SYMPOSIUM

M. Victor Leventritt Symposia
Bauhaus Palimpsest: The Object of Discourse
Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15
Sackler lecture hall
Free admission

Friday, March 14
6 p.m., lecture by Barry Bergdoll,
Museum of Modern Art
7 p.m., reception

Saturday, March 15
9 a.m., coffee
9:30 a.m.–6 p.m., symposium

The Bauhaus has proved an unwieldy, even unstable, historical subject, couched as an idea, crucible, and—for some—pariah. This symposium brings together scholars of art history, architecture, and design to discuss the various strategies through which the history of the Bauhaus has been told and, importantly, how so-called Bauhaus objects function, in the past or today, in light of the school’s mercurial identity. Presentations will address the practice of key Bauhaus personalities, including Paul Klee and Lyonel Feininger, and the work of the sculpture, weaving, metal, and other Bauhaus workshops. Objects produced by Bauhaus masters and students are on display in the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Speakers will include Annie Bourneuf, Princeton University; Greg Castillo, University of Sydney; Magdalena Droste, BTU Cottbus; Karen Koehler, Hampshire College; Laura Muir, Busch-Reisinger Museum; Paul Paret, University of Utah; Alina Payne, Harvard University; Frederic J. Schwartz, University College London; T’ai Smith, Maryland Institute College of Art; and Maria Stavrinaki, Université de Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne. Organized by Robin Schuldenfrei, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Jeffrey Saletnik, University of Chicago, with Peter Nisbet, Daimler-Benz Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Modern/Age
Saturday, April 5
Sackler lecture hall
Free admission
9 a.m., coffee
9:30 a.m.–5 p.m., symposium
5 p.m., reception

This symposium will use Long Life Cool White, the exhibition of Moyra Davey’s photographs of analog technologies and discarded objects, as a platform to bring together a diverse group of scholars dealing with the problem of the outmoded. Rather than engaging in nostalgia for the passing of objects or bemoaning the loss of the analog due to the rise of the digital, speakers will consider the ongoing texture of the daily experience of objects and their obsolescence.

Speakers will include Emily Apter, New York University; Bill Brown, University of Chicago; Bill Horrigan, Wexner Center for the Arts; Robin Kelsey, Harvard University; Chris Kraus, writer and art critic; and Eric Rosenberg, Tufts University.

BUSCH-REISINGER MUSEUM SYMPOSIUM
Tables of Content
Saturday, April 12
Sackler lecture hall
Free admission
9 a.m., coffee
9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., symposium

The baroque banquet table was the site of unparalleled riches and luxury. It was a visual as much as an edible feast, decked with elaborate porcelain and confectionary table settings that advanced dynastic ambitions and political ends. Prompted by the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s exhibition A Taste of Power: 18th-Century German Porcelain for the Table, this symposium brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to address issues of luxury, display, and representation. Topics include issues such as luxury from the baroque to the present, porcelain and its uses on the table, and performance at court.

Speakers include Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, Arnhold Collection and Frick Collection; Meredith Chilton, art historian; Ivan Day, independent scholar; Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Princeton University; and Valerie Steele, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Funded in part by the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

The two following below are offered in conjunction with the symposium Tables of Content.

18th-Century Dances and Music
Saturday, April 12
Calderwood Courtyard, Fogg, 2–2:45 p.m.
Free admission

A selection of dances and music like those seen at baroque banquets will be performed by dancers Camilla Finlay and Ken Pierce; Carol Lewis and Alice Mroszczyk, viol; and Olav Chris Henriksen, theorbo and baroque guitar.

Extravagance and Drama: Responses to 18th-Century European Porcelain
Sunday, April 13
Harvard Ceramics Program, 219 Western Ave., Allston, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
$75; free for students, staff, and faculty at Harvard and at the Ceramics Program

Master classes by artists Kristen Kieffer, Nicole Peters, and Gala Sorkina will feature slide presentations of their work followed by their simultaneous demonstrations of creating porcelain vessels and figurines. Connections between contemporary and historic porcelain on display in the Busch-Reisinger Museum will be highlighted, and a potluck lunch will follow. For more information, see the Harvard Ceramics Program Web site.

M. Victor Leventritt Symposium

Important parking information:

Friday - Broadway Garage, Felton Street, between Broadway and Cambridge Street
Saturday - Parking will be available at the 54 Oxford Street Garage

Superficial? Approaches to Painted Sculpture

Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8, 2007
Sackler lecture hall
Free admission

Friday, December 7
6 p.m., Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, keynote address by Vinzenz
Brinkmann, Liebieghaus, Frankfurt
7–8 p.m., reception

Saturday, December 8
9 a.m.–4 p.m., symposium

Most premodern sculpture was painted or otherwise decorated, a fact that later viewers have ignored in some artistic traditions and taken for granted in others. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, this cross-cultural symposium brings together scholars in the fields of ancient Greek and Roman, Asian, Mesoamerican, and Renaissance art to explore colorful sculpture and its reception.

Symposium speakers will include Mark B. Abbe, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Barbara W. Fash, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; Frank Fehrenbach, Harvard University; Padma Kaimal, Colgate University; and Eugene Wang, Harvard University.

Superficial? Approaches to Painted Sculpture

Andrew W. Mellon Symposium in Conservation Science

Recent Trends in Imaging Techniques Used in Art Conservation

Saturday, October 13
Sackler lecture hall
9:30 a.m., refreshments
10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., symposium
Free admission

The rising importance of imaging tools in art conservation reflects the current advances of technology and the influx from other scientific disciplines. This symposium explores new developments in noninvasive imaging techniques and applications to understand the structural and chemical properties of artworks and cultural heritage objects.

Participants include Roy S. Berns, Rochester Institute of Technology; Bernhard Blümich, University of Aachen; Hany Farid, Dartmouth College; Jennifer Giaccai, Walters Art Museum; Eberhard H. Lehmann, Paul Scherrer Institut; and David Saunders, British Museum.

M. Victor Leventritt Symposium

Chinese Painting: The 20th Century and Beyond

Friday and Saturday, November 2–3
Sackler lecture hall
Free admission

Friday, November 2
5–8 p.m., reception and exhibition opening
6 p.m., special remarks, Marilyn J. Stokstad, University of Kansas
6:30 p.m., keynote lecture, Claudia Brown, Arizona State University

Saturday, November 3
9 a.m., refreshments
9:30 a.m.–5 p.m., symposium
9:30 a.m., special remarks, John Rosenfield, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art Emeritus

Presented in conjunction with A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950–2000, this symposium will examine pivotal points in the development of Chinese painting over the last 100 years. Six leading specialists in the fields of Chinese painting and modern history will present illustrated lectures highlighting this remarkable period of transformation in Chinese art, with a special focus on the last half of the century.

Speakers include Julia F. Andrews, Ohio State University; Arnold Chang, artist and independent scholar; Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum; William C. Kirby, Harvard University; and Chüan-ying Grace Yen, Academia Sinica, Taipei. The symposium discussant will be Janet Baker, Phoenix Art Museum, and the moderator, Robert D. Mowry, Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art.

Chinese Painting: The 20th Century and Beyond