Enfilade

William Hogarth, Portrait of a Family (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection). An interactive site includes images, a timeline of events, and audio commentaries on a selection of works included in the exhibition. Chi-ming Yang, for instance, describes some of the ways Hogarth’s painting might be understood to aestheticize race and skin color in relation to global commodities (both people and things).

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From the Yale University Library:

Workshop for Graduate Students | Representing Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain
The Yale Center for British Art, New Haven and The Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, 9–10 December 2014

Applications due by 1 December 2014

In December 2014, The Lewis Walpole Library and the Yale Center for British Art will jointly host a two-day workshop for graduate students focusing on two current Yale University exhibitions related to the visual culture of slavery: Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain and Prospects of Empire: Slavery and Ecology in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain. The workshop will provide an opportunity to explore these complementary exhibitions in depth and to examine additional materials related to the topic selected from the rich holdings of both institutions with curatorial and academic scholars working in the field. The workshop is open to graduate students from a variety of disciplines whose work would benefit from participation in this collaborative exploration of the topic.

Prospects of Empire is curated by Heather Vermeulen, Doctoral Candidate in African American Studies and American Studies, Yale University, and Hazel V. Carby, Charles C. & Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of African American Studies and Professor of American Studies, Yale University. The exhibition explores the notion of empire’s ‘prospects’—its gaze upon bodies and landscapes, its speculations and desires, its endeavors to capitalize upon seized land and labor, as well as its failures to manage enslaved persons and unruly colonial ecologies.

Figures of Empire is curated by Esther Chadwick and Meredith Gamer, PhD candidates in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University, and Cyra Levenson, Associate Curator of Education at the Yale Center for British Art. The exhibition explores the coincidence of slavery and portraiture in eighteenth-century Britain.

The workshop will take place at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, and the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington and will offer exhibition walk-throughs with the curators of each exhibition and additional presentations and conversation in a study room setting. Lead discussants for the workshop will be Gillian Forrester, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, Yale Center for British Art, and Dian Kriz, Professor Emerita, Art History, Brown University. Additional participating scholars working in the field include Paul Grant Costa, Executive Editor, Yale Indian Papers Project, and Marisa Fuentes, Assistant Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies and History, Rutgers University. The program will also include a talk at 2:00 on Tuesday at the Yale Art School by artist Fred Wilson, whose groundbreaking project Mining the Museum (1992–93) at the Maryland Historical Society initiated his ongoing critique of the ways in which museums consciously or unwittingly reinforce racist beliefs and behavior, followed by a walk-through of Figures of Empire with the artist at 4:00.

Participants will be provided with accommodations at the Lewis Walpole Library guest house in Farmington, Connecticut. Shuttle transportation between Farmington and New Haven will be provided. A syllabus and list of readings will be provided in advance of the workshop.

Application Procedures
Applications must be submitted electronically. Please include a CV and a brief statement (of no more than one page) outlining how your research interests intersect with the focus of this workshop and what benefits you expect from participating. Applications and questions about content, organization or practicalities of the workshop should be emailed to Cynthia Roman, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Paintings, The Lewis Walpole Library cynthia.roman@yale.edu. Space is limited. The deadline for receipt of applications is Monday, 1 December 2014.

Historians of British Travel Award
Proposals due by 15 September 2014

HBA is accepting applications for this year’s Travel Award. The award is designated for a graduate student member of Historians of British Art who will be presenting a paper on British art or visual culture at an academic conference in 2015. The award of $750 is intended to offset travel costs. Applicants must be current members of HBA. To apply, send a letter of request, a copy of the letter of acceptance from the organizer of the conference session, an abstract of the paper to be presented, a budget of estimated expenses (noting what items may be covered by other resources), and a CV to Renate Dohmen, Prize Committee Chair, HBA, brd4231@louisiana.edu. The deadline is September 15, 2014.

From caa.reviews:

Dissertation Listings

PhD dissertation authors and titles in art history and visual studies from US and Canadian institutions are published each year in caa.reviews. Titles can be browsed by subject category or year.

Titles are submitted once a year by each institution granting the PhD in art history and/or visual studies. Submissions are not accepted from individuals, who should contact their department chair or secretary for more information. Department chairs: please consult our dissertation submission guidelines for instructions. The annual deadline is January 15 for titles from the preceding year.

In 2003, CAA revised the subject area categories of art history and visual studies used for all our listings, including dissertations. These categories are listed in the Dissertation Submission Guidelines.

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The index for 2013 lists four eighteenth-century dissertations completed:

• Beachdel, Thomas, “Landscape Aesthetics and the Sublime in France, 1750–1815” (CUNY, P. Mainardi)

• Jarvis, M. W., “Noir/Blanc: Representations of Colonialism and Cosmopolitanism in Eighteenth-Century Painting” (UC San Diego, N. Bryson)

• Knowles, Marika, “Pierrot’s Costume: Theater, Curiosity, and the Subject of Art in France, 1665–1860” (Yale, C. Armstrong)

• Lenhard, Danielle, “Reading with One Hand: Suggestive Folds and Subversive Consumption in Jean-Honore Fragonard’s The Bolt” (Stony Brook University, J. Monteyne)

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and forty-three dissertations in progress, including:

• Athens, Elizabeth, “Figuring a World: William Bartram’s Natural History” (Yale, T. Barringer)

• Hafera, Alison, “Images of Mourning and Melancholia in France, 1780–1830” (UNC Chapel Hill, M.Sheriff)

• Helprin, Alexandra, “Art and Servitude on the Sheremetev Estates” (Columbia, A. Higonnet)

• Lee, Hyejin, “‘Tout en l’air’: Visual and Material Representations of Air in Eighteenth-Century France” (UNC Chapel Hill, M. Sheriff)

• Mayer, Tamar, “Consequences of Drawing: Self and History in Jacques-Louis David’s Preparatory Practices” (Chicago, R. Ubl, M. Ward)

• Peterson, Laurel O., “The Decorated Interior: Artistic Production in the British Country House, 1688–1745” (Yale, T. Barringer)

• Polzak, Kailani, “Picturing Circumnavigation and Science: English, French, Russian, and Prussian Observations of Oceania, 1768–1822” (UC Berkeley, D. Grigsby)

• Ridlen, Michael T., “Prud’hon and the Graceful Style” (Iowa, D. Johnson)

• Strasik, Amanda K., “Representations of Childhood in Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century France” (Iowa, D. Johnson)

MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors
Leche Trust Bursary for September 2014

Bursary applications due by 2 June 2014

Applications are invited for a partial studentship on the Buckingham University MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors starting September 2014. Generously funded by the Leche Trust, the bursary, worth £7500, will cover 82% of the course fees for EU students and 55% for international students. Priority will be given to applicants with excellent academic qualifications seeking, or currently pursuing, curatorial careers in museums or the built heritage. The bursary is also open to part-time students currently working in the field, who can take the course as a form of in-service training over two years.

This unique one-year MA in French and British Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors provides sound vocational and academic training, first-hand study of furniture, silver and ceramics in the context of historic interiors, numerous study trips to museums and historic house collections, (including a study week in Paris) and placements in museums and heritage institutions. For further details please visit the website or contact Clare Prendergast: claire.prendergast@buckingham.ac.uk.