Art History

We are very grateful for the financial support of Campus Auxiliary Services that has made this important event possible. Please feel free to contact Art History Chair, Keely Heuer, at heuerk@newpaltz.edu or x3829 if you have any questions or if you wish to request accommodations.

Everyone is welcome to a fascinating demonstration of the tintype photographic process by photographer Tom DeLooza from preparation of the plate, to exposure, to development, and fixing.

This event is organized by Professor Beth E. Wilson in conjunction with her History of Photography class.

If you have accessibility questions or need accommodations to fully participate, contact Prof. Beth E. Wilson at wilsonb@newpaltz.edu or x 3896 as soon as possible.

Greetings everyone!

I am so delighted to welcome you to the fifth annual SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium, which has again exceeded our wildest expectations since the event’s inception by the SUNY New Paltz Art History Association in 2018.

The response to 2023’s call for abstracts was astounding, and the leaders of the Art History Association, who selected this year’s papers through a blind review process, had quite the challenge, ultimately doubling the number of papers that were accepted for the Symposium in 2022.

To accommodate so many worthy student-scholars, we doubled up the sessions during many of our usual time slots and added a fourth day to the event.

The Presenters’ pages have links to the individual papers on their respective day’s schedule. Session Recordings will be availalbe from the Symposium website at the end of April 2023.

Òur Keynote Speaker was Dr. Aaron M. Hyman, Assistant Professor of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University. He works on northern European art and the art of the Spanish Empire from a global perspective, with a focus on the long seventeenth century. His first book, Rubens in Repeat: The Logic of the Copy in Colonial Latin America (2021) explores the transmission of northern European prints to the Spanish Americas and the varying ways colonial artists engaged these materials. His talk for the Symposium is connected to his current book project—Formalities: The Visual Potential of Script in Art of the Early Modern Spanish World—that discusses the unusual quantity of written words on works of art created from c. 1540-1700 across the transatlantic Spanish Empire. Dr. Hyman has received many prestigious fellowships and awards for his scholarship, and we were delighted to have him share his innovative and exciting work with us.

The Symposium would not exist without our wonderful student presenters and their incredibly supportive faculty, family members, and friends. I am so grateful to all of you for making it possible to celebrate so much scholastic achievement. I also wish to express my deep appreciation for our excellent student moderators and for Susan Smutny, who provides us with such spectacular technical support. We truly had a memorable weekend, filled with thought-provoking ideas, engaging discussion, and many new friendships!

With warmest wishes,

Professor Keely Heuer
Chair, Department of Art History
SUNY New Paltz

Abstract:

Around 1608, Peter Paul Rubens produced an oil sketch of the face of a Black man, a head study that the Flemish artist would ultimately mobilize in a large painting of the Adoration of the Magi. To make the initial sketch, he reached for a sheet of merchant paper scrawled with a list of transactions—sums exchanged for goods received and shipped. It would be easy to wave this away as a case of simple, frugal reuse: the artist reached for what was at hand, readily and cheaply available. This talk, instead, argues that the sheet mattered quite a bit more and shaped not only Rubens’s aesthetic choices but also the thematic resonances that accreted around a figure that would play a large role in the artist’s career and pictorial imaginary.

About Dr. Hyman

Dr. Hyman, Assistant Professor of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University, works on northern European art and the art of the Spanish Empire from a global perspective, with a focus on the long seventeenth century. His first book, Rubens in Repeat: The Logic of the Copy in Colonial Latin America (2021) explores the transmission of northern European prints to the Spanish Americas and the varying ways colonial artists engaged these materials. His talk for the Symposium is connected to his current book project—Formalities: The Visual Potential of Script in Art of the Early Modern Spanish World—that discusses the unusual quantity of written words on works of art created from c. 1540-1700 across the transatlantic Spanish Empire. Dr. Hyman has received many prestigious fellowships and awards for his scholarship, and we were delighted to have him share his innovative and exciting work with us.

Art History is hosting a Networking Soirée for art history majors, minors, and concentrators, this Thursday, March 30th in the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art Lobby from 7:00-8:30PM!

This event is meant to help our students get over their jitters about talking to folks they do not know and to learn how to make meaningful connections with others that will help them achieve their future goals.

We encourage art history students to bring a friend with them (who does not have to be an art history major/minor/concentrator) to participate. Socialize and polish your networking skills with wonderful colleagues from across the campus., It should be a truly delightful event!

All current and prospective students are welcome to Careers in Art History 2023, an annual virtual panel discussion with young alumnx of the Art History Department at SUNY New Paltz.

Students can explore their career options with five alumnx who will share their experiences, accomplishments, and caveats during an informal, moderated discussion. A Q & A session will follow.

The Zoom meeting begins on Thursday, March 23, at 7:00 PM. Registration is required; use the QR code belor or go to the link on this page to register.

