Dr. Berthold Kress Lecture
Recently, Dr. Berthold Kress, an art historian and Mayers Fellow at the Huntington Library, was brought to campus with funding from the Center for the Study of Europe, the Museum of Art, and the Department of Visual Arts. On Thursday, November 21, he delivered a public lecture to a student/faculty audience of around 180 people on iconographical research. His experience at the Warburg Institute in London, the premiere library for iconographic study in art history, contributed to an extremely beneficial tutorial for students and faculty alike on how the internet is changing our methodological practice. The next day, Dr. Kress conducted a workshop on prints using sixteenth-century works from the Museum of Art. His expertise in this field led to a lively and fascinating discussion on a variety of aspects from the historical method of paper-making to the processes of woodblock carving and metal engraving. It was a rare opportunity for students to gain insight into the practice of examining actual art objects. Dr. Kress discussed his own experiences in examining watermarks and engraving technique while engaging the students in an examination of the MOA prints. The workshop and question-and-answer lunch afterwards generated a great deal of enthusiasm among all of our students.
AHA Brown Bag
Lecture: Jenny Diersen
Jenny Diersen, the Kimball Arts Center director of education was able to join the Art History department for an AHA Brown Bag lecture. Her lecture included experience and advice for students interested in taking their AH degrees into the arena of museum work and specifically, museum education.
CSE 10th Anniversary Celebration
Students and faculty were heavily involved in the Center for the Study of Europe’s 10-year anniversary celebrations. Dr. Martha Moffitt Peacock curated an exhibition of prints for the BYU Museum of Art, “Rembrandt’s Amsterdam” and delivered a highly-attended public lecture on this subject. Professors Peacock and Heather Belnap Jensen participated in a session on women and European stereotypes, “Why European Women Don’t . . . ,“ for the Café CSE series. Students Aaron Haines (BA, 2014) and Rachel Wise (MA, 2013) were involved in the preparation of a number of events, including folk dancers, opera, a Eurovision song contest, lectures, foreign-language choirs, and so on. We are grateful for the participation in the anniversary celebration.
We Could Be Heroes
Dr. Heather Belnap Jensen and Dr. James Swensen, two of the AH faculty, presented papers at the Museum of Art’s Heroes symposium. Dr. Jensen presented her paper, “On the Dignity of Woman: JR’s Women Are Heroes”. Dr. Swensen presented, “Super Heroes and Super Villains: Pueblo Identity and Artist Jason Garcia’s Tales of Tewa Suspense”. The symposium was a success and we are happy to have had the department represented.