Videos
Opening Lecture: "Mina Loy: Strangeness Is Inevitable" with Roger Conover
Roger Conover, Executive Editor emeritus, MIT Press, and Mina Loy’s editor and literary executor, introduces the new exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, "Mina Loy: Strangeness is Inevitable," the first monographic presentation of the art of Mina Loy, one of the one of the most inscrutable artists and poets of the twentieth century.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and recorded on April 27, 2023.
“Reframing The Met’s Assyrian Sculpture Court”
Sarah Graff, Curator, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, discusses how the renovation of The Met’s permanent galleries for ancient Near Eastern art has led to an important reconsideration of its iconic Assyrian Sculpture Court, an immersive space that evokes an audience hall in the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II. Learn about how the planned renovation will bring in additional layers of meaning, from reconstructing vanished color, to telling the compelling story of the sculptures’ journey from Nimrud to New York.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Critical Support is provided by the Yadgar Endowment, Bowdoin College.
Recorded April 18, 2023 at Bowdoin College.
A Quantum Exchange: A Panel Discussion with Artists Abigail DeVille & Daniel Minter
Artists Abigail DeVille and Daniel Minter discuss their practice as related to the Parable Path Maine, a framework for community organizing and artistic engagement based on Octavia E. Butler’s "Parable of the Sower." The Parable Path Maine initiative is led by multi-hyphenate musician Toshi Reagon, Bowdoin College’s Joseph McKeen 2022–23 Visiting Fellow, and is supported by Maine Humanities Council, Indigo Arts Alliance and Bowdoin College. Toshi Reagon’s appointment as Bowdoin College’s Joseph McKeen Visiting Fellow represents a yearlong inquiry into racial justice, climate justice, gender justice, and faith during the 2022–2023 academic year.
Presented in partnership with the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Parable Path Maine, the Indigo Arts Alliance, Maine Humanities Council, and the halley k harrisburg ’90 and Michael Rosenfeld Artist-in-Residence program.
Recorded on April 12, 2023 at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine..
Lindsay Harris, Bowdoin class of 2000, Andrew Heiskell Arts Director (Interim), American Academy in Rome, will discuss aspects of photojournalism in Rome in the late nineteenth-century. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition, In Light of Rome: Early Photography in the Capital of the Art World, 1842-1871.
Recorded on April 4, 2023. Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Luis Camnitzer, the German-born Uruguayan artist, curator, and educator, delivers an artist's talk. Joined in conversation with exhibition curator Sabrina Lin '21, Camnitzer discusses his engagement with language, pedagogy, and conceptualism in his practice that spans over four decades.
The program was presented in conjunction with the exhibition "Turn of Phrase: Language and Translation in Global Contemporary Art" on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art from December 12, 2022 through June 4, 2023.
Presented online and recorded on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.
Ecuadorian artist Adrián Balseca discusses his interdisciplinary artistic research into the history of rubber production, labor relations, and environmental extractivism in the Amazon. Special consideration is given to his 2016 project "The Skin of Labour," which is on view as part of the exhibition "Andean Modernities / Contemporary Art: Cultural Transformation in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia" at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art through March 5. 2023. Casey Braun, Curator, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, moderates the discussion.
Presented online and recorded on March 2, 2023.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.
Emilie Johnson, Associate Curator, Monticello and Sean P. Burrus, curator, Antiquity & America; The Ancient Mediterranean in the United States, converse about Thomas Jefferson, James Bowdoin III, and colonial and early American networks forged through shared appreciation of ancient art and architecture. Featuring recent research on the sculpture of Ariadne at Monticello, a gift from James Bowdoin III to Thomas Jefferson, and ongoing work at Monticello to uncover the classical tastes and inspirations behind Jefferson’s collecting and pursuits. Conversation moderated by Anne Collins Goodyear, Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on November 16, 2022
In coordination with the exhibitions “Helen Frankenthaler and Jo Sandman: Without Limits” and “At First Light: Two Centuries of Artists in Maine,” distinguished artists Richard Tuttle and Martha Tuttle (who participated virtually) discuss their pioneering work in printmaking and other media, entering into conversation with one another and with Anne Collins Goodyear, Co-Director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, on November 3, 2022.
