Research and Innovation

Radical political shifts that raged throughout Cuba in the 1950s coincided with the development of Cuban geometric abstraction and, notably, the formation of Los Diez Pintores Concretos (Ten Concrete Painters). The decade was marked by widespread turmoil and corruption following the 1952 military coup and by rising nationalist sentiments. At the same time, Havana was undergoing rapid urbanization and quickly becoming an international city. Against this vibrant backdrop, artists sought a new visual language in which art, specifically abstract art, could function as political and social practice. Concrete Cuba marks one of the first major presentations outside of Cuba to focus exclusively on the origins of concretism in the country. It includes important works from the late 1940s through the early 1960s by the twelve artists who were at different times associated with the short-lived group: Pedro Álvarez, Wifredo Arcay, Mario Carreño, Salvador Corratgé, Sandú Darié, Luis Martínez Pedro, Alberto Menocal, José M. Mijares, Pedro de Oraá, José Ángel Rosabal, Loló Soldevilla, and Rafael Soriano. Many of the group's members had traveled widely in the preceding years and corresponded with those at the forefront of European and South American abstract movements.

This essay explores Vermeer’s painting known as A Woman with a Lute as a visual poem on amorous and artistic longing. A closer look at its key elements—from the musical instrument being tuned by the lady to the map on the wall behind her—shows that this seemingly unmediated view into a private world is as engaged with ideas as Vermeer’s more overtly allegorical compositions. Most notable among these ideas are the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm, the notion that every record of the present is a form of “history,” and that the art of painting is no less eloquent in its silence than its sister arts of music or poetry. Ultimately, as in many other images of solitary females, the artist pulls us into a circle of desire, effectively turning us from beholders to coparticipants in a “composition” whereby the absent comes back into presence.

A state of the scholarship essay on Japanese modern art.

Between its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the outbreak of World War I, France experienced a tremendous rise in populist nationalism, the aftershocks of which can still be felt today. In examining the forces that shaped the arts of this period―from the academy to the avant-garde, and from the museum to public spaces―this volume explores the relationship between the arts and political conflict and the impact of nationalism during the early modern period in France.Fifteen distinguished contributors provide a comprehensive overview of a range of artistic media over five decades. Generously illustrated with works by artists including Georges Braque, Maurice Denis, Edouard Manet, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, as well as with images from the popular press, the book addresses such topics as how artists memorialized the Franco-Prussian War and connections between nationalism and artistic styles. Collectively, the essays represent a new approach in treating nationalism as a common thread among political and philosophical movements generally seen in terms of their ideological differences.

Writing for the general public is a high priority for me. I was excited by the opportunity to write about Basquiat for the new collection of AP Art History Resources on Khan Academy. This was a chance to revise many of celebrity-focused opinions of his work and to communicate his accomplishments as a painter to a new audience.

The Women in Archaeology Interest Group consists of AIA members with an interest in the position of women in the modern field of archaeology, and in promoting its understanding to members of the AIA through its various programs and publications.

Authored short, object-centered essays on the dissemination of statues of Queen Victoria across the British Empire and reproductions of Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave in a range of media.

Winner of the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History 2015. Between 1777 and 1784, the Irish artist James Barry (1741-1806) executed six murals for the Great Room of the [Royal] Society of Arts in London. Although his works form the most impressive series of history paintings in Great Britain, they remain one of the British art world's best kept secrets, having attracted little attention from critics or the general public. James Barry's Murals at the Royal Society of Arts is the first to offer an in-depth analysis of these remarkable paintings and the first to demonstrate that the artist was pioneering a new approach to public art in terms of the novelty of the patronage and the highly personal nature of his content. Ultimately, as this book seeks to show, the artist intended his paintings to engage the public in a dialogue that would utterly transform British society in terms of its culture, politics, and religion. In making this case, the book brings this neglected series into the mainstream of discussions of British art of the Romantic period, revealing the intellectual profundity invested in the genre of history painting and re-evaluating the role Christianity played in Enlightenment thought.

One of the highest-quality replicas of the Achilles and Penthesilea group was excavated at Aphrodisias in 1966-67. Recent research has identified additional fragments belonging to the group. Study of these fragments clarifies our knowledge of this important Roman replica and its Hellenistic original. The Aphrodisias replica was discovered in its late antique context, in the Tetrastyle Court of the Hadrianic Baths. The Achilles and Penthesilea was juxtaposed with a replica of the so-called Pasquino Group and a nude male torso wearing a chlamys. All three statues faced east, toward the main square of the city, the North Agora. Our study elucidates the thematic intent behind this sculptural ensemble and the poignancy of the contrast between Penthesilea and her pendant, the young warrior in the Pasquino group. The material from Aphrodisias, together with its known find context, allows for new reconstructions of a major Greco-Roman statue group and elucidates this statue's repair and display throughout the fifth century C.E.

Focusing on the relationship between ancient Rome and modern America, the Pellegri Grant supports innovative teaching and research on the part of its grant winners. I have used part of this grant to support graduate instruction on archaeological excavation on the Bay of Naples and to facilitate my own research and publication.