Letter from the Chair Our Achievements Highlights Upcoming Events Faculty Projects and Achievements New Faculty Our Staff New Staff Contact Information Stanford University Department of Art & Art History Letter from the Chair Our Achievements Highlights Upcoming Events Faculty Projects and Achievements New Faculty Our Staff New Staff Contact Information Letter from the Chair ack in 2014, the Cantor Arts Center received a trove of 3,600 con- B tact sheets and corresponding negatives by Andy Warhol, a gift from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. In fall 2018, faculty, students, and members of the community have been fortunate to consid- er an important exhibition of this work at the Cantor, next door to the de- partment’s McMurtry Building home, and co-curated by the department’s own Richard Meyer, the Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor of Art History. Professor Alexander Nemerov. Photo by Bob Richman. Called Contact Warhol: Photography Without End, the exhibition features Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928– 1987), Detail from Contact Sheet [Photo Warhol’s images of the celebrities of his era, including Michael Jackson, Liza shoot with Andy Warhol with shad- Minnelli, and Dolly Parton. It includes an in-depth consideration of Warhol’s ow], 1986. Gelatin silver print. Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for engagement with photography as a medium, from the contact sheet to the the Visual Arts, Inc., 2014.43.2893. silkscreen painting. A major achievement, the exhibition emphasizes director ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Susan Dackerman’s wish to bring world-class shows to the Cantor, even as it Cover Images, Left to Right Columns: honors former director Connie Wolf, who secured the Warhol photographs for the museum. Amber Imrie-Situnayake. Photo by Victor Yañez-Lazcano. Contact Warhol speaks more broadly to the exciting work of the depart- Victor Yañez-Lazcano. ment’s professors and students. In these pages I invite you to learn about Photo by Brian Guido. some of these accomplishments and to meet the extraordinary range of Fall Open Studios, Dec 8, 2017. people who contribute—day by day—to making the arts a central part of Photos by Christopher Bennett.. Stanford University. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris gr. 510, fol. 239r. Commencement 2018. Photo by Frank Floyd. Burt and Deedee McMurtry Alexander Nemerov and Alexander Nemerov at the McMurtry Dedication. Letter by Samuel Beckett to Radomir Konstantinovic, 1963. Photo courtesy of Stanford University Letter from the Chair Our Achievements Highlights Upcoming Events Faculty Projects and Achievements New Faculty Our Staff New Staff Contact Information Our Achievements Below are a few of the many achievements of the faculty, students, and staff of the Department of Art & Art History. Letter by Samuel Beckett PAVLE LEVI Associate Professor, Film & Media Studies In the spring of 2018, an international symposium was held at Stanford devoted to the work of the major Yugoslav writer and scholar Radomir Konstantinović. On this occasion, the writer's spouse, Milica Konstantinović, donated to Stanford Libraries a rare and valuable gift: a handwritten 1963 letter from Samuel Beckett to Konstantinović (one of the 26 surviving letters from their years- long correspondence). Professor Pavle Levi and D. Vanessa Kam, Head Librarian of the Bowes Art and Architecture Library, received the gift on behalf of Stanford. The letter was included in the holdings of Special Collections and University Archives at Green Library. The Price of Everything Letter by Samuel Beckett to Radomir Konstantinovic, 1963. Photo courtesy of Stanford University. ALEXANDER NEMEROV Department Chair & Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities, Art History Featuring Professor Alexander Nemerov, The Price of Everything is Nathaniel Kahn’s fascinating insiders’ look into the labyrinth of the contemporary art world, revealing the role of art and artistic pas- sion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society. Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers, and a rich range of artists—from current market darlings George Condo, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, to one-time art star Larry Poons—it exposes deep contradictions as it holds a mirror up to contemporary values and times, coaxing out the dynamics at play in pricing the priceless. The Price of Everything premiered on HBO on November 12, 2018. The film was presented to the Stanford community on December 4, 2018. Poster. The Price of Everything. New Appointment Courtesy of Debi Wisch. PETER BLANK Photography Curator, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford Libraries As of June 1, Peter Blank, former Senior Librarian of the Bowes Art & Architecture Library, has taken the role of the Stanford Libraries’ first Photography Curator. This position resides under the auspices of the Department of Special Collections in Green Library, and it is a truly exciting development for (at least) two reasons. Firstly, it is an acknowledgement of Peter’s substantial knowledge