Tackle shifting paradigms of modern and contemporary art on a global stage in this two-day symposium organized by the Department of the History of Art.
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10am: Keynote lecture by Thierry de Duve: Do Artists Speak on Behalf of All of Us?
Abstract
Globalization has exponentially increased economic and cultural exchanges to the point where national, regional, or ethnic identities have become trademarks of marketable differences circulating in an otherwise disturbingly homogeneous art institution. I hope with this talk to tackle the vexed question of whether artists can legitimately claim to be spokespeople of humankind, beyond multiculturalism and identity politics. At issue is the concept of representativity and its critique, buttressed by the ‘Kant after Duchamp’ reading of the Critique of Judgment.
About Thierry de Duve
Historian and philosopher of art Thierry de Duve is Professor Emeritus from the University of Lille 3, and was Kirk Varnedoe Visiting Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, for the fall semester of 2013. His English publications include Pictorial Nominalism (1991), Kant after Duchamp (1996), Clement Greenberg Between the Lines (1996, 2010), Look—100 Years of Contemporary Art (2001), and Sewn In the Sweatshops of Marx: Beuys, Warhol, Klein, Duchamp (2012). He recently finished a book of essays on aesthetics, forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press.
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Noon: Lunch
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1pm: Artists roundtable with Hasan Elahi, Chitra Ganesh, Sreshta Rit Premnath, Lisi Raskin
Chitra Ganesh, Rit Premnath, Lisi Raskin, and Hasan Elahi are of the same generation but work in different mediums, and are from different cultural and intellectual backgrounds. First in individual presentations, then in conversation, they will shed light on what it means to address global audiences through iconographies and ideas that are culturally and historically specific—for example, Ganesh’s engagement with the Amar Chitra Katha comic series, and Premnath’s investigation of Edward Krasinski, a Polish conceptual artist who was active from the 1960s.
The practices represented in the roundtable also consistently address contemporary global issues and politics—Raskin’s recent travels to Afghanistan to study vestiges of war, and Elahi’s ongoing self-surveillance developed in response to being interrogated by the FBI about his frequent travels. Additionally, both Premnath and Raskin reflect on aspects of modernism in their work—Premnath through abstracted biographies of certain figures in art and philosophy, Raskin in her reflections on the Cold War and its aesthetic, providing a bridge to the notion of “international modern.”
This roundtable will be moderated by Liz Park, ICA Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellow, and Beth Citron, Assistant Curator, Rubin Museum of Art (New York).
International Modern / Global Contemporary (Day 1)