Modernist Encounters and Contemporary Inquiry: Art, Appropriation, and Cultural Rights
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center and the School for Advanced Research (SAR) will be co-hosting a symposium on September 6-7, 2013. The symposium arises from questions encountered by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum staff as they prepared the exhibition Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam, and the Land.
Carolyn Kastner, Curator of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and Cynthia Chavez Lamar, Director of the Indian Arts Research Center at SAR, are the co-organizers of the symposium. Native and non-Native scholars, curators, and artists will address shared intellectual and cultural interests in the encounters between Euro- and Native-American modernists and indigenous artists and cultures.
On September 6, the keynote address “Global Indigenous Modernisms” will be given by Ruth B. Philips, Professor of Art History, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. On September 7, panel presentations aim to promote discussion on questions of interpreting and representing indigenous arts.
Speakers will include:
Jim Enote (Zuni), A:shíwí A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, Zuni Pueblo,
Aldona Jonaitis, University of Alaska Museum of the North,
Nancy Marie Mithlo (Apache), Art History and American Indian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Diane Reyna (Taos Pueblo), Student Success Center, Institute of American Indian Art,
Ryan Rice (Mohawk), Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe,
W. Jackson Rushing III, Native American Art, University of Oklahoma,.
Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo), National Museum of the American Indian,
Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi), artist and designer,
Jeffrey Gibson (Choctaw and Cherokee), abstract painter,
Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo), sculptor and installation artist.
This symposium is being presented as part of our continuing advancement of American modernist topics. Further information will be forthcoming on the Museum web site.
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center and the School for Advanced Research (SAR) will be co-hosting a symposium on September 6-7, 2013. The symposium arises from questions encountered by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum staff as they prepared the exhibition Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam, and the Land.
Carolyn Kastner, Curator of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and Cynthia Chavez Lamar, Director of the Indian Arts Research Center at SAR, are the co-organizers of the symposium. Native and non-Native scholars, curators, and artists will address shared intellectual and cultural interests in the encounters between Euro- and Native-American modernists and indigenous artists and cultures.
On September 6, the keynote address “Global Indigenous Modernisms” will be given by Ruth B. Philips, Professor of Art History, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. On September 7, panel presentations aim to promote discussion on questions of interpreting and representing indigenous arts.
Speakers will include:
Jim Enote (Zuni), A:shíwí A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, Zuni Pueblo,
Aldona Jonaitis, University of Alaska Museum of the North,
Nancy Marie Mithlo (Apache), Art History and American Indian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Diane Reyna (Taos Pueblo), Student Success Center, Institute of American Indian Art,
Ryan Rice (Mohawk), Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe,
W. Jackson Rushing III, Native American Art, University of Oklahoma,.
Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo), National Museum of the American Indian,
Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi), artist and designer,
Jeffrey Gibson (Choctaw and Cherokee), abstract painter,
Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo), sculptor and installation artist.
This symposium is being presented as part of our continuing advancement of American modernist topics. Further information will be forthcoming on the Museum web site.
Past Symposia
2011 Symposium: Challenging 1945 - Exploring Continuities in American Art, 1890s to the Present
Recent scholarship has increasingly called into question the tradition of using 1945 as a marker to separate pre-World War II developments in American art from those occurring thereafter. This division has characterized art developments of the century in terms of rupture and division, often implying that the art of its first half is inferior to that of its second. Yet, many artists who began their careers in the early 20th century lived well into its second half and produced outstanding work both before and after 1945. Moreover, the work of artists from varying decades of the period in question often depends upon or is a reaction to earlier developments in American art. Participants in this symposium will explore American art from the perspective of its continuities and inter-dependencies to further expand our understanding of this complex, nuanced and pluralistic history.
From July 14-16, 2011, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center will celebrate its 10-year anniversary with the symposium, “Challenging 1945: Exploring Continuities in American Art, 1890s to the Present.” The symposium coincides with the O’Keeffe Museum’s presentation of “Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph,” an exhibition that developed from our 2006 symposium, which addressed the dialogue between painting and photography that has been constant and ongoing since the invention of the latter in the early decades of the nineteenth century.
LOCATION: The Symposium takes place in The Mesa Ballroom, Hilton Santa Fe, 100 Sandoval Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.
