Art History

Exilliteratur

Curated by Keziah Goudsmit ’12
April 30-May 10, 2012

Illustration by P. L. Urban, 1935, from Geschichten Aus Sieben Ghettos

After Hitler’s book burning in 1933, many authors fled the country to continue their writing. Most writers found refuge in other European cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Prague and Moscow. After war broke out all over Europe, writers had to continue their journey. They found safety in countries abroad like the United States and Mexico. The books written in between 1933 and 1945 are placed in a specific category called Exilliteratur (exile literature).  Some famous exile authors are Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Klaus Mann and Thomas Mann.

Two Dutch publication houses, Querido Verlag and Verlag Allert De Lange, played an important role for the exiled writers. They published many books and strongly supported the authors during this period. In this exhibition, famous writers like Joseph Roth, Max Brod, Stefan Zweig and Lion Feuchtwanger plus several lesser-known authors are represented by volumes published in Holland.  All the books are first editions from the Nazi era. Querido and Allert De Lange made it possible for these authors to keep writing and it is important for our generation to keep their work alive. For this reason, I decided to find first edition books and exhibit them to Bard students and the community. This show is dedicated to the exiled writers and their struggle.

I thought I’d share with you some of the cool interpretation devices my historic preservation studio group has been working on.  All semester we’ve been studying the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront along the East River.  Here are, in full, the podcasts to listen to when taking the East River Ferry upriver from the Wall Street stop to the East 34th Street stop. They cover the general and specific history of the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront from Brooklyn Heights up to Hunters Point in Queens. Anyone with a smart phone can access these tours from the web while on the boat. The podcasts were put together by myself and my classmate Mayank Patel, and the voiceover was done by none other than yours truly.  In addition to the podcasts, we’re making brochures that elaborate on each neighborhood along the river, and which include self-guided walking tours.  I have attached one of them.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF5DE50E0C09D492D&feature=plcp

Our Fulbright Award-Winning Art History graduate from 2011, Rachel Heidenry, is completing her project in El Salvador with an exhibition of her photographs of the many murals created throughout this country. “Los Murales de El Salvador: una exposicion de fotografia por Rachel Heidenry” will be on view in San Salvador at the

Arcatao:por un ambiente sano, sin quemas ni basura, si a la vida, Areatao. Chatalatenango, sin fecha

Centro Arte para la Paz, Suchitoto
28 abril – 18 junio 2012

Congratulations to Rachel for this important project and exhibition!

Prof. Julia Rosenbaum has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Fellowship to study the visual culture of the American Civil War. The NEH Institute takes place this summer in New York City and involves work with a team of scholars, study of materials at significant museum and archival collections, and new media lab workshops.

Melons, 1998

Patty Chang, noted filmmaker, photographer and performance artist, will present her work in RKC 103 this Thursday, April 26, at 5:00.  Using herself as the protagonist, Chang has created a bracing body of work, sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes both, that comments on women’s roles in American and Chinese cultures.  New York Times critic, Roberta Smith, has praised Chang’s “post feminist toughness in which different aspects of the feminine are flaunted, exaggerated, or rendered almost humiliatingly vulnerable.”  All are invited to hear this challenging and entertaining artist.

Patricia Karetzky latest publication is:

“Contemporary Chinese Art: Uses and Reuses of the Past”
Education About Asia, Volume 17, Number 1, Spring 2012, pp. 39-43

To view a supplement of the artist’s images not shown in the article, please visit:  http://www.asian-studies.org/EAA/

Laurie Dahlberg has been awarded a NEH summer stipend award to support development of her  manuscript:

Amateur v. amateur: Photography and the Devolution of a Gentleman’s Art.

On April 19th  she is  giving a talk, entitled “For Love or Money?: Dilemmas of Class and Caste in Early Amateur Photography”  which is derived from one segment of her project, at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.

Congratulations Laurie!

The Princeton Review
http://www.princetonreview.com/uploadedFiles/Sitemap/Home_Page/Rankings/Best_Professors/BestProfessors_schools.pdf has cited two Bard professors as among the 300 best professors in the country: our own Diana Depardo-Minsky, art history, and Karen Sullivan, Literature.   Read the testimonial:  diana_depardo_minsky.  Congratulations Diana!

Hannah Becker ’11 will be presenting at the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations’ National Conference in Boston this Thursday.  Her new paper discusses glitter trends in fashion accessories as they relate to economic recession.   “Is Glitter the Prescription for (Economic) Depression?”, is part of the Memory, Vintage and All That Glitters panel, which will be held in Salon K at 4:45 pm on Thursday, April 12.  Congratulations to Hannah for taking her Senior Project and bringing it out into the academic world!

For more information: http://pcaaca.org/conference/national.php
http://ncp.pcaaca.org/session/memory-vintage-and-all-glitters

Thomas Cole National Historic Site, The Olana Partnership, Olana State Historical Site and Bard College cordially invite you to:

Talks, Panel Discussion and Book Signing with a Fresh Perspective on the Hudson River School

Saturday, May 5, 2012
1-5 pm, Registration opens at 12:30
Weiss Cinema, Bard College

For more information visit: www.thomascole.org/2012symposium
www.olana.org