Art History

Posted on by Art Department Art History

Greek Sculpture Studies at Truman

In Dr. Sara Orel’s spring Greek and Roman class, students photographed themselves in poses taken from sculpture and vase paintings of the Archaic and Classical Periods (roughly 600 BCE to 330 BCE).  This gave them a chance to study the poses, objects, and relationships of the figures.  Here are some of the photos they submitted for the assignment:

fallen warrior

Sam Pohlman as a Fallen Warrior from the pediment of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina

Hegeso with names

kore one

Stay tuned for images from their replication of Greek painted vases.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Weblogs

News from Alumni

We are always happy to get news from alumni of our Art and Art History programs, some of whom are involved with Art careers and others who have really exciting careers in other fields.  Here are some of our latest updates from Art History majors:

From Bryna Campbell:

In May 2015, I graduated with my PhD in Art History & Archaeology from Washington University in St. Louis, with a dissertation titled “The Comic Grotesque: Troubling the Body Politic in American Graphic Satire from World War I to the Great Depression.” I also received a graduate certificate in American Culture Studies. Since graduating I have been teaching as an art history instructor at Portland State University in Portland, OR. I am also the co-creator and founding editor of The Art and Place Blog (theartandplaceblog.wordpress.com) and the co-creator of the creative writing project Un/Settled (un-settled.org), which focuses on themes related to rural diaspora.

Brian Dale (who wrote his senior thesis the same year as Bryna):

I work in financial services as an Asst. Vice President with Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. I live with my family in Webster Groves, MO, and my involvement with art does not extend beyond drawing with my daughter and the odd trip to the museum.

Katherine Eusey:

My love of Islamic architecture led me to pursue an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University. Although my thesis was on the topic of mosque architecture, real-world pressures (ya know, needing to eat and pay rent) ended up pushing me into the field of security and intel. After working for a year as an intelligence analyst at a large security and executive protection firm in Tel Aviv, I joined a small startup called Levantine Group (also Tel Aviv-based) as the Director of Partnerships. In that role, I work with diplomats, journalists, corporate security managers, and even a few university study abroad program directors who are based across the Middle East.

If you are an alumn(-a/-us) of Truman’s Art programs and have news of your post-Truman activities, we would love to hear from you.  Please send us email at art@truman.edu.

Posted on by Art Department Art History

Students heading to Graduate School

Congratulations to the following Art majors who have been accepted to graduate school in their fields:

Emily Hagen, who has been accepted at Penn State University to study Art History,

Matt Treasure, who will study Egyptian Archaeology and Language at the American University in Cairo,

and Darrell Williams, who will be going to the University of Missouri to study for his MFA in Painting.

One of the pieces from Darrell Williams' BFA exhibition, up in the gallery from November 30th to December 4th.

One of the pieces from Darrell Williams’ BFA exhibition, 2015.

Stay tuned for updates on what other students will be doing with their summers, and if you are a current or former alum who has news, please email us at art@truman.edu.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Uncategorized

Midterm Break Travels

Even over a break, Truman people go out of their way to experience art.  We asked for pictures from the week off and several students and faculty sent us some from their travels.  Thank you and enjoy!

Pictures from Midterm travels: (clockwise from upper left) Nala Turner in New York, Emily Pulley in Denver, Maddie Tweed in New York, Dr. Sara Orel in Ghent (Belgium), and Taylor Knoche in St. Louis.

Pictures from Midterm travels: (clockwise from upper left) Nala Turner in New York, Emily Pulley in Denver, Maddie Tweed in New York, Dr. Sara Orel in Ghent (Belgium), and Taylor Knoche in St. Louis.

Posted on by Art Department Art History

What is Valerie Lazalier (BA 2011, Art History) up to these days?

Valerie Lazalier at workValerie Lazalier (pictured above, right) started a new job in January.  She writes us:

“I started work at Lawrence University as the Gallery and Collection Assistant in the Wriston Art Center Galleries. In this role I oversee the care of the university’s art collection which involves accessioning new donations, performing inventories, preparing works for storage, arranging art viewings, and overseeing interns. The galleries change exhibitions five times a year, so I also get to help with installing and deinstalling shows, which I really enjoy. I am also responsible for digitizing more of our collection and getting it posted to ARTstor. Lawrence is a liberal arts university, just like Truman, so I’m feeling very at home here!”

Thank you for the update, Valerie!

If you are an alum and have news to share, please write to us at art@truman.edu  We’d love to hear from you.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Faculty Scholarship and Creative Work, Uncategorized

Dr. Julia DeLancey Contributes to the Italian Conferenza del Colore

Julia DeLancey (Professor of Art History) has been invited to serve for a second year on the Scientific Committee for the interdisciplinary Conferenza del Colore (Conference on Color); the 12th Conference will be held in Turin (Torino) Italy in 2016.