2006 - PAINTING AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN AMERICAN ART: SOURCES, IDEAS, AND INFLUENCES, 1890s to the Present
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center hosted a three-day symposium, Thursday, July 6 through Saturday, July 8, 2006, in celebration of the Research Center’s fifth anniversary. Thirteen well-known leaders in the art world from around the United States participated in "Painting and Photography in American Art: Sources, Ideas, and Influences, 1890s to the Present." Their presentations explored and offered new insights into the relatively uncharted history of the exchange of ideas between painters and photographers that has influenced both mediums since photography came into being in the 19th century.
"Because making photographs is a mechanical process, photography was first viewed as something separate from and unequal to the art of painting," says Barbara Buhler Lynes, Museum Curator and The Emily Fisher Landau Director, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center. "Photographers first sought to legitimize their work as a fine art by infusing it with painterly qualities, but by the early 20th century a new generation of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz, challenged the Pictorialists by claiming that photography could achieve stature equal to painting if photographers used and asserted the distinctive characteristics of their medium. As 20th-century photographers explored and realized this objective, painters and photographers increasingly turned to what was being produced in each medium as sources of ideas for their own work. This symposium explores the history and significance of this fascinating exchange, as well as how each medium influenced and shaped the development and history of the other."
Housed in a renovated and expanded historic building located one block from the Museum, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center is the only museum-related research facility in the world devoted to the study of American Modernism (1890s to the present). It sponsors lectures, conferences, publications, and a competitive scholarship program that awards six scholarships annually to museum professionals and scholars of art history, architectural history and design, literature, music, and photography. The Center houses a highly specialized research library and an extensive archival collection related to O’Keeffe and her contemporaries. Above: The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center.
2005 - THE 1980'S: AN INTERNET CONFERENCE
Moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, The New School and Curator, Center for Art & Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County. From October 31 - November 13, 2005, The 1980s: An Internet Conference explored an extraordinary period of change in American art and life. During this period, American politics and culture underwent dramatic shifts. The election of Ronald Reagan brought about profound changes in Federal policies. And a range of political and cultural groups-crossing all ideologies-emerged as a powerful force in the nation. The cultural response to these social changes, especially in the arts, was both intense and varied. The 1980s also saw the full flowering of multiculturalism in arts and society, the freer and broader expressions of various ethnic, racial, and sexual groups often excluded from the mainstream. During this period, the so-called "culture wars" also came to full fruition. VIEW SYMPOSIUM HERE
The 1980s: An Internet Conference addressed a range of questions central to this extraordinary moment in American art, politics, and ideas:
[1] Why and how did the "multiculturalism" of the period emerge in the 1980s? What was its relationship to the civil rights, feminist, and gay and lesbian rights movements that emerged in the mid-20th century as well as the so-called "pluralist" trend of the 1970s?
[2] To what extent did the modern day "culture wars" begin in the 1980s and what is its continuing effect today?
[3] Did painting die as a relevant artistic medium in the 1980s, as some critics argued at the time? To what extent did photography and other means of mechanical reproduction supplant it? What role did the growing importance of photography play in the "death of painting" argument, and how did photographers contribute to or position themselves within it?
[4] How did new methodologies in criticism, art history, and cultural writing-including structuralism, post-structuralism, neo-Marxism, feminism, and sub-alternist and gay and lesbian studies-change the nature and style of cultural writing in the United States?
[5] What of the rise of "alternative" and community-based art institutions and activist art groups (such as the Guerilla Girls and Gran Fury) in this period?
[6] To what extent did the "center" of the American art world shift from SoHo to the East Village and to other cities, such as Los Angles, Boston, and Philadelphia?
[7] What is the importance and legacy of the East Village scene as well as the rise of artistic communities outside of New York on American art and ideas?
[8] What was the impact of AIDS on the art and culture of the United States?
2003 - MUSEUMS OF TOMORROW: AN INTERNET CONFERENCE
What is the future of the art museum? For a two-week period, October 6-19, 2003, a national group of thirty scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators discussed and debated the role of the art museum in this Internet conference. Given the increasing commercial-as well as global-direction of culture, the future of the art museum as we now know is it no longer certain. Participants explored a range of issues about the viability, relevance, effectiveness, responsibility, and role of the museum in an ever-changing world.
Welcome to the archive of Museums of Tomorrow: An Internet Conference, which was sponsored by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center through the Museum website from October 6-19, 2003, and organized and moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University; Curator, Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County.
ORGANIZATION - An international group of thirty renowned scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators participated in this two week-long discussion. The public accessed the discussion on the Museum website. The conference offered scholars, curators, artists, and the interested public from all over the world an unprecedented opportunity to talk to and listen to each other. The interchange of ideas never ceased during the two-week period of the conference, because the discussion was active and available on the Internet 24 hours a day.
