VMPEA: Jiayi Zhu, Sylvia Wu, Sizhao Yi

“Cave art from Xi’an to Dunhuang: Observations from the UChicago/Getty Traveling Seminar”

Jiayi Zhu, PhD student, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations;

Sylvia Wu and Sizhao Yi, PhD students, Department of Art History

Welcome new PhD students!

The Department of Art History welcomes our 2019-2020 incoming class of PhD students:

Jenny Harris
Jenny studies 20th-century art. Her research interests include performance, intersections of dance and visual arts, and the status of decoration and craft in postwar American art. Prior to arriving at the University, she worked in The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Painting and Sculpture.

Benjamin J. Young and Werner Lange Discussion

Frazier uses photography as a platform for social justice and visibility for working-class families. Her approach is influenced by the Frankfurt School’s critiques of the culture industry and 1960s and 70s conceptual photography that addressed urgent socio-political issues in everyday life. Here, Frazier speaks with art historian Benjamin Young, who positions her work in relation to artists like Allan Sekula, and sociologist Werner Lange, who studied under the Frankfurt School and recently conducted a 45-day roadside vigil in Lordstown in solidarity with the auto workers.

Aztec Art and the Fragility of Empire

The Aztec people created art that drew on the Mesoamerican past, citing works from the ancient cities of Teotihuacan and Tula to give authority and legitimacy to the new empire. This provoked reflection on the inevitable end of empire and the cyclical nature of time, themes that are especially relevant this year, which is the five hundredth anniversary of the Spanish invasion of Mexico.

In this illustrated lecture, Claudia Brittenham, University of Chicago, discusses how Aztec art reflects this engagement with the historical past.

RAVE: Charlotte Denoël and Isabelle Marchesin

"The Performative Codex: The Gellone Sacramentary"

Charlotte Denoël, Chief Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, Bibliothèque nationale de France and Isabelle Marchesin, Conseillère scientifique, Institut national d'histoire de l'art

*Please note that this meeting takes place on a Friday.

Co-sponsored with Medieval Studies Workshop

RAVE: Felix Szabo

"Proximity, Patronage, and Power in the Tenth-century Limburg Staurotheke"

Felix Szabo, PhD candidate, Department of History

Respondent: May Peterson, PhD student, Department of Art History

RAVE: Virtual Reality Panel

Virtual Reality Panel with artist Snow Yunxue Fu (NYU), computer scientist Pedro Lopes (UChicago), and art historian Lisa Zaher (UChicago/SAIC)

*Please note that this meeting takes place on a Friday.

Co-Sponsored with Digital Media Workshop

RAVE: Héctor M. Varela Rios

"Enrique and La Morenita: toward an artifact-centered theology"

Héctor M. Varela Rios, PhD candidate, Divinity School