The installation — curated by Freyda Spira, the Robert L. Solley Curator of Prints and Drawings, Lisa Hodermarsky, the Sutphin Family Curator of Prints and Drawings, Joseph Henry, their Florence B. Selden Fellow, and various undergraduate Yale students who work in the department — is on view in the YUAG’s fourth-floor James E. Duffy Gallery through early June 2024. 

“Although the pandemic put a lot of things on hold, the Department of Prints and Drawings continued to accept amazing gifts from our generous donors, we also made targeted acquisitions of works on paper that underscore our inclusive approach to collecting across histories and cultures,” Spira wrote to the News.

The installation features the works of two contemporary indigenous artists, Raven Chacon and Lehuauakea; a variety of European artists including Camille Pissarro, Kazimir Malevich, and Edgar Degas; and various American artists such as Franz Kline and Titus Kapur ART ’06. 

Two accordion-folded books, made with color lithograph and woodcut on handmade ivory Amate paper, are displayed within a glass case at the center of the gallery. “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals” and “Histoire Naturelle des Espécies: Illegal Alien’s Manuscript” by Enrique Chagoya are made in the style of Mayan and Aztec “codices” and address issues of politics, religion and race through satire. 

“The new Jean-Michel Basquiat acquisition was the first thing I noticed when I stepped off the elevator — the figures’ sardonic grins felt almost confrontational,” said Grace Zhou, editorial and production assistant at the Gallery. “The title of the work, ‘Famous Negro Athletes,’ comes from a 1964 book of the same name, which chronicled the lives of sportspeople like Jackie Robinson and Althea Gibson. By drawing his athletes with mask-like faces, Basquiat seems to gesture toward the dehumanizing blend of racism and hypervisibility imposed on Black public figures.”

To the right of the Basquiat is a large inkjet print and charcoal work on paper and cardboard titled “Dad on DI”, which depicts a Black father and his daughter on a train as a part of Dáreece J. Walker’s series titled “Black Fathers Matter, Series II.”

Facing Walker’s work, on the opposite wall, is David Wojnarowicz’s 1990-91 photostat “Untitled (One Day This Kid),” which takes a picture of himself as a younger boy and surrounds it with a poem he wrote in the last two years of his life, once he was diagnosed with HIV.

“The poem, addressed in part to his younger self, details what happens to queer children in a deeply homophobic culture,” Henry said. “It has been powerful to introduce Wojnarowicz to a younger generation and to teach with this work, especially at this moment in America when so much legislation has been targeting queer culture and gender self-determination.”

The installation also features a work by Jane Hammond, “Champagne Bucket with Tree Fern, Emerald Cuckoo, and Desert Bluebells,” that combines lithography, relief printing, digital printing, colored pencil, watercolor and gouache, all hand-cut and assembled on a mosaic of hand-painted papers over painted cotton rag to create an eye-catching floral arrangement over a silvery, tiled background.

Some of the older works of prominent European artists in the installation, such as “Gloucester” by Maurice Prendergast, “Suprematist Composition” by Kazimir Malevich, and “Baigneuse debout et baigneuse agenouillée (A Bather Standing and a Bather Kneeling)” by Camille Pissarro, appear to be sketches or studies for what later could become more well-known works.

“This kind of exhibition, which puts a lot of disparate works together into the same space, is an opportunity to think creatively about how works of art speak to each other in different ways,” Sprira wrote to the News.

On Feb. 16, 2024, the Gallery will unveil “Munch and Kirchner: Anxiety and Expression,” another product of its prints and drawings department, which will be the first to place the prints of two of the most prominent German expressionists alongside one another.

The post New installation highlights the YUAG’s recent prints and drawings acquisitions appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The installation opened in early January 2024 and is on view on the fourth floor of the Gallery through June 2. The installation is centered around the concept of narrative photography, the idea that a single image can convey a captivating story.

“The atmosphere in these photographs are sometimes playful, sometimes foreboding — both familiar and otherworldly,” Gabriella Svenningsen, senior museum assistant in the gallery’s photography department, wrote to the News. “I am especially thrilled about Echo (2023), an intimate moment between a mother and a daughter, by Genesis Báez, a Yale alumni from Puerto Rico; and Coyote Tales, No. 1 (2017), by the Chemehuevi artist Cara Romero, which evokes both surrealism and classic fairy tales, with a compelling twist.”

