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谩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 鈥榮ocialism with a human face鈥, these were crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion of 21 August. Our speakers 鈥 Pierre Buraglio, David Crowley, Darby English, Briony Fer, Joan Kee and Ana Longoni 鈥 opened up the art historical arena of 鈥1968鈥 from an array of cultural, formal and geographical perspectives.
A history of detail 鈥 or thinking small
15th January 2018听
Professor Briony Fer – UCL
This talk addressed the crisis of scale in contemporary criticism. Taking a cue from Foucault鈥檚 remark that he wanted to write a History of Detail 鈥 a project that could be seen to emerge in part as response to the events of 1968 but which he never executed 鈥 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听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 King鈥檚 Two Bodies
29th January 2018听
Professor Darby English听– University of Chicago
鈥楾he King鈥檚 Two Bodies鈥 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 it鈥攚hen that鈥檚 not at all what one is meant to see.
Darby听English听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听How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness听(MIT, 2007),听1971: A Year in the Life of Color听(Chicago, 2016), and听To Describe a Life: Essays at the Intersection of Art and Race Terror听(Yale, forthcoming autumn 2018).
The Centre for American Art Seminar Series brings leading speakers in the field to The 91自拍 to present their research with the aim of showcasing the most exciting work in American Art today. The series invites three speakers in听the autumn and spring terms each year.
Noise and Silence in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest c.1968听
19th February 2018听
Professor David Crowley – National College of Art and Design, Dublin
In 1968 Hungarian artist听Tam谩s Szentj贸by听painted bands of sulphur on the sides of a common brick to approximate the dials and switches of a portable radio. 听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贸by鈥檚 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铆啪谩k in 1967, and The Primitives, the Czech beat group whose immersive performances were designed by artist Zorka S谩glov谩; and the investigations of noise conducted by Krzysztof Wodiczko in a series of 鈥榠nstruments鈥 and performances in Warsaw.
David Crowley teaches at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. His books include听Warsaw听(2003) and three volumes co-edited with Susan Reid,听Socialism and Style. Material Culture in Post-war Eastern Europe听(2000);听Socialist Spaces. Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc听(2003); and听Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc听(2010). 听Crowley also curates exhibitions including听鈥楥old War Modern鈥櫶齛t the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2008鈥9 (with Jane Pavitt),听鈥楽ounding听the Body Electric. Experiments in听Art and Music in Eastern Europe鈥櫶齛t Muzeum Sztuki, 艁贸d藕, 2012 and Calvert 22, London, 2013, and 鈥楴otes from Underground. Art and Alternative Music in Eastern Europe 1968-1994鈥櫶齛t Muzeum Sztuki, 艁贸d藕, 2018 and Akademie der Kunst,听Berlin, 2018 (both with Daniel Muzyczuk).
Vulnerability and Real Time in the Two Koreas听
9th March 2018听
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 worker鈥檚 paradise. In South Korea, where photography was shaped around the twinning of economic development with state-promoted 鈥渢radition,鈥 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听is Associate Professor in the History of Art at the University of Michigan. The author of听Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method听(2013) and听Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America听(2019), she co-edited听To Scale听(2015) and a special issue of听Third Text听on contemporary art in Southeast Asia. A contributing editor to听Artforum, Kee鈥檚 other writing has appeared in听Art History,听Art Journal,听Law and Literature,听American Art,听Journal of Law, Culture and the Humanities, and听Tate Papers听among other venues. Current projects include a discussion of emoji as a visual literacy argument, the emergence of a 鈥済reater鈥 Southeast Asia through the lens of Minimalism and Afro-Asian collaborations in postwar America.
Vanguard and Revolution: The 鈥68 Radicalization in the Argentinian Avant-garde
12th March 2018 (unfortunately this event was cancelled due to ongoing UCU industrial action)听
Professor Ana Longoni – Universidad de Buenos Aires
Ana Longoni听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铆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听research is centered on the crossroads听between art and politics in Latin America since the sixties.听She has published, alone or in collaboration, among other works:听Del Di Tella a Tucum谩n Arde听(From the Di Tella Institute to Tucum谩n Arde) (Buenos Aires, El cielo por asalto, 2000; and Eudeba, 2008),听Traiciones听(Treasons) (Buenos Aires, Norma, 2007),听El Siluetazo听(The Silhouettes)听(Buenos Aires, Adriana Hidalgo, 2008), Roberto Jacoby.听El deseo nace del derrumbe(Desire Rises from Collapse) (Barcelona, La Central, 2011),听Leandro Katz听(Buenos Aires, Fundaci贸n Espigas, 2013) and听Vanguardia y revoluci贸n听(Avant-garde and Revolution)听(Buenos Aires, Ariel, 2014).听As a playwright, she wrote 鈥淟a Chira鈥 (2003) and 鈥溍乺boles鈥 (2006).
In her role as curator, she coordinated the exhibitions 鈥淒esire Rises from Collapse鈥 (2011), 鈥淟osing the Human Form鈥 (2012), both at the Reina Sof铆a Museum (Madrid), and 鈥淲ith provocations by Juan Carlos Uviedo鈥 (2015) and 鈥淥scar Masotta: Theory as action鈥 (2017) in MUAC (M茅xico).
She is also an active member, since its foundation in 2007, of the Red Conceptualismos del Sur (Southern Conceptualisms Network).