Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University Collaborate on "Art and Its Audiences"
"Art and Its Audiences," a lecture series for the 2009-10 academic year, marks the third 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 Bridget Alsdorf, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at the University, the series comprises eight lectures, beginning on October 8 and ending on April 22, 2010. The talks will be held at either the Institute or at the University.
Professors Bois and Alsdorf have invited leading scholars from a broad range of art historical disciplines to present the lectures. The series addresses art's relationship to its individual and collective audiences, examining the ways in which art has historically addressed, activated, conditioned or excluded its viewers. A wide range of topics will be explored, from ancient Egyptian sculpture to contemporary photography.
"In recent decades many art historians have rejected approaches focused on an artwork's authorial meaning in favor of interpretations centered around art's implications for an audience," said Bridget Alsdorf. "This lecture series will explore how the burden of meaning has historically shifted between artwork and audience across time and cultures, and how we might rethink the relationship between the art object and its viewers, both historical and contemporary."
The series will begin in 101 McCormick Hall at Princeton University with the talk "Behold the Invisible," delivered by Kaja Silverman, Professor of Rhetoric and Film Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, on Thursday, October 8 at 5:00 p.m.
The series continues with the following talks, each of which will take place at 5:00 p.m.:
"Who Were Artists in Ancient Egypt and What Audiences Did They Address?"
John Baines, Professor of Egyptology, University of Oxford
Wednesday, October 21 - Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study
"Photography after the End of Documentary Realism: Zwelethu Mthethwa's Color Photographs"
Okwui Enwezor, Dean of Academic Affairs and Senior Vice President, San Francisco Art Institute
Tuesday, November 24 - 101 McCormick Hall, Princeton University
"Landscapes and their Users: From Romantic to Modern in the Representation of Normandy"
Stephen Bann, Professor Emeritus of History of Art, University of Bristol
Wednesday, December 9 - Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study
"Reception Issues in Early Mass Visual Culture"
Michael Leja, Professor of American Art, University of Pennsylvania
Thursday, February 4, 2010 - 101 McCormick Hall, Princeton University
"The Audience as Prisoner: Reflections on the Activity of the Object"
Horst Bredekamp, Professor of Art History, Humboldt University, Berlin
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study
"All That Glitters: Image and Ornament in Early Islam"
Finbarr Barry Flood, Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Thursday, April 1, 2010 - Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study
"Materiality and Kleinarchitektur: The Economy of Scale in Renaissance Architecture"
Alina Payne, Professor of Early Modern and Modern European Architecture, Harvard University
Thursday, April 22, 2010 - 101 McCormick Hall, Princeton University
All talks are free and open to the public. No reservations or tickets are required, but seating is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, visit www.ias.edu or call 609-734-8175.
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 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. Research has also been conducted on the history of other regions, including central Asia, India and Africa. 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.
About the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of approximately 30, and it ensures the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.
The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Thirty-three Nobel Laureates and 40 out of 56 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.