From the bright pinks of Tina Barney’s “Jill and Polly in the Bathroom,” taken in 1987, to Edward Steichen’s dark and moody “Self-Portrait with Brush and Palette,” taken in 1903, the installation presents a variety of photographic styles and techniques.

These techniques include staging, lighting, posing and composition, which photographers use to fabricate their narratives and invoke emotion within the viewer. 

“The permanent collection galleries for photography are a relatively new feature in the museum, and it has been so exciting for us to be able to share some works from the collection that we did not have an opportunity to show in the past,” Svenningsen also wrote to the News. “I am especially excited about showing large, framed colorworks, which are usually stored offsite and often difficult to show to classes and individual scholars because of their scale and the logistics that goes into pulling, packing, shipping and handling.”

Stepping off the elevator and walking past the Prints and Drawings galleries, visitors are met with a large image of an Iranian woman staring out of a train window — “Shadi” from the series “Goftare Nik/Good Words” by Shirana Shahbazi. 

Across from it, another 2000 photograph, Wang Qingsong’s “The Night Revels of Lao Li,” is a modern adaptation of a scroll painting from the Tang Dynasty, comparing historical and contemporary power structures. The approximately one-by-eight-foot image includes various scenes in a continuum, with women adorned in bright outfits, carrying out tasks for men such as playing instruments, massaging their shoulders and cutting their hair.

“For the series Untitled Film Stills, made between 1977 and 1980, Cindy Sherman put on guises and photographed herself in cinematic settings. She deliberately selected props to mimic scenes from film stills used to promote B movies of the mid-twentieth century. Images in the series immediately became flashpoints for conversations about feminism, postmodernism, and representation, and they remain Sherman’s best-known works,” Judy Ditner, the associate curator of photography and digital media at the gallery, wrote to the News.

Ditner was primarily responsible for curation of the installation, deciding the character of the installation and planning where the works would be displayed.

Svetlana Frazeur, a security guard at the gallery, told the News that a work by Gregory Crewdson ART ’88 depicting a young man with a makeshift outdoor shelter “sticks out” to her due to some of her friends’ struggles with homelessness. 

Crewdson’s “Untitled” from the series “Beneath the Roses,” is set along a woody riverbank, where the faint glow of a house’s back porch light can be seen at the top left of the image.

“The rotation presents photographs that show the unique but always changing relationship between photography and storytelling, staging, and narration … A photograph is often valued historically or artistically for its ability to document or capture whatever was in front of the camera; but what about those instances in which a photographer constructs or stages (sometimes in elaborate ways) the “scene” in front of the lens?” Daniel Menzo, a fellow at the gallery, wrote to the News.

To complement the installation, a selection of photographs by Allan Chasanoff ’61 is on display at the Gallery’s lower lobby, alongside the display of the book “Seeing and Not Believing: The Photography of Allan Chasanoff” — the first catalog to survey his work.

The post ‘Photographic Storytelling: Photographs from the Permanent Collection’ installed at the YUAG appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Sculptures, prints, installations and more adorned the walls of the three-floor gallery space in the School of Art for their bi-annual show. The show, which will be open through Dec. 8, features works by all seniors majoring in Art, with juniors in the major given the opportunity to participate as well.

“For me, this project—and exhibition as a whole—was an exploration in reflecting my identity and consciousness in the pieces of media that I feel have defined—or guided me through—my development into who I am today,” Lily Campbell ’24 wrote to the News.

Campbell’s works formed an installation featuring “In My Room” (2023), “Burden of Contraception” (2022) and “Untitled” (2021), as well as a rug resembling the one in her childhood bedroom, a wooden record organizer complete with some of her favorite records and chair she found discarded in the senior studio.

The exhibition features works by Alana Liu ’24, alexander rubalcava ’24, Cate Roser ’25, Chiara Hardy ’24, Cleo Maloney ’25, Dora Pang ’24, Ellika Edelman ’24, Ethan Shim ’24, Eunice Kiang ’24, Flores Espinosa ’24, Hannah Foley ’24, Jacob Feit Mann ’24, Kaci Xie ’25, Kaia Mladenova ’24, Karela Palazio ’25, Leo Lee ’25, Lily Campbell, Mazie Wong ’25, Megan Graham ’24, Mikiala Ng ’24, Nathan Puletasi ’24, Olivia Marwell ’24, Stephanie Wang ’24, Talia Tax ’24, Tilman Phleger ’24 and Whitney Toutenhoofd ’25.

