The Department of History of Art is very sad to report that Professor Emeritus James Cahill, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Chinese painting, died on February 14, 2014, at his home in Berkeley. He was 87. Professor Cahill was a distinguished member of the History of Art faculty at Berkeley for thirty years until his retirement in 1995. He published more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles on Chinese and Japanese art, literally transforming the field. He built an important collection of Chinese and Japanese painting, much of which he gave to the Berkeley Art Museum, and he fostered a generation of students who went on to become teachers and curators around the world. He received multiple accolades from the College Art Association and was awarded the Freer Medal in 2012 for a lifetime of service to the History of Art. James Cahill was a brilliant and eloquent scholar who remained intellectually engaged to the end. He was a man of rare wit and poetry, an immensely generous mentor and colleague—truly one of the immortals.  Obituaries have been published by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and a brief tribute can be found at the Asia Society website as well.

For more on James Cahill’s life and work and to access his series of videotaped lectures on Chinese painting, please go to jamescahill.info.

Townsend Center "Book Chat" series : A General Theory of Visual Culture

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2014 | 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Professor of History of Art Whitney Davis’ teaching and research interests include prehistoric and archaic arts; worldwide rock art; neoclassicism in Western art since the later Middle Ages; the development of professional art; art theory in visual-cultural studies; modern art history; the history and theory of sexuality; queer theory; world art studies; and environmental, evolutionary, and cognitive approaches to the global history of visual culture. His latest publication, A General Theory of Visual Culture (Princeton University Press, 2011) examines the question: What is cultural about vision—or visual about culture?

Expansive in scope, this book draws on art history, aesthetics, the psychology of perception, the philosophy of reference, and vision science, as well as visual-cultural studies in history, sociology, and anthropology. It provides new definitions of form, style, and iconography, and draws important and sometimes surprising conclusions (for example, that vision does not always attain to visual culture, and that visual culture is not always wholly visible). Davis uses examples from a variety of cultural traditions, from prehistory to the twentieth century, to support a theory designed to apply to all human traditions of making artifacts and pictures—that is, to visual culture as a worldwide phenomenon.

After an introduction by Alan Tansman (Director, Townsend Center), Professor Davis will speak briefly about his work, read a short excerpt, and then open the floor for discussion.

On February 18, 2014, the UC Berkeley Center for South Asia Studies is presenting a conference spearheaded by History of Art faculty member Sugata Ray on Collecting South Asia, Archiving South Asia at the BAM Theater. Sponsors of the event are the CSAS, the Arts Research Center, the Asian Art Museum, and our department.

Google Art Talk: The Monuments Men

History of Art Department faculty member Beate Fricke participated in a Google Art Talk  on the true stories of the Monuments Men hosted by the Legion of Honor and the Google Art Project. The Google Art Talk is in celebration of the Sony Pictures release The Monuments Men. The film, directed by George Clooney,  is about an elite group of men and women—museum directors, art historians, conservators, educators, and others— who volunteered during World War II to help save Europe’s cultural heritage from Nazi looting and destruction.

The talk was broadcast on February 7th, and can now be viewed online on the Google hangout site.

Visual Activism Symposium

Julia Bryan-Wilson co-convenes the "Visual Activism" Symposium presented by the International Association for Visual Culture and SFMOMA series of events.

Friday, March 14, 2014
9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 15, 2014
9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Location:
Brava Theater Center

2781 24th Street San Francisco, CA 94110

 Professor Emeritus Peter Selz received the 2014 University of Chicago Professional Achievement Award. Created in 1967, the Professional Achievement Award recognizes outstanding achievement in any professional field. The award honors those alumni whose achievements in their vocational fields have brought distinction to themselves, credit to the University, and real benefit to their communities.

The volume Past Presented: Archaeological Illustration and the Ancient Americas, to which our faculty member Lisa Trever contributed an essay on late eighteenth-century tomb illustrations, is being awarded the Association for Latin American Art's annual book award on February 12, 2014, at the College Art Association meeting in Chicago. This award, supported by the Arvey Foundation, is for the best scholarly book published on the art of Latin America from the Pre-Columbian era to the present.

Julia Bryan-Wilson is currently in residence at The Courtauld Institute as the Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor.   The visiting professorship is designed for scholars of American art whose work plays a defining role in the disciplines of art and architectural history and conservation. Professor Bryan-Wilson will be sharing her research with The Courtauld community formally (through lectures and seminars) and informally.

Professor Margaretta Lovell  has been awarded the College Art Association's prestigious award for Distinguished Teaching of Art History.  She will receive her award at the Convocation of the 2014 College Art Association meetings in Chicago this February.  Congratulations!

Jason Hosford, one of our Digital Curators, has been elected Chair of the Northern California chapter of the Visual Resources Association.  The VRA is dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of image management especially within educational and cultural heritage environments.  Jason's election to chair our local chapter of the VRA after just a year in the profession is an honor for him and for our department.  Congratulations, Jason!