Painting and Sculpture

This article addresses ‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’ as two distinct categories in African artistic practices and art history. It engages with exhibitions as sites of knowledge production and examines how they construct narratives of artistic modernism, modernity, and contemporaneity. By focusing on the Tendances et Confrontations exhibition, at the Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Negres Dakar in 1966, and Dak'Art biennials since 1992, it explores the role of the two exhibition platforms in shaping artistic practices and discourse in two moments in African art and history in the last 50 years. The article also places particular emphasis on the interpretation of artworks in Tendances et Confrontations and Dak'Art to outline a transformation in artistic practices and knowledge production.

In this interview Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi talks about curating the eleventh edition of the Dak’Art Biennale. The exhibition’s theme—“Producing the Common”—is discussed with regard to artworks that challenge the modernist utopias of the past and frame new ideas of a “global African common.” Nzewi offers insight into the anonymous exhibition within Dak’Art and his idea of a “density of the commons” and communitarian solidarity in African cultures.

This essay reviews the twelfth iteration of the Sharjah Biennial, 2015, a major event in the international art calendar and the most significant fulcrum of cultural and artistic activities in the Middle East and North Africa. I examine how curator Eungie Joo articulated her theme of The Past, the Present, the Possible by looking closely at the exhibits and some of the key issues that framed the conversations during the March Meeting, the ancillary talk shop event that is as important as the various exhibitions. I explore selected works that either mirror the arc of art history from a Middle Eastern perspective or address some of the critical issues that are emblematic of our contemporary world. Finally, I consider how the biennial disrupts and/or affirms the typological structures and narratives that shape our understanding and experience of art biennials—what some scholars have described as the biennialization of contemporary art and of the art world.

R uth Simbao: Following on from the African Arts dialogue, "Zimbabwe Mobilizes: ICAC's Shift from Coup de Grăce to Cultural Coup" (Simbao et al. 2017) this dialogue considers another important event in the visual arts that recently took place on the African continent. Like the International Conference on African Cultures (ICAC) that was held in Harare in 2017, this event in Dakar contributes in important ways towards a shift of the center of gravity of the global academy, particularly the study of art history in and of Africa. 1 The Raw Material Company's Condition Report 3 symposium took place at the Musée des Civilisations Noires (Museum of Black Civilizations) in Dakar, Senegal September 20-22, 2018 (Fig. 1). Organized by Koyo Kouoh (Fig. 2) and Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, the workshop was themed Art History in Africa, and discussions focused on ways of localizing art histories; the role of Senegal-in particular Dak'art-in shaping the arc of art history in Africa; the history of "African art history"; platforms that expand conventional praxes of art history; and the importance of situating Africa as the legitimizing site of knowledge creation. Invited presenters were Salah Hassan (Fig. 3

Teach painting, drawing, cross media, thesis seminars at undergraduate through graduate levels. Department Chair (1990-2001) MFA, MA, BFA and BA programs in studio art, design, art history. Developed substantial visiting artists programs, lecture series, symposia and a national reputation for art department-MFA became one of the most competitive programs in the university in terms of application to admit ratio. This eventually led to the construction of a new flagship visual arts facility for the University. Responsible for budget, long/short range planning, curriculum, faculty, student and program development in various disciplines, leadership of the department within and outside of the university. Recipient of the University Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Development granted in recognition of contributions to the growth and national recognition of the university's visual arts programs. Award made by nomination of the Dean of the College, review by faculty peer panel and the office of the Provost in 2004. Founder/Director, American University Art in Italy Programs (1995-current) Established and directed programs in Umbria, Rome and Florence for our students and faculty, including painting/drawing, sculpture/installation, printmaking, photography, design, art history and cross-media. Department Liaison, Katzen Center for the Arts Development Campaign (1990-2001). Led department in decade long fundraising campaign which raised funds to build the 130,000 square foot Katzen Center for the Arts at American University (including a 10 million dollar gift and a 5 million dollar art collection-the largest gift in the history of the university).

Our several years' effort to reconstruct Matisse's pursuit of an "artistic Paradise" in Morocco has been quite an odyssey. Scores of people have helped us compile a broad range of useful and new information on Morocco, Matisse, and Matisse's fellow artists Marquet, Camoin, Morrice, and Iturrino. Archives, researchers, members of art ists' families, and museum professionals throughout France,

THE TITLE OF THIS LECTURE comes from Pierre Bonnard's definition of painting, 'The transcription of the adventures of the optic nerve'. 1 This is intended to signal that the visual medium of art and its encouragement of voyages of perceptual discovery are priorities in what I shall say. My principal argument will be that the visual medium requires, for its adventurous art-historical study, not only concentration of mind but also freedom of imagination. In March 1936, Alfred Barr's exhibition, Cubism and Abstract Art, opened at The Museum of Modern Art. It has come to symbolise Barr's position as a rational defender of a rational art. Then, nine months later, his Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, opened. It included a cartoon by James Thurber (Figure 1) that parodied a famous print by Goya to tell of the comical failure of our defences against the forces of the irrational: 'Look out, here they come again!' 2 I did consider this for the title of my lecture. Three years earlier, in 1933, Roger Fry had begun his first lecture as Slade Professor of Fine Arts in the University of Cambridge by acknowledging