Announcement

James Housefield to Speak at de Young Museum on Gauguin

James Housefield, associate professor of Design, will speak at San Francisco’s de Young Museum in conjunction with their forthcoming exhibition “Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey.” He appears on Nov. 29 at 1 p.m. Housefield’s lecture,“Arts of Immediacy and Experience: Sharing Paul Gauguin’s Journeys,” takes place in the museum’s Koret Auditorium.

The lecture is $3 for members and $4 for general public. Cash only at the theater entrance. No reservations.  

Paul Gauguin’s impact on modern art has long secured his place in history. However, an emphasis on Gauguin’s so-called “primitivism” has at times obscured other aspects of his impact on subsequent generations of artists, and his continuing importance today. In our age of rapid-paced museum encounters and art “experienced” vicariously through online sources, Gauguin’s attempts to forge an art of immediacy – characterized by unmediated experience – become more urgent than ever.

This illustrated lecture examines works from the exhibition Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey in relation to his larger career and life, to analyze the artist’s techniques for successful audience engagement and immersion in art experiences. Gauguin’s use of multiple medias, artworks in two- and three-dimensions, and storytelling through combined words and images promoted new paths by which audiences could share his real and imagined journeys.

Housefield’s research and teaching analyze art and design since the late eighteenth century. He is completing a monograph on the interaction of modern art, design, and science, tentatively titled, “Playing with Earth and Sky: Popular Sciences of Astronomy & Geography and the Work of Marcel Duchamp.”

His research focuses on the interaction of art and design with each other and with the cultures of literature and science, particularly astronomy and geography. He is especially interested in the histories of exhibition design and modern cultures of immersive experience. He has contributed to several exhibition catalogues, and his scholarly writing on Duchamp, art, and geography, and related topics has appeared in The Geographical Review, Journal of North African Studies, Cultural Geographies, and multiple edited volumes.

Housefield has taught courses integrating the history of art and design history since 2000. He was formerly a curator at the Austin Museum of Art, and Associate Professor of the History of Art and Design at Texas State University, where he held the title of the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities.

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