OVERVIEW - What is the future of the art museum? For a two-week period, October 6-19, 2003, a national group of thirty scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators discussed and debated the role of the art museum in this Internet conference. Given the increasing commercial-as well as global-direction of culture, the future of the art museum as we now know is it no longer certain. Participants explored a range of issues about the viability, relevance, effectiveness, responsibility, and role of the museum in an ever-changing world.
This conference explored the museum of the 21st Century from multiple viewpoints touching on a number of questions: How can directors and curators respond to changing audiences and constituencies? What is the social and ethical responsibility of the museum curator or director? Who is responsible for the content of exhibitions? Should artists and critics have greater say in museum programming? What is the relationship between the art museum and other forms of cultural entertainment? What role can new media and technologies play in the future of the art museum? Should art museums reflect the increasing globalization of culture? What is the future of museum education? How should art museums address and correct pasts histories of prejudice and exclusion? Is the virtual museum the wave of the future? Are art museums doomed to extinction?
The proceedings of this conference were published in the volume Museums of Tomorrow: A Virtual Discussion, edited by Maurice Berger, co published by the Research Center and The Center for Art & Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2005. VIEW SYMPOSIUM HERE
2001 - THE MODERN/POSTMODERN DIALECTIC: AN ONLINE SYMPOSIUM, American Art and Culture, 1965-2000
For a two-week period, October 1–14, 2001, an international group of scholars, artists, and curators discussed and debated the issue of postmodernism. This online event was moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University, and offers a continuation of Defining American Modernism (1890-Present), a symposium that was held at the new Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center July 12-14, 2001. The conference offered scholars, curators, artists, and the interested public from all over the world an unprecedented opportunity to talk to and listen to each other.
What is postmodernism and is it a useful concept for understanding American art and visual culture of the past 40 years? The Modern/Postmodern Dialectic: American Art and Culture, 1965-2000 explored the artistic practices in the United States from the mid-1960s to the present in the context of the term postmodern: When and to what extent did modernism wane as a viable force in American art? How have the various liberation movements, from civil rights to feminism, influenced American art and culture and contributed to the rejection of the modernist ethos? How has globalism changed American art and culture? How have the new technologies of the past 50 years—television, personal computers, and the internet—altered the nature of progressive art in the United States? Are any of these changes innately postmodern?
For a two-week period, October 1–14, 2001, an international group of scholars, artists, and curators discussed and debated the issue of postmodernism. This online event was moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University, and offers a continuation of Defining American Modernism (1890-Present), a symposium that was held at the new Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center July 12-14, 2001. The conference offered scholars, curators, artists, and the interested public from all over the world an unprecedented opportunity to talk to and listen to each other.
The symposium is now archived on our website and is available for viewing by the public. The proceedings from this discussion are the fifth volume in the series, Issues on Cultural Theory, published by the Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In 2003 Maurice Berger edited this book, which is tentatively titled, Postmodernism?: A Virtual Discussion. VIEW SYMPOSIUM HERE
2001 - DEFINING AMERICAN MODERNISM
In celebration of its opening in July 2001, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center, organized the three-day symposium, “Defining American Modernism.” The event began on July 12 with a keynote address by Robert Storr, then curator the Museum of Modern Art and now Dean of the Yale School of Art, that addressed the meaning and significance of “modernism” in American Art from the 1890s – present. Over the next two days, thirteen distinguished scholars of American art presented papers to a standing-room only crowd about issues pertaining to American Art that dealt with various decades of the period 1980 to the present.
Top scholars in the field of American Modernism presented their ideas to sold-out crowds during the symposium, which marked the opening of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center, a component of the O'Keeffe Museum that was created to support research pertaining to American Modernism and, in particular, to the art of Georgia O'Keeffe and her place within the larger history of Modernism in America.
The purpose of the symposium was to examine the meaning of the term modern in American art, to assess the various ways in which the term has been used in the last 100 years, and to determine if it can be defined more precisely. The event was held July 12-14, 2001, and was moderated by Barbara Buhler Lynes, curator at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and The Emily Fisher Landau Director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center. The symposium was launched with a keynote address by Robert Storr, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, in which he pronounced American Modernism as being alive and well.
