| IN DISCUSSION
Archive of Conferences and Workshops
It's About Time! Building a New Discipline: Time-Based Media Art Conservation
The TBM symposium 2018 promoted education and training opportunities for TBM as a new specialization within art conservation and provided a forum for educators, artists, art historians, museum curators and directors, collectors, gallerists, engineers, computer scientists, and conservators to foster TBM art conservation as a discipline on an international level.
More information about It's About Time!," including video
Crossing Boundaries
“Crossing Boundaries: Making World Art History” is the first of a series of workshops aimed at providing a space for creative thinking, where ideas and views can be shared and tested, and cross-institutional collaborations can be formed.
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Memory Spaces Collaborative Conference
In 2012, a team of curators at the Den Gamle By museum in Denmark and a group of researchers based in the Aarhus University Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Center on Autobiographical Memory Research began an innovative form of art therapy utilizing museum settings to engage dementia patients and their care givers.
More information about "Memory Spaces"
Publishing Art History Digitally: The Present and Future
This event brought together art historians and publishing experts to share their views on the future of publishing digital art history. Combining a lecture and two roundtables, this symposium was of interest to all those involved in, or wishing to embark on, digital publishing, as well as to those who are looking for solutions to publishing digital humanities research in compact online formats.
More information about "Publishing Art History Digitally," including video
Digital Art History in Practice
Organized by NYC Digital Art History
The Institute of Fine Arts participated in NYC Digital Humanities Week by hosting "Digital Art History in Practice." This day long event included lectures in the morning and a Digi Café in the afternoon where visitors met like-minded individuals, brought their art history questions and learned a digital tool.
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Helen Frankenthaler: A Symposium
This symposium explored new perspectives on the work of artist Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011). Co-organized by Robert Slifkin, Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, and Pepe Karmel, Associate Professor of Art History, NYU, in partnership with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, this afternoon program featured presentations by five leading scholars of postwar modern art.
More information on the "Helen Frankenthaler Symposium," including video
Mellon Research Initiative: Surfaces (15th-19th Centuries)
Organized by Noemie Etienne, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Fine Arts-NYU
This one-day symposium addresses the issue of surface in paintings, but also in sculptures, architecture and the decorative arts in Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries. The focus of this reflection is an examination of how surfaces function: how do their specific properties challenge representation or the viewer? How do they determine the consumption and engagement with the object? Later variations such as graffiti, repairs, or traces of multiple hands, may also be of interest in understanding how the surface of an artwork is redefined over time.
More information on "Surfaces (15th-19th Centuries)"
Representations of Musicians in the Coroplastic Art of the Ancient World: Iconography, Ritual Contexts and Functions
Terracottas figurines with representations of musicians are a privileged field of investigation in understanding the importance of music in both its production and performative contexts. Figurines of male and female musicians are emblematic of the close link between musical practice and the sacred and ritual spheres. They contribute not only to the reconstruction of what music and the production of music meant for ancient societies, but also provide information concerning the relationship of performance to the deities, and about which musical instruments were best suited to the particulars of diverse ritual occasions, including sacred and funerary contexts.
More information on "Representations of Musicians in the Coroplastic Art of the Ancient World," including video
Field/Work: Object and Site
The Institute of Fine Arts has convened three related panels with the theme of Field/Work in order to explore topics arising from the work of the Mellon Research Initiative. The Initiative is pleased to take the occasion of the CAA annual meeting to announce the reports from the area-based committees – archaeology, conservation, and art history – and to continue to discuss key questions regarding future directions in graduate training, in teaching, and in research.
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From 'Surface' to 'Substrate': The Archaeology, Art History, and Science of Material Transfers
The movement of materials beyond their source areas is an elementary feature of human social life. The history of complex material transfers can be traced as a continuous thread from today’s global commodity flows back to the prehistoric origins of our species, when exotic substances such as ochre and shell were transported over great distances to be deployed in rituals for the dead. In recent decades the empirical base from which the history of material transfers is written has undergone a significant but rarely examined transformation.
More information on "Surface to Substrate," including video
The Koons Effect
On the occasion of the Whitney’s exhibition Jeff Koons: A Retrospective
, this symposium brings together artists, curators, and scholars to consider Koons’s significance in contemporary art and culture as well as his dialogue with certain narratives of Western art history.
More information on "The Koons Effect," including video
Materiality in Japan
Japan is widely regarded as an exemplar in terms of the preservation of material integrity, the perpetuation of historical production techniques and the responsible preservation of works of architecture and artifacts in museum contexts. The Japanese certification system for Cultural Property – which also includes the category of Living National Treasures for specialist craftsmen who embody manufacturing techniques as Intangible Cultural Property – has earned far-reaching acclaim. It is frequently overlooked, however, that there is actually a wide range of divergent approaches towards originality and authenticity even in contemporary Japan. While some of these inconsistencies find their counterparts in the West, others are related to pre-modern cultural practices, e.g. concurrent concepts of artifacts in divergent contexts of reception and evaluation.