For many members of the class of 2024 who are majoring in Art, this exhibition provided an opportunity to display portions of what will be their senior theses. 

“Conceptualizing this work along with my current use of western culture had been an exciting process—drawing inspiration from ranchers back home in Spokane, Washington, famous outlaws, western figures like the Marlboro Man, country artists like Riddy Arman, and much more, all as research pertaining to my thesis, while also creating a narrative of how we interact with Mother Nature and how she prevails in reclamation,” Nathan Puletasi wrote to the News.

Puletasi’s work, “I Can’t Hear My Duck Call Over All These Damn Taxis,” includes a battered animal hide hung on the wall above the engine of a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro stuffed with hay. On top of the engine sits an empty pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

Some students expressed concerns about the lack of opportunities presented to undergraduate students in the Art major.

“For the seniors, this is the first time we have gotten to show our work since being at Yale,” Campbell said. “While we are constantly creating for both our personal practice and our classwork, it isn’t until this first, mid-year show that we actually get a space to feel our work is appreciated and seen.”

The undergraduate Art department has long battled complaints of inaccessibility and limited resources, from insufficient space in their courses to high expectations of investment in both time and materials, even without the recently eliminated course fees. 

Other works in the exhibition include “Ivàn” (2023) by Kaia Mladenova. Using wood, acrylic and LED lights, she designed an apparatus that measures time with light based on the sun and the moon.

“I wanted to create an object that could become a part of someone’s living environment and serve a purpose. I did not aim to create an art piece. I think of my work as an experimentation—a process of creating something useful and beautiful that is also a conversation starter,” Mladenova wrote to the News.

“The host will let you in soon” is open to the Yale community in the Green Hall Gallery from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, through Dec. 8, 2023.

The post ‘The host will let you in soon’ opens at the School of Art appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The exhibition “FACTORY” chronicles the post-industrial history of the building that once housed a world-renowned brass clock company, while “Portraits: Ruth McIntosh Cogswell and Dorothy Cogswell” showcases the art and work of a mother and daughter from the 20th century. These two exhibits are expected to be on display until Dec. 30.  

“My favorite [exhibition] at the moment is ‘FACTORY’ because it explores how artists in the city took a vacant factory space and repurposed it into a creative collective … For decades the space was the site for music, performances, academic discourse and an LGBTQ+ subversive space,” Eve Galanis, an educator and researcher at the New Haven Museum, wrote to the News.

New Haven Clock Company Factory was founded in 1853 and produced millions of watches until its demise in 1959. The abandoned building became a refuge for artists seeking space, including hosting the Papier Mache Video Institute’s activist art, the School of Architecture’s “Sex Ball” and drag shows. The space was also home to a pioneering artistic community, which coexisted alongside a series of music and adult entertainment clubs that featured a diverse music scene and performance spaces.

In 2018, a developer proposed a plan to create live-work lofts for artists in the building. However, the city refused to allow residential housing in the industrial zone, hindering these efforts. 

“I jumped at the opportunity to speak, document and share these histories, as often underground history falls through the cracks and has rarely been deemed ‘museum-worthy’ in the past,” Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, director of photo archives at the New Haven Museum and curator of the exhibition, wrote to the News. “This exhibit is a testament to years of underground energy and ingenuity and the years of all of our lives when nothing was impossible.”

The exhibit, “Portraits: Ruth McIntosh Cogswell and Dorothy Cogswell” also explores the origins of the contemporary New Haven arts community, encouraging visitors to consider the role that 20th-century women played in establishing its legacy. It documents the lives of a mother and daughter who both studied and taught art in the New Haven community, featuring photographs, watercolors, pencil drawings and silhouettes by the two women.  

Mary Christ, former collections manager of the New Haven Museum and current campus art collection registrar at Yale, curated “Profiles” alongside Katy Rosenthal, a former intern at the Museum. 

