Capital City Arts Initiative

Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Reception, 6:15pm
Talk, 7pm
at the Carson City Library Auditorium
900 N Roop Street, Carson City

Why German Art Matters
CCAI Nevada Neighbors Talk by Dr. Brett Van Hoesen

Nevada Neighbors, the Capital City Arts Initiative’s [CCAI] ongoing series of illustrated public talks, will present a talk on contemporary German art by Brett Van Hoesen, Ph.D. Her talk, Why German Art Matters, will take place on Wednesday, November 7 at 7pm at the Carson City Library, 900 N Roop Street, Carson City. Preceding her talk, there will be an informal reception for Dr. Van Hoesen at 6:15pm. The presentation and reception are free, and the public is cordially invited.

This talk will introduce the Nevada Neighbors audience to one of Dr. Van Hoesen’s main areas of expertise and interest: German art and culture. In an era when German language programs are being cut or significantly reduced across the United States, Germany is becoming an increasingly important venue for the practice and exhibition of contemporary art. Dr. Van Hoesen will examine the way in which German art and German exhibition contexts dating from the early twentieth century to the present have played a major role in establishing the aesthetics and culture of today’s contemporary art world. She will discuss German-based art practices including Berlin Dada photomontage, New Photography from the twenties and thirties, Bauhaus innovations in architecture, design, and art school curricula, and Fluxus developments in performance and sound art. In addition, the talk will showcase recent exhibitions of contemporary art including, Documenta XIII (a major contemporary art fair hosted every five years in Kassel, Germany) and the Berlin Biennale.

Brett M. Van Hoesen is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Nevada, Reno. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and an M.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research interests span a range of topics that explore the relationship between the visual arts and social history. She is currently preparing a book manuscript on the legacy of Germany’s colonial history in the visual culture of the Weimar Republic. Recent publications include contributions to the International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) and the international feminist art journal n.paradoxa. Recent book chapters include, “Re-Visioning Germany’s Colonial Past:  Tactics of Weimar Photomontage and Documentary Photography” in German Colonialism, Visual Culture, and Modern Memory (Routledge, 2010), “Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism: Constructing the Weimar New Woman out of a Colonial Imaginary,” in The New Woman International: Photographic Representations from the 1870s through 1960s (University of Michigan Press, 2011), “Sound Art – New Only In Name:  A Selected History of German Sound Works from the Last Century,” co-authored with Jean-Paul Perrotte in Germany in the Loud Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, 2011), and “From Pop Icon to Postmodern Kitsch:  Michael Jackson and Contemporary Art” in Michael Jackson: Grasping the Spectacle, edited by Christopher Smit. Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, forthcoming 2012.

As part of her CCAI visit, Dr. Van Hoesen will give her talk to art students and faculty at Douglas High School and Sierra Nevada College.

The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered organization committed to the encouragement and support of artists and the arts and culture of Carson City and the surrounding region. The Initiative is committed to community building for the area’s diverse adult and youth populations through art projects and exhibitions, live events, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online projects.

The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Nevada Arts Council, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, City of Carson City, and the John and Grace Nauman Foundation.

[top image: Brett Van Hoesen]
[center image: audience at the Library public talk]
[bottom image: Nevada Neighbors fall 2012 bookmark]