Exhibition curator Allison Martino discusses how malagan masks from New Ireland (a province of Papua New Guinea) reveal connections between Oceania and Maine during the nineteenth century. She considers the historical circulation and collecting practices of these ephemeral masks and their significant today. Martino is the Laura and Raymond Wielgus Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas at the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition “Masks of Memories: Art and Ceremony in Nineteenth Century Oceania.”
Recorded on October 20, 2022.
"At First Light:" A Bowdoin Artist Roundtable
Bowdoin faculty artists Jackie Brown, Michael Kolster, James Mullen, and Mark Wethli discuss their artistic practices, the history of artmaking at Bowdoin, and Bowdoin’s contribution to the history of the visual arts in Maine. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition At First Light : Two Centuries of Artists in Maine and the 60th anniversary of the visual arts department at Bowdoin College.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on October 13, 2022 at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
Opening Lecture celebrating "Helen Frankenthaler and Jo Sandman: Without Limits"
In honor of the opening of the new exhibition "Helen Frankenthaler and Jo Sandman: Without Limits" at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Ruth Fine, former Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art and a leading expert on modern and contemporary works on paper, discusses Helen Frankenthaler’s prints. She is joined by Katherine French, Curator of the Sandman Legacy Project, who discusses the work of Jo Sandman. Anne Collins Goodyear, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art moderates a discussion with the speakers.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on September 29, 2022 at Bowdoin College.
TJ Demos, Professor, and Patricia and Rowland Rebele Endowed Chair in Art History and Visual Culture; Director, Center for Creative Ecologies, and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, offers a reading of select aesthetic practices that connect with climate justice.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on September 13, 2022 at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.
An Artist Presentation with Geo Neptune
Geo Soctomah Neptune, renowned Passamaquoddy artist, activist, model, and educator, offers an engaging presentation that combines storytelling with a basketmaking demonstration. Neptune discusses their artistic inspiration, personal journey, and creative process, followed with a Q&A. This program was presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition "Innovation and Resilience Across Three Generations of Wabanaki Basket-Making," on view until September 18, 2022.
Recorded on September 9, 2022
"Skowhegan and Artmaking in Maine"
Sarah Workneh, co-director, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and Faye Hirsch, visiting associate professor, and MFA Chair in the School of Art + Design at Purchase College, State University of New York in conversation.
Skowhegan has been a leading center for artmaking in Maine since 1946. Workneh and Hirsch detail the origins of the school and its global impact, drawing upon research conducted for a forthcoming history of Skowhegan’s first seventy-five years.
Presented as the keynote program to open the exhibition “At First Light: Two Centuries of Artists in Maine” at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on June 25, 2022.
Artists Jona Frank, Elinor Carucci, and Michael Kolster, Professor of Art, Bowdoin College, address what it means to capture the nuances of a life through their practice as artists and photographers.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition “Jona Frank: Model Home.”
“Jona Frank: Model Home” is an immersive installation created by artist Jona Frank in collaboration with designer Alex Kalman. Using photography, costume, and handcraft to explore with humor and nuance her upbringing in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, during the 1970s, the artist invites us to reflect upon what it means to pursue our dreams and to consider: “what else?”
Recorded on April 7, 2022, in Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
From "Cherry Hill" to "Model Home": Jona Frank and Anne Collins Goodyear in Conversation
In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, “Jona Frank: Model Home,” artist Jona Frank and Museum Co-Director Anne Collins Goodyear discuss the development of the extraordinary installation that captures the spirit of the artist’s upbringing in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the 1970s and her determination to challenge herself to find her own voice as she imagined the “What Else?” that enabled her step into her future.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on February 24, 2022.
Conversation with Artist Geo Neptune
Geo Neptune, renowned Passamaquoddy master basket-maker, activist, and educator, discusses their basket-making practice. The conversation is moderated by Amanda Cassano ’22, and Shandiin Largo ’23, two of the student curators of the exhibition, "Innovation and Resilience Across Three Generations of Wabanaki Basket-Making." Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
The program was recorded on February 3, 2022.
