AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME MAGAZINE FALL/WINTER 2017 FALL/WINTER 2017 Welcome to the Fall/Winter 2017 issue UP FRONT IN CLOSING of AAR Magazine. 2 26 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT CONVIVIUM This issue of AAR Magazine introduces our new New York Gala director and features several artists and scholars 4 from our diverse and expansive community. This FAR AFIELD 27 year’s overarching theme of East and West is repre- Checking in with Fellows and Residents DONORS sented in the varied programming and events con- ducted by AAR in Rome and the United States—and 6 30 in the ways Fellows and Residents cross between ROMAN NUMERALS CURRENT FELLOWS and redefine disciplines that once seemed wholly AAR’s Photographic Archive by the numbers 2017–2018 Rome Prize winners and Italian Fellows distinct and fixed. 7 32 IN RESIDENCE WHEN IN ROME Vi diamo il benvenuto al Spotlighting recent Residents Mellon Professor Lindsay Harris shares favorite places in Rome numero Autunno/Inverno 2017 16 dell’AAR Magazine. FROM THE ARCHIVES David Hammons Questo numero dell’AAR Magazine presenta il nostro nuovo direttore e alcuni degli artisti e studiosi che 17 compongono la nostra comunità, ampia e variegata. CONVERSATIONS/ CONVERSAZIONI Il tema complessivo di quest’anno, East and West, Here and there sarà declinato nell’ambito della programmazione e degli eventi proposti dalla AAR a Roma e negli Stati Uniti, secondo le modalità che i Fellows e i Residents FEATURES tracceranno nell’intersecare e ridefinire discipline che una volta sembravano completamente distinte 18 e indipendenti. THE CHANGING IDENTITY OF A SOUTHERN ITALIAN TOWN Matera Imagined/Matera Immaginata highlights one of the oldest crossroads in the Mediterranean in the modern imagination 22 NOW HERE IS NOWHERE A new exhibition in New York brings together Fellows’ work from both sides of the Atlantic 24 THE POLITICAL POWER OF SACRED TEXTS Scholars convene to discuss the role of religion in politics today and throughout history AAR Magazine LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT: L’autunno è sempre fonte di nuovi inizi all’Academy i e in questo 2017 lo è stato più che mai con la nomina Follow @aarpresident on Instagram for del Direttore John Ochsendorf, che ha cominciato il up-to-the-minute images of all that’s suo incarico insieme ai vincitori dell’ultima edizione happening with AAR. del Rome Prize, anche loro animati dalla medesima OPPOSITE energia intellettuale e dallo stesso ottimismo. La AAR President Mark Robbins (right), with stagione segna inoltre l’avvio del tema scelto per landscape architects Gary Hilderbrand quest’anno dalla AAR, East and West, che culminerà (1995 Fellow and 2017 Resident) and Mary Margaret Jones (1998 Fellow and a maggio con una mostra di opere dell’artista resi- Chair of the Board of Trustees) at ASLA dente Yto Barrada. 2017, where Gary received the ASLA L’Academy prosegue nel suo impegno a favore Design Medal. dei Fellows e dei Residents della nostra comunità Photo courtesy of Mark Robbins. Each fall at the Academy is full of new beginnings. e nell’ampliare la sfera delle loro attività. Tra le #mckimmedal #gala #aviewofonesown #universityofpennsylvania June 7, 2017 September 7, 2017 This has been especially true in 2017 with the arrival iniziative più recenti si annoverano una borsa di of Director John Ochsendorf, who entered his first studio italiana istituita dalla Fondazione Sviluppo e full year with the current Rome Prize winners, Crescita CRT, una borsa di studio in collaborazione similarly filled with fresh intellectual energy and con la Terra Foundation for American Art, e una optimism. The season also marks the inauguration residenza sostenuta dalla Robert Mapplethorpe of this year’s theme at AAR: East and West. The finale Foundation. of this theme will be an exhibition of Resident Yto Le mostre e i programmi vengono ora regolar- Barrada’s work in May. mente riproposti in altre città, sia in Italia sia all’es- The Academy continues to enhance support for tero. A settembre la nostra mostra A View of One’s the Fellows and Residents of our community and Own ha inaugurato alla Arthur Ross Gallery della to extend the reach of their work. Recent initia- University of Pennsylvania. Matera Imagined/Matera tives include an Italian fellowship established by Immaginata, inaugurata a Roma in ottobre, si spos- Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT, an affiliated terà proprio a Matera durante l’inverno. A novembre, fellowship in partnership with the Terra Foundation l’Istituto Italiano di Cultura di New York ha ospitato #fellows #families #newyear #romesustainablefoodproject #anniversary for American Art, and an endowed residency made la mostra Now Here Is Nowhere: Six Artists from the September 13, 2017 October 23, 2017 possible by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. American Academy. Exhibitions and programs are now regularly sent Un tale livello di eccellenza e un tale numero di to other cities in Italy and abroad. In September, attività non potrebbero essere portati avanti senza our exhibition A View of One’s Own