Present Tense: Five Centuries of Colonialism in Latin American and Caribbean Art examines historical and contemporary works that reveal how colonialism has shaped life in the Latin Americas. For the artists in this exhibition, the injustices that linger in the wake of colonialism have served as sites for personal expression, often resulting in captivating works of art that critique society and question those in power, bringing a voice to those without one and introducing beauty as a form of healing.  This exhibition was put together by Todd Olson's graduate seminar, Cal Conversations: Object Histories + Critical Concepts + Curatorial Practicum in Latin American Art / The Long Sixteenth-Century: Colonization and its Aftermath, co-directed with Prof. Ivonne del Valle (Spanish-Portuguese) and Lynne Kimura (BAMPFA). PhD candidates Christine Theunissen and Joe Albanese as well as undergraduate art history/practice major Albie Cartagenes were among the curator/participants. The exhibition will be at BAMPFA from April 30 until June 20, 2021. Advance tickets are required for gallery visits, ticket reservations and more information available here.

We condemn the horrific anti-Asian racist murders, assaults, and hate speech taking place in the Bay Area and across the country and stand in solidarity with Asian American Pacific Islander and Asian families, communities, students, scholars, activists, and leaders. Although these attacks come in a period of abhorrent xenophobic policy and rhetoric, they are part of a long, brutal history of white supremacist anti-Asian hate and violence in California and the United States, perpetrated through exclusionary laws and policies, mob violence and murder, forced expulsion and incarceration, misogyny and sexual violence, economic exploitation, as well as U.S. colonialism, war, and military occupation in Asia. The struggle for safety, equality, and justice for Asian communities, just as it is for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples, takes place not only in communities of color, on the streets, in the courts, and in state legislatures and Congress but also on our campus and in our department and discipline. We commit with others to take action as scholars, teachers, and staff to directly expose and oppose white-supremacy and settler colonialism within the formation and practice of art history, including r... [show more]

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Today is Big Give, our annual fundraising blitz, which has been online since 2014. We’re inviting alumni, parents, friends, students, faculty, and staff like you to rally again to support Berkeley and our department. Our amazing students and peerless faculty and staff have responded in many ways to the past eventful year; we invite you to show your support for art history at Berkeley in a time of unprecedented challenge. As always, we are grateful for your generous support!  

Big Give, our annual fundraising blitz, has been online since 2014—including last year’s event, which took place in March, 2020, in the early days of the pandemic “lockdown.” On March 11, 2021, we invite alumni, parents, friends, students, faculty, and staff like you to rally again to support Berkeley and our department. Our amazing students and peerless faculty and staff have responded in many ways to the eventful year, notably to Black Lives Matter and unprecedented transformations in our teaching and research; we invite you to find out more about what we’ve been doing and what we plan to do, and to show your support for art history at Berkeley in a time of unprecedented challenge. Our 2020 valedictorian, Jamie Danis, records a greeting on behalf of all of us: https://youtu.be/jWgE_BIYbtw   Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for updates during Big Give 2021 and for History of Art events and news. Thank you for your generous support!

Anneka Lenssen has published Beautiful Agitation: Modern Painting and Politics (UC Press). Based on more than a decade of research, in Syria (until 2011) and elsewhere, the book traces the interplay of vitalist painting theories and the making of Syria as a contested territory between 1900 and 1965. It examines works by such artists as Kahlil Gibran, Adham Ismail, and Fateh al-Moudarres to show how Syrians used the mutability of form to rethink relationships of figure to ground, outward appearance to inner presence, and self to world.

Congratulations to Sugata Ray on winning an American Academy of Religion 2020 Book Award for Climate Change and the Art of Devotion: Geoaesthetics in the Land of Krishna, 1550–1850 (University of Washington Press)!

Our colleagues in UC Berkeley's Department of Rhetoric invite applications for a pool of qualified temporary instructors to teach undergraduate courses, should a need arise, in any of the following possible areas: History, Theory of Rhetoric, Rhetoric of Law, Rhetoric of Science, Rhetoric of Religion, Political Theory, Rhetoric of Images and Reading and Composition. Applications will continue to be accepted until January 16, 2021. More details and application instructions can be found here: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF02458

Daniel Marcus (Ph.D. 2017) has been appointed Associate Curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University, where he is also a lecturer in the Department of History of Art. Congratulations, Daniel! 

Emma Silverman (PhD History of Art 2018) has been appointed the Mellon Public Humanities Fellow at the National Park Service, where she will be working on a project about racial justice, practices of commemoration, and public monuments. Congratulations, Emma!