MoMA Talks: Panel Discussions and Symposia

Thursday, November 21, 2006 6:30 p.m. How does the museum context shape audiences' engagement with artworks? What are the expectations placed on the museum experience? What lessons can be gleaned from recent audience studies? This roundtable considers art, the audience, and the museum context. Special attention is given to the challenges of teaching with contemporary art objects in a museum. Program participants include: James Elkins, the E.C. Chadbourne Chair of the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Bonnie Pitman, Deputy Director for Education at the Dallas Museum of Art; and Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Moderated by Wendy Woon, Edward John Noble Foundation Deputy Director of Education at The Museum of Modern Art.

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. Roundtable: Displaying Dada 2005–06 Leah Dickerman, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Laurent Le Bon, Chief Curator, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris; and Anne Umland, Curator, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Additional resources: Does Dada Dissolve into Surrealism? Didier Ottinger, Senior Curator, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris Download PDF transcript New York Dada? Looking Back after a Second World War Catherine Craft, Independent scholar and critic Download PDF transcript "Join Dada!" Aspects of Dada’s Reception since the Late 1950s Hanne Bergius, Professor for the History of Art, Design and Architecture, Burg Giebichenstein, University for Art and Design, Halle Download PDF transcript

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. Roundtable: Displaying Dada 2005–06 Leah Dickerman, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Laurent Le Bon, Chief Curator, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris; and Anne Umland, Curator, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Additional resources: Does Dada Dissolve into Surrealism? Didier Ottinger, Senior Curator, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris Download PDF transcript New York Dada? Looking Back after a Second World War Catherine Craft, Independent scholar and critic Download PDF transcript "Join Dada!" Aspects of Dada’s Reception since the Late 1950s Hanne Bergius, Professor for the History of Art, Design and Architecture, Burg Giebichenstein, University for Art and Design, Halle Download PDF transcript

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. The Making of Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York (1996) Francis Naumann, Independent scholar, curator, and art dealer

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. "The Pattern that Connects Is a Meta-Pattern": Dada’s Ongoing Challenges to Museum Practices Tobia Bezzola, Curator, Kunsthaus Zurich

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. The Making of Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York (1996) Francis Naumann, Independent scholar, curator, and art dealer

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. "The Pattern that Connects Is a Meta-Pattern": Dada’s Ongoing Challenges to Museum Practices Tobia Bezzola, Curator, Kunsthaus Zurich

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. Approaching a Myth: The 1988 Reconstruction of Berlin’s First International Dada Fair of 1920 Helen Adkins, Art historian and independent curator, Berlin

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. Approaching a Myth: The 1988 Reconstruction of Berlin’s First International Dada Fair of 1920 Helen Adkins, Art historian and independent curator, Berlin

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. Dada and Surrealism Reviewed: From London 1978 to New York 2006 Dawn Ades, Professor, Department of Art History and Theory, University of Essex

Representing Dada Saturday, September 9, 2006 To mark the close of the international Dada exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA hosted a day-long symposium to consider issues involved in representing Dada through texts, images, and objects, with a particular focus on the semantics of display. A distinguished group of scholars discussed landmark Dada exhibitions and past publications, with the aim of addressing how Dada has been defined historically, geographically, and conceptually. Dada and Surrealism Reviewed: From London 1978 to New York 2006 Dawn Ades, Professor, Department of Art History and Theory, University of Essex

World Art | Art World: Changing Perspectives on Modern and Contemporary Art The Museum of Modern Art's Second Annual Graduate Symposium In the past few decades, the art world has seen unprecedented growth and globalization. These developments are apparent in a number of areas: new and larger museums and cultural institutions; a thriving market of galleries, art fairs, and biennials around the world; new press outlets for the dissemination of art criticism, marketing, and education through traditional and new media; increased attention, research, and art that addresses non-Western subject matter; and the professionalization of artists, museum administrators, and curators through emerging MA, MFA, and PhD programs. How do critics and scholars comprehend the significance of both local and international artistic activity? What traditional and new tools for analysis do they use? Art historian James Elkins has recently written that the prospect of world art history raises questions about the discipline's limits and future. Indeed, Western art history's traditional methods, assumptions, and parameters of research have been under debate for at least the last four decades. This symposium sought papers that drew on a variety of disciplines and approaches to address histories of world art and emerging trends in the contemporary art world, while focusing on specific works or projects. Symposium: Saturday, April 29 "William Kentridge's Rock and the 'Weight of Europe Leaning on the Tip of Africa'" Leora Maltz, Harvard University

