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Lawrence Weschler Towards a Unified Field Theory of Cultural Transmission (Seriously!) by way of a Typology of Convergences Saturday, July 9, 6:30 pm New Mexico History Museum 113 Lincoln Ave., Santa Fe ART Santa Fe Presents is delighted to welcome Lawrence Weschler, author of over a dozen books and countless articles on art, culture, politics and their intersections, as the keynote speaker at this year’s ART Santa Fe Presents on Saturday evening, July 9th at 6:30 p.m. at the New Mexico History Museum. Weschler’s lecture, titled, “Toward a Unified Field Theory of Cultural Transmission (Seriously!) By Way of a Typology of Convergences,” promises to engage and enthrall the audience with its mix of daring thinking and passionate enthusiasm for art, culture, and how we see the world. Lawrence Weschler began his career writing for The New Yorker in 1981, continuing to write pieces which, as he put it, “shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies” for two decades. His numerous essays and books form an eclectic body of work where art and artists are often a major theme, including the Pulitzer Prize nominated best-seller Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders, about a small museum in Culver City, California, and books of interviews and essays on artists like Robert Irwin and David Hockney. Weschler has a reputation for unique and passionate thinking. As Toby Lister of the Atlantic writes, “Weschler's entire body of work, in fact, centers on the disquieting strangeness that lurks at the heart of human experience.…” His 2004 book, Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences, awarded an NBCC Award for Criticism, forms the basis for his ART Santa Fe Presents lecture. In it Weschler illuminates links between disparate images—pairing photos with paintings, sculpture with ads, works ancient with images contemporary. In the book he juxtaposes images, for example a Magritte painting and a New York Times Magazine cover—and maps out relationships between them, both visual and cultural, relating them to politics, art, history, and ultimately to our shared cultural lexicon. This book spawned a fascinating ongoing project at McSweeney’s online called A Convergence of Convergences, where readers submit pairs of images in a weekly contest, and the winner’s is posted on-line with an attached essay. Lawrence Weschler graduated from Cowell College at the University of California Santa Cruz. Following his tenure at The New Yorker, he has worked as the director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, and concurrently from 2005-2010 as the Artistic Director of the Chicago Humanities Festival. He is a frequent contributor to prestigious publications like The Atlantic, Harper’s, the LA Times, and NPR and has been a Lannan Literary Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and two-time winner of the George Polk Award. The subject-matter of Weschler’s keynote lecture will be something intriguingly accessible to everyone. Who has not experienced a moment of juxtaposition, déjà vu, coincidence, synchronicity, when something shifts inside and a little bell goes off? Weschler highlights and explores, as he puts it, the “helix” of these experiences, when something directly in front of us triggers a sort of chain reaction linking it to other images or memories, fanning out in a network of relationships, influencing what we see and how we feel about the image right in front of us in the moment. On a personal level these moments can be transformative. On a cultural level, according to Lawrence Weschler, they are part of an ongoing feedback loop of cultural transmission. The keynote lecture by Lawrence Weschler on Saturday, July 9 promises to be a highlight among the dazzling array of events, installations, and offerings at this summer’s edition of ART Santa Fe. The fair, running from July 7-10, 2011 in the ancient heart of The City Different at the eco-friendly Santa Fe Convention Center, will bring together galleries, artists, and collectors from all over the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The lecture has been made possible by Art Santa Fe Presents, a not-for-profit corporation, through the generous contributions of private donors. Tickets can be purchased at the Lensic Box Office, call 505 988-1234. For more information about this event and contact ART Santa Fe Presents. |
2011 |
