In the Foreground: Conversations on Art & Writing

Latest Episodes:

“Unpacking My Identity”: Genevieve Gaignard on Race in America and the Impossibility of Home Feb 16, 2021

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In this episode Caroline Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Genevieve Gaignard, a Los Angeles-based artist whose mixed-media practice explores the intersections of race, class, and femininity within the United States. While thinking through the notion of home as an impossible or privileged construct, Genevieve reflects on her experience moving back to rural Massachusetts for a residency at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and how her practice fits within the predominately white demographic of the Berkshires compared to her diverse creative community in LA. Genevieve discusses her 2020 exhibition A Long Way From Home and contemplates the ways in which her collages and photographic self-portraits grapple with racial and class stereotypes, particularly in the polarized contemporary political landscape.

“How to Look with Soft Eyes”: Darby English on Description as Method Feb 09, 2021

Show notes

In this first episode of Season 2 of In the Foreground: Conversations on Art & Writing, Caroline Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Darby English, the Carl Darling Buck Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago. In this conversation they discuss Darby’s early affinity with Dutch seventeenth-century painting, his belief in the vital role description plays in art historical writing, and the necessity of developing slow looking in opposition to the velocity that characterizes culture production and our lived experiences more broadly.

“Philosophical Grounding”: Michael Ann Holly on Creating Visual Studies  Nov 17, 2020

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In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Michael Ann Holly, the founding director of the Research and Academic Program. Michael describes what initially drew her art history, what interested her in historiography, and the importance of critical theory to her work. Caro and Michael discuss her contributions to the founding of RAP as well as the department of Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester, the first department of its kind in the United States. Additionally, Michael speaks to the influence and solace of the landscape of the Berkshires on her thinking and writing.

"Can You Show Thinking?”: Mieke Bal on Film & Writing Nov 10, 2020

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In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Mieke Bal, a cultural theorist, critic, and video artist. Mieke's work focuses on gender, migratory culture, psychoanalysis, and the critique of capitalism. In this conversation, Mieke discusses her early influences and reflects on what drew her to filmmaking. She describes the intersections between art history and the cinematic, and delves into several of her video projects, including a “film about thinking” on Hubert Damisch. Additionally, she reflects on how for her writing, filmmaking, and curating represent distinct modes of thinking and making.

"Refusal of Personality": Brigid Doherty on Rosemarie Trockel and Rorschach Oct 27, 2020

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In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Brigid Doherty, Associate Professor in the Departments of Art and Archaeology and German at Princeton University. Brigid’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary study of twentieth-century art and literature, especially relationships among artistic practices and aesthetic and psychoanalytic theories. In this conversation, she describes her intellectual path towards modernism and delves into the project she worked on as a fellow at the Clark in spring 2020, a book on the “Rorschach Pictures” of the German artist Rosemarie Trockel.

“Looking as Knowing”: Svetlana Alpers on Critical Thinking and Photography Oct 20, 2020

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In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Svetlana Alpers, a specialist of Dutch Golden Age painting and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. In this conversation, Svetlana shares how literary criticism influenced her early encounters with art and reflects on her intellectual formation at Harvard in the 1960s, and her role forming the art history department at Berkeley. She reflects on the altered state of the discipline today, and levels a critique of the turn towards global art history. Finally, they discuss the relation between painting and photography in light of her new book on Walker Evans, and Svetlana draws out parallels between this new project and her seminal book The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century.

“An Art History Yet to Come”: Kirsten Scheid on Palestinian Art  Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Kirsten Scheid, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the American University in Beirut. In 2019–2020, while the Clark/Oakley Humanities Fellow at the Clark Art Institute, Kirsten worked on an ethnography of aesthetic encounters in contemporary Palestine, building on her career-long research into and archival documentation of art-making in Palestine and Lebanon. In their conversation, Kirsten and Caro discuss issues of access and ethics around archives, and Kirsten shares her belief in the power of archives to “hail an art history yet to come.” They also talk about curatorial projects and consider imagination as an ethical practice.

“A Set of Ways of Engaging”: Lisa Lee on Thomas Hirschhorn & Materiality Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler speaks with Lisa Lee, Associate Professor of Art History at Emory University and Florence Gould Foundation Fellow at the Clark in spring 2020. While a fellow, Lisa worked on a project tentatively titled “Thomas Hirschhorn’s Real Abstraction, 1984–94,” which focuses on a critical period in the life of the Swiss artist, who is known for his work in collage and monument-making, primarily with found materials. Through working with these materials, often in public spaces, his art grapples with the political, economic, and social conditions of contemporary life. Lisa also discusses her work on the German artist Isa Genzken. This conversation explores Lisa’s interest in the tension of what she describes as work that highlights the possibility of art and its everyday political power.

“An Embodiment of Experience”: Steven Nelson on African Art and Writing History Sep 29, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler speaks with Steven Nelson, who in March 2020 was named Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA). Prior to that appointment, Steven served as Professor of African and African American Art History at UCLA. Steven’s broad interests in design, travel, and histories of the African diaspora are reflected in his path toward a career in academia. Steven and Caro discuss how graduate education shaped Steven’s specialization in African and African American art, his writing practices, and his latest book project, which focuses on the Underground Railroad and American myth-making. Steven also shares his hopes for his new position at CASVA and the future of the field of art history.

“To Speak Across Time”: Gabriele Finaldi on Museums Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with art historian Gabriele Finaldi, who since 2015 has been Director of the National Gallery in London. A specialist of Renaissance and Baroque art, Gabriele previously served as Deputy Director of the Prado for over a decade. In this conversation he describes his early interest in the discipline and his graduate studies at the Courtauld, why he was moved to work on Jusepe de Ribera, and the particular power of drawing as a medium. More broadly, Gabriele and Caro discuss the evolving roles of education and the science of conservation within modern museums, and reflect on new directions for historical and collections-based museums today.

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