opened at the il continuo supporto dei nostri Trustees, donatori, University of Pennsylvania’s Arthur Ross Gallery. Fellows, Residents, visitatori e amici. Vi ringraziamo Matera Imagined/Matera Immaginata, which debuted dei vostri contributi e di esservi ricordati dell’AAR in Rome in October, travels to Matera itself this anche quest’anno e auguriamo a tutti un inverno winter. In November, Now Here Is Nowhere: Six Artists fruttuoso e un meraviglioso anno nuovo. from the American Academy premiered at New York’s Italian Cultural Institute. Maintaining excellence at the Academy and this robust level of activity requires the ongoing support of our Trustees, donors, Fellows, Residents, visitors, #italianculturalinstitute #patronstour #gala #tonykushner #davidkertzer and friends. Thank you for including the AAR in your November 7, 2017 (see p. 22) November 9, 2017 (see p. 26) charitable giving this year, and we wish all a produc- tive winter and great new year ahead. Mark Robbins, President and CEO 2 AAR Magazine Fall/Winter 2017 3 FAR AFIELD: Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Malcolm X: Complete Critically acclaimed sculptor and author Barbara Chase-Riboud (1958 Affiliated Fellow) creates abstract art with a deep under- standing of history, identity, and place. The recipient of a John Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship to study at the American Stephen Greenblatt Traces Academy in Rome in 1957, she had a Paradise Lost her first European exhibitions the next year at the Academy and In The Rise and Fall of Adam and at Galleria L’Obelisco. Eve, released this fall, Stephen Her plan to make a group of Greenblatt (2010 Resident) com- steles in homage to slain civil Michelangelo Buonarroti, Studies for the Three Labors of Hercules, ca. 1530, red chalk, bines rigorous scholarship with 10 11/16 × 16 5/8 in., Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017. rights leader Malcolm X began compelling storytelling in a book in 1969, and she completed and that is “almost dizzying in its exhibited four works in the series scope.” According to Michael in 1969–1970. Decades later she Schaub of NPR Books, the author returned to the project, and Carmen Bambach draws from “history, religion, art, produced 16 more steles between and science” and “writes about 2003 and 2016. This fall Michael all of these fields with infectious and Michaelangelo Rosenfeld Gallery presented enthusiasm.” Michaelangelo: Divine Draftsmen and drawings still speak with Barbara Chase-Riboud—Malcolm Cogan University Professor and Designer, on view at the an arresting power today. Five Vaulting: The Art of Structural Tile, X: Complete, an exhibition fea- John Ochsendorf Is of the Humanities at Harvard Metropolitan Museum of Art in hundred years seem to melt away he also served as the lead curator turing 14 of these major works. University, Stephen previously New York through February 12, is in looking at his art.” for the traveling exhibition Although the artist, who is now in AAR’s New Director brought his signature blend one of the most anticipated and A specialist in Italian Palaces for the People: Guastavino her eighties, considers the series of erudition and accessibility acclaimed current exhibitions Renaissance art and curator of and America’s Great Public Spaces. complete, her dedication to the A structural engineer with a to The Swerve: How the World anywhere. Carmen Bambach (1994 Italian and Spanish drawing The Class of 1942 Professor work undertaken by Malcolm X wealth of practical and theoreti- Became Modern, which won the Fellow) organized the stunning at the Met, Carmen has previ- of Architecture and Civil and and other leaders reminds us that cal interests, John Ochsendorf (2008 2012 Pulitzer Prize and the 2011 show, which Holland Cotter ously assembled exhibitions of Environmental Engineering at the global struggle for human Fellow) became director of the National Book Award, and the of the New York Times calls “a drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, MIT, he is a founding partner of and civil rights is far from over. American Academy in Rome in bestselling Will in the World: How curatorial coup” and “an art Filippino Lippi, Bronzino, and the consultancy firm Ochsendorf, This exhibition not only helps July. John collaborates with art Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. historical tour de force.” Carmen Correggio and Parmigianino. DeJong and Block. preserve the memory of Malcolm historians, architects, engineers, This time, he delves into has curated the exhibition to “The Academy is one of the X but also acknowledges the and designers on endeavors creation myths that predate, and reveal connections between the most vibrant scholarly and push for global justice that he including the structural safety of perhaps prefigure, the biblical Renaissance master’s practice creative communities anywhere continues to inspire. historic monuments, the devel- story of Adam and Eve, as well as of drawings and the many other in the world,” he noted on his opment of sustainable infrastruc- countless religious commentaries facets of his creative life.