The Art of Past, Present and Futrue

Last night I heard all our art history prof.s, Fritz, Annette, and Royce, talk about some of their specific areas of research and expertise. Each talk was so different. Fritz talked about his recent efforts to preserve, conserve and basically remarket the museum at an archaelogical dig at a Panhellanic sanctuary site in Isthmia, Greece, Annette talked about her latest research for her book about husband and wife portraits by Northern Renaissance painter Joos van Cleves, and Royce talked about the "Supersizing" of contemporary art festivals and biennuals. Obviously, these were widely different subjects and eras, but one thing I thought about afterwards was how the first two topics, while dealing with the past are involved with putting the past into the present. Both professors rely on modern technologies to help with their research and preserve their findings and bring them to the present world's attention. On the other hand, Royce reviews contemporary art activities, but his recordings will become primary sources for research in the future. His documentations of these mega-festivals also show that the clash between the established art museum/exhibition comittees and the people making art hasn't changed much. The Dadaists throwing excrement from trees at the established art intellegencia, the furror over the first Impressionist Exhibitions in Paris and later in London, and the Guerilla Girls protest posters all strike a similar chord with the graffetti artists of the recent Sao Paulo Biennual in Royce's presentation. The committe for this exhibition grossly mismanaged the funding for the event and as a reseult, the entire second floor was a huge empty space. As a spin, the committee announced that this area was a meditation space (it was HUGE) and that the public was encouraged to add their own form of activity to this space. Several graffetti artists came in, painted, and are now facing jail time for complying with the committee's suggestion. Anyway, this all just shows how the past, present and future are all interconnected and will always be so. For me, if the world was perfect, I would take an art history class everyday of my life. I love it all and find it fascinating.