“Ruth [McIntosh Cogswell] was a very skilled silhouette artist, and she created hundreds of silhouettes of New Haveners and people from other places in Connecticut,” Christ wrote to the News. “Visitors can view her original silhouettes in the exhibit and delight in the way a simple, solid profile of a subject can capture personality and experiences.”

Hung around the upstairs rotunda of the museum, and also curated by Christ, the exhibit, “Signs of the Time,” features 19th- and 20th-century signs from local businesses, including the now-extinct Yale Brewing Company. 

Another ongoing exhibit at the museum, “Form and Function: Decorative Arts in the Exhibition,” showcases an assortment of its historic design and decorative arts holdings. Objects ranging from baroque furniture to mid-century modern designs are categorized into thematic groups: politics, childhood, business and eclectic homes. 

“From Clocks to Lollipops: Made in New Haven” also surveys New Haven’s corporate history. Curated by museum consultant Elizabeth Pratt Fox and featuring over 100 advertisements, trade cards, photographs and other objects, this exhibition explores the local production of consumer goods since New Haven’s colonial days.

Alongside these featured exhibitions, the museum’s permanent collection features a wide array of art, memorabilia and artifacts from New Haven’s colonial to contemporary periods. The museum also hosts a variety of events aimed at encouraging public engagement in the city’s ongoing historical record. 

Cynthia Riccio, who recently joined the museum staff as the director of programs and planning, was drawn to the museum’s connections and work within the New Haven community. She said she plans to further these efforts in her role. 

“We have a program on December 3, ‘A History of Victorian Dolls’ House,’ followed by a tea reception and a special tour of the museum’s Levy Dolls’ House. We are once again partnering with the Peabody on a program for MLK Day on January 14 and 15 and look for programs in February with Connecticut Explored, The Yale & Slavery Project, Lunarfest with Yale-China and a book talk by Eric Jay Dolan, author of Privateering in the American Revolution,” Riccio wrote to the News.

The Museum is open to the public Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 12 to 5 p.m.

The post What’s on view at the New Haven Museum? appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The exhibition features an immersive video installation, alongside a series of new mixed-media collages, all of which portray “Empathics” — fictional futuristic beings who traverse time and change form while roaming infinite realms. These beings embody a multitude of cultures and species, combining the genetic material of humans, other animals and even plants.  

“Woolfalk’s exploration across a hybrid of global traditions aligns perfectly with our work bringing together and uplifting artists from a wide range of backgrounds. I’m excited to see how Woolfalk’s transformation of our space immerses visitors in her multicultural world,” Kalia Brooks, director of programs and exhibitions at NXTHVN, wrote to the News.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a four-channel immersive video installation titled “Cloudscape.” Plant forms, digitally constructed portraits and landscape fragments envelop the visitor, while soft meditative music plays in the background. 

“Field Notes from the Empathic Universe” even extends outside of the gallery space, with digitally-collaged murals covering the elevator and outer walls of NXTHVN.

“Humanity, spirituality, and nature are fused together in a meditative spirit. Being able to draw from [Woolfalk’s] art — all of the humanity and nature in it, the calmness and the peace of it — that’s what’s so inspiring to me,” said Agnes Jackson, a gallery attendant at NXTHVN. 

This installation was previously shown in 2021 at the Newark Art Museum, where Woolfalk explored their plant specimens, or herbaria, and landscape painting collections and their intersections with American identity.

Saya Woolfalk, born in Japan in 1979 and currently based in Brooklyn, New York, previously studied at Brown University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning a bachelor’s degree in visual art and economics and a master’s of fine arts in sculpture from the respective institutions. 

Drawing influence from her African American, European American and Japanese backgrounds, Woolfalk explores a breadth of subjects through her artistic endeavors: science fiction, feminist theory, mythology, anthropology, archaeology, Eastern religion and fashion. 

Through various artistic mediums, including painting, sculpture, video, performance, multimedia installations and public art, she has created a whimsical utopia over a series of exhibitions spanning nine years.

Alongside the exhibition, NXTHVN has hosted various events, including a panel discussion titled “Afrofuturism and Visual Culture” on Oct. 14, as a part of the “Into the Afroverse” summit. 

Various speakers, including Woolfalk herself, discussed Afrofuturism, an art movement that combines elements of current technology and science fiction with the history and culture of the African diaspora.