Our 2023 Careers Panelists are:

• Gabriel Chalfin-Piney '18 Arts Administrator, Organizer, & Artist, Chicago Area
• Sarah Fisk '14, Inventory Control Coordinator, UOVO Art Storage, Brooklyn
• Ameya Grant '18, Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (MSc) and History of Art and Archaeology (MA) Dual Degree Student at The Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts-NYU
• Emily Koller-Apelskog '15, Fellows Program Coordinator, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
• Elva Rivera '16, Tattooer, Artist, Educator, & Organizer, Poughkeepsie

Student comments from a past Careers in Art History Panel:

• "It was very nice how intimate the event was. Awesome to be able to network beforehand."
• "More, More, More...please & Thank you!"
• "Very refreshing and innovative!"
• "It was definitely inspirational hearing the stories and careers of the alumni. It made me feel even more driven to pursue my passion of AH.

The Art History Association is pleased to announce the start of its spring lecture series, which focuses on Latin American and Latinx visual and material culture. We are kicking things off with a fantastic virtual talk by Dr. Anna Indych-López, Professor of Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center at 6:30 PM on Thursday, March 2nd via Zoom (Registration Required).

Dr. Indych-López’s talk, "Marías, Pachucas, Cholas: Judy Baca’s Chicana Tough Girls," will focus on Las Tres Marías, a performative work for the first known group exhibition of art made by Chicanas, held at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. In the nearly life-size mixed-media triptych, she invoked the figures of the pachuca (the 1940s Mexican American woman zoot suiter known for her distinctive style and resistance) and the chola (her 1970s streetwise counterpart).

Dr. Indych-López is a renowned scholar of modern and contemporary art among Latin American, U.S., transatlantic, Afro-diasporic, and Latinx networks. Her work investigates art in the public sphere, especially in Mexico, as well as Latinx and U.S.-Mexico borderlands contemporary art, focusing on cross-cultural intellectual and aesthetic exchanges, the polemics of realisms, and spatial politics.

All are welcome to attend the talk, but Zoom registration is required. Please register for the Zoom meeting with this QR code or click the link above. We hope to see you at this celebration of Chicana culture!

Following The Thread (2021, 22") provides a critical view of the delicate balance Indigenous communities of fabric makers face as they struggle to maintain age-old artisanal practices in a globalized market economy. Filmmaker Kathy Brew will give a presentation after the screening. A reception will follow the event. For questions and to request accommodations, please contact Chair of Art History, Keely Heuer heuerk@newpaltz.edu (845) 257-3829.

In the Peruvian Andes, textiles are omnipresent in the lives of indigenous people; they are both eminently practical and stunningly beautiful as generations of weavers have applied their creativity to invent techniques and designs found nowhere else in the world. Textiles still form a powerful part of identity. But this identity is at risk. Indigenous people still face racism on a daily basis. And a globalized market economy that produces cheap, machine-made products destroys respect and interest in the hand-made. Infringement on the intellectual rights of native peoples only makes this worse.

The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) was established by Andean weavers and their supporters to aid in the survival of Cusqueñan textile traditions and to provide support to the indigenous people who create them. This short film presents some of the communities affiliated with the Center and includes special celebrations and ceremonies, rituals with the animals (llamas and sheep), natural dying processes, weaving and knitting demonstrations, and much more.

Film Screening, Faculty-Led Discussion (February 8)
AND
Presentation by Tamara Lanier (February 9)

The Departments of Art History and Black Studies are pleased to invite you to an inspiring two-day event highlighting Tamara Lanier’s ongoing struggle to force Harvard University to cede possession of daguerreotypes of her great-great-great grandfather, an enslaved man named Renty. These early photographs, commissioned in 1850 by a Harvard professor to support his racist conclusions regarding the “superiority” of the white race, are emblematic of America’s failure to acknowledge fully the cruelty of slavery and the ongoing issues of racism and white supremacy today. On February 8th at 7 PM, we will offer a screening of the documentary film Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard (2021, 95"), which was featured at prestigious film festivals across the country in 2022 and outlines Ms. Lanier’s story. This screening will be accompanied by contextualizing commentary from faculty representatives of the Department of Art History and Black Studies. On February 9th at 7 PM, we will have the pleasure of hearing from Ms. Lanier herself, who will give an in-person talk on what has happened in her case against Harvard since the filming of the documentary. Her presentation will be followed with a reception. Both events will be held in LC 104.

We are very grateful for the financial support of Campus Auxiliary Services that has made this important event possible. Please feel free to contact Art History Chair, Keely Heuer, at heuerk@newpaltz.edu or x3829 if you have any questions or if you wish to request accommodations.

The Art History Association and the Department of Art History are very pleased to announce a virtual address on April 7^th at 7 PM by Dr. Renée Ater, Provost Visiting Professor and Director of Africana Studies at Brown University, entitled Memoryscapes of Slavery: The Slave Dwelling as Remains and Commemorative Object.

This talk is the inaugural keynote address of the annual SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium. The Symposium comprises eleven sessions over the three subsequent days, Friday, April 8^th through Sunday, April 10^th. The SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium is the largest event of its kind in the United States, featuring talks from nearly one hundred students representing eighty collegiate institutions located across the globe.

The Symposium website schedule page to register for all other sessions as well as the Keynote, may be reached at  https://tinyurl.com/2022SNPUAHS-Session-Register.