Amy Xiaochen Zhong was named our 2021 Valedictorian and delivered a moving address to our community at our May 18 Commencement. Dane Reeb was named the winner of our 2021 Departmental Citation.Cara Marie Green won the Andrew Stewart Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Writing for her thesis, “Painting Through Fabric: The Simultaneous Movement of Color & Time in Sonia Delaunay’s Fabric Design.” Professor Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby served as advisor for the thesis.Catherine Ruolin Yang won the James Cahill Prize for the most distinguished essay on a topic in Asian art, for her thesis, "Soluble Traditionalism: Zhang Yu's Fingerprints and the Boundary of Ink Painting." Professor Jun Hu served as advisor for the thesis.Ariel Hoage has won the Kirk Underhill Undergraduate Prize for her paper, "Beatrix Potter's Darwinian Imagination," which was written for Professor Imogen Hart’s Fall 2020 seminar “Art and Evolution.” The prize is awarded annually for the best student paper on a British Studies topic.Our 2021 Summer Curatorial Internship Awards went to Constance Villalvazo and Nusheen Ghaemi, and Jacquelyn Northcutt was awarded an internship at the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.
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From the Letters and Science site:
"For art history major Ryan Serpa '17, color is everything.
"While researching pioneering figurative artist David Park for his thesis, nothing has been more powerful — or accurate — than viewing Park's work in person. Serpa received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, funded by private donors, that enabled him to get an up-close read on the paintings in museums and archives, including the Smithsonian.
"'I never would have had the funds to travel, nor the time to dedicate to the work, without this opportunity,' says Serpa. Bay Area figurative art arose in the 1950s during a period of rapid development and changing demographics, particularly an influx of black migrants. Serpa proposes that Park used color to subtly suggest race, while also eluding outright reference to it — impossible, considering the segregation laws at the time. To Serpa's knowledge, he is the first person to pinpoint this potential thread of inquiry, an extraordinary accomplishment for an undergraduate."
From the Letters and Science site: "For art history major Ryan Serpa '17, color is everything. "While researching pioneering figurative artist David Park for his thesis, nothing has been more powerful — or accurate — than viewing Park's work in person. Serpa received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, funded by private donors, that enabled him to get an up-close read on the paintings in museums and archives, including the Smithsonian. "'I never would have had the funds to travel, nor the time to dedicate to the work, without this opportunity,' says Serpa. Bay Area figurative art arose in the 1950s during a period of rapid development and changing demographics, particularly an influx of black migrants. Serpa proposes that Park used color to subtly suggest race, while also eluding outright reference to it — impossible, considering the segregation laws at the time. To Serpa's knowledge, he is the first person to pinpoint this potential thread of inquiry, an extraordinary accomplishment for an undergraduate."
