Art, Art History and Visual Studies

I realized...my life is a work of art

Writer: 

He appeared on East Campus one tobacco-scented September morning in 1998, his reportorial concentration rendering him as inconspicuous as a man in a bright white suit and spats can be. At the front of the sun-drenched, wood-floored classroom, history professor Ronald Witt (1932-2017) taught Petrarch and Bruni to a few dozen rapt undergraduates. At the back sat Tom Wolfe (1930-2018), scribbling away in a steno pad.

Two images by Fati Abubakar

Work in progress

Writer: 

From the minute I arrived in the United States from Nigeria as an international student, my instinct was to look for an African community—a restaurant, a mosque, an association. And in the African diasporic community, I found happiness, a sense of belonging. However, as a photojournalist, I wondered why so many of us Africans leave home. What was the pull to the United States or to Europe? I was aware of the many turbulent times we have faced in our different African countries, but I always wondered what would happen if we stayed in Africa. Could we build the continent of our dreams?

Power Plant Gallery director Caitlin Kelly helps an artist install her work

A space where M.F.A. students can experiment

Writer: 

Caitlin Margaret Kelly M.F.A. ’14 studies a photo of a back-to-the-lander teaching a younger woman how to aim a rifle, then slides it along the floor toward the center of a wall. Placed there, though, the gun appears to threaten the boy in the photo next to it, standing in his patch of poison ivy. She moves it again, but here it targets a decaying church, its steeple slumping into its sanctuary.

Resources for Freelance Artists

Duke alumna Dani Davis has compiled a list of resources available to freelance artists and arts organizations during this COVID_19 time.

It is an open share document, so anyone can contribute to its information. Instructions for contributing can be found at the top of the document. 

Access this resource

Work in progress

Writer: 

AS A MAJOR in both computer science and visual arts, I had been eager to design a project that merged these two fields through the use of machine learning. I quickly gravitated toward doing a black-and-white relief print and then experimenting using other mediums in combination. I decided to use colored screen prints layered underneath the relief prints and high-resolution scans processed by generative machine-learning algorithms to create new versions to display alongside the original print.

A headshot of NCMA director and Duke alumnae Valerie Hillings

Valerie Hillings is going places

Writer: 

When her phone rang last fall, France Family Professor of art, art history, and visual studies Kristine Stiles recognized the voice on the other end of the line. “Do you know who you’re talking to?” the voice asked.

“Of course,” she said. “Valerie.” Valerie Hillings ’93: student, research assistant, protégé, then friend and ultimately colleague, curator at the Guggenheim. A voice Stiles would never mistake.

“You’re talking to the new director of the North Carolina Museum of Art!” Hillings told Stiles.

DukeDC DWF Glenstone Tour

On April 7, 2019, the DukeDC Women's Forum hosted a tour of the Glenstone Museum. After the event, the group gathered for tea. 

Nasher exhibition examines pop art

Nasher exhibition examines pop art

Writer: 

It’s a little scary to talk to an academic about the first time they have an idea,” says Esther Gabara, “because we kind of muddle things. You look at something in an archive; you have a spark here. You start working on other projects. It’s not this sort of straightforward process.”

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

From the editor: A Duke art historian reflects on Notre-Dame

Writer: 

Writing in this magazine five years ago, Caroline Bruzelius, now a professor emerita of art and art history, called herself “essentially a detective for the places and spaces of the past, for the way the world as we know it was shaped.” When, earlier this spring, a fire engulfed Notre- Dame, Bruzelius found a new role— an expert source for media, ranging from NPR to Foreign Policy.

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