Art historian Fontana presents next Hixson-Lied Visiting Scholar Lecture Oct. 31
calendar icon23 Oct 2018
Lincoln, Neb.—Art historian Jeff Fontana will present the next Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 5:30 p.m. in Richards Hall Rm. 15. The lecture is free and open to the public. His title is "George B. Bridgman's Life Drawing Instruction: Bringing Classical Figures into the Modern World."
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Art, Art History & Design’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture Series brings notable artists, scholars and designers to Nebraska each semester to enhance the education of students.
Fontana is Associate Professor and Harry E. Smith Distinguished Teaching Professor in Art History at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where he is currently Chair of the Art and Art History Department.
His research reflects his interests in issues of patronage and the intersection of artistic theory and practice. An Italian Renaissance scholar by training, he focuses on the career of the painter Federico Barocci (c. 1535-1612), on whose work he has published articles and acted as an exhibition consultant. His interest in the interpretation of the Italian Renaissance in French and American art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries intersects with his study of drawings and drawing practice in his research on the painter, draftsman and educator George B. Bridgman.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in art history at Boston University.
The remaining lectures in the series are:
• Nov. 7: Kim Dickey & Simon Levin, ceramics. With financial support from the Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture Series, the UNL Clay Club is bring Dickey and Levin to campus for demonstrations Nov. 7-10 and consecutive public lectures on Nov. 7. Dickey received her MFA from Alfred University. She has had solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Kansas City and Denver and has participated in invitationals in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Dickey has made permanent installations at MCA Denver, The Lab at Belmar; the Danish Ministry of Culture in Slagelse, Denmark; and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. She is Professor of Art at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Levin has been working in clay since 1990, when an elective ceramics course in college changed the direction of his life. He is a full-time studio potter working exclusively with wood firing. His award-winning work is exhibited internationally and appears in several contemporary ceramic books. Levin is a writer for many ceramic journals, and in 2013 he traveled to Taiwan as a Senior Fulbright scholar researching local materials. As a kiln builder, Levin has built wood fired kilns for both U.S. colleges and universities, as well as schools in Taiwan and China.
• Nov. 14: Lynne Avadenka, printmaking. Avadenka is an American artist/printmaker who creates multimedia work informed by explorations of text, image and the Jewish experience. Avadenka received a Kresge Fellowship in 2009 and has received individual artist grants from The National Endowment for the Arts and The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Avadenka’s work is exhibited and collected internationally at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Hague, The Netherlands; and The British Library, London; as well as at The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; The New York Public Library; and The Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Underwritten by the Hixson-Lied Endowment with additional support from other sources, the series enriches the culture of the state by providing a way for Nebraskans to interact with luminaries in the fields of art, art history and design. Each visiting artist or scholar spends one to three days on campus to meet with classes, participate in critiques and give demonstrations.
For more information on the series, contact the School of Art, Art History & Design at (402) 472-5522.