Examples of Indian and Islamic Painting from the Museum’s Collection
In this tenth installment of "Art Up Close at the BCMA", Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History Bronwen Gulkis highlights little-known examples of Indian and Islamic painting from the Museum’s permanent collection. Hosted by Lucy Siegel '22.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Recorded on December 1, 2021.
A Discussion with Artist Stephanie Syjuco
An Associate Professor in Sculpture, Department of Art Practice, at the University of California, Berkeley, Stephanie Syjuco speaks about her work that addresses issues of representation and imaging technologies in light of contemporary politics and social movements. Syjuco's “Applicant Photos (Migrants) #2” (2016) was included in the exhibition, “ Transformations: New Acquisitions of Global Contemporary Art,” at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Recorded on November 18, 2021.
Discussion with the "Black Lady Art Group"
The Black Lady Art Group was created at Bowdoin College as an artist collective focused on creating a safe space for producing and exploring artistic practices as Black women. Founders Amie Sillah ’20, Amani Hite ’20, and Destiny Kearney ’21, join in a discussion moderated by Elizabeth S. Humphrey ’14 to learn about their respective practices, the artist collective, and challenges facing Black women artists today.
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “There is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art” on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art from September 16, 2021 through January 30, 2022.
Recorded on November 3, 2021.
Curator’s Tour: “There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art”
Elizabeth S. Humphrey ’14 , curator of the exhibition and PhD. Student, Art History, University of Delaware, provides commentary on “There is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art,” an exhibition examining the representation of Black women in the United States over the past two centuries. The exhibition is on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art from September 16, 2021 through January 30, 2022.
This tour was filmed on September 25, 2021, when Elizabeth S. Humphrey visited campus to give an in-person tour of the exhibition.
A Conversation: New Views of the Middle Ages, Highlights from the Wyvern Collection
A community discussion of the exhibition “New Views of the Middle Ages: Highlights from the Wyvern Collection” with Sir Paul Ruddock, philanthropist and supporter of the arts, Stephen Perkinson, professor of art history and associate dean for academic affairs, Bowdoin College, and Kathryn Gerry, visiting assistant professor of art history, Bowdoin College. Introduction by Anne Collins Goodyear, co-director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Filmed at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine on September 1, 2021.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on August 18, 2021.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on August 11, 2021.
Thomas Hardiman, Keeper of the Portsmouth Athenaeum, and Patricia Q. Wall, scholar and author of Lives of Consequence: Blacks in Early Kittery and Berwick in the Massachusetts Province of Maine (Portsmouth Marine Society, 2017), share research into the 1745 victory at Louisbourg, the commanders and their portraits, and the slave-trading that created their wealth and influence in early Maine.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Recorded on May 10, 2021
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and recorded on June 2, 2021
ReConsidering Iraqi Cultural Heritage: A Conversation with Dr. Abdulameer Al-Hamdani
A conversation with Dr. Abdulameer Al-Hamdani, archaeologist and former Iraq Minister of Culture about the past, present, and future of cultural heritage in Iraq and the connections between Iraqi histories and identities today. Dr. Hamdani shares with us updates on the state of cultural heritage and museums in Iraq, and insights into the role of digital approaches to protecting and preserving Iraqi history. Sean P. Burrus, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, Bowdoin College Museum of Art moderates.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Critical support is provided by the Yadgar Family Endowment, Bowdoin College.
Recorded on April 8, 2021.
On "The Presence of the Past: Art from Central and West Africa"
David Gordon, Professor of History, Bowdoin College, and Allison Martino, Raymond and Laura Wielgus Curator of the Art of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas at the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University Bloomington, discuss the exhibition "The Presence of the Past: Art from Central and West Africa," now available online. The exhibition features important loans from The Wyvern Collection, in addition to works from the BCMA’s own holdings, and explores notions of power, gender, and cultural appropriation through the juxtaposition of historic art with objects produced during the past century.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on March 17, 2021.