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Roberta Smith "The Critic in You, The Critic in Me" ART Santa Fe Presents is pleased to welcome Roberta Smith, Senior Art Critic for the New York Times, as the keynote speaker at this year’s ART Santa Fe. Roberta Smith brings to this year’s ART Santa Fe Presents lecture series over forty years of experience working within and writing about the complexities and nuances of the contemporary art world. Roberta Smith began writing for the New York Times in 1986 and has established a substantial collection of art criticism and observation not only from the highlights and vanguards of the art world, but from its nooks and percolating corners as well. A quick survey of contemporary books about art and artists immediately shows just how much influence Smith has had as a critic—she is quoted with almost unparalleled frequency. Smith recently ignited a buzz of controversy in New York and the art world at large with her February 2010 article criticizing the large contemporary art museums (e.g., MoMA, the Whitney, the Guggenheim) for playing it “safe” by presenting, “example after example of squeaky-clean, well-made, intellectually decorous takes on … art that is most associated with the label Post-Minimalism.” Smith called on curators to “…be more ecumenical, to do things that seem to come from left field…. They need to think outside the hive-mind…” Unsurprisingly this clarion call has stirred up quite a mix of reaction and debate. Smith is often lauded for her clear and accessible writing style. Perhaps the popularity and long-running success of Smith’s voice results, at least in part, from her early decision not to rigidify her likes and dislikes but to maintain an openness to the new and the different. “I wanted to stay open and avoid the hardening of the visual arteries …where you lose your ability to see new art.” Her job, as she says, is looking. “I learn from everything I look at, good, bad, or indifferent.” Her lecture at ART Santa Fe Presents this summer promises to be not only edifying but inspiring and challenging. Born in New York, Smith grew up in Lawrence, Kansas where her father was a professor. Her mother’s love of art, and time abroad in Europe during her father’s Fulbright year, gave Smith an early interest in art. During her undergraduate years at Grinnell College, Smith was a summer intern at the prestigious Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. She followed that with an independent study program at the Whitney Museum where she met Donald Judd. These early experiences were fundamental and she resolved to pursue a career in the art world, although she had not then thought about becoming a critic. After graduating she worked at the MoMA as well as for Donald Judd, immersing herself in his works and writings. Her work with Judd was the inspiration for her first critical piece: a letter-to-the-editor response to a critique of Judd in Artforum. Soon afterward Smith quit her job at the MoMA to focus on developing her career writing about art. She began to write articles for Art in America and the Village Voice! among other publications. Her work is wide-ranging, encompassing not only contemporary fine art and artists but also the decorative arts, Outsider Art, design, and architecture. In addition to writing for the New York Times, she has written numerous monographs for artists and a featured essay in the 1975 Donald Judd catalogue raissoné. She was recognized with the prestigious Frank Jewett Mather Award for Art Criticism in 2003. Roberta Smith’s keynote lecture is just one of the many events that will make this summer’s edition of ART Santa Fe an all-inclusive arts and culture experience. The art fair, running from July 15 to 18 at the Santa Fe Convention Center in the heart of downtown, will bring together galleries, artists, and collectors from all over the Americas, Europe, and Asia. |
2010 |
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Michael Kimmelman “THE ACCIDENTAL MASTERPIECE” Michael Kimmelman is an author and the chief art critic for the New York Times. In 2007 he moved to Berlin where he now writes as the Times Abroad columnist on culture and society in Europe. His most recent book, “The Accidental Masterpiece” received widespread acclaim and became a national bestseller. His earlier work, “Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere,” was named as a notable book by the Washington Post and the Times, and a best book of the year by Publisher's Weekly. Kimmelman has appeared in various television venues including interviews with Charlie Rose and is featured in the 2007 documentary film, “My Kid Could Paint That.” A book on the Brazilian modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer is forthcoming this year. Born and raised in Greenwich Village, New York, Kimmelman attended Yale College and did his graduate work in Art History at Harvard University. His original job at the Times was as a music critic (he is an accomplished pianist) but when John Russell, chief art critic at that time, discovered Kimmelman had a background in art history, he asked him to write about art. After some hesitation (criticism was not part of his original plan) Kimmelman proceeded to, as he says, “…conduct my education in public, in a very conspicuous way.” This open self-education is perhaps one of the aspects of Kimmelman’s perspective on art which makes him so widely appreciated. Rather than purveying one particular theoretical view or advocating a rigid set of criteria for art, Kimmelman takes a broad approach which seems to place both art and art viewers into a cultural context and in communication with each other. Because of a perception that there is a “right” way to see art, many people may be intimidated or overwhelmed by a day spent in a museum. However, for Kimmelman