ThisLogo of the Gruppo del Colore international conference features work on color in all its aspects, including not only color theory and color in art history, but also color as used in industry, lighting, education, design, psychology, and so on. The Scientific Committee is made up of academics and other professionals who deal with color from a wide range of perspectives. Dr. DeLancey’s research is focused on the color sellers of Venice in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

More information about the 12th conference of the Gruppo del Colore has been posted, and their bright logo is the splash to the left.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Uncategorized

Museum Studies Students Visit General John J. Pershing’s Boyhood Home

Recently the Museum Studies class taught by Dr. Sara Orel took an afternoon trip to visit the General John J. Pershing Boyhood Home State Historical Site.  General Pershing is an alumnus of Truman, then the Missouri State Normal School, which he attended for two years before leaving for West Point.  While at the museum, students had an opportunity to view a variety of types of display settings, from the historic home itself, set up to look as it would have in the 1870s and 80s, a small schoolhouse that serves as the primary display space for the museum’s collection of objects, and the new museum building, which is in the process of renovation and will provide a much-expanded space for both permanent and changing exhibits.

Denzil Heaney, Administrator and Curator of the General John J. Pershing Boyhood Home State Historic Site in Lacelede, Missouri, discusses the array of World War I poster images on display in one of the exhibition spaces at the site. Truman students shown are, from left to right, Rachel Pozzo, Anthony LaMarche, Luke Edwards, and Victoria Loos.

Denzil Heaney, Administrator and Curator of the General John J. Pershing Boyhood Home State Historic Site in Lacelede, Missouri, discusses the array of World War I poster images on display in one of the exhibition spaces at the site. Truman students shown are Rachel Pozzo, Anthony LaMarche, Luke Edwards, and Victoria Loos.

The host for the visit was Denzil Heaney, administrator and curator of the site.  His enthusiasm and flair for storytelling and the importance of the site were quite inspiring for the students, who subsequently prepared exhibition proposals to take advantage of the new museum space.  There are exciting opportunities for Truman collaboration with the Pershing Historic Site, a state park that attracts thousands of visitors from around the world every year.  The current interest in the centenary of the Great War means the number of visitors will only continue to increase.

 

Truman’s quickly-growing Museum Studies program, still informally structured but with a strong track record of graduate school and job placement, provides internships across the state of Missouri which are available to students of all majors, including Art History, Studio Art, and Visual Communications, but also students in fields including Anthropology, History, Communication, Biology, Chemistry, and many others..

If you are interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary program in Museum Studies at Truman, contact Dr. Sara E. Orel (orel@truman.edu) for more information.

The view from inside the building that will serve as the new General Pershing Museum in Laclede, Missouri.

The view from inside the building that will serve as the new General Pershing Museum in Laclede, Missouri.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Department, Uncategorized

Heidi Cook (B.A. ’07) serves as Director of the University Art Gallery for 2015-2016

While Professor of Art Aaron Fine is on sabbatical this year, researching and writing about color theory, 2007 Truman graduate Professor Heidi Cook is filling in as Visiting Director of the University Art Gallery and teaching Art History courses as well – Non-Western Art, Contemporary Art, and Introduction to the Visual Arts. She writes:

I am a Truman alumna (German and Art History, ’07) and I am truly excited to be back on campus and working alongside the Art Historians who introduced me to the history of art and made me want to pursue it further. Teaching Art History is one of the coolest jobs. I get to spend my time reading, thinking, and talking about how artworks visualize important and changing social, historical and religious ideas across the globe and throughout history. My hope is always that I can begin to open students’ eyes to the power of their visual surroundings.

I am currently a PhD candidate (All But Dissertation) in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. My research focuses on the modern art and design of Central and Eastern Europe. Using a body of folkloric works created by Croatian-American artist Maksimilijan Vanka as a guiding thread, my dissertation explores how objects and images related to Croatian folk culture were used to imagine a variety of competing Central European identities. In February, I am chairing a panel at the College Art Association Conference in Washington, D.C., about the relationship between European folk culture and American immigrant identity titled “Old Country in the New Country: Exhibitions, Museums, and Early Twentieth-Century American Immigration.”

If you ever want to talk about modern art in Central Europe or about applying or attending graduate school, feel free to stop by my office OP 1231 or email me at hcook@truman.edu.

We are very pleased to have Prof. Cook on campus this year, and know that students in her classes are benefiting from her knowledge and enthusiasm.

Prof. Heidi Cook, her husband Brent, and Pumpkin, in Kumrovec, Croatia in front of the house where Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito was born.

Prof. Heidi Cook, her husband Brent, and Pumpkin, in Kumrovec, Croatia in front of the house where Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito was born.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Department, Uncategorized Gallery

Faculty Support Undergraduate Research Nationally

Truman State University sends over twenty students a year to the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR,) a group that usually includes at least a couple of Art majors.  The Art faculty are also very involved with NCUR’s parent organization, the Council on Undergraduate Research, helping to spread the knowledge of the importance of undergraduate research and creative activity to students’ growth as thinkers, scholars, and contributing members of society in a wide variety of ways.

Three members of the faculty serve as councilors in the Division of Arts and Humanities.  Dr. Sara Orel is finishing up her term as chair of the Division and member of the Executive Board of the organization.  Dr. Julia DeLancey is an active member of the International Committee, which is working to set up the first international congress focusing on undergraduate research in Qatar in the next few years.  Professor Wynne Wilbur has just returned from an institute dedicated to Creative Inquiry in the Arts and Humanities in Greensboro, NC.  This past summer all three attended the national business meeting in Norman, OK, along with several other Truman State faculty.

Although the CUR business meeting was very busy, there was an opportunity to take a short break. Here Dr. Julia DeLancey takes advantage of a moment between sessions at the Oklahoma Memorial Union (University of Oklahoma, Norman) to check her email.