“We Never See Anything Clearly: William Henry Hunt’s 'Fungi'"
Enjoy this eighth episode in this series of bite-sized conversations aimed at connecting students and members of the Bowdoin community with works in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s collection. In this episode, Pamela Fletcher, Professor of Art History, Bowdoin College, discusses a watercolor and gouache, "Fungi," by William Henry Hunt.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on March 10, 2021.
"Ivory, Copper, and the Island of Gold: Medieval trade between France and West Africa"
Sarah Guérin, Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the development of trade networks linking medieval Europe and western Africa, exploring the important role played by Africa in the medieval world system of Europe. Her talk sheds light on the profound effects that these trade networks had on artistic production in both regions.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on March 3, 2021.
Recorded February 24, 2021
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on February 17, 2021
Art Up Close at the BCMA | Episode 6
The sixth episode in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art series of bite-sized conversations aimed at connecting students and members of the Bowdoin community with works in the Museum of Art’s collection.
In this episode Anne Collins Goodyear, co-director, discusses "32 Questions for DeRay McKesson," a 2016 time-based media portrait of the activist by artist R. Luke DuBois.
Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on February 17, 2021.
This recording showcases a live event, hosted online by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on Dec. 8, 2020, featuring an introduction to the 2017 stop-motion film "The Ballad of Special Ops Cody," followed by a conversation with the artist.
This event is part of an ongoing series at the Museum of Art dedicated to the ancient and modern histories of the Assyrian reliefs from Nimrud and their reception. Recent public events have included conversations with historians, curators, and conservators and cultural heritage specialists who specialize in Assyrian history and culture.
This feature showcases the full version of that conversation. Originally recorded on Dec. 4, 2020, a condensed version of this conversation was aired as part of a featured online program offered by the Museum on Dec. 9, 2020. A recording of that event, featuring the artist’s introduction to the film and an excerpt of the film, may be found online.
This event is part of an ongoing series at the Museum of Art dedicated to the ancient and modern histories of the Assyrian reliefs from Nimrud and their reception. Recent public events have included conversations with historians, curators, and conservators and cultural heritage specialists who specialize in Assyrian history and culture.
Art Up Close at the BCMA: Episode 5 | The Assyrian Reliefs and Repatriation
Lucy Siegel ’22 introduces the subject of the Assyrian reliefs and repatriation in Episode 5 of "Art Up Close at the BCMA," series of bite-sized conversations aimed at connecting students with works in the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Presented on December 9, 2020.
Art Up Close at the BCMA | Episode 4
The fourth episode in a series of bite-sized conversations aimed at connecting students with works in the museum’s collection. Claire Traum '21 shares her independent research project on Bay Area artists in the twentieth century, focusing on Wayne Thiebaud. Recorded on November 18, 2020.
Engaging Objects: Reimagining Museum Collections with New Technologies
Diane Zorich, Director of the Smithsonian’s Digitization Program Office, shares her knowledge as an expert in cultural heritage and digital technology and discusses revolutionary digital tools now being used to document objects in the Smithsonian’s vast collections and strategies for preserving that data. She also speaks to the Smithsonian Institution’s recent public release of nearly 3 million digital assets—including images and 3-dimensional models— sharing its collections, stimulating innovative creative and scholarly work and increasing public enjoyment of the nation’s cultural collections through these open access resources. Just what does it mean to reimagine the museum digitally? Recorded November 9, 2020.
“New Views of the Middle Ages: The Art Exhibition, Technology, Accessibility, and New Knowledge”
Technologies developed over the last three decades have opened new opportunities for museums to reach a wider audience, and for visitors, whether in person or online, to engage with works of art in new ways. As museums around the world closed their doors in the face of a global pandemic, we have had an opportunity to re-evaluate the effectiveness of these technologies and perhaps even to envision new paths forward. This panel discussion addresses some of the ways in which museums, whether large, small, regional, academic, or encyclopedic, can develop and use technology to maintain, and perhaps even increase, public engagement. Recorded November 5, 2020.
