Art History at Oberlin

03/27/2023

April 17th, 5:30 PM
Oberlin College Ward Art Building, Room 103

Join the Art History Department for this public talk with Jonah Welch.

In this public talk, Jonah Welch will expand on how working across such diverse media as drawing, poetry, prayer, the healing properties of gemstones, and the study of traditional Chinese medicine, their practice is deeply rooted on exploring their experience of being and becoming Trans as a means of engaging with the divine.

03/20/2023

Please join the Art History Department for this lecture about architecture and revolution in 1960s Cuba, led by Dr. Fredo Rivera.

Nine months after its March 1958 opening, the Habana Hilton became the epicenter of the Cuban Revolution. First occupied by guerillas from the Cuban countryside, the hotel would eventually house leaders of the Cuban Revolution during its first year, including Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Designed in hues of blue and white by Los Angeles-based architect Welton Becket and Havana-based architects Lin Arroyo and Gabriela Menéndez, the hotel represented the height of North American commercial modernity. At 27-stories it was the tallest hotel in Latin America, and infused designs by local artists. Built as a model of luxury and diplomacy at the end of the Batista regime in Cuba, the hotel would become a symbol of the new socialist revolution by the time of its formal expropriation in 1961. This talk traces this history of the Habana Hilton Hotel, from its design to its role in 1960s Cuba. Looking at themes of architectural appropriation and modern design, the Hilton is a prominent example for considering the role of modern architecture in a moment of political transformat

04/07/2022

Please join the art history department & Porfirio Gutierrez for a lecture on Monday, May 2 at 5:00 PM in Craig Auditorium.

Porfirio Gutierrez is a California-based textile designer, Zapotec weaver, artist, and natural dyer. He specializes in the weaving traditions of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. He comes from a long line of traditional Zapotec weavers, and his art practice remains dedicated to the deep knowledge and spiritual dimensions of his ancestors. He grew up immersed in color, surrounded by the wildness of Oaxaca’s mountains, and with knowledge of plants as medicine. His work intersects with Indigenous knowledge and contemporary art practices, engaging a conversation around migration in a Native American context. His life’s work has been revitalizing and preserving traditional Zapotec natural dye techniques with a focus on reinterpreting traditional textiles and materials.

03/01/2021

The Art Department at Oberlin College is now accepting applications for the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Art History in the field of Islamic art, architecture, and material culture.

Apply online at https://jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/995. Applicant review begins on March 26th, 2021.

Please share widely!

02/16/2021

Please join the art department for this lecture special lecture featuring Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar Professor Zoë Strother.

The lecture will be presented on Zoom March 2nd, at 4:30 PM EST.

There is a long history of Central Africans depicting Europeans and Americans. Vili ivory sculptors made some of the only surviving portrayals by Africans of the worldwide slave trade. Yaka and Nkanu caricatured Europeans during boys’ initiations in order to provide models of how not to be a man. During the colonial period, Europeans appeared on a wide variety of media, including free-standing sculptures, engraved gourds, house murals, sculpted chairs. It is a paradox that some of the most light-hearted images of Europeans were produced during the periods of the worse violence, often in the form of diplomatic gifts. The talk ends with reflections by artists on the role of humor in making visible the mechanics and ethics of power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the global economy.

Z. S. Strother is Riggio Professor of African Art at Columbia University. She had conducted three years of fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has worked on other research projects in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Senegal. Her broad intellectual project is to understand the role of the image in society and its changing history. She has published widely on masquerade, architecture, and photography in Africa. Her books include Inventing Masks: Agency and History in the Art of the Central Pende and Humor and Violence: Seeing Europeans in Central African Art. Strother has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, NEH, ACLS, Getty Research Institute (GRI), Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art (CASVA), Michigan Society of Fellows, and the U.S. Information Agency (Fulbright). A forthcoming book to be published with the GRI is “The Uncanny Guest: Masks in Theory and Practice from Europe to Africa.”

Professor Strother's virtual visit to Oberlin is sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society's Visiting Scholar Program and Oberlin Art History's Baldwin endowment.

11/11/2020

Congratulations to Zoe Iatridis ‘21, Art History and Studio Art double major and curatorial assistant in European and American art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum for her on the AMAM's social media

06/08/2020

04/29/2020

Congratulations to two Art History majors who are among the winners of this year's Creative Writing Poetry Competition: Sierra Jelks and Molly Bryson!!

This year, four students were recognized for their works.

04/24/2020

Congratulations Matt Rarey, Assistant Professor of Art History, and Andrea Gyorody, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the AMAM for winning a curatorial award for excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators for "Afterlives of the Black Atlantic"!

03/14/2020

Dear alums, if anyone is feeling able to make a donation to help current students who are scrambling to organize housing, food, and technology now that the college has closed and students are moving out of their dorms, you can do so here.

Your donation would be very much appreciated. We have a lot of students who need financial assistance at this difficult time. Thank you so much!

Support Oberlin students by making a gift to the Student Emergency Aid Campaign

03/05/2020

Five Oberlin art history students presented posters at the College Art Association (CAA) conference on February 14 in Chicago. The students were chosen from an applicant pool of hundreds and occupied five of the 35 total presenter slots. They were accompanied to Chicago by Hannah Kinney, Curator of Academic Programs at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, and Christina Neilson, Associate Professor and Chair of Art History. This opportunity was made possible through a collaboration between the Allen Memorial Art Museum, the Oberlin College art department, and the Office of the Dean College of Arts and Sciences. Congratulations to our wonderful students!

https://www.oberlin.edu/news/art-history-students-selected-present-conference