Center Report

Center 32: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2011–May 2012 (PDF 9.3MB)

This year the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts welcomed fellows from Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The topics of their research ranged from anthroponymy and art in medieval Italy to cosmopolitanism in the Sino-Mongol city, from pigments in Renaissance Venice to South Indian mural paintings, and from Enlightenment Spain's contested Islamic craft heritage to transformations in rock 'n' roll film musicals. Three fellows directed their research on the art, architecture, and cultural heritage of China, providing a special focus for the year. Read more

Center 31: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2010–May 2011 (PDF 8.2MB)

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts welcomed fellows from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The topics of their research ranged from votive panel paintings in Renaissance Italy to the lives of ancient Maya sculptures, from scenes of Arcadia to images of the Passion, from a social history of the London square to the historiography of Leonardo da Vinci, and from the topographical imaging of Udaipur, India, and its environs to the sculpture of Isa Genzken and Thomas Hirschhorn. Read more

Center 30: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2009–May 2010 (PDF 9.6MB)

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts welcomed scholars from Israel, France, Italy, the Republic of Georgia, Spain, Canada, Turkey, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The topics of their research ranged from the women warriors of Dahomey, a kingdom today in the Republic of Benin, to women and modernity in print culture in nineteenth-century France, from the Plaza de las Tres Culturas and the adjacent Tlatelolco public housing complex in Mexico City to the development of Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage culture in the holy mountain range of Wutai Shan in northern China, and from the art of Anglo-Swiss painter Henry Fuseli to the iconography of Saint Francis of Assisi as developed in Andean painting and sculpture. Read more

Center 29: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2008–May 2009 (PDF 7.3MB)

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts welcomed professors and senior, visiting senior, and postdoctoral fellows from Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as predoctoral fellows from universities in the United States. The topics of their research ranged from contemporary abstract painting in Korea to the historiography of ancient sculpture in Britain, from devotion to the Virgin of Loreto in colonial Mexico to the perception of ethnic difference in the art of late medieval Central Europe, and from architectural decoration in early Renaissance Venice to the lithographs of Achille Devéria in nineteenth-century Paris. Read more

Center 28: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2007–May 2008 (PDF 7.7MB)

In addition to the annual group of outstanding predoctoral fellows from graduate departments throughout the United States, the Center welcomed senior, visiting senior, and postdoctoral fellows from Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The topics of their research ranged from artists' rivalries and competitions in Renaissance Italy to Christian icons and Kongo symbols in early modern Central Africa, from wall-mounted memorial tablets in the Burgundian Netherlands to figural sculpture in fifteenth-century Italian funerary chapels, from art and non-art in mid-twentieth-century Europe and the United States to the secrets of masks in twenty-ﬁrst century Burkina Faso, and from ﬁfteenth-century Spanish patronage of Flemish painting to markets and marketplaces in medieval Italy. Read more

Center 27: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2006–May 2007 (PDF 6.2MB)

This year the National Gallery of Art celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Paul Mellon. The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts has special cause to honor the son of the Gallery's founder, for he was our founder. The Center's very existence followed from Paul Mellon's determination that there should be at the Gallery an independent center for research in the visual arts. Read more

Center 26: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2005–May 2006 (PDF 7.3MB)

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts welcomed scholars from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This year's Samuel H. Kress Professor, the senior fellows, and the third-year David E. Finley and Paul Mellon Predoctoral Fellows were the first to be literally "in residence" in the Center's apartments at the Clara Barton building, just a few blocks away from the National Gallery. A further six apartments will become available in the newly constructed Artisan Condominium, also within walking distance, in the course of the 2006–2007 academic year. Read more

Center 25: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2004–May 2005 (PDF 7.3MB)

This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fellowship program at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. The anniversary has been marked by the realization of a longstanding wish to provide housing to our fellows. The acquisition and furnishing of a group of condominiums within walking distance of the National Gallery has been made possible by Robert H. Smith, president emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery, with further support from the Paul Mellon Bequest. The first group of nine apartments will be available in September 2005. Read more

Center 24: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2003–May 2004 (PDF 5.5MB)

In its twenty-forth year the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art continued to support the study of the visual art in each of its four major program area: fellowships, research, publications, and scholarly meetings.