Panelists:
Sir Paul Ruddock H’19, philanthropist and supporter of the arts
Barbara Boehm, Paul and Jill Ruddock Senior Curator for The Met Cloisters
Eyob Derillo, Curator of Ethiopian collections, British Library
Art Up Close at the BCMA | Episode 3
The third in a series of bite-sized conversations aimed at connecting students with works in the Museum’s collection. This week, Brooke Wrubel ’21 shares her independent research project on Edward Perry Warren and the antiquities collection at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on October 28, 2020.
Maine’s Lithographic Landscapes: Town and City Views, 1830-1870
This illustrated presentation by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., Maine State Historian, celebrates the publication of "Maine’s Lithographic Landscapes: Town and City Views, 1830-1870," released by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and Brandeis University Press in September 2020. Shettleworth guest-curated the exhibition of the same name on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in 2019-2020. Recorded on October 8, 2020.
An Introduction to "New Views of the Middle Ages: Highlights from the Wyvern Collection"
This program, recorded on September 30, 2020, includes remarks from Kathryn Gerry, curator of the exhibition and visiting assistant professor of medieval art history at Bowdoin College. The exhibition showcases works from the Wyvern collection, one of the most important private collections of medieval art today, currently on loan to the BCMA. The Wyvern loan, including medieval works from Europe and east Africa, together with select objects from the BCMA’s collection, offers opportunities for 21st-century viewers to engage with the vibrant art, culture, and socio-economic circumstances of the medieval past. Gerry offers a brief introduction to some of the key themes that underly this exhibition and presents individual works from the show.
A Conversation on the Earliest Images of Bowdoin College
Maine State Historian Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. H’08 speaks about the College in the nineteenth century. After Shettleworth’s remarks, he and John Cross ’76, secretary of development and college relations, join in a Q&A moderated by the Museum of Art's codirectors, Frank Goodyear and Anne Collins Goodyear.
Jessica S. Johnson, head of conservation at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, and Corine Wegener, director of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, share their important work recovering cultural heritage in Iraq and at the site of Nimrud. Learn how the Smithsonian has partnered with Iraqi colleagues for initiatives aimed at protecting and preserving the history of the region.
Critical support was provided by the Yadgar Family Endowment, Bowdoin College.
Presented on October 24, 2019.
The talk was supported by the Yadgar Family Endowment.
Stephen Perkinson, Bowdoin's Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Art History and guest curator, delivers the keynote address, "Lessons for Living: The Macabre in Renaissance Art" to open the Bowdoin Museum of Art exhibition :The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe."
"The Ivory Mirror" explored the rich visual culture of mortality in Renaissance Europe. Exquisite artworks — from ivory prayer beads to gem-encrusted jewelry — evoke life's preciousness and the tension between pleasure and responsibility, then and now.
"Exhibiting Ivory Today: Historic Artifacts in a Contemporary Context"
A panel of experts in art history, law, and Arctic studies, spoke recently about historic significance of ivory as an artistic medium and the implication of new regulations on the transport of ivory nationally and internationally as part of efforts to protect elephants and other endangered species.
The speakers are Stephen J. Knerly Jr., Esq., of Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP; Genevieve LeMoine, curator, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum; and Stephen Perkinson, Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Art History. They offer many perspectives on this issue.
"Why Draw?" Artist Natalie Frank on Drawings and Their Subtexts
Natalie Frank's widely exhibited and critically acclaimed illustrations of the "unsanitized" fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm ponder their implications for women, their bodies, desires, and fears. Illustrations of the tale "The Maiden Without Hands" were on view in the exhibition "Why Draw? 500 Years of Watercolors and Drawings at Bowdoin College."
Elliot Bostwick Davis: "Reimagining 'American' Art: The MFA Boston and Museums of the Future"
In 2010 the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, opened its new wing dedicated to the Arts of the Americas, a transformation led by Elliot Bostwick Davis, John Moors Cabot Chair, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In her lecture, she reflects on the MFA's evolution and what it means to tell the story of American art in an encyclopedic museum.
