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Pressly Forum: Prof. Alicia Volk, "In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan"

Alicia Volk

Pressly Forum: Prof. Alicia Volk, "In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan"

Art History and Archaeology Wednesday, May 1, 2024 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Parren J. Mitchell Art/Sociology Building, 4213A Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture

Please join us for the final Pressly Forum of the spring semester, when Prof. Alicia Volk presents material from her forthcoming book, In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan, which will be published early in 2025. Her talk unearths an immensely creative yet almost entirely overlooked period in Japanese art to reveal how it variously accommodated and resisted the workings of American empire in the early Cold War. With a focus on artworks made during the occupation (1945-1952), it shows how the political stakes of artistic expression in a polarizing world manifested in the unique site that was US-occupied Japan. The presentation will demonstrate how this transnational history of art, which stretches beyond Japan to include art from China, Europe, and the United States, holds the potential for rethinking not only the history of Japanese postwar art but also our existing narratives of global postwar art.

The Pressly Forum offers members of Department faculty and selected speakers to give a talk to members of the Department (faculty, staff, students) in an effort to create bonds of intellectual and collegial community. The forum is the brainchild of Professor Emeritus William L. Pressly, after whom the forum now is named. A light lunch will be served at 11:30.

Akamatsu Toshiko and Maruki Iri, Water, 1950, third painting in the Atomic Bomb Picture series, ink on paper, The Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels
Akamatsu Toshiko and Maruki Iri, Water, 1950, third painting in the Atomic Bomb Picture series, ink on paper, The Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels
Add to Calendar 05/01/24 12:00 PM 05/01/24 1:00 PM America/New_York Pressly Forum: Prof. Alicia Volk, "In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan"

Please join us for the final Pressly Forum of the spring semester, when Prof. Alicia Volk presents material from her forthcoming book, In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan, which will be published early in 2025. Her talk unearths an immensely creative yet almost entirely overlooked period in Japanese art to reveal how it variously accommodated and resisted the workings of American empire in the early Cold War. With a focus on artworks made during the occupation (1945-1952), it shows how the political stakes of artistic expression in a polarizing world manifested in the unique site that was US-occupied Japan. The presentation will demonstrate how this transnational history of art, which stretches beyond Japan to include art from China, Europe, and the United States, holds the potential for rethinking not only the history of Japanese postwar art but also our existing narratives of global postwar art.

The Pressly Forum offers members of Department faculty and selected speakers to give a talk to members of the Department (faculty, staff, students) in an effort to create bonds of intellectual and collegial community. The forum is the brainchild of Professor Emeritus William L. Pressly, after whom the forum now is named. A light lunch will be served at 11:30.

Akamatsu Toshiko and Maruki Iri, Water, 1950, third painting in the Atomic Bomb Picture series, ink on paper, The Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels
Akamatsu Toshiko and Maruki Iri, Water, 1950, third painting in the Atomic Bomb Picture series, ink on paper, The Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels
Parren J. Mitchell Art/Sociology Building