Reynaldo Anderson, a professor of Africology and African American studies at Temple University and executive director and co-founder of the Black Speculative Arts Movement, delivered the welcome address at the event and later shared his thoughts on the exhibition with the News. 

“Saya Woolfolk’s art, when it intersects with Afrofuturism, generates a critical metamodernist approach that borrows or fuses elements of African diaspora aesthetics in the area of science fiction or fantasy, from the past, present, and future, and visually captures how people of African descent locate themselves in time and space with agency,” Anderson wrote to the News.

NXTHVN is free and open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, from 2 to 6 p.m.

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At its 44th annual meeting, Neighborhood Housing Services representatives highlighted local talents and their organizing efforts to empower communities and bolster affordable housing initiatives. 

“We are certainly proud of all that we have accomplished in stabilizing New Haven’s underserved neighborhoods, bringing homeownership opportunities to a large number of first-time homebuyers,” James Paley, executive director of NHS, wrote to the News.

Since 1979, NHS of New Haven has renovated almost 300 homes in New Haven and helped place over 500 low-income families into those homes. Their mission is to provide affordable housing options, offer homebuyer education and foster financial empowerment, while working to enhance the safety, aesthetics and energy efficiency of homes in underserved communities.

The catered meeting featured local artists and musicians. The organization also recognized four individuals who NHS said have played pivotal roles in shaping the work of NHS across the city and the state. Tenée Mack of Operation Fuel Connecticut was honored as the “Exceptional Sustainability Partner,” while Reinaldo Cruz III, EMERGE Connecticut’s Director of Training and Business Development received the “Outstanding Service Partner” award. 

The “Incredible Resident Leader” award went to Kwadwo Adae, an award-winning artist who founded and directs the Adea Fine Arts Academy in New Haven. Lastly, Ojay Lewis, a New Haven firefighter and NHS home recipient, was celebrated as the “Housing Advocacy Champion.” 

NHS also recognized collaborations with Yale students, including a Community Art Environment Entrepreneurship Project led by Paloma Lenz ’26 and the Yale Urban Design Workshop’s work on some of the housing units.

In conjunction with the Yale Student Environmental Coalition and NHS, Lenz hopes to construct an environmentally conscious community space “that integrates Indigenous technology with modern construction methods,” she wrote to the News.

The event featured speakers including Leslie Radcliffe, president of the NHS Board of Directors, and Jim Paley, executive director of NHS. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker also spoke and emphasized the vital role NHS plays in the city’s growth and development. Commissioner of Housing Seila Mosquera-Bruno and first-time homebuyer Shellina Toure discussed  the transformative impact of NHS’s services.

In addition to providing affordable housing, NHS provides homeownership tools, such as financial counseling, mortgage lending and home repair through the HomeOwnership Center. 

“Our main focus in the HomeOwnership Center is providing information and education that ultimately will equip prospective homebuyers to make excellent choices,” Bridgette Russell, Managing Director of the HOC, wrote to the News. 

Russell also touted HOC’s teams that work with homeowners to address mortgage delinquency and prevent foreclosures.

Alongside the celebration, a silent art auction took place, featuring the work of Jasmine Nikole, Akosua Aidoo, Wanda Reyes and Marquis Brantley.

Payley told the News that despite the growing challenges of creating affordable housing, NHS is focused on expanding homeownership in New Haven to as many residents as possible.

“We are keenly aware that neighborhood stabilization is enhanced by increasing homeownership ratios in our neighborhoods, and we are committed to raising the subsidies needed to continue this work in New Haven,” Paley wrote.

The meeting took place from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at NXTHVN, which was founded by renowned artist Titus Kaphar ’06 MFA and was open to the public. 

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Organized by well-known artist Mickalene Thomas ART ’02 and Keely Orgeman, the Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, the exhibition features pre-Emancipation Era small-scale portraits of African Americans, as well as works of many media by contemporary artists. 

This is the second event this year honoring Thomas’s work at the University; the first was an unveiling of a mural designed by Thomas depicting Pauli Murray LAW ’65 at the eponymous Yale residential college.  