Symposium subjects included, among other things, discussions of Alfred Stieglitz as a major proponent and supporter of early American Modernism, as detailed by Sarah Greenough, curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. The ways in which art critic Clement Greenburg's definition of Modernism shaped thinking about this issue for generations, yet was exclusive to issues of race, gender and politics, were described by Caroline Jones, Professor of Art History at Boston University.
The role of photography figured prominently into the dissemination of the term "modern," according to Carol Squiers, curator at the International Center of Photography. And Brian Wallis, chief curator of the International Center of Photography, spoke about the many ways photography has played a major role in shaping the history of Modernism in America. Nearly all of the 13 speakers made reference to O'Keeffe, thus raising the issue of her on-going importance to the history of American Modernism.
Wallis, the last speaker, pointed out that Modernism is dead and that we have been living in a post-modern era for some time, and in challenging Robb Storr's position, crystallized two opposing ways of thinking about American Modernism. Clearly, debates and discussions on this issue must be on-going, and another was sponsored by the Museum's Research Center as an online symposium on the Museum's Website from 1-14 October, 2001 as an extension of the actual symposium. Titled The Modern/Postmodern Dialectic: American Art and Culture, 1965–2000, moderated by Maurice Berger, the online symposium gave everyone who participated the chance to present their point of view about the nature of the Modern and the Post-Modern in American Art.
Speakers Included:
July 13 - Morning
Wanda Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, Stanford University
Michael Leja, Sewell C. Biggs, Professor of American Art, University of Delaware
Kathleen A. Pyne, Professor of Art History, University of Notre Dame
Sylvia Yount, Chief Curator, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
July 13 - Afternoon
Ann Gibson, Professor and Chair, Department of Art History, University of Delaware
Caroline Jones, Professor of Art History, Boston University
Fred Wilson, Conceptual Artist, New York
July 14 - Morning
Carol Squiers, Curator, Internatinal Center for Photography
Brian Wallis, Chief Curator, International Center for Photography
From July 14-16, 2011, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center will celebrate its 10-year anniversary with the symposium, “Challenging 1945: Exploring Continuities in American Art, 1890s to the Present.” The symposium coincides with the O’Keeffe Museum’s presentation of “Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph,” an exhibition that developed from our 2006 symposium, which addressed the dialogue between painting and photography that has been constant and ongoing since the invention of the latter in the early decades of the nineteenth century.
LOCATION: The Symposium takes place in The Mesa Ballroom, Hilton Santa Fe, 100 Sandoval Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.
2006 - PAINTING AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN AMERICAN ART: SOURCES, IDEAS, AND INFLUENCES, 1890s to the Present
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center hosted a three-day symposium, Thursday, July 6 through Saturday, July 8, 2006, in celebration of the Research Center’s fifth anniversary. Thirteen well-known leaders in the art world from around the United States participated in "Painting and Photography in American Art: Sources, Ideas, and Influences, 1890s to the Present." Their presentations explored and offered new insights into the relatively uncharted history of the exchange of ideas between painters and photographers that has influenced both mediums since photography came into being in the 19th century.
"Because making photographs is a mechanical process, photography was first viewed as something separate from and unequal to the art of painting," says Barbara Buhler Lynes, Museum Curator and The Emily Fisher Landau Director, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center. "Photographers first sought to legitimize their work as a fine art by infusing it with painterly qualities, but by the early 20th century a new generation of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz, challenged the Pictorialists by claiming that photography could achieve stature equal to painting if photographers used and asserted the distinctive characteristics of their medium. As 20th-century photographers explored and realized this objective, painters and photographers increasingly turned to what was being produced in each medium as sources of ideas for their own work. This symposium explores the history and significance of this fascinating exchange, as well as how each medium influenced and shaped the development and history of the other."
Housed in a renovated and expanded historic building located one block from the Museum, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center is the only museum-related research facility in the world devoted to the study of American Modernism (1890s to the present). It sponsors lectures, conferences, publications, and a competitive scholarship program that awards six scholarships annually to museum professionals and scholars of art history, architectural history and design, literature, music, and photography. The Center houses a highly specialized research library and an extensive archival collection related to O’Keeffe and her contemporaries. Above: The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center.