World Art | Art World: Changing Perspectives on Modern and Contemporary Art The Museum of Modern Art's Second Annual Graduate Symposium In the past few decades, the art world has seen unprecedented growth and globalization. These developments are apparent in a number of areas: new and larger museums and cultural institutions; a thriving market of galleries, art fairs, and biennials around the world; new press outlets for the dissemination of art criticism, marketing, and education through traditional and new media; increased attention, research, and art that addresses non-Western subject matter; and the professionalization of artists, museum administrators, and curators through emerging MA, MFA, and PhD programs. How do critics and scholars comprehend the significance of both local and international artistic activity? What traditional and new tools for analysis do they use? Art historian James Elkins has recently written that the prospect of world art history raises questions about the discipline's limits and future. Indeed, Western art history's traditional methods, assumptions, and parameters of research have been under debate for at least the last four decades. This symposium sought papers that drew on a variety of disciplines and approaches to address histories of world art and emerging trends in the contemporary art world, while focusing on specific works or projects. Symposium: Saturday, April 29 Discussion Moderator: Salah Hassan, Chair of the Department of History of Art and Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Art History and Visual Culture at Africana Studies at Cornell University Roberta Bonetti, University of Bologna and l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris Wendy Morris, Institute for Research in the Arts, University of Leuven, Belgium Leora Maltz, Harvard University

World Art | Art World: Changing Perspectives on Modern and Contemporary Art The Museum of Modern Art's Second Annual Graduate Symposium In the past few decades, the art world has seen unprecedented growth and globalization. These developments are apparent in a number of areas: new and larger museums and cultural institutions; a thriving market of galleries, art fairs, and biennials around the world; new press outlets for the dissemination of art criticism, marketing, and education through traditional and new media; increased attention, research, and art that addresses non-Western subject matter; and the professionalization of artists, museum administrators, and curators through emerging MA, MFA, and PhD programs. How do critics and scholars comprehend the significance of both local and international artistic activity? What traditional and new tools for analysis do they use? Art historian James Elkins has recently written that the prospect of world art history raises questions about the discipline's limits and future. Indeed, Western art history's traditional methods, assumptions, and parameters of research have been under debate for at least the last four decades. This symposium sought papers that drew on a variety of disciplines and approaches to address histories of world art and emerging trends in the contemporary art world, while focusing on specific works or projects. Symposium: Saturday, April 29 "William Kentridge's Rock and the 'Weight of Europe Leaning on the Tip of Africa'" Leora Maltz, Harvard University

World Art | Art World: Changing Perspectives on Modern and Contemporary Art The Museum of Modern Art's Second Annual Graduate Symposium In the past few decades, the art world has seen unprecedented growth and globalization. These developments are apparent in a number of areas: new and larger museums and cultural institutions; a thriving market of galleries, art fairs, and biennials around the world; new press outlets for the dissemination of art criticism, marketing, and education through traditional and new media; increased attention, research, and art that addresses non-Western subject matter; and the professionalization of artists, museum administrators, and curators through emerging MA, MFA, and PhD programs. How do critics and scholars comprehend the significance of both local and international artistic activity? What traditional and new tools for analysis do they use? Art historian James Elkins has recently written that the prospect of world art history raises questions about the discipline's limits and future. Indeed, Western art history's traditional methods, assumptions, and parameters of research have been under debate for at least the last four decades. This symposium sought papers that drew on a variety of disciplines and approaches to address histories of world art and emerging trends in the contemporary art world, while focusing on specific works or projects. Symposium: Saturday, April 29 Discussion Moderator: Salah Hassan, Chair of the Department of History of Art and Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Art History and Visual Culture at Africana Studies at Cornell University Roberta Bonetti, University of Bologna and l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris Wendy Morris, Institute for Research in the Arts, University of Leuven, Belgium Leora Maltz, Harvard University