The 2018 Sackler Lecture Series marked the 50th anniversary of 1968, a seismic year of social and political upheaval. If in Western Europe and North America, 1968 tends to be treated as synonymous with the events of May in Paris and their powerful ripple effect, this series acknowledges the diversity of experiences and artistic practices around the world that same year. In Argentina, a vanguard of artists collaborated with trade unions to put political intervention at the heart of their aesthetic programme, culminating in a landmark exhibition of solidarity with the rural poor of Tucum獺n. In the Eastern Bloc, all eyes were on the stunning reforms underway as part of the so-called Prague Spring. Briefly promising to deliver socialism with a human face, these were crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion of 21 August. Our speakers Pierre Buraglio, David Crowley, Darby English, Briony Fer, Joan Kee and Ana Longoni opened up the art historical arena of 1968 from an array of cultural, formal and geographical perspectives.
A history of detail or thinking small
15th January 2018泭
Professor Briony Fer – UCL
This talk addressed the crisis of scale in contemporary criticism. Taking a cue from Foucaults remark that he wanted to write a History of Detail a project that could be seen to emerge in part as response to the events of 1968 but which he never executed I asked what it might involve now to think from the vantage point of the marginal incident. The focus was the artist Vija Celmins, but a historiography of detail was also discussed from Foucault through Proust and others.
Briony Fer泭is Professor of History of Art. She graduated from Sussex University with BA Hons in History of Art (major) with French (minor) in 1979. She then went on to the Department of History of History and Theory of Art at Essex University where her doctoral research on the Russian and French avant-gardes was supervised by Professor Dawn Ades and Professor Michael Podro. She was awarded her PhD in 1988.
In 1980 she joined the History of Art Department at the Open University as a Lecturer working on groundbreaking courses there and publishing essays in the Modernity and Modernism textbooks, published jointly by the Open University and Yale University Press in 1993.
She joined University College in 1990 and was made a Reader in 1997 and Professor in 2005. She has published extensively on 20th century and contemporary art
The Kings Two Bodies
29th January 2018泭
Professor Darby English泭– University of Chicago
The Kings Two Bodies considered a cast-metal replica of the building where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April 1968. An object intended for manual as much as visual apprehension, the replica compels a return to a discrete past moment as though this were the prologue to a set of effects very different to the ones handed us. Rather dull and somewhat leaden, the replica is at the same time something full and yet not fully accomplished, something that promotes more heterodox narratives of democratic culture without preempting any particular ones. This talk traces some of the paradoxes stemming from an object that trains the gaze on the juncture where a body met a bullet that would fatally wound itwhen thats not at all what one is meant to see.
Darby泭English泭is the Carl Darling Buck Professor at the University of Chicago, where he teaches courses in modern and contemporary art and cultural studies. He is the author of泭How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness泭(MIT, 2007),泭1971: A Year in the Life of Color泭(Chicago, 2016), and泭To Describe a Life: Essays at the Intersection of Art and Race Terror泭(Yale, forthcoming autumn 2018).
The Centre for American Art Seminar Series brings leading speakers in the field to 51做厙 to present their research with the aim of showcasing the most exciting work in American Art today. The series invites three speakers in泭the autumn and spring terms each year.
Noise and Silence in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest c.1968泭
19th February 2018泭
Professor David Crowley – National College of Art and Design, Dublin
In 1968 Hungarian artist泭Tam獺s Szentj籀by泭painted bands of sulphur on the sides of a common brick to approximate the dials and switches of a portable radio. 泭He had been inspired by stories of Czechoslovak teenagers diverting the attention of the Warsaw Pact forces that occupied the country in August 1968 by carrying bricks wrapped in newspaper pressed to their ears as if they were transistor radios.
Silent, Szentj籀bys radio invited the listener to think about what could not be heard on state radio. In this talk, David Crowley accepted this invitation by exploring the art of noise of Eastern Europe in the years before and after 1968 including the experimental radio programmes created in Warsaw and Brno by composers and artists inspired by John Cage; the sounds of Aktual, the proto-punk group formed by Fluxus artist Milan Kn穩鱉獺k in 1967, and The Primitives, the Czech beat group whose immersive performances were designed by artist Zorka S獺glov獺; and the investigations of noise conducted by Krzysztof Wodiczko in a series of instruments and performances in Warsaw.