2005 - THE 1980'S: AN INTERNET CONFERENCE
Moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, The New School and Curator, Center for Art & Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County. From October 31 - November 13, 2005, The 1980s: An Internet Conference explored an extraordinary period of change in American art and life. During this period, American politics and culture underwent dramatic shifts. The election of Ronald Reagan brought about profound changes in Federal policies. And a range of political and cultural groups-crossing all ideologies-emerged as a powerful force in the nation. The cultural response to these social changes, especially in the arts, was both intense and varied. The 1980s also saw the full flowering of multiculturalism in arts and society, the freer and broader expressions of various ethnic, racial, and sexual groups often excluded from the mainstream. During this period, the so-called "culture wars" also came to full fruition. VIEW SYMPOSIUM HERE
The 1980s: An Internet Conference addressed a range of questions central to this extraordinary moment in American art, politics, and ideas:
[1] Why and how did the "multiculturalism" of the period emerge in the 1980s? What was its relationship to the civil rights, feminist, and gay and lesbian rights movements that emerged in the mid-20th century as well as the so-called "pluralist" trend of the 1970s?
[2] To what extent did the modern day "culture wars" begin in the 1980s and what is its continuing effect today?
[3] Did painting die as a relevant artistic medium in the 1980s, as some critics argued at the time? To what extent did photography and other means of mechanical reproduction supplant it? What role did the growing importance of photography play in the "death of painting" argument, and how did photographers contribute to or position themselves within it?
[4] How did new methodologies in criticism, art history, and cultural writing-including structuralism, post-structuralism, neo-Marxism, feminism, and sub-alternist and gay and lesbian studies-change the nature and style of cultural writing in the United States?
[5] What of the rise of "alternative" and community-based art institutions and activist art groups (such as the Guerilla Girls and Gran Fury) in this period?
[6] To what extent did the "center" of the American art world shift from SoHo to the East Village and to other cities, such as Los Angles, Boston, and Philadelphia?
[7] What is the importance and legacy of the East Village scene as well as the rise of artistic communities outside of New York on American art and ideas?
[8] What was the impact of AIDS on the art and culture of the United States?
2003 - MUSEUMS OF TOMORROW: AN INTERNET CONFERENCE
What is the future of the art museum? For a two-week period, October 6-19, 2003, a national group of thirty scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators discussed and debated the role of the art museum in this Internet conference. Given the increasing commercial-as well as global-direction of culture, the future of the art museum as we now know is it no longer certain. Participants explored a range of issues about the viability, relevance, effectiveness, responsibility, and role of the museum in an ever-changing world.
Welcome to the archive of Museums of Tomorrow: An Internet Conference, which was sponsored by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center through the Museum website from October 6-19, 2003, and organized and moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University; Curator, Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County.
ORGANIZATION - An international group of thirty renowned scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators participated in this two week-long discussion. The public accessed the discussion on the Museum website. The conference offered scholars, curators, artists, and the interested public from all over the world an unprecedented opportunity to talk to and listen to each other. The interchange of ideas never ceased during the two-week period of the conference, because the discussion was active and available on the Internet 24 hours a day.
OVERVIEW - What is the future of the art museum? For a two-week period, October 6-19, 2003, a national group of thirty scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators discussed and debated the role of the art museum in this Internet conference. Given the increasing commercial-as well as global-direction of culture, the future of the art museum as we now know is it no longer certain. Participants explored a range of issues about the viability, relevance, effectiveness, responsibility, and role of the museum in an ever-changing world.
This conference explored the museum of the 21st Century from multiple viewpoints touching on a number of questions: How can directors and curators respond to changing audiences and constituencies? What is the social and ethical responsibility of the museum curator or director? Who is responsible for the content of exhibitions? Should artists and critics have greater say in museum programming? What is the relationship between the art museum and other forms of cultural entertainment? What role can new media and technologies play in the future of the art museum? Should art museums reflect the increasing globalization of culture? What is the future of museum education? How should art museums address and correct pasts histories of prejudice and exclusion? Is the virtual museum the wave of the future? Are art museums doomed to extinction?
The proceedings of this conference were published in the volume Museums of Tomorrow: A Virtual Discussion, edited by Maurice Berger, co published by the Research Center and The Center for Art & Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2005. VIEW SYMPOSIUM HERE
2001 - THE MODERN/POSTMODERN DIALECTIC: AN ONLINE SYMPOSIUM, American Art and Culture, 1965-2000
For a two-week period, October 1–14, 2001, an international group of scholars, artists, and curators discussed and debated the issue of postmodernism. This online event was moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University, and offers a continuation of Defining American Modernism (1890-Present), a symposium that was held at the new Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center July 12-14, 2001. The conference offered scholars, curators, artists, and the interested public from all over the world an unprecedented opportunity to talk to and listen to each other.
