Department to Honor HART Graduates at Reception on May 9

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History of Art majors and minors and their families are invited to attend the department’s reception for our graduating seniors on Thursday, May 19, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. The event will be held in the atrium of Cohen Memorial Hall on the Peabody campus, and awards will be announced at 3:30 p.m.

Graduates and their families attending the reception are also invited to view the current exhibit in the Fine Arts Gallery near the atrium from noon to 4:00 p.m. British art from Vanderbilt University’s Fine Arts Gallery Collection is the focus of an exhibit titled Four Hundred Years of British Art. This comprehensive survey—the first of its kind in more than two decades to draw on the nearly 300 British objects held by the Gallery—is presented in honor of Robert L. Mode, associate professor of art, who is retiring after forty-six years of teaching art history at Vanderbilt. Much of his research and teaching focused on British art.

The gallery will also be open on Commencement Day (Friday, May 10) from noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday, May 11, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Alumnus Creighton Michael Honors Professor Emeritus Milan Mihal

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creightonmichaelThis summer the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery will host a special exhibition of Tapestry Suite by Creighton Michael, M.A. 1976, on view through Sunday, October 6, in the rear gallery space of Cohen Memorial Hall. Seven digital drawings, selected from Michael’s larger Tapestry series, were created by the artist in honor of Milan Mihal, professor of fine arts emeritus, and donated to the Fine Arts Gallery by the artist.

Michael expressed his gratitute to Mihal for introducing him to “the wondrous beauty and serene sensitivity of the Far East.” He also cites his experiences in Mihal’s class as an influence for much of his artistic practice over the past forty years.

Michael explained that the Tapestry series is a collection of composite drawings, layered in time and personal marking history, employing unconventional drafting tools, such as photographic negatives, video stills, sculpture, digital scans and intaglio solar plates. The artist selected the seven works featured in Tapestry Suite as a continuous narrative and a meditation on drawing. This is a common theme for Michael who, in much of his work, has expanded traditional notions of drawing by creating works of art that approach this time-honored practice in fresh, innovative ways.

Michael received his B.F.A. in painting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (1971); his M.A. in Art History from Vanderbilt University (1976); and his M.F.A. in painting and multi-media from Washington University, Saint Louis, MO (1978). His work has been featured in numerous one-person exhibitions and can be found within the collections of The Brooklyn Museum; Denver Art Museum; Hafnarborg Institute of Culture and Fine Art, Hafnarfjördur, Iceland; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Mint Museums of Art, Charlotte, NC, among others.

Michael’s drawings will take on special significance during Vanderbilt’s Homecoming/Reunion Weekend, October 4-6. Visitors should note that the Fine Arts Gallery will be closed September 13-26 for the installation of the fall exhibit that will address the theme of art and the liberal arts’ imagination.

*Creighton Michael (American, born 1949)
Tapestry 3410, 2012
Archival carbon black pigment inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Paper

Cummins Station Student Show Opens on May 3

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68847_4563559141011_1516268873_n (2)The artwork of seven Vanderbilt students will be exhibited in the Cummins Station Student Show, which opens on Friday, May 3, with a reception from 4-7 p.m. Their work will be on view for one year in the hallway of the lower floor of Cummins Station, located at 209 10th Avenue South.

The art students whose work was selected for the show are: Demi Landstedt, Isaiah 55:2; Madeline Santulli, Octoplant Tangled; Anisha Patel, Becoming a Lady; Sara Alavi, Hangin’ On; Dan Litzow, Sunday Morning; Julie Choi, Untitled; and Lauren Renaud, Anticipation and Reflections. “It was wonderful to see the wide variety of art being created in our program,” said Mark Hosford, acting chair, department of art.

The exhibit also includes the work of students from Watkins College of Art and Design, Tennessee State University, and Middle Tennessee State University.

*Hangin’ On by Sara Alavi, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, 2012

Warren Center Hosts Anthropology Lecture on April 23

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jennifervogtThe Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities is hosting a lecture by Jennifer Vogt, a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology, on Tuesday, April 23, at 4:10 p.m. at the Warren Center. Vogt will present “Respecting the Competition: Artisans, Development, and Cooperative Practices in Peruvian Andes.” This lecture is part of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities Graduate Student Lecture Series.

Vogt’s dissertation research examines how artisans from the community of Quinua, Peru engage recent state policies of legal reform that promote new forms of economic organization. Her primary research interests include economic anthropology, community development studies, transformations in socio-cultural organization, and local and collective experiences of macro-level economic policy reform. As part of her fieldwork, she has worked alongside ceramicists from Quinua in both Quinua and Lima, Peru.

Enjoy Pancakes and Waffles in the VRC on April 24-25

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pancakesTake a break from final exams and join us in the VRC next Wednesday and Thursday, April 24-25—anytime between 7:30 am and 4 pm—for pancakes and waffles replete with fabulous toppings, fruit juices, and coffee. Our master chef, Chris Strasbaugh, will prepare fresh batches of pancakes and waffles throughout the day for all who cross the threshold of Cohen 134.

The VRC will continue to provide free coffee throughout the exam period, which ends on Thursday, May 2. Students are invited to stay and study in our space or review streaming images on our large monitor.

Barbara Tsakirgis Lectures on Hellenistic Houses at Morgantina

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063860Barbara Tsakirgis, associate professor of classics and history of art, was invited to lecture on Thursday, April 4, at a conference on Hellenistic houses and their functions held at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany. Tsakirgis’s paper was entitled Decor, Deposits and Descriptions: an Analysis of Space in the Hellenistic Houses at Morgantina in Their Last Century.

Tsakirgis is a classical archaeologist who specializes in the study of ancient Greek houses and households. She has been a long-time member of the excavation and research teams at the Hellenistic city of Morgantina in central Sicily and the Athenian Agora, the city center and marketplace of ancient Athens. She has published widely on the elements of Greek houses and households, including the decorated pavements at Morgantina, and is publishing the remains of the Greek and Roman houses excavated at both sites.

In 2012 Governor Bill Haslam named Tsakirgis to a five-year term on the Tennessee Archaeological Advisory Council.

*Floor mosaic from the House of the Tuscan Capitals, Room 20, Morgantina

Divinity School Art Exhibit Explores Spirituality in the Human Face

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godheadVanderbilt’s Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture Program is hosting an art exhibition entitled godHEAD through Friday, April 26, in the gallery of the Divinity School, room G-20. The gallery, located at 411 21st Avenue South is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from noon to 2 p.m. and by appointment.

The exhibition will focus on how artists are able to capture human qualities beyond the physical when they draw, paint or sculpt the human face, according to Dave Perkins, associate director of Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture, a program housed in Vanderbilt Divinity School. The exhibit also will raise the question of whether the viewer plays a larger role in adding spiritual qualities to the artist’s work.

“It is our hope that when visitors encounter this collection of faces, the life force of these images will be evident,” Perkins said. “We expect that the individual works will speak to each other and together as a group and stimulate conversation on what it is that artists attempt to capture in portraits and what it is that viewers hope to find.”

Featured artists include Jimmy Abegg, Kit Reuther, Buddy Jackson, Samuel Dunson, Todd Greene, Thaxton Waters, Shane Dowling, Jonathan Richter, Jeff Bertrand, DL Taylor, Jason Lott and Timothy Tyler.

The Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture Program assists future religious leaders to understand and harness the creativity of the arts for theological reflection and contemporary worship. Equally, it assists practicing artists within the popular culture industry in their exploration of the theological context and religious dimensions of their work. For more information, call 615-322-2776.