Zelotti's Epic Frescoes at Cataio. The Obizzi Saga

Professor Irma Jaffe, Fordman University
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 | 6:00PM
Location: 612 Schermerhorn Hall

Fountains, Apses and The Meaning of Water

Prof. Dr. Beat Brenk
Chair for Early Christian and Medieval Archaeology
University di Roma 1, 'La Sapienza'
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | 6:00PM
Location: 612 Schermerhorn Hall

Department Open House

Thursday, February 28, 2008 | 12:00-2:00PM
Have an interest in art history? Come to the Department of Art History and Archaeology's open house, Thursday February 28th, from 12-2pm in the student lounge, 8th Floor Schermerhorn Hall. Meet Art History faculty, peruse the Wallach Art Gallery Exhibition, "Women and Print-Making" and meet the Visual Media Center staff to learn about technological advances in art historical research and preservation. In addition, representatives of the student group, Art History Underground will be there.
Location: Common Room, 820-825 Schermerhorn Hall

Return Emigrations: Architectural Cross-Currents in Postwar Germany and America

24 - 25 January 2008

The story of modern architecture and its origins in Germany is a narrative written largely in the United States and consolidated by émigré heroes in postwar America. For those who remained in Germany, the reassertion of
modern architecture’s legitimacy hinged on its continuity with those same origins, but required that the narrative be told somewhat differently. The status of central modernist tenets, of political compliance and resistance,
and of the Bauhaus itself was destined to become embattled, especially as former colleagues returned to Germany as newly naturalized American advisers to the reconstruction effort. By considering the nature of the postwar political climate and by studying the trans-Atlantic relationships and affiliations among such figures as Rudolf Schwarz, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Hans Scharoun, Martin Wagner, Walter Gropius, Hans Schwippert, Otto Bartning, and Paul Bonatz, among others, this conference will trace the struggles for differentiation and the search for affinities among the Germans who left and those who remained at home.

Conference Chairs:
Richard Anderson, Columbia University
Lynnette Widder, Rhode Island School of Design

Thursday, January 24
Deutsches Haus
420 West 116th Street

Keynote lecture
6:30 pm
Changing Lenses: Differing Perspectives on the
German Contribution to Architectural Modernism
Jeffry Diefendorf
University of New Hampshire

Friday, January 25, 2008
612 Schermerhorn Hall

Innere Emigration
9:00am–12:30 pm
Moderator: Detlef Mertins, University of Pennsylvania

“Bonatz...Is Clearly Passé”?—Paul Bonatz and
the Stuttgart School after 1945
Roland May, Technische Universität Darmstadt

Otto Bartning: Spirituality and Modern Building
Joseph Imorde, Max-Planck-Institut, Berlin

Rudolf Schwarz and the Reconstruction of
German Cities
Thomas Hasler, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne

Realizing the Stadtlandschaft
Kai Krauskopf, Technische Universität Dresden

U.S. Relations
2:00pm–5:30pm
Moderator: Jeannette Redensek, Josef and Anni Albers
Foundation

Potemkin Revealed: Martin Wagner vs. Utopia
Richard Anderson, Columbia University

The Proxy War: The Bauhaus Debate of 1953
Lynnette Widder, Rhode Island School of Design

The Photographic Return
Claire Zimmerman, University of Michigan

“Ultimate Space”: Konrad Wachsmann
and the Mechanical Jig
John Harwood, Oberlin College

Panel discussion
5:30 pm
Moderator: Joan Ockman
Rosemarie Haag Bletter
Jean-Louis Cohen
Jeffry Diefendorf
Detlef Mertins
Dietrich Neumann
Jeannette Redensek

The conference is sponsored by:
The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture
DAAD: German Academic Exchange Service
BayernLB
Bavarian Ministry for Economic Affairs
Deutsches Haus, Columbia University
Department of Art History, Columbia University
Department of Germanic Languages, Columbia University
Rhode Island School of Design, Division of Architecture and Design

download poster

Past Lectures and Events