relation to colonial politics. On April 3, Martha Ward, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago, will speak. Ward’s research interests center on the reception of works of art and on the relationship between the theory, criticism and practice of painting. This lecture is supported by the Dr. S. T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies. The series will conclude with Mignon Nixon, Professor at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, whose work focuses on sexuality and aggression in art since 1945, in particular on questions of feminism and gender politics.

Tradition of Art History at the Institute

The history of art has been represented at the Institute since 1935, when Erwin Panofsky (Professor, 1935-62, Emeritus, 1962-68) was appointed to the Faculty of what was then the School of Humanistic Studies. Formalized as the School of Historical Studies in 1949, the School has been home to some of the world's leading art historians, including Millard Meiss (Professor, 1958-74, Emeritus, 1974-75), Irving Lavin (Professor, 1974-2001, Emeritus, 2001-present) and Kirk Varnedoe (Professor, 2002-03). A specialist in 20th-century European and American art, Yve-Alain Bois joined the Faculty in 2005.

Publications by Faculty in the School of Historical Studies have become key references for generations of art historians, and each year the School hosts scholars from around the world, who come to pursue their studies in a range of areas within art history. These scholars work alongside fellow Members specializing in the range of humanistic disciplines, from socioeconomic developments, political theory, and modern international relations, to the history of art, science, philosophy, music, and literature. In geographical terms, the School concentrates primarily on the history of Western, Near Eastern, and Far Eastern civilizations, with emphasis on Greek and Roman civilization, the history of Europe (medieval, early modern, and modern), the Islamic world, and East Asia. The School has also supported scholars whose work focuses on other regions, including Central Asia, India, Africa, and the Americas. The School actively promotes interdisciplinary research and cross-fertilization of ideas. It thereby encourages the creation of new historical enterprises.

About the Department of Art and Archeology at Princeton University

The Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, founded in 1883, has long been a leading center for the study of art, architecture and archaeology. Besides covering all periods of European art and architecture, current faculty members teach in areas as diverse as Chinese bronzes, pre-Columbian objects, Islamic art, Japanese prints, African art, American art, the history of photography and theory and criticism.