Serenade to a Cat: An Iconography of Laughter

Lectio praecursoria: Minerva Keltasen taidehistorian alan väitöskirja “Serenade to a Cat: An Iconography of Laughter” tarkastettiin Helsingin yliopistossa 17.11.2020. Vastaväittäjänä toimi Dr. Sheila McTighe (The Courtauld Institute of Art) ja kustoksena Prof. Ville Lukkarinen (Helsingin yliopisto).

Towards an Art History of the Parish Church, 1200–1399

Estimated at numbering between eight and nine thousand, parish churches containing at least some medieval building fabric are ubiquitous in the English landscape. Yet, despite their quotidian familiarity, parish churches have not, by and large, been treated consistently or systematically as deserving of the attention of art historical study. This collection of essays comes out of a conference held at the Courtauld Institute of Art in June 2017 and focuses on the two centuries between 1200 and 1399. This period represents the most notable lacuna in scholarship, even though the parish church was fully solidified as an administrative category and arguably as a building type. Compared with the smaller corpus of the Romanesque period or the late medieval church after 1400, which draws on greater availability of documentary evidence in the form of churchwarden accounts, these two centuries have been historically understudied. The ten diverse essays contained within this volume explore the art and architecture of parish churches through a variety of lenses, methodologies, and perspectives, ranging from (re)considerations of the very definition of the parish church to phenomenological explorations of their component parts, as well as case studies of their decorative schemes. An Afterword by Paul Binski reflects upon his 1999 essay, ‘The English Parish Church and its Art in the Later Middle Ages: A Review of the Problem’ and considers the place of anthropology in our developed study of the parish church.

Understanding Material vs. Immaterial in Conceptual and Digital Art

In the history of twentieth-century art, we can identify two key moments when the notion of the immaterial became a focus of attention. The first, spanning the period from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, was the dematerialization of the art object in the context of conceptual art, famously described in Lucy Lippard's Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. The second was digital art, which likewise emerged in the 1960s, foregrounding the use of technological means to produce immaterial artworks. Yet in both cases, the claim of immateriality was unfounded. Building on accumulating evidence, the conference “Conceptualism and Materiality. Matters of Art and Politics” held at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2019 drew attention to the importance of materials and materiality in conceptual art, countering its reputation as idea-centred. As for digital art, it has become increasingly obvious that the infrastructure and tools required to produce and maintain it are firmly grounded in the physical world, thereby challenging its alleged immateriality. The first part of this essay explores dematerialization and its aftermath in the context of conceptual art, while the second highlights the analogous developments taking place in digital art. My aim will be to shed light on these shifts from material to immaterial and back again in both conceptual and digital art, and map their similarities and differences. As I will show, both tried – and failed – to satisfy art's recurring but unrealizable yearning to rid itself of the material.

The Courtauld’s Witt and Conway Photographic Libraries: Two approaches to digitisation

The Courtauld Institute of Art is two years into a digitisation project of the Witt and Conway photograph archives (in addition to other, smaller collections) – a massive project that will make accessible over three million images of works of art from these internationally important photo collections. This article looks closely at the digitisation project and in particular, at the small army of volunteers assembled to carry out the digitisation and how this element of public engagement is essential to the success of the project.

