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DEFINING AMERICAN MODERNISM
Top scholars in the field of American Modernism presented their ideas to sold-out crowds during the symposium, which marked the opening of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center, a component of the O'Keeffe Museum that was created to support research pertaining to American Modernism and, in particular, to the art of Georgia O'Keeffe and her place within the larger history of Modernism in America.
The purpose of the symposium was to examine the meaning of the term modern in American art, to assess the various ways in which the term has been used in the last 100 years, and to determine if it can be defined more precisely. The event was held July 12-14, 2001, and was moderated by Barbara Buhler Lynes, curator at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and The Emily Fisher Landau Director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center. The symposium was launched with a keynote address by Robert Storr, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, in which he pronounced American Modernism as being alive and well.
Symposium subjects included, among other things, discussions of Alfred Stieglitz as a major proponent and supporter of early American Modernism, as detailed by Sarah Greenough, curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. The ways in which art critic Clement Greenburg's definition of Modernism shaped thinking about this issue for generations, yet was exclusive to issues of race, gender and politics, were described by Caroline Jones, Professor of Art History at Boston University.
The role of photography figured prominently into the dissemination of the term "modern," according to Carol Squiers, curator at the International Center of Photography. And Brian Wallis, chief curator of the International Center of Photography, spoke about the many ways photography has played a major role in shaping the history of Modernism in America. Nearly all of the 13 speakers made reference to O'Keeffe, thus raising the issue of her on-going importance to the history of American Modernism.
Wallis, the last speaker, pointed out that Modernism is dead and that we have been living in a post-modern era for some time, and in challenging Robb Storr's position, crystallized two opposing ways of thinking about American Modernism. Clearly, debates and discussions on this issue must be on-going, and another was sponsored by the Museum's Research Center as an online symposium on the Museum's Website from 1-14 October, 2001 as an extension of the actual symposium. Titled The Modern/Postmodern Dialectic: American Art and Culture, 1965–2000, moderated by Maurice Berger, the online symposium gave everyone who participated the chance to present their point of view about the nature of the Modern and the Post-Modern in American Art.
Speakers Included:
July 13 - Morning
Wanda Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, Stanford University
Michael Leja, Sewell C. Biggs, Professor of American Art, University of Delaware
Kathleen A. Pyne, Professor of Art History, University of Notre Dame
Sylvia Yount, Chief Curator, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
July 13 - Afternoon
Ann Gibson, Professor and Chair, Department of Art History, University of Delaware
Caroline Jones, Professor of Art History, Boston University
Fred Wilson, Conceptual Artist, New York
July 14 - Morning
Carol Squiers, Curator, Internatinal Center for Photography
Brian Wallis, Chief Curator, International Center for Photography