The Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery invite you to three afternoons of lectures on American art and visual culture delivered by SAAM’s 2018–2019 research fellows. Come hear the next generation of scholars as they push the boundaries of the field and help us understand the importance of art through new eyes. Attendance is free and open to the public. The complete program is included below. A simultaneous webcast of the talks will be available at AmericanArt.si.edu/research/fellowslectures/. This event is organized by SAAM’s Research and Scholars Center. Please share the program with your colleagues and help us promote the event viaFacebook.
SAAM Fellows Lectures
Wednesday, May 22, through Friday, May 24, 1:30–5 p.m.
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2019
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Moderator: Eleanor Harvey, Senior Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Phillip Troutman, Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow, The George Washington University
“‘Sorrowfully Beautiful’: African American Subjectivity in the Anti-Slavery Engravings of Patrick Henry Reason”
Jillian Vaum, Patricia and Phillip Frost Predoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
“Free Here: Contingent Emancipation in Thomas Waterman Wood’s Baltimore Paintings”
James Brookes, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, University of Nottingham
“Embattled Pictures: Union Soldier-Artists and the Depiction of Battle”
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Moderator: Karen Lemmey, Curator of Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Eva McGraw, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow at the Archives of American Art, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“‘Free on Carolina’s Shore’: Xanthus Smith’s Picturesque Reconstruction in the Sea Islands”
Sarah Beetham, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan Fellow Awarded through the James Smithson Fellowship Program, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
“Set in Stone: Civil War Monuments and the Paradox of Permanence”
Renée Ater, Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow, University of Maryland, Emerita
“Healing, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Remembering Slavery in the Republic of Benin, Richmond, and Liverpool”
THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2019
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Moderator: Crawford Alexander Mann III, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Kimia Shahi, Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Princeton University
“Line and Its Limits: The United States Coast Survey and the ‘Uncertain Contours’ of Nineteenth-Century America”
David Park Curry, Smithsonian Senior Fellow, Independent Scholar
“A Discouraging Word: Theodore Davis and His Buffalo Dinner Plate” from Courses of Empire: The Hayes Presidential State Service, 1879–1880
Clarisse Fava-Piz, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, University of Pittsburgh
“Spoiled for Choice: George Grey Barnard and the Paris Salons”
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Moderator: Robin Veder, Executive Editor of American Art Journal, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Yinshi Lerman-Tan, Douglass Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
“Frankenstein’s Twins: John F. Peto and William Harnett”
Talia Shabtay, Big Ten Academic Alliance Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University
“To Photograph a World: Berenice Abbott and the Subject of Science”
Alison Boyd, Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in American Art, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut
“Song of the Soil: Horace Pippin’s I’s Comin”
FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2019
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Moderator: E. Carmen Ramos, Deputy Chief Curator and Curator of Latinx Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Christopher Green, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Masked Moderns: Northwest Coast Native Art Beyond Revival”
V. Decemvirale, Smithsonian American Art Museum Predoctoral Fellow in Latinx Art, University of California, Santa Barbara
“A Brief History of Social Practice in East Los Angeles, ca. 1975”
Sarah-Neel Smith, Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in American Art, Maryland Institute College of Art
“Islamic Art in the ‘Pattern and Decoration’ Movement, 1972–78”
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Moderator: Saisha Grayson, Curator of Time-Based Media, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Paisid Aramphongphan, Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in American Art, Independent Scholar
“An Open Vessel: Paul Thek / Kiki Smith”
Helena Vilalta, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, University College London
“Adrian Piper’s Paper Trail: Embodying Information in the Vietnam Era”
Shu-Wen Lin, Lunder Fellow for Time-Based Media Conservation, Independent Conservator
“Jim Campbell: Caring for Hardware in Time-Based Media Art”
5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Reception, McEvoy Lobby