News & Events
“How Renaissance Women Viewed Portraits” November 18, 2009
Sheila ffolliott, Professor Emerita at George Mason University will speak on Wednesday, November 18 at 4:30 pm in room 202 Frick Fine Arts.
Portraits played a vital role in Renaissance culture (15th-17th centuries). Scholars have shown how portraits of beautiful women functioned as proof of the painter’s skill, and that Florentine profile portraits of the 15th century may embody societal expectations for women. Although providing new modes of investigation, both approaches ultimately place portraits of women within a male discourse. Men and women commissioned and collected portraits, but, because portraiture is one [the only?] artistic genre that women actually discussed, what do their statements about and actions reveal about the portraits of themselves and others that they commissioned, collected, wore, displayed, or commented upon? The lecture will discuss some examples from letters that show women did have views about their self-presentation in portraiture
"Torture in America: The Long View" November 11, 2009
Fitzhugh Brundage, William B. Umstead, Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, sponsored by the History of Art and Architecture Department, will speak Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 5 PM. Read more
Frank Toker's Lecture at Carnegie Music Hall, Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Frank Toker, University of Pittsburgh art history professor, will give an illustrated talk on what did and what did not get into his just-published "Pittsburgh: A New Portrait" Wednesday October 21 at 7 p.m. in Carnegie Music Hall, adjacent to campus (enter by the driveway on Forbes Avenue). Admission both to the museum and the talk is free, and the public is warmly invited to attend. Information: campus x8.2419
“Japan's Cultural Imagination and Its Contribution to the World” October 17, 2009
On Saturday, October 17, 2009, the Asian Studies Center will host a Symposium to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Toshiba International Foundation entitled, “Japan's Cultural Imagination and Its Contribution to the World.” The symposium will include four panels focusing on Women in Japanese Culture, Japanese Classical Theater, Japanese Films, and Video Games, as well as a number of other related events. A full schedule of events can be found on the Toshiba Symposium website.
"Making Faces: The Depiction of Women in Japan from Edo to Today" opens October 16, 2009
"Making Faces" is the culmination of a Museum Studies seminar taught by Eric C. Shiner, The Milton Fine Curator of Art at The Andy Warhol Museum. Twenty-five students spent the early part of the semester learning about Japan, woodblock prints and curatorial practice, and then worked in teams to present this exhibition as part of their course credit. The group made all decisions relating to the exhibition, including theme, installation technique, lighting and wall panel design, and also wrote all label texts as part of this unique hands-on learning process. The wonderful prints on display come from the Barry Rosensteel Collection in Arizona, and we would all like to thank Mr. Rosensteel for his support of this project. Additional prints are on display in the Special Collections section of Hillman Library.
Exhibition opens Friday, October 16, 2009 at 6:30 pm in the University Art Gallery, Frick Fine Arts Building.
Fall exhibition hours:
Saturday, October 17: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
October 19 to December 4: Monday through Friday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
“Burning the Books and Killing the Scholars: Representing the Atrocities of the First Emperor of China” October 8, 2009
Professor Anthony Barbieri-Low from the University of California, Santa Barbara, sponsored by the History of Art and Architecture Department, will speak Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 4 PM. Read more
ICMA Fall Conference in Pittsburgh October 2-3, 2009
A collaborative conference between the International Center of Medieval Art and The Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh with sponsorship from The Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh. Read more
Faculty News
Faculty Achievements »
Terry Smith book receives inaugural prize from O’Keeffe Museum Research Center
Terry Smith’s now classic book, Making the Modern: Industry, Art, and Design in America (University of Chicago Press, 1993), is the inaugural winner of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center Book Prize. This prestigious prize, accompanied by a cash award of $5,000, is to be awarded every three years to the author of an outstanding book published within the last twenty-five years on some aspect of American modernism. Smith’s book was selected from a field that included over 60 titles submitted for consideration.
Gretchen Bender Wins 2009 Tina & David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award
The HAA department congratulates Prof. Gretchen Bender, recipient of the 2009 Tina & David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award which recognizes outstanding and innovative undergraduate teaching in the School of Arts and Sciences. Bender has been director of undergraduate advising in the HAA department since 2002. She serves on the Pitt Arts and Sciences Writing Board and, in 2008, was a member of the Philip Johnson Exhibition Catalogue Award Committee for the Society of Architectural Historians. Read more »
Graduate News
Grad Student Achievements »
Annah Kellogg-Krieg
was awarded the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century
Art (AHNCA) Graduate Prize for her essay
"'Now I prophesize, Lehnin, your future destiny': Christoph Hehl and Romanesque Revival in the Crown of Roses Church (1899-1900)."
Undergraduate News
Undergraduate Achievements»
HAA major Lauren MacLaughlin received a Research Abroad Program (RAP) grant and a Chancellor's Teaching Fellowship to work with Prof. Dennis Looney of Pitt's French and Italian Languages and Literature Department. Lauren will research Italian frescoes and also work to "art historicize" Prof. Looney's class that discusses Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.
The department of the History of Art and Architecture is delighted to announce that Ike Harijanto and Nicole Scalissi are this year's recipients of the John Haskins award for academic excellence and outstanding achievement as graduating seniors. Faculty of the Frick Fine Arts Special Commendations were awarded to Alex Dixon and Julie Steinbrink for the breadth of their impressive accomplishments.
Alumni News
Carolyn Butler-Palmer Appointed "Legacy Chair"
Carolyn Butler-Palmer (PhD 2006) has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Victoria as "Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest." She was hired as a specialist in the modern and contemporary arts of the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon), indigenous and otherwise.
Recent Alumni Achievements»
Edith Balas published Brancusi and His World (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2008).