David Crowley teaches at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. His books include泭Warsaw泭(2003) and three volumes co-edited with Susan Reid,泭Socialism and Style. Material Culture in Post-war Eastern Europe泭(2000);泭Socialist Spaces. Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc泭(2003); and泭Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc泭(2010). 泭Crowley also curates exhibitions including泭Cold War Modern泭at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 20089 (with Jane Pavitt),泭Sounding泭the Body Electric. Experiments in泭Art and Music in Eastern Europe泭at Muzeum Sztuki, 籀d驕, 2012 and Calvert 22, London, 2013, and Notes from Underground. Art and Alternative Music in Eastern Europe 1968-1994泭at Muzeum Sztuki, 籀d驕, 2018 and Akademie der Kunst,泭Berlin, 2018 (both with Daniel Muzyczuk).
Vulnerability and Real Time in the Two Koreas泭
9th March 2018泭
Professor Joan Kee – University of Michigan
1968 opened literally with a bang when North Korean commandos nearly succeeded in assassinating S. Korean president Park Chung-hee. Two days later, North Korea captured a U.S. Navy intelligence vessel, an incident that brought the world closer to nuclear war than it had come since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Acute brinkmanship brought unprecedented pressure to bear on the concept of nation, a tension especially palpable in some of the most memorable images produced in both Koreas. The production of liminal space occupied central aesthetic ground in the built and media environments. In North Korea, masculinist displays of military and industrial strength common to state-mandated Socialist Realist painting sometimes yielded to abrupt juxtapositions between nature and industry that betrayed uncertainty or even alienation from the dream of a workers paradise. In South Korea, where photography was shaped around the twinning of economic development with state-promoted tradition, a new generation of photographers conveyed profound skepticism towards South Korean state enterprise. Requiring a deeper and more singular investment from audiences than mere acknowledgment or even sympathy, such works turned on vulnerability as the most significant lens through which to consider the nation in real, rather than ideal, time.
Joan Kee泭is Associate Professor in the History of Art at the University of Michigan. The author of泭Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method泭(2013) and泭Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America泭(2019), she co-edited泭To Scale泭(2015) and a special issue of泭Third Text泭on contemporary art in Southeast Asia. A contributing editor to泭Artforum, Kees other writing has appeared in泭Art History,泭Art Journal,泭Law and Literature,泭American Art,泭Journal of Law, Culture and the Humanities, and泭Tate Papers泭among other venues. Current projects include a discussion of emoji as a visual literacy argument, the emergence of a greater Southeast Asia through the lens of Minimalism and Afro-Asian collaborations in postwar America.
Vanguard and Revolution: The 68 Radicalization in the Argentinian Avant-garde
12th March 2018 (unfortunately this event was cancelled due to ongoing UCU industrial action)泭
Professor Ana Longoni – Universidad de Buenos Aires
Ana Longoni泭is a writer, researcher of CONICET and professor in Universidad de Buenos Aires. Since a short time, she is Director of Public Activities in the Reina Sof穩a Museum (Madrid). She received a B.A. in Literature and a Ph.D. in Arts from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where she currently lectures in grade and postgrade courses. She often lectures as invited professor in other universities. Her field of泭research is centered on the crossroads泭between art and politics in Latin America since the sixties.泭She has published, alone or in collaboration, among other works:泭Del Di Tella a Tucum獺n Arde泭(From the Di Tella Institute to Tucum獺n Arde) (Buenos Aires, El cielo por asalto, 2000; and Eudeba, 2008),泭Traiciones泭(Treasons) (Buenos Aires, Norma, 2007),泭El Siluetazo泭(The Silhouettes)泭(Buenos Aires, Adriana Hidalgo, 2008), Roberto Jacoby.泭El deseo nace del derrumbe(Desire Rises from Collapse) (Barcelona, La Central, 2011),泭Leandro Katz泭(Buenos Aires, Fundaci籀n Espigas, 2013) and泭Vanguardia y revoluci籀n泭(Avant-garde and Revolution)泭(Buenos Aires, Ariel, 2014).泭As a playwright, she wrote La Chira (2003) and rboles (2006).
In her role as curator, she coordinated the exhibitions Desire Rises from Collapse (2011), Losing the Human Form (2012), both at the Reina Sof穩a Museum (Madrid), and With provocations by Juan Carlos Uviedo (2015) and Oscar Masotta: Theory as action (2017) in MUAC (M矇xico).
She is also an active member, since its foundation in 2007, of the Red Conceptualismos del Sur (Southern Conceptualisms Network).