TrAIN

Events

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  Rasheed Araeen: In conversation with Dr. Courtney J. Martin. Chair: Sutapa Biswas

  Open Lecture

  Thursday 14 October 2010, 17:15 to 19:00
  

  Rasheed Araeen is a renowned artist, whose complex and often delicate works have contributed extensively to the context of practice and minimalist sculpture in Britain since 1965. Araeen’s works have been exhibited internationally, and solo shows have been hosted at Ikon Gallery (1987), the South London Gallery (1994), and the Serpentine Gallery (1996. In 2007, Tate acquisitioned and exhibited his works (Tate Britain), and in 2011, his works are to be included in Modern British Sculpture, curated by Penelope Curtis (director, Tate Britain), at the Royal Academy, London. Araeen is also founder of Third Text (established in 1987), a scholarly art journal dedicated to critical perspectives on art and visual culture, and a forum re-appraising Eurocentric perceptions of art historical analysis. He curated ‘The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post War Britain’, a highly controversial exhibition which opened at the Hayward Gallery in 1989, the same year the problematic exhibition Magiciens de la Terre curated by Jean-Hubert Martin was launched in Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle at the Parc de la Villette. A solo exhibition of Araeen’s works Before and After Minimalism: 1959-74 is currently on exhibition at Aicon Gallery (London) from September 17th – October 23rd 2010, and coincides with his new publication Art Beyond Art, Ecoaesthetics: A Manifesto for the 21st Century.

  Courtney J. Martin received her doctorate in the History of Art from Yale University. Her research and writings have engaged several disciplines including contemporary art, architecture, and 20th century British art. Currently, she is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art department at the University of California at Berkely. Prior to this appointment, she was a fellow at the Getty Research Institute at Los Angeles (2008-2009) and, in 2997, a Henry Moore Institute Research Fellow. She also worked in the media, arts, and culture unit of the Ford Foundation in New York. She is author of lengthy essays on the work of many contemporary artists, such as Rasheed Araeen, Kadar Attia, Rina Banerjee, Leslie Hewitt, Wangeehi MUtu, Ed Ruscha and Yinka Shonibare. She has also written for Art Asia Pacific, Artforum.com, Art Papers, Contemporary, Flashart, Frieze, and NKA.

  Sutapa Biswas is an artist, and Reader at Chelsea College of Art and Design, CCW, UAL.

  Lecture Theatre Chelsea College of Art and Design (Atterbury Street entrance)

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  TrAIN Open Lecture - Examining Forgotten Japonisme: Process and outcome of a three-year research project’

  Open Lecture

  Wednesday 06 October 2010, 17:15 to 19:00
  

  Professor Toshio Watanabe |‘Examining Forgotten Japonisme: Process and outcome of a three-year research project’

  In 2007 the TrAIN Research Centre was awarded a three-year research grant by the AHRC for the project ‘Forgotten Japonisme: Taste for Japanese Art in Britain and the USA 1920s – 1950s’. This project started with a question of what happened between the classic period of Japonisme (mid-19th to early 20th century) and what might be called high-tech Japonisme of 1960s and after. Our team identified already at the start that the Folk Crafts (Mingei) Movement and the Modernist Interior Design were two areas where a continuous impact could be discerned for the period of 1920s to 1950s. Were these exceptions or can we find other areas where Japanese art made an impact? If so, who were the bearers of this taste? Can we still call these phenomena as Japonisme? This talk will report back on the process and outcome of the project focusing on how our perceptions changed from our initial assumptions to what we concluded after a three-year investigation. Some case studies, such as Japanese gardens in the USA, will also be discussed.

  Professor Toshio Watanabe
  Studied at the Universities of Sophia (in Tokyo), Tokyo, London and Basel, where he completed his PhD. Director of the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN). He is an art historian, studying mostly the period 1850-1950, and has worked in the field of transnational art involving Japan and other countries. Current research interests include modern Japanese garden in transnational context, historiography of Japanese art history and Japonisme. Publications include High Victorian Japonisme (1991. Winner of the Prize of the Society for the Study of Japonisme), Japan and Britain: An Aesthetic Dialogue 1850-1930 (1991, Japanese edition 1992, co-edited), and Ruskin in Japan 1890-1940: Nature for art, art for life, (1997, Winner of 1998 Japan Festival Prize and of 1999 Gesner Gold Award). Currently President of the Japan Art History Forum (USA), member of the Bureau of the International Committee of Art History (CIHA) and Chair of CIHA-UK Committee. He was also Chair of the Association of Art Historians (1998-2001) and member of the Tate Britain Council (2002-2005).

  Lecture Theatre, Chelsea College of Art and Design (Atterbury Street entrance)