What is postmodernism and is it a useful concept for understanding American art and visual culture of the past 40 years? The Modern/Postmodern Dialectic: American Art and Culture, 1965-2000 explored the artistic practices in the United States from the mid-1960s to the present in the context of the term postmodern: When and to what extent did modernism wane as a viable force in American art? How have the various liberation movements, from civil rights to feminism, influenced American art and culture and contributed to the rejection of the modernist ethos? How has globalism changed American art and culture? How have the new technologies of the past 50 years—television, personal computers, and the internet—altered the nature of progressive art in the United States? Are any of these changes innately postmodern?
For a two-week period, October 1–14, 2001, an international group of scholars, artists, and curators discussed and debated the issue of postmodernism. This online event was moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University, and offers a continuation of Defining American Modernism (1890-Present), a symposium that was held at the new Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center July 12-14, 2001. The conference offered scholars, curators, artists, and the interested public from all over the world an unprecedented opportunity to talk to and listen to each other.
The symposium is now archived on our website and is available for viewing by the public. The proceedings from this discussion are the fifth volume in the series, Issues on Cultural Theory, published by the Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In 2003 Maurice Berger edited this book, which is tentatively titled, Postmodernism?: A Virtual Discussion. VIEW SYMPOSIUM HERE
2001 - DEFINING AMERICAN MODERNISM
In celebration of its opening in July 2001, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center, organized the three-day symposium, “Defining American Modernism.” The event began on July 12 with a keynote address by Robert Storr, then curator the Museum of Modern Art and now Dean of the Yale School of Art, that addressed the meaning and significance of “modernism” in American Art from the 1890s – present. Over the next two days, thirteen distinguished scholars of American art presented papers to a standing-room only crowd about issues pertaining to American Art that dealt with various decades of the period 1980 to the present.
Top scholars in the field of American Modernism presented their ideas to sold-out crowds during the symposium, which marked the opening of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center, a component of the O'Keeffe Museum that was created to support research pertaining to American Modernism and, in particular, to the art of Georgia O'Keeffe and her place within the larger history of Modernism in America.
The purpose of the symposium was to examine the meaning of the term modern in American art, to assess the various ways in which the term has been used in the last 100 years, and to determine if it can be defined more precisely. The event was held July 12-14, 2001, and was moderated by Barbara Buhler Lynes, curator at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and The Emily Fisher Landau Director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center. The symposium was launched with a keynote address by Robert Storr, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, in which he pronounced American Modernism as being alive and well.
Symposium subjects included, among other things, discussions of Alfred Stieglitz as a major proponent and supporter of early American Modernism, as detailed by Sarah Greenough, curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. The ways in which art critic Clement Greenburg's definition of Modernism shaped thinking about this issue for generations, yet was exclusive to issues of race, gender and politics, were described by Caroline Jones, Professor of Art History at Boston University.
The role of photography figured prominently into the dissemination of the term "modern," according to Carol Squiers, curator at the International Center of Photography. And Brian Wallis, chief curator of the International Center of Photography, spoke about the many ways photography has played a major role in shaping the history of Modernism in America. Nearly all of the 13 speakers made reference to O'Keeffe, thus raising the issue of her on-going importance to the history of American Modernism.
Wallis, the last speaker, pointed out that Modernism is dead and that we have been living in a post-modern era for some time, and in challenging Robb Storr's position, crystallized two opposing ways of thinking about American Modernism. Clearly, debates and discussions on this issue must be on-going, and another was sponsored by the Museum's Research Center as an online symposium on the Museum's Website from 1-14 October, 2001 as an extension of the actual symposium. Titled The Modern/Postmodern Dialectic: American Art and Culture, 1965–2000, moderated by Maurice Berger, the online symposium gave everyone who participated the chance to present their point of view about the nature of the Modern and the Post-Modern in American Art.
Speakers Included:
July 13 - Morning
Wanda Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, Stanford University
Michael Leja, Sewell C. Biggs, Professor of American Art, University of Delaware
Kathleen A. Pyne, Professor of Art History, University of Notre Dame
Sylvia Yount, Chief Curator, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
July 13 - Afternoon
Ann Gibson, Professor and Chair, Department of Art History, University of Delaware
Caroline Jones, Professor of Art History, Boston University
Fred Wilson, Conceptual Artist, New York
July 14 - Morning
Carol Squiers, Curator, Internatinal Center for Photography
Brian Wallis, Chief Curator, International Center for Photography