“With its evocative installation designed by Thomas, the exhibition aims to create an experience of communal belonging for the individuals depicted in the historical objects, the artists whose work is represented in the show, and the visitors engaging with both the past and the present,” the YUAG said in a press release for the exhibition.

The exhibition was inspired by a portrait of a formerly enslaved woman named Rose Prentice, 1771–1852, painted by the eminent miniaturist Sarah Goodridge circa 1837-38. 

Goodridge’s portrait miniature of a Black individual is the only one of its kind in the Gallery’s permanent collection.

“To better understand the rarity of the Rose Prentice miniature in a broader context, I began searching for other small-scale, early American portraits of Black Americans, not just watercolor-on-ivory miniatures (as in the Gallery’s portrait) but also silhouettes on paper, frontispiece prints in books, and cased photographs, all made in the pre-Emancipation period,” Orgeman told the News.

Orgeman thought extensively about the intended viewership of these types of portraits, arriving at the conclusion that an environment like a “domestic space” would be better than a traditional museum gallery to experience these works.  

In June 2019, Orgeman contacted Mickalene Thomas, who is known for her depictions of Black women and ornately decorated domestic interiors, prompting a yearslong professional relationship that resulted in the completion of this exhibition. 

The Gallery celebrated the opening of this exhibit to the public on Friday evening with a reception featuring a performance by Yale University’s undergraduate a capella group “Shades of Yale” — a group known for singing music of the African diaspora and African American tradition. 

“I’ve long been a fan of Mickalene Thomas,” said Kennedy Anderson ’25, who attended the Friday reception. “Where so many artists depersonalize the Black female body, straddling it with harsh contours and contrasts, Thomas furnishes us … She depicts us as lavish, just as I understand us to be. Meeting her in person at the opening — hugging her, sharing space with an all-time idol and inspiration — was just so insanely cool. I’m still on a high.”

The exhibit features historical and contemporary works situated within wallpaper, period-specific furniture and photo collages that integrate patterns inspired by textiles sewn by Black women.

Thomas put significant thought into the exhibition’s setting. 

“I created my previous domestic settings primarily for fellow Black women — my ‘muses’ — to spend time and have new experiences in familiar surroundings, perhaps resembling their mothers’ or grandmothers’ living rooms,” she said. “The interiors I have constructed for this exhibition address the same group but of an entirely different generation, those who came of age before slavery was fully abolished in the United States. The sitters [in the historical works] are my muses here. I dedicate this space to them.”

Other contemporary artists featured in the exhibit include Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Lebohang Kganye, Wardell Milan, Adia Millett, Devin N. Morris, Betye Saar and Curtis Talwst Santiago, whose works in the exhibit make reference to the domestic lives of members of Black communities around the world.

Tiffany Sprague, Director of Publications at the Yale University Art Gallery, wrote to the News that the Gallery was “thrilled” to have been able to “bring this remarkable exhibition to life.” 

“The publications team is especially looking forward to celebrating the related catalog — the release of which has been delayed to allow for the inclusion of photographs documenting the installation — with panel discussions and a book launch on October 26,” Sprague wrote to the News.

The exhibition is now open to all for viewing until Jan. 7, 2024.

The post ‘Mickalene Thomas / Portrait of an Unlikely Space’ opens with a reception at YUAG appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Inspired by everything from code and color theory to a multi-generational love of art, John Donovan ’24 creates works characterized by rich natural tones and sharp lines, while playing with the role of light and experimenting with multiple mediums.

The post Fine Artists of Yale: John Donovan appeared first on Yale Daily News.

McQueen became the first Black filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Picture for his 2014 work “12 Years a Slave,” based on the autobiography of Soloman Northup, a free Black man living in the northern United States, who was captured and sold into slavery. The two-day symposium, hosted by the Yale Center for British Art on Oct. 28 and 29, featured a number of McQueen’s students and colleagues. 

“The symposium generated rich discussions about McQueen’s versatility and success across media; the themes of memory, remembrance, and the burden of representation that appear as through-lines in much of his work; and his place within the context of his own generation of artists and filmmakers,” YCBA Research Director Jemma Field wrote to the News.

Head of Communications and Marketing for the Yale Center for British Art told the News the symposium was an opportunity to contextualize McQueen’s recent commercial success within his larger artistic oeuvre. 

