About the conference
This conference examines histories of production, exchange, pedagogy, and publishing that highlight the shifting stakes and definitions of internationalism before and after World War II. Much art historical scholarship of this period has concentrated on questions of universalism, or attempts to transcend the cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries of the nation-state. Instead, this conference takes an interdisciplinary approach focused on internationalism, inviting artists, activists, and scholars to explore instances of material exchange of art and ideas among nations during this period. Presentations and discussions will address cultural nation building during the transition from colonial to post-colonial statehood in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as socio-political changes in the Americas and Europe.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Tuesday, March 7, 10:30am-8:00pm
Martin E. Segal Theatre
10:30-11:00am Welcome and Introduction
Chelsea Haines and Gemma Sharpe, conference co-organizers (PhD Candidates, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
11:00am-12:30pm Panel: Internationalism in Photography and Print
Maxine Anderson, “Manuel Alvarez Bravo’s Surrealism: Toward a Rhizomatic Periphery” (PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature, University of Oregon)
Naomi Kuromiya, “A conflicted sekai-sei: reconsidering the “world relevance” of the avant-garde Japanese calligraphy journal Bokubi (1951-1960)” (MA Candidate, Art History, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University)
Alise Tifentale, “The Misunderstood “Universal Language” of Photography: The Fourth FIAP Biennial, 1956” (PhD Candidate, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Moderator: Antonella Pelizzari (Professor, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
12:30-2:00pm Lunch
2:00-4:00pm Panel: Individual Networks and New Spheres of Influence
Sarah-Neel Smith, “'Far off but Not Alien Lands': Abby Weed Grey’s Turkish Sojourns, 1961-1969" (Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, Maryland Institute College of Art)
Abigail Lapin Dardashti, “Negotiating Afro-Brazilian Abstraction: Rubem Valentim at the First World Festival of Negro Arts, 1964-1966" (PhD Candidate, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Amy Rahn, “Joan Mitchell in France: An American Apatride” (PhD Candidate, Art History, Stony Brook University)
Yang Wang, “The “Cold” Allure of the Non-Aligned: The PRC’s Artistic Affiliations with the Third World” (Assistant Professor, Art History, University of Colorado Denver)
Moderator: Katherine Carl (Curator, The James Gallery/Deputy Director, Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
4:00-4:15pm Break
4:15-6:15pm Panel: World Exhibitions
Nisa Ari, “Fair Competition: Opposing Internationalisms in Palestine’s “National” Fairs of the 1930s” (PhD Candidate, History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture & Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Dina Ramadan, “Remapping the Mediterranean: Cosmopolitanism, Third Worldism, and the Alexandria Biennale” (Assistant Professor, Arabic, Bard College)
Nikolas Drosos, “The World's Art at the World Fair: Art Exhibitions at the Brussels Expo of 1958” (Independent Art Historian)
Delia Solomons, “Biennale Syndrome and Stateside Internationals in the 1960s” (Assistant Professor, Art History, Drexel University)
Moderator: Chelsea Haines (PhD Candidate, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
6:15-6:30pm Break
6:30-8:00pm Plenary Roundtable: Legacies of Internationalism
Lucia Allais (Assistant Professor, Architecture History and Theory, Princeton University), Olga Ulloa Herrera (Director, Inter-University Program for Latino Research), David Joselit (Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center, CUNY); Naeem Mohaiemen (Artist and PhD Candidate, Anthropology, Columbia University); Chika Okeke-Agulu (Professor, Art History and African American Studies, Princeton University)
Moderator: Claire Bishop (Professor, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
This event will be livestreamed. Click this link to view the livestream, starting Mar 7th at 10:30 am.
Wednesday, March 8, 11am-8:30pm
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Bartos Theatre (4 West 54th Street)
6:30-8:30pm post Presents: Katy Siegel on curating the exhibition Postwar
Katy Siegel (Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Endowed Chair, Art History, Stony Brook University)
Please join us for a lecture by Katy Siegel, Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Endowed Chair at Stony Brook University, on the collective process of curating Postwar (with Okwui Enwezor and Ulrich Wilmes), an exhibition that casts the geopolitical reorganizing most commonly called World War II as a truly worldwide event, encompassing artists working in a devastated, divided Europe, the increasingly modernizing and powerful Americas, and the liberation struggles and new nations of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Respondent: Romy Golan (Professor, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Admission to this lecture at MoMA is free, but RSVP is required. RSVP here.
Co-presented with Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the keynote lecture is part of post Presents, a series of talks devoted to the cross-geographical consideration of modern and contemporary art. The sessions are an extension of C-MAP's website post (post.at.moma.org), MoMA’s online platform devoted to art from a global perspective.
This conference is co-sponsored by The Rewald Endowment of the Ph.D. Program in Art History and the Doctoral Students' Council.
