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. 

REGISTER ONLINE

MORE INFORMATION