5/26
Louisa Shepard
Senior News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
Art History
‘In These Times: The Intricate Riddle of Life’
‘In These Times: The Intricate Riddle of Life’
The first three episodes of the Omnia podcast’s fourth season discuss the link between making art and making meaning, and how creativity shines a light on the way out of adversity in tough times, past and present.
The changing face of portraiture at Penn
The changing face of portraiture at Penn
Efforts around campus aim to diversify those honored in portraits and rethink how to approach representation through art.
Annie Ma bridges the contemporary with classics
Annie Ma bridges the contemporary with classics
Annie Ma, a junior in the School of Arts & Sciences, responded to the rise in anti-Asian violence with a renewed sense of identity and purpose, reconciling her love for classics with her love for contemporary East Asian culture.
Inspiring the next generation of archive scholars
Inspiring the next generation of archive scholars
Through Inside the Archive, a course taught by Liliane Weissberg of the School of Arts & Sciences, Penn students explore what an archive is, how history gets written, and what is ahead in a digital future.
Keepers of the cultural memory
Keepers of the cultural memory
In wartime, saving human lives is a top priority. But secondary considerations often include preserving the cultural heritage also under siege. Penn experts offer their thoughts as the situation in Ukraine continues to unfold.
Justin McDaniel on life, death, religion, and his latest book
Justin McDaniel on life, death, religion, and his latest book
In his new book, “Wayward Distractions,” the School of Arts & Sciences’ Justin McDaniel compiles articles on art and material culture spanning his 20-plus years of scholarship.
The philosophy of visual studies
The philosophy of visual studies
Founded 20 years ago, the interdisciplinary major of visual studies creates a bridge for students to combine interests, including philosophy, art history, architecture, fine arts, and psychology.
Exploring monuments of trauma in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Black Atlantic
Exploring monuments of trauma in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Black Atlantic
Stephanie Gibson, a doctoral candidate in the history of art, explores in her dissertation how museums and monuments interpret sites with painful histories to help people move past the trauma that occurred there.
Artist and professor David Hartt is ‘of the moment’
Artist and professor David Hartt is ‘of the moment’
This year alone four museums and two galleries are featuring work by artist David Hartt of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, including currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Accessing an artistic archive as an ICA summer intern
Accessing an artistic archive as an ICA summer intern
Rising senior Min Park, an art history major from South Korea, is organizing the book and image archives as the summer curatorial intern at the Institute of Contemporary Art, and helping plan a September reopening with two new exhibitions.
Media Contact
In the News
WHYY (Philadelphia)
Penn has the same sculpture that just won a major prize at Venice Biennale
Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences can see the Brick House sculpture from her office window and comments that it has become an iconic work of art on the campus at Penn.
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Slate.com
The great Helga hype
Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about the painter Andrew Wyeth. “His work was so out of fashion that it never went out of fashion. It was consistently American,” she said. “Wyeth had a really strong, enduring appeal.”
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The New York Times
Shining a light on forgotten designers
ICA Director Zoë Ryan spoke about the legacy of Anna Russell Jones, the first African American graduate of Moore College of Art & Design. Jones designed rugs and wallpaper and went on to become a graphic designer for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in World War II and illustrated medical procedures at Howard University College of Medicine. “Though she was accomplished, her path was not easy,” Ryan said.
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The New York Times
John Singer Sargent’s secret muse
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about the practice of updating information about well-known artworks in museum wall labels and catalogs. “Curators and art historians have been interested in trying to reveal more—in part because there’s more interest in having a robust understanding of the past,” she said.
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The New York Times
One fateful night with Donny Hathaway
Guthrie Ramsey of the School of Arts and Sciences said that when evaluating artists with mental illnesses, “we should simply put it into context, like we do other aspects of their upbringing, rather than making it some mysterious gift that they seem to be bestowed.”
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The New York Times
How a businesswoman became a voice for art’s black models
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about the importance of contextualizing “African-American art and visual culture and artistic production.” She went on to note that many black students may not pursue the field of art history due to poor representation in faculty and curriculum.
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