Symposium

Contemporary Art and the Archive

Ray Johnson letter to Lucy Lippard, May 3, 1969, from the Lucy R. Lippard Papers, ca. 1940-2006

Saturday, November 15, 2008
10:00 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Elebash Recital Hall (View Map)
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Ave. at 34th St.
New York City

Sponsored by the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art and the Ph.D. Program in Art History at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY).

In the field of contemporary art, the archive has become an increasingly important point of departure for practicing artists, critics, curators, and historians. The efflorescence of archives in the modern period has left a material record of cultural production to which artists have responded in a variety of modes, ranging from reverence to contempt. At the same time, new media and technologies have challenged conventional notions of the archive, leading curators to ask, among other questions: What does it mean to make an archive for an artist whose works were not tangible things but rather “happenings” or other transitory events? What are the technical challenges involved in creating an archive of video or electronic works when the long–term preservation of those media is completely untested? Finally, what is the place of “archival” research in the historical study of contemporary art?

The symposium is free and open to the public.
Reservations required: contact Mary Savig at 202-633-7959 or savigm@si.edu

Program Schedule

10:00 a.m.	Coffee and Tea
10:15 a.m.	Opening Remarks John W. Smith Director, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
10:30–11:45 a.m.	Morning Speakers Johanna Burton Associate Director and Senior Faculty Member, Whitney Independent Study Program, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City “Outside the Archive: Keeping Recent Art Contemporary” Katy Siegel Associate Professor Hunter College, New York City “Lost” Andrew Perchuk Assistant Director, Contemporary Programs and Research The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California “Stuff near art”
11:45–1:00 p.m.	Lunch Break
1:00–2:00 p.m.	Keynote Address Douglas Crimp Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History University of Rochester, Rochester, New York “Before Pictures”
2:00–3:30 p.m.	Afternoon Speakers Julie J. Thomson Associate Curator of Education Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina “Nothing in the Archive, Nothings and the Archive: Ray Johnson’s 1961 and 1962 Nothings” Mitra Monir Abbaspour Doctoral candidate The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY) “Contemporary Lebanese Artists Curate History with Photographic Archives” Michael Lobel Associate Professor and Director, MA Program in Art History Purchase College, State University of New York “Contemporary Art History and the Archive”
3:30–3:45 p.m.	Afternoon Break
3:45–4:15 p.m.	Respondent Claire Bishop Associate Professor, Ph.D. Program in Art History, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
4:15–5:00 p.m.	Panel Discussion Ingrid Schaffner Senior Curator Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Terence Gower Artist Sara VanDerBeek Artist
5:00–5:15 p.m.	Closing Remarks Kevin Murphy Professor of 19th- and 20th-Century European and American Architecture and Theory Ph.D. Program in Art History, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Symposium

Contemporary Art and the Archive

Saturday, November 15, 2008 10:00 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

The symposium is free and open to the public. Reservations required: contact Mary Savig at 202-633-7959 or savigm@si.edu

Program Schedule

Saturday, November 15, 2008
10:00 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

The symposium is free and open to the public.
Reservations required: contact Mary Savig at 202-633-7959 or savigm@si.edu