Benjamin West Memorial Lecture in Art History
The Benjamin West Memorial Lectures are named for one of the most prominent early American painters, Pennsylvania native Benjamin West (1738-1820) & emdash; reportedly born in a building that still stands on the College campus.
2011 BEN WEST LECTURE:
The Art Department presents the annual Benjamin West Lecture in the History of Art
“INDIVIDUALS, SPECIALIZATION, AND PREHISTORIC POTTERY: MIMBRES PAINTED BOWLS FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST ”
Steven A. LeBlanc, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
Tuesday, November 8th, 4:15pm
LPAC Cinema
Reception to follow
Mimbres pottery is one of the great art traditions of ancient North America. Not only are these elegant bowls whimsical and sophisticated, most of them are extremely well executed. We now believe this was because their makers, most likely women, were part time specialists, and the Mimbres society was encouraging the best artists to be creative. Using a large corpus of bowl images, we believe we can recognize the work of the best of these artists. This finding has important implications for how specialization develops in traditional societies, and helps understand how this unique pottery came to exist.
* * *
Past Benjamin West Memorial Lecturers and Titles have included:
1966-67
Seymour Slive, Harvard University: Rembrandt's Self-Portraits
1967-68
Lotte Brand Philip, Queens College, CUNY: The Ghent Altarpiece: A New Solution to an Old Problem
1968-69
John Rosenfield, Harvard University: Classical and Pre-Classical in North Indian Sculpture
1969-70
Michael Sullivan, Stanford University: The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art
1970-71
Andrew Sarris, Columbia University and The Village Voice: Keaton/Hitchcock
1971-72
Leo Steinberg, Hunter College, CUNY: Picasso at Large, or The Art of Being Everywhere
1972-73
Irving Lavin, New York University: Bernini's Chapel of Saint Theresa in Santa Maria Vittoria, Rome
1973-74
Helen Frankenthaler: Helen Frankenthaler Presents Her Work
1974-75
Vincent Scully, Yale University: Modern Architecture
1975-76
Oleg Grabar, Harvard University: The Meaning of Ornament in Islamic Art
1976-77
James Ackerman, Harvard University: Michelangelo's Religion
1977-78
Alfred Frazer, Columbia University: The Emperor Claudius as Architect
1978-79
Colin Eisler, Institute of Fine Arts: Titian's Marsyas: Art's Martyr
1979-80
Meyer Schapiro, Columbia University: The South Tower of Chartres Cathedral
1980-81
George Kubler, Yale University: A Sixteenth-Century Meaning of the Escorial
1981-82
Albert Elsen, Stanford University: In Rodin's Studio: The Sculptor and the Photographers
1982-83
James Cahill, University of California, Berkeley: Quickness and Spontaneity in Chinese Painting: The Ups and Downs of an Ideal
1983-84
Richard Brilliant, Columbia University: On Portraits: Modes of Representation
1984-85
Ernst Kitzinger, Harvard University: A Donor Portrait in Norman Sicily and its Byzantine Context
1985-86
Robert Venturi, Architect: Current Works and Ideas
1986-87
Irene Winter, Harvard University: Reading Concepts of Space from Ancient Mesopotamian Monuments
1987-88
Robert Herbert, Yale University: Impressionism and Tourism Along the Channel Coast
1988-89
Esin Atil, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: Origins of Islamic Iconography
1989-90
Eunice Lipton: Imagining a Woman's Life: The Case of Victorine Meurent
1990-91
Michael Fried, The Johns Hopkins University: Manet in His Generation
1991-92
Madeline Caviness, Tufts University: The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux: A Medieval Discourse of Sexuality
1992-93
Suzanne Preston Blier, Columbia University: The Danger of Art: Anomie, Alchemy, and African Vodun
1993-94
Norman Bryson, Harvard University: Orientalism and Occidentalism: Gender, Art and Modernity in Japan
1994-95
Michael Camille, The University of Chicago: Illuminating Philosophy: Art and Science at the Medieval University
1995-96
Carol Armstrong, Graduate Center, CUNY: Julia Margaret Cameron and the Feminization of Photography
1996-97
Rowland Abiodun, Amherst College: What Follows Six is More than Seven
1997-98
Joseph Koerner, Harvard University: Reformation Portraits and the Routines of Modern Belief
1999-2000
Madeline Caviness, Tufts University: Norman Knights, Anglo-Saxon Women, and the Third Sex: Re-evaluating Gender in the "Bayeux Tapestry"
2000-2001
Cécile Whiting ‘80, U.C.L.A. "Pop Outside Manhattan/Inside L.A."
2001-2002
Samuel Y. Edgerton, Williams College. "The Cross and The Tree; The Arch and The Cave".
2002-2003
Joan Brenton Connelly, New York University. "Beyond the Icon:The Parthenon and Its Sculptured Frieze".
2003-2004
Stephen J. Campbell, Johns Hopkins University. "Decentering Rome: Mantegna, Correggio and the Gonzaga".
2004-2005
John Clark, University of Texas at Austin. "Power Over the Other- or the Other's Power? Laughing at the 'Pygmy' and the 'Black'".
2005-2006
Masatomo Kawai, Keio University. "Tea Ceremony as Environment: Historical Considerations on the Display and Reception of Japanese Art".
2006-2007
Richard Meyer, University of Southern California. "What Was Contemporary Art?"
2007-2008
Leo Steinberg. "O! Say Can You See?"
2008-2009
Molly Nesbit, Vassar College. “Gordon Matta-Clark in Italy ”
2009-2010
William Wallace, Washington University. “Writing Michelangelo's Biography”.
Benjamin West, Sketch of Apollo, Swarthmore College