Symposium: “Perspectives from Postwar Hiroshima: Chuzo Tamotzu, Children’s Drawings, and the Art of Resolution”
In conjunction with the exhibition "Perspectives from Postwar Hiroshima: Chuzo Tamotzu, Children's Drawings, and the Art of Resolution," at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, leading artists, historians, and art historians offer their perspectives on the cultural implications of World War II - particularly the atomic explosion in Hiroshima - for Japan and for Americans of Japanese descent in the United States.
Speakers include Yukiyo Kawano, artist, Portland, Oregon; Roger Shimomura, University Distinguished Professor of Art Emeritus, The University of Kansas; Mark Selden, professor emeritus of sociology and history, State University of New York at Binghamton; John K.W. Tchen, founding director, Asia/Pacific/American Institute; Aiko Izumisawa, independent scholar, Kagoshima, Japan; Michael Amano, Bowdoin Class of 2017; and Virginia Crow, Class of 2018.
"Japanese Prints Renewed: The Agents and Tangents of Sosaku Hanga"
Kendall Brown, professor of Asian art history at California State University-Long Beach, explores the post-war flourishing of the Sosaku Hanga or "creative print" movement in Japan through its American patrons and scholars and its emphasis on the materiality of woodblock prints.
Presented in conjunction with the installation of Sosaku Hanga at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Michael Kolster: “Take Me to the River: Photographs of Atlantic Rivers”
Panel discussion of the book, Take Me to the River, a collection of photographs by Michael Kolster. Moderated by Frank Goodyear, the panel discusses the history and current state of the rivers depicted in the book: the Androscoggin (ME/NH), the Schuylkill (PA), the James (VA) and the Savannah (SC/GA). It also addresses the ways that photography might contribute to the larger conversation about the future of these waterways and the landscape in general.
Panelists include editor and publisher George Thompson of Staunton, Virginia; book designer David Skolkin, of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Alison Nordstrom, contributor of an essay to the book, former senior curator of photographs at Eastman House Museum of Photography, and independent writer and curator living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Matthew Klingle, contributor of another essay to the book, Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Bowdoin College; and Michael Kolster, photographer and Associate Professor of Art at Bowdoin College.
"Iconoclasm and the Power of Images"
Contemporary vandalism of works of art by religious fanatics is only the latest episode in a millennia-long struggle to define and control the power of images that has erupted across cultural and religious boundaries. This evening offers the opportunity to explore iconoclasm in history, learn about its motivations, and reflect on the destructive and creative powers it unleashes.
Participating faculty members are Assistant Professor of Government Barbara Elias Klenner, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Meryem Belkaid, Associate Professor of Classics James Higginbotham, Professor of Religion Robert Morrison, and the Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Art History Stephen Perkinson. Museum Curator Joachim Homann moderated the event.
"Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculptures of the Hellenistic World"
From the fourth century BCE to the first century CE, artists of the Mediterranean world created richly detailed bronze sculptures of unparalleled realism and expression. Only a few of these ancient masterpieces survive. Jens Daehner, associate curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum who recently curated a celebrated exhibition of Hellenistic bronzes for the Getty Museum, discusses the importance of bronze in antiquity and artistic innovations of the Hellenistic period.
"The New Normal"
The artist Hasan Elahi, Guggenheim Fellow whose work is included in "This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Art and Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today at the Museum of Art," discusses his practice and the larger question of visual documentation and the representation of identity in the post-9/11 era.
Elahi is a Bangladeshi-born American interdisciplinary media artist with a focus on technology and media and their social implications.
"Some Additional Observations on Identity in American Art"
Richard Saunders ’70 discusses the emergence of portrait abstraction in the context of the broader history of American portraiture.
Saunders is a Walter Cerf Distinguished College Professor and director at Middlebury College Museum of Art. He is also an art historian and author of the recently published American Faces: A Cultural History of Portraiture and Identity (2016). He received his BA from Bowdoin, his MA in the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the University of Delaware, and MA, M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale.
"Queer Strategies, Queer Tactics"
Artist L.J. Roberts, whose work Portrait of Deb was included in This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today, speaks about the expression of LGBT identity through the visual arts.