of and passion for photography. He has developed and cultivated this knowledge and passion, in part, through rigorous academic stud- ies (a BA, MA, and an ABD in art history and photography). In addi- tion, over the years as Senior Librarian at the Bowes Library, he has amassed a collection of notable photobooks, limited edition titles with prints, portfolios, and other rare editions by pivotal photog- raphers working in the US and abroad, all combining to illustrate the rich and ongoing history of photography. Peter is particularly adept at integrating these smartly curated photography collec- tions into the Department of Art & Art History’s photography cur- riculum, bringing it to life with the resounding power of the image as artifact. Fortunately, Peter’s new role in Green Library will en- Peter Blank. able him to continue to work with Department of Art & Art History Photo by Vanessa Kam. faculty to showcase these spectacular collections to students enrolled in courses this fall quarter. Secondly, the creation of the role of Photography Curator signals the fact that in both quantity and qual- ity, the Stanford Libraries is developing a significant collection of vintage photographic prints in fine art, documentary, and photojournalism genres. Conducting a query in SearchWorks, the Stanford Libraries’ online catalog, yields over 170 archival collections pertaining to photography. The com- bination of Peter’s academic credentials and practice in photography, his palpable enthusiasm for the content and form of the medium, along with his penchant for incorporating the photographic object into Stanford curricula, make him the perfect person for this role. A hearty congratulations to Peter on his achievement, and all best wishes for his success! —Vanessa Kam, Head Librarian, Bowes Art & Architecture Library Untitled No. 2 STANFORD UNDERGRADUATE ART HISTORY AND FILM STUDIES JOURNAL Previously called Manicule, the Stanford Undergraduate Art History and Film Studies Journal undertook a new name— UNTITLED NO.2 Untitled No. 2—to reflect the open-ended nature of its mission and to reference artists who wish for their work to be evalu- ated on its visual content, not just its title. The team behind the change includes Tabitha Walker, Carlos Valladares, Olivia Rambo, Joshua Wagner, Mac Taylor, Angela Black, Samantha Wassmer, Ali Vaughan, and Dylan Sherman. The latest issue of Untitled No. 2 features four articles: “Mickey Mouse, BoJack Horseman, and the Visual Language of Decay” by Justin Ross Muchnick, an exploration of the Vitellius manu- script by Laura Marie Feigen, an investigation of the work of Thornton Dial by Naomi Subotnick, and a dissection of STANFORD’S UNDERGRADUATE Wangechi Mutu’s works on paper by Viv Liu. ART HISTORY AND FILM STUDIES JOURNAL Copies of Untitled No. 2 can be found at the Bowes Art & Untitled No. 2 Front Cover. Architecture Library, McMurtry Building, and online. Students interested in submitting work for the next publication can email [email protected]. Dissertation on Cut Glass and Awards JOSEPH HAROLD LARNERD Ph.D. candidate, Art History Joseph’s dissertation, The Makings of Cut Glass in America, 1876 to 1916, develops a social art history of domestic glassware incised with geometric patterns against metal and stone wheels, a once-popular genre of decorative art known as “cut glass.” Over five chapters, he ex- amines how the medium, its much-discussed manufacture, and their representations in popular exhibitions and visual culture intervened in how citizens understood social class, privilege, and mobility, espe- cially as they pertained to the working-class artisans who made the wares and the domestic servants who maintained them in the homes of their employers. The first two chapters reveal how World Fairs and advertisements, respectively, informed cut glass’s cultural meanings. Chapters three and four refract these pervasive discourses through President McKinley’s much-publicized 1898 punch set and a rose bowl that Gustave Ekdahl, a Swedish immigrant, gifted to his newborn son in 1909, respectively. In chapter five, the project returns to the medium’s presence on the national stage by examining the US Navy’s ban of cut glass aboard in 1916. Joseph Harold Larnerd. Photo courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass. Fellowships from multiple institutions have supported Joseph’s research and writing this year. After his January colloquium, Joseph spent four months at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, one month at the Huntington Library, and one month at the American Antiquarian Society. In August he was the David Whitehouse Scholar-in-Residence at the Corning Museum of Glass. He is currently the 2018–19 Douglass Foundation Fellow in American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where he will complete his dissertation. Prestigious Fellowship LORA ELLEN WEBB Ph.D. candidate, Art History Lora Webb has received a Kress Institutional Fellowship to research her dis- sertation Kosmos Embodied: Eunuchs and Byzantine Art in the Ninth through the Twelfth Centuries at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome starting this fall.