Harn Eminent Scholar Series welcomes world-renowned art historians

October 18, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Harn Museum of Art, in conjunction with the University of Florida School of Art and Art History, welcomes the best and brightest of the art world during the Harn Eminent Scholar Series, beginning at noon Friday, Oct. 20, with a lecture by Mary Jo Arnoldi at the Harn Museum of Art.

Arnoldi, curator of one of the world’s most important collections of African art at the Smithsonian Institution, will captivate African art enthusiasts with her discussion “Monuments, Museums and Memory: Constructing History in Contemporary Mali.” Arnoldi has organized numerous exhibitions, including the much-praised African Voices, a reinstallation of the permanent exhibition of African history and cultures at the Smithsonian.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, the biggest name of the fall series will lecture at the University Auditorium. John Henry Merryman, J.S.D., will present “Great Cases in Art Law” in which he will discuss prominent art law cases, including Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arc” case, the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center’s 1990 Maplethorpe prosecution, the Elgin Marbles saga, and the Leonardo “La Bell Ferroniere” trial.

Merryman is Stanford Law School’s Nelson Bowman Sweitzer and Marie B. Sweitzer Professor of Law, emeritus, and affiliated professor in the Department of Art, emeritus. He was the first recipient of the American Society of Comparative Law’s Lifetime Achievement Award and has authored numerous books on art law, including “Thinking About the Elgin Marbles: Critical Essays on Cultural Property, Art and Law” (2000); “Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts” (with Albert E. Elsen, 4th ed. 2002); and “Imperialism, Art and Restitution” (2006).

Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Dickran Tashjian will present “Adventures in the Arts: Marsden Hartley and the First American Avant-Garde” at 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Harn Museum. Tashjian will discuss the life and work of American modernist painter Marsden Hartley, whose work is on display at the Harn Museum of Art through Dec. 31. Interested in the intersections between art and literature, Tashjian will address Hartley’s book of essays, “Adventures in the Arts: Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville and Poets,” published in 1921, discussing the artist’s contributions to the first American avant-garde.

Tashjian, professor emeritus of art history at the School of Humanities, University of California, Irvine, is a nationally recognized historian of American art who has authored numerous books including “Man Ray: Paris-L.A.” (Smart Art Press, 1996), “A Boatload of Madmen: Surrealism and the American Avant-Garde,” 1920-1945 (Thames and Hudson, 1995), “The Machine-Age in America, 1918-1941” (Abrams 1986), “William Carlos Williams and the American Scene, 1920-1940,” (Whitney Museum and University of California Press, 1979), and “Skyscraper Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde, 1910-1925” (Wesleyan University Press, 1975). His revisionist study of New England arts, “Memorials for Children of Change: The Art of Early New England Stonecarving” (Wesleyan University Press, 1974), co-authored with Ann Tashjian, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

The fall Harn Eminent Scholar Lecture Series comes to a close at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 27, when special guest Benjamin H.D. Buchloh will discuss “Art Since 1900” at the Harn Museum. Buchloh, the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of Modern Art in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is an internationally recognized art historian and one of today’s most important contributors to the study of post-1945 art. Buchloh has authored a number of highly acclaimed books, including the award-winning “Neo-Avant-Garde and Culture Industry: Essays on European and American Art from 1955 to 1975” (MIT 2003).

The scholars lecture program is organized by the UF School of Art and Art History through the Harn Eminent Scholar Endowment and is co-sponsored by the Harn Museum of Art. Lectures take place in the Harn Museum’s Chandler Auditorium, unless otherwise noted.

Admission to the Harn Museum of Art is free. For more information about fall programs and events call 352-392-9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.