Tag: art history

Assistant Professor Artifact Conservation (Kingston, ON, Canada) – PAST DEADLINE

*** APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS PASSED – PLEASE DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS POSITION*** 

The Department of Art History and Art Conservation in the Faculty of Arts & Science at Queen’s University invites applications for a one-year Non-renewable appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor with specialization in Art Conservation, with a preferred starting date of July 1, 2018. The position involves the teaching and supervision of graduate students in theoretical and laboratory courses covering the history, technology, and conservation of artifacts and artworks from historic, archaeological and ethnographic contexts. Applicants must have in-depth knowledge and expertise covering a wide range of organic and inorganic materials including ceramics, glass, metals, stone, bone, ivory, textiles and wood.

Candidates must have a PhD or equivalent degree completed at the start date of the appointment. The main criteria for selection are academic and teaching excellence. The successful candidate will provide evidence of high quality scholarly output that demonstrates potential for independent research leading to peer assessed publications and the securing of external research funding, as well as strong potential for outstanding teaching contributions at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and an ongoing commitment to academic and pedagogical excellence in support of the department’s programs. Candidates must provide evidence of an ability to work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary and student-centered environment. The department is committed to strengthening further the collaboration between its Art History and Art Conservation programs in teaching and in research, for example, through the joint PhD steam that was recently introduced and through Queen’s University’s Mobile Laboratory for Technical Art History. The successful candidate will be required to make substantive contributions through service to the department, the Faculty, the University, and/or the broader community. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.  This position is subject to final budgetary approval by the University. Also, pending approval, we hope to follow this appointment with an advertisement for a proposed tenure-track position to start 1 July 2019.

The University invites applications from all qualified individuals. Queen’s is committed to employment equity and diversity in the workplace and welcomes applications from women, visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ persons. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority.

To comply with federal laws, the University is obliged to gather statistical information as to how many applicants for each job vacancy are Canadian citizens / permanent residents of Canada. Applicants need not identify their country of origin or citizenship; however, all applications must include one of the following statements: “I am a Canadian citizen / permanent resident of Canada”; OR, “I am not a Canadian citizen / permanent resident of Canada”. Applications that do not include this information will be deemed incomplete.

A complete application consists of:

  • a cover letter (including one of the two statements regarding Canadian citizenship / permanent resident status specified in the previous paragraph);
  • a current Curriculum Vitae (including a list of publications);
  • a statement of research interests;
  • a statement of teaching interests and experience (including teaching outlines and evaluations if available); and,
  • Three letters of reference to be sent directly Prof. Joan Schwartz

The deadline for applications is May 6, 2018. Applicants are encouraged to send all documents in their application packages electronically as PDFs to Joan Schwartz at schwartz@queens.ca, although hard copy applications may be submitted to:

Prof. Joan M. Schwartz
Head
The Department of Art History & Art Conservation
Ontario Hall, Room 318C
67 University Avenue
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario
CANADA K7L 3N6

The University will provide support in its recruitment processes to applicants with disabilities, including accommodation that takes into account an applicant’s accessibility needs. If you require accommodation during the interview process, please contact Diane Platt in the Department of Art History & Art Conservation, at Queen’s University, by emailing plattd@queensu.ca or calling +1 613-533-6000, ext. 77354.

Academic staff at Queen’s University are governed by a Collective Agreement between the University and the Queen’s University Faculty Association (QUFA), which is posted at http://queensu.ca/facultyrelations/faculty-librarians-and-archivists/collective agreement and at http://www.qufa.ca.

Kress Fellowships for Language Study

Kress Fellowships for Language Study in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
for Graduate Students in European Art History and Art Conservation

Middlebury College is pleased to announce the continuation of the Kress Fellowships for language study, made possible by a generous gift from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Five fellowships are offered in summer 2018 for art history graduate students and graduate students in art conservation to attend the Middlebury summer Language Schools in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish.

These fellowships are intended for graduate students in art history with a proposed focus on European Art History or graduate students studying art conservation. Preference will be given to graduate students who have recently been accepted or are currently enrolled in the corresponding program at a Ph.D. -granting institution in the United States. In exceptional cases, advanced undergraduates in Art History who are preparing for graduate study in the same field may also be considered.

Fellowships cover the comprehensive fee (tuition, room, and board) at the Middlebury summer Language Schools. Travel expenses and books are not included. Fellowships are merit-based and intended for exceptionally qualified individuals. Applicants need not be American citizens.

Kress Fellowships will be awarded on a highly competitive basis. Financial aid forms are not required for these awards, but students interested in attending the Language Schools have the option to apply for Middlebury College financial aid, awarded on a demonstrated-need basis, through the office of Student Financial Services.

For more details about the process visit: http://www.middlebury.edu/ls/finaid/fellowships/kress, and to apply, go to: http://www.middlebury.edu/ls.

45th Annual Meeting – Photographic Materials Session, May 30, “Moonlight and Midnight: The evolution of Edward Steichen’s ‘Moonrise’ prints” by Kaslyne O’Connor, Ariel Pate, and Sylvie Pénichon

This talk was a good example of collaborative art historical and material science research. Two of the three authors, Kaslyne O’Connor and Ariel Pate, discussed a study that revolved around two gum-platinum prints by Edward Steichen from his 1904 “Moonrise” series in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago that had titles and dates under question. Each print had been referred to by different names (“Midnight Lake George” and “Moonlight Lake George“), and varied in tonality and surface sheen (you will notice that the prints have the same titles and dates on the Art Institute of Chicago website). Furthermore, the image in one of the prints is flipped horizontally.

A letter from Steichen to Stieglitz talks about “Midnight Lake George” being a platinum print followed by blue print, then greenish gum varnish. This letter is a valuable piece of information, along with X-Ray Fluorescence and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy that gave characteristic signals for Prussian blue, platinum (“Midnight…” had more), palladium, mercury (traces in “Midnight…” only), chromium, iron (“Moonlight…” had more), and lead for both prints. Still to be determined is the distribution of Prussian blue throughout the print, which would suggest the cyanotype process vs. a Prussian blue watercolor wash over the entire surface of the print. Clip marks at the print edges did displace the gum layer, thus revealing a blue layer below, which could be a hint that the cyanotype process was used. Examination of “Midnight…” under ultraviolet light exhibited a green fluorescents characteristic of linseed oil.

A Camera Works supplement from 1906 refers to “Moonlight…”. A 1910 Albright Art Gallery catalog for the “International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography” refers to “Moonlight…” having been made using a platinum gum process “peculiarly [Steichen’s] own”. Ultimately, a timeline was proposed by the authors using the information gathered from this research, which supports the 1904 (“Midnight…”) and 1909 (“Moonlight…”) printing dates for each. More apt titles were also proposed–”Road to the Valley, Moonrise” for “Midnight…” and “Road to the Valley, Moonrise Lake George” for “Moonlight”. Something that was noted that I found to be particularly interesting was that Steichen became less “poetic” in his later years, and retitled many of his prints.

Also to note, this project was born out of a previous project to create the website The Alfred Stieglitz Collection, a rich resource recommended to visit.