Born in London to a Grenadian mother and a Trinidadian father, McQueen was educated in London and received a bachelors of fine arts from Goldsmiths, University of London. McQueen began his directing career in 1993, with his debut short film “Bear,” presented at the Royal College of Art in London, followed by several other short films released in that decade. 

Courtney J. Martin, a YCBA director, emphasized McQueen’s cultural importance in an email to the News.

“McQueen’s recent entry into international public acclaim needs to be conceptualized and contextualized within that earlier process,” Martin told the News. “Simultaneously, his most recent work on television — the BBC-commissioned five-film anthology series Small Axe (2020) and three-part documentary series Uprising (2021) both of which won multiple television BAFTAs — has elevated the medium in a manner that deserves serious critical attention.”

“McQueen has been a vital voice in contemporary art for more than three decades,” she continued

The event began with a roundtable discussion featuring participants who had studied and worked with McQueen over his career, including independent curator Karen Alexander, Lonti Ebers Chief Curator of Media and Performance with New York’s Museum of Modern Art Stuart Comer, Senior Adjunct Curator and Special Projects with the Dia Art Foundation Donna De Salvo, associate professor of Art History at Cornell Cheryl Finley and Director of LAXART, Los Angeles Hamza Walker.

In an attempt to bring together scholars with established curators and critics, Field worked alongside Alexander and Pooja Sen GRD ’23 “to review the submissions and select the papers to be presented…incorporating a breadth of perspectives and levels of professional experience into the conversation about McQueen.”

The event was accompanied by an exhibited photograph taken by McQueen in 2013, titled “Lynching Tree.” Attendees were invited to interact with the photograph in a reading and response room.

“This color photograph, mounted in a lightbox,” said Martin, “was taken on the outskirts of New Orleans in 2012, at one of the film locations for ‘12 Years a Slave.’” 

Recordings of the symposium will be available for viewing on the YCBA’s website. 

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“Vengeance is Mine” and “The Plot Against Harry,” released in 1984 and 1989, respectively, will be featured on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. as a part of the ongoing series “Treasures of the Yale Film Archive” in partnership with the Whitney Humanities Center. 

“I treasure the opportunity of bringing the supremely underrated Michael Roemer to campus,”  Carlos Valladares GRD ’25, a doctoral student who helped organize the screening, told the News. 

A Jewish man born in Berlin in 1928, Roemer was forced to flee to the United Kingdom in 1939 via Kindertransport. He attended a British school for refugee children before moving to the United States to attend Harvard University in 1945. 

After receiving his bachelor’s in English in 1949, Roemer worked in the film industry before releasing his debut narrative feature in 1964 “Nothing But A Man,” which won three awards at the Venice Film Festival.

“His best known film, ‘Nothing But A Man’ (1964), is an insightful drama about an African American railway worker and a school teacher whose love he struggles to accept. The film … is seen as one of the finest, most perceptive films of its era to tell an African American story,” Brian Meacham, a film archivist at the Yale Film Archive, wrote to the News. 

The Washington Post described the film as “devastatingly powerful,” and “one of the most sensitive films about Black life ever made in this country.”

Roemer then composed the comedy “The Plot Against Harry” in 1969, but did not publish it until 1989. The film follows Harry Plotnick, a Jewish man recently released from prison, as he returns to his old neighborhood.  

“Michael Roemer grasps the soul of the films he makes and those he watches,” Dudley Andrew, professor emeritus of comparative literature and film studies at Yale who worked alongside Roemer, wrote to the News. 

In 1984, Roemer produced a film for the American Playhouse PBS series, “Vengeance is Mine,” which Valladares described as a “really strange melodrama about a lost woman who’s trying to find a new family for herself after her actual one abandons her.” 

Brooke Adams, the lead actress in “Vengeance is Mine,” will be joining Roemer on Saturday to speak about the film.

From the early 1970s up to his retirement in 2017, Roemer was a prized member of Yale’s faculty. 

“I listen intently to his every word, because it’s clear he listens to others that way and then says only what counts,” Andrew said. “Yale undergraduates have been lucky to learn from him a deep ‘cinema sensibility’ worth more than the technology and techniques they originally thought were the point of film classes.”

The screening of Roemer’s films will take place in the screening room of the Humanities Quadrangle.

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