More information on "Materiality in Japan," including video
Is Contemporary Art History?
In the past few years, interest in contemporary art as a viable subject for art historical scholarship and pedagogy has substantially expanded. As increasing numbers of graduate students pursue dissertations and masters theses on the art produced in their lifetimes, many art history programs have sought to enlarge course offerings and faculty expertise in these fields. While these trends certainly reflect the growing clout of contemporary art in the marketplace and museums it may also suggest a larger shift in the discipline of art history itself.
More information on "Is Contemporary Art History?", including video
Workshop on Digital Tools
The Workshop on Digital Tools examined the use and potential of digital technologies in the research of art history, archaeology, and conservation. With support from the Mellon Foundation, the IFA distributed grants to five students to further their research by learning and applying tools such as GIS technology and ImageJ software. At the workshop, the students presented the progress of their research and their experience of using digital tools.
More information on the "Workshop on Digital Tools," including video
Conservation and Its Contexts
This conference was organized by Jim Coddington (Chief Conservator, The Museum of Modern Art, New York) as part of the IFA's Mellon Research Initiative.
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Art History and the Art of Description
This conference was organized by Jas Elsner (Humfrey Payne Senior Research Fellow in Classical Archaeology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University and Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago) as part of the IFA's Mellon Research Initiative.
More information on "Art History and the Art of Description," including video
Archaeology, Heritage, and the Mediation of Time
This conference was oragnized by David Wengrow (Professor of Comparative Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College London) as part of the IFA's Mellon Research Initiative.
More information on "Archaeology, Heritage, and the Mediation of Time," including video
Duke House: A Case Study in Architecture, Decoration, and Art History
2012 marks the hundredth year since the completion of the Duke House – originally designed for tobacco magnate, James B. Duke by the Philadelphia architect, Horace Trumbauer. In 1958, Mrs. James B. Duke and her daughter Miss Doris Duke donated the structure to New York University to house the Institute of Fine Arts. Architect Robert Venturi was charged with adapting the house for the Institute's use, which he did without altering its original architecture.
The Institute has observed this anniversary with programs that explored the Duke House in the context of architecture, urbanism and the social history of New York. On February 1-2, 2013 we will mark the close of the centennial celebrations with the conference Duke House: A Case Study in Architecture, Decoration, and Art History. The conference will consider the IFA's presence at the Duke House by looking at the building – from its commissioning by the Dukes to its eventual transformation into an educational and research facility (Friday, February 1), as well as the work and influence of some of the professors who have been its inhabitants (Saturday, February 2) – Donald Hansen, Richard Krautheimer, Erwin Panofsky, and Kirk Varnedoe.
More information on "Duke House: A Case Study in Architecture, Decoration, and Art History," including video.
Mapping: Geography, Power, and the Imagination in the Art of the Americas
Part of the Mellon Research Initiative. Organized by Jennifer Raab (IFA/Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, 2011 - 2013) with Kara Fiedorek and Elizabeth Frasco (IFA PhD students).
Digital Art History
Part of the Mellon Research Initiative. Organized by Jim Coddington, Chief Conservator, Museum of Modern Art.
More information on "Digital Art History," including video
Publishing and the PhD
Part of the Mellon Research Initiative. A public workshop on the art history publication in relation to the dissertation.
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Beyond Representation: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Nature of Things
Part of the Mellon Research Initiative. This event was jointly sponsored by Bard Graduate Center and the IFA's Mellon Research Initiative, and organized by Jas Elsner, Finbarr Barry Flood, and Ittai Weinryb.
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Image and Ontology in Comparative Perspective
Part of the Mellon Research Initiative. This event was organized by David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
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Comparativism
Part of the Mellon Research Initiative. This event was organized by Jas Elsner, Humfrey Payne Senior Research Fellow in Classical Archaeology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University and Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago
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Presentism
Part of the Mellon Research Initiative. This event was organized by Jim Coddington, Chief Conservator, Museum of Modern Art.
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Contemporary Transatlantic Dialogues: Art History, Criticism, and Exhibition Practices in Spain and the United States
This symposium focused on cultural and artistic dialogues between Spanish and American artists and scholars in the post-war era. The sessions discussed three topics: art history, contemporary criticism, and museums and exhibition practices.
Photo Archives and the Photographic Memory of Art History, Part III: Hidden Archives
This conference was a third in an ongoing series that investigates the role of photographic archives and collections in art historical studies. It explored the role of “hidden” photo archives in current art historical research, emphasizing those collections that are not digitized, catalogued, publicized, or readily accessible except in person and on-site.
More information on the Photo Archives conference
Symposium in Honor of Marvin Trachtenberg, Edith Kitzmiller Professor of the History of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts
This event was made possible through the generous support of the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
"Tout art s'apprend par art" A Symposium in Honor of the Fiftieth Year of Colin Eisler's Career at the Institute of Fine Arts
This event was made possible through the generous support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation.