the key is, “I try to remember that just looking and keeping your eyes open is essential. You can’t worry whether received opinion is one thing or another.” Kimmelman exemplifies this expansive view on art in his latest book. The book includes discussions on artists as wide-ranging and lofty as Bonnard, Vermeer, de Kooning, and Duchamp, but it also includes a chapter about Dr. Hugh Hicks, who runs a private museum from his basement showcasing his collection of over 75,000 light bulbs. As he writes in the introduction to “The Accidental Masterpiece,” his goal in writing the book was to explore how, “…art provides us with clues about how to live our own life more fully. Put differently, this book is, in part, about how creating, collecting, and even just appreciating art can make living a daily masterpiece.” |
2009
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Dean Sobel
A recognized authority on the art of the 20th century, Dean Sobel
has enjoyed a notable career: Director of the Aspen Art Museum from
2000 to 2005, he led the institution to all-important accreditation
by the American Association of Museums. Sobel organized solo
exhibitions of works by the renowned Robert Mangold, John Currin and
Olafur Eilasson, as well as the group exhibition Warhol/Koons/Hirst:
Cult and Culture. Before his appointment to the Aspen Museum, Sobel
served in a joint position at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where he was
Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art. His most recent book,
published in 2004, is titled One Hour Ahead: The Avant-Garde in
Aspen, 1945-2004. |
2008
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THOMAS KRENS With
Special Guest Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation since 1988, presented the keynote lecture for this season’s ART Santa Fe Presents event at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on Saturday, July 14, at 7:00 p.m. Krens addressed the timely topic of the intersections of art, architecture, and culture with his lecture, The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: Frank Gehry Designs a Masterpiece. Under Krens’ leadership the Guggenheim has experienced substantial growth and flowering. In the past two decades, the Guggenheim Foundation has developed an unprecedented international presence, with a network of cultural facilities and alliances with major museums around the world. However, it was the unique partnership that Krens developed with the Basque Regional Government of Spain that set off an historic “boom” in art and architecture. Designed by Frank Gehry, the museum at Bilbao, Spain quickly garnered world-wide attention as a landmark building of the 20th Century. In its first year the formerly economically depressed Basque region welcomed over 1,300,000 visitors to the new Guggenheim Bilbao. The museum’s success has led to a revitalization of the region and millions of visitors continue to visit the museum. The success of the Guggenheim Bilbao, dubbed the “Bilbao effect” is due in large part to the critically acclaimed architectural design by Frank Gehry. Mr. Gehry agreed to appear as a special guest along with Thomas Krens for this event. Gehry, the Pritzker Prize winning architect of international note, engaged Mr. Krens in a dialogue about the Guggenheim Bilbao, as well as about the newly announced monumental project underway in Abu Dhabi. Gehry’s own laurels are quite notable, including the AIA’s Gold Medal and the Americans for the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. His life and work have been documented in the recent documentary film by award-winning director Sydney Pollack: Sketches of Frank Gehry.
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2007
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Philippe de Montebello Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than 25 years, chose to address only three venues in the United States during 2005; his lecture in Santa Fe, sponsored by ART Santa Fe Presents, was one of the three. Mr. de Montebello gave a carefully prepared and beautifully illustrated one-hour lecture, "Museums: Why Should We Care?"
Respected throughout the international art community and acclaimed
for his dynamic, captivating lectures, Philippe de Montebello is
uniquely positioned to speak on the state of the museum world today.
Mr. de Montebello was born in Paris, attended French schools
throughout the Baccalaureate, graduated Magna cum Laude from Harvard
University in 1958 and received an advanced degree from New York
University's Institute
of Fine Arts. He became an American citizen in 1955. With the
exception of four and a half years he spent as Director of The
Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, his career has evolved at The Metropolitan. |
2005
Philippe de Montebello |
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Robert Hughes TIME art critic
and award-winning historian, Robert Hughes, was ART Santa Fe
Present' s inaugural speaker in Santa Fe. The program was produced by ART Santa Fe in conjunction
with its fifth international contemporary art fair. |
2003 Robert Hughes |
