Gwendolyn's Big Idea

2010-05-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sunny Lands

Annenberg

Estate

Museum

Opening

covered in

the

Art Newspaper

"Forbidden Knowledge" - Penn Founder's Day Symposium

2010-04-01T05:55:00.001-07:00

The Founder's Day Symposium was held on January 20, 2010 in honor of Benjamin Franklin's 304th birthday. It was very interesting to participate in and I learned a lot about my colleagues and other members of the Penn community.

See it on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf6QivrjLtw

Art Through Time - PBS

2010-01-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

Be sure to watch me on the new PBS educational art history series, "Art Through Time!" The website is up now and streaming the episodes. I "bookend" episode 12, "Conflict and Resistance."

2009-12-03T08:14:00.001-08:00

Phillis Wheatley Goes to Princeton

I will deliver the opening lecture titled: "The Ideal Pencil: Poetry, Portraiture, and Prejudice," focusing on African American writer Phillis Wheatley and portraits of African American women writers in the 19th century, as a part of the exhibition "The Author's Portrait." The lecture will begin at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 24, 2010, in 101 McCormick Hall. No reservations are necessary. A reception will follow in the gallery at approximately 5:00 p.m.

For more info:

http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/

New Book!

2009-11-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

Sunnylands: Art and Architecture of the Annenberg Estate in Rancho Mirage, California

finally drops on December 1. Please check it out on the Penn Press website - even though my name doesn't appear, I promise you that I did in fact write something inside! My essay focuses on the paintings and prints that are still in situ in this magnificent house. Learn what I really think about Andrew Wyeth, Pablo Picasso, Romare Bearden, and Rembrandt Peale.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14687.html

Wanda Corn Festschrift at Stanford

2009-11-11T05:47:00.000-08:00

This weekend the Art and Art History department at Stanford will be hosting a symposium in honor of one of the most influential and generous women in art history, the incomparable Wanda M. Corn. If you are in the Bay Area, you should consider coming by for some of the papers by her former students and friends - they are guaranteed to be fabulous!

I will be presenting a paper titled, "To Know to Know Her is to Love Her: Sargent Johnson, Gertrude Stein and Motherless Moderns," about Johnson's 1940 print "Singing Saints" and Stein's 1934 opera "Four Saints in Three Acts."

American Studies Association Annual Meeting

2009-11-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I attended the 2009 Annual meeting of the American Studies Association (ASA). ASA is attended by academics from various fields including art history, literature, history, anthropology, etc. It is, in my mind, one of the more progressive and diverse professional associations, both in its membership make-up and in the sessions that fill its conference schedules.

I somehow managed to get myself elected the new Chair of the Visual Culture Caucus, a group that I have been participating in since I was a graduate student. If you are interested in contributing to the work of the ASA VCC, please let me know. Information on our activities can be found at

http://www.theasa.net/caucus_visual/

Cheers,

GDS