The Center welcomed resident fellows to the National Gallery of Art from eleven countries in the course of the past year. Recently our visitors from abroad have sometimes found the process of applying to enter the United States time-consuming but, fortunately, not impossible. Read more

Center 23: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2002–May 2003 (PDF 20MB)

The Center welcomed resident fellows to the National Gallery of Art from thirteen countries in the course of the past year. A significant number of these scholars dedicated their research to early modern European art, and their regular visits to the collection were a lively, informal addition to the life of the Center. Other fellows worked on topics ranging from Orissan rock art to ninth-century Apocalypse manuscripts, to the beginnings of Japanese painting history in the seventeenth century, to the question of sensibility in eighteenth-century France, to the aesthetics of aerial vision in twentieth-century America. Read more

Center 22: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2001–May 2002 (PDF 22.7MB)

In the past year a record number of fellows in residence came to the National Gallery from a record number of countries, including Australia, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, the People's Republic of China, Poland, Russia, and the United States. They worked on topics ranging from the arts of the book in the Islamic world to the education of artists in late nineteenth-century Saint Petersburg, to the commissioning and display of public sculpture at the end of the twentieth century in the United States. Read more

Center 21: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2000–May 2001 (PDF 20.7MB)

The annual report of the Dean on the activities of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art is, by convention, factual and brief. This is as it should be, for the purpose of the Center volumes is to serve as a record of accomplishments in each of four program areas--fellowships, research, publications, and scholarly meetings. This report on the twenty-first year of the life of CASVA cannot be quite so laconic, however, for it is the first not to bear the signature of Henry A. Millon. Read more

Center 20: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 1999–May 2000 (PDF 20.7MB)

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, in its twentieth year, sponsored the study of the visual arts in each of its four major program areas: fellowships, research, publications, and scholarly meetings. The resident community of scholars at the Center in 1999-2000 included individuals working on topics ranging from modern Japanese architecture to the building and decorating of late medieval abbey and cathedral towns. Among the members of the Center were scholars from France, Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Read more

Center 19: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 1998–May 1999 (PDF 17.8MB)

The resident community of scholars at the Center in 1998-1999 included individuals working on topics ranging from scribal traditions in ancient Mesoamerica to Picasso's working methods. Among the members of the Center were scholars from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the People's Republic of China, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The year 1999 marked the end of the first year of the Center's four-year special initiative for scholars from East and South Asia. This program, initially funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and currently by the Starr Foundation, is designed to foster sustained interest from East and South Asian scholars and their participation in the regular fellowship program. Read more

Center 18: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 1997–May 1998 (PDF 23.1MB)

The resident community of scholars at the Center for Advanced Study in 1997-1998 included individuals working on topics ranging from the exchange of luxury goods in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age to the issue of melancholy in art history. Among the members of the Center were scholars from Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The year 1998 marked the end of the Center's four-year special initiative for scholars from Latin America. Read more

Center 17: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 1996–May 1997 (PDF 18.3MB)

The resident community of scholars at the Center for Advanced Study in 1996-1997 included individuals working on topics ranging from neo-Babylonian seal impressions to futurism. Scholars focused on such issues as representations of elite and popular cultures in Precolumbian and colonial Peru, architecture and justice in nineteenth-century Paris, and painting and photography in colonial Tahiti, 1880-1905. Members of the Center included scholars from Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The scholars from Latin America were funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH). Read more

Center 16: Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 1995–May 1996 (PDF 18.1MB)

The resident community of scholars at the Center for Advanced Study in 1995-1996 included individuals working on topics ranging from medieval Chinese pagodas to postwar residential architecture in the United States. Scholars focused on such issues as craft and philosophical aesthetics in antiquity, the "self-image" of the Roman villa, abstraction in the textiles of ancient Tiwanaku, Parisian Flamboyant in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and album production under the Timurid and Safavid dynasties. Members of the Center included scholars from Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States. Read more