conversando con... William J.R. Curtis

<p>William J.R. Curtis (Kent, 1948), es un galardonado historiador de reconocido prestigio internacional y crítico de arquitectura, a la vez que escritor, comisario y fotógrafo. Sus obras escritas son referentes para el estudio de la arquitectura.<br />Aprovechando la visita realizada a Granada con motivo de su exposición “Abstracción y Luz” que tuvo lugar en el Palacio de Carlos V en la Alhambra entre los meses de septiembre y noviembre de 2015, nos pudo mostrar sus diferentes facetas humanistas a través de su obra y su visión de la arquitectura, el paisaje y el mundo.<br />Curtis realizó sus estudios en el Courtauld Institute of Art de la Universidad de Londres y posteriormente en la Universidad de Harvard.<br />Ha impartido docencia en Historia del Arte, Teoría del Diseño y la Arquitectura en universidades de todo el mundo (Europa, Estados Unidos, Latino América, Australia, Asia,…). Universidades como Harvard, Universidad de California, Asociación de Arquitectura de Londres, Universidad de Cambridge, ETSAB Barcelona, son algunas de las instituciones que han tenido el placer de contar con William Curtis como docente.<br />Entre sus muchas obras escritas de historia, crítica y teoría, ha tratado temas muy variados como la arquitectura contemporánea, paisajismo, diseño, historiografía, educación visual, arquitectura vernácula, arquitectura india, arquitectura bereber del pre-Sáhara… Se puede destacar su libro Modern Architecture Since 1900 (Phaidon, tercera edición revisada 1996), que ha sido referente a nivel internacional y traducido en cinco idiomas. Otros de sus libros con gran impactos han sido: Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms (Phaidon, segunda edición 2015); Denys Lasdun: Architecture, City, Landscape (Phaidon, 1994). Entre sus contribuciones más recientes encontramos: Abstractions in Space: Tadao Ando, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra (Pulitzer Foundation, St. Louis, 2001); Barcelona 1992-2004 (Guim Costa, Gustavo Gili, 2004); y RCR Aranda, Pigem, Vilalta Arquitectes: Entre la abstracción y la naturaleza (Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 2004).<br />Añadir que ha escrito gran cantidad de monografías sobre arquitectura moderna y contemporánea, así como sobre Le Corbusier. Sus críticas y monografías se pueden encontrar en revistas internacionales de reconocido prestigio entre las que se encuentra, entre otras, El Croquis (Madrid) y Architectural Review (Londres).<br />Mencionar que William Curtis ha sido conferenciante en muchos encuentros y debates críticos en todo el mundo. Ha participado como jurado en competiciones internacionales de diferente índole, así como ha ocupado diferentes puestos honoríficos en numerosas instituciones.<br />Junto con todos estos méritos, hay que mencionar los últimos premios con los que ha sido galardonado: Medal of Foundation for Museum of Finnish Architecture, 50th Anniversary, 2006; y Premio de Oro a la Aportación Global de la Arquitectura (CERA, A+D, India, 2014).<br />Para completar su faceta humanista, William además de escritor de libros y ensayos críticos, realiza pinturas, dibujos y fotografías sobre la abstracción de la naturaleza y su forma de ver el mundo. Entre sus exposiciones se encuentran: Mielen Maisemia/Mental Landscapes (Museo de Arquitectura de Finlandia, Helsinki 2000); Mental Landscapes/Paisajes Mentales (Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid 2002); Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (Harvard 2004); Architectures du Monde. Le regard de William J.R. Curtis (Centre Méridional de l’Architecture et de la Ville en Toulouse, 2004-2005); Structures of Light (Museo Alvar Aalto, Finlandia, 2007).<br />Y por último Abstracción y Luz/Abstraction and Light (Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, Granada, 2015), gracias a la cual ha sido posible esta entrevista.<br />Rodeado de sus dibujos y pinturas, Williams nos ha contestado a nuestras preguntas, enfatizando en temas como la luz, la sombra, el agua y el espacio. Mientras, sentíamos la fuerza y presencia de estos conceptos en su obra, reforzados por el espacio en el que estaban expuestos, el Palacio de Carlos V en la Alhambra.<br />A través de sus fotografías y dibujos nos muestra su forma de mirar el mundo mediante la abstracción.</p>

Der Ingenieur Konrad Gruter von Werden in Ferrara, Venedig, Lucca und Pietrasanta (ca. 1402–1424)

Riassunto Il nome del chierico e ingegnere Konrad Gruter di Werden/Ruhr è emerso solo nel 2006 con la pubblicazione del suo trattato De machinis et rebus mechanicis compilato nel 1424 a Venezia e dedicato al re Erik VII di Danimarca, Norvegia e Svezia. Al contempo è stato possibile ricostruire le tappe della sua attività, lunga più di trent’anni, come sperimentatore e ingegnere consigliere presso una serie di corti principesche italiane. Una fonte d’informazione, però, è rimasta finora in gran parte inesplorata, vale a dire il materiale assai istruttivo, benché molto sparso, conservato nell’Archivio di Stato di Lucca. Alla raccolta di queste notizie ha collaborato Dr. Geoffrey Nuttall, Courtauld Institute London.