Release Date: August 20, 2017

National Gallery of Art's Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) Announces 2017–2018 Academic Year Appointments

CASVA members tour the Gallery's objects conservation lab with Shelley Sturman, head of objects conservation, National Gallery of Art, October 2016

Washington, DC—The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), a world-renowned research institution that brings distinguished scholars from around the world to the National Gallery of Art, has announced its 2017–2018 academic year appointments. They include Diane Favro of the University of California, Los Angeles (emerita) as a Samuel H. Kress Professor; David Bomford of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as an Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor; and Hal Foster of Princeton University as the 67th A. W. Mellon Lecturer in the Fine Arts. Estelle Lingo of the University of Washington, Seattle, returns for the second year of her appointment as an Andrew W. Mellon Professor (2016–2018).

"This year, CASVA members will research a range of topics, from Italian Renaissance panel paintings to photography from the Swahili Coast," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "This incoming class of CASVA appointees embodies the Center's diverse and dynamic nature."

In addition to the distinguished list of appointees, seven senior fellows and six visiting senior fellows have been appointed to CASVA, along with one postdoctoral fellow, seven predoctoral fellows working in residence, 11 predoctoral fellows not in residence, and four predoctoral historians of American art who were awarded fellowships to travel abroad. Kimberly Schenck, head of the Gallery's department of paper conservation, has been awarded the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Sabbatical Curatorial/Conservation Fellowship, which will enable her to take a leave of absence from the Gallery to conduct special research on Mary Cassatt, an artist well represented in the Gallery's collection.

About CASVA

Since its inception in 1979, CASVA has promoted the study of the history, theory, and criticism of art, architecture, and urbanism through the formation of a community of scholars. A variety of private sources support the program of fellowships, and the appointments are ratified by the Gallery's Board of Trustees. Through its fellowship programs, CASVA seeks a diverse pool of applicants in the visual arts.

CASVA currently supports the Andrew W. Mellon Professor, a two-year appointment of a midcareer scholar; the Samuel H. Kress Professor, an appointment of one academic year of a distinguished scholar; the Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor, a six-month appointment of a scholar who advances his or her own research on subjects associated with the Gallery's permanent collection; and senior fellows, visiting senior fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and predoctoral fellows. A board of advisors, composed of eight art historians appointed to rotating terms, serves as a selection committee to review all fellowship applications.

In 1949, the Gallery commenced the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts to bring to the people of the United States the results of the best contemporary thought and scholarship in the fine arts. The program is named for Andrew W. Mellon, the Gallery's founder, who gave the nation his art collection and funds to build the West Building, which opened to the public in 1941.

CASVA publishes Symposium Papers, part of the Gallery's series Studies in the History of Art, and Seminar Papers. Both series are available for purchase on shop.nga.gov. Volumes of Studies in the History of Art published more than five years ago can be accessed and downloaded on JSTOR. An annual report, Center, published each fall, summarizes research and activities that took place during the preceding academic year. The full archive of Center is available for free download on the Gallery website.

Full List of Appointees

Samuel H. Kress Professor
Diane Favro
University of California, Los Angeles (emerita)

Andrew W. Mellon Professor, 2016–2018
Estelle Lingo
University of Washington, Seattle

Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor, spring 2018
David Bomford
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Sixty-Seventh A. W. Mellon Lecturer in the Fine Arts, spring 2018
Hal Foster
Princeton University

Ailsa Mellon Bruce National Gallery of Art Sabbatical Curatorial/Conservation Fellow
Kimberly Schenck
Department of Paper Conservation
Mary Cassatt and Soft-Ground Etching, 1879–1890

Paul Mellon Senior Fellow
Megan Holmes
University of Michigan
Scratching the Surface: The Marking and Transformation of Italian Renaissance Panel Paintings, 1250–1550

William C. Seitz Senior Fellow
Prita Meier
New York University
The Surface of Things: A History of Photography from the Swahili Coast, 1860 to the Present

Samuel H. Kress Senior Fellows
Babette Bohn
Texas Christian University
Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna

Manuel Castiñeiras
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Shifting Identities and Traveling Objects: Artistic Encounters with Byzantium during the Expansion of the Crown of Aragon

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow
Anne Burkus-Chasson
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Engaging Artifice: Chen Hongshou (1598/1599–1652) and the Illustrated Book

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow, fall 2017
Amy Freund
Southern Methodist University
Noble Beasts: Hunters and Hunted in Eighteenth-Century French Art

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow, spring 2018
Nicola Courtright
Amherst College
Art and Queenly Authority: The Creation of Spaces for Marie de' Medici

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellows, fall 2017/winter 2018
Giulia Ceriani Sebregondi
Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, Rome
The Venetian Doge Leonardo Donà (1536–1612) and Architecture

Jacqueline Marie Musacchio
Wellesley College
At Home Abroad: Anne Whitney and American Women Artists in Late Nineteenth-Century Italy

Nicole L. Woods
University of Notre Dame
Performing Chance: The Art of Alison Knowles In/Out of Fluxus

Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellows, fall 2017/winter 2018
S. Hollis Clayson
Northwestern University
The Inescapability of the Eiffel Tower

Catherine Phillips
Independent Scholar
From Brussels to the Baltic: Count Charles Cobenzl (1712–1770) and His Collection of Drawings

Ginette Vagenheim
Université de Rouen
A Catalogue Raisonné of Pirro Ligorio's Drawings

A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
Megan C. McNamee
A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016–2018
The Numerate Eye: Denumeration and Representation in Europe, c. 950–1100

Predoctoral Dissertation Fellows (in residence)
Caitlin Beach
Wyeth Fellow, 2016–2018
[Columbia University]
Sculpture, Slavery, and Commerce in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World

Magdalene Breidenthal
Paul Mellon Fellow, 2015–2018
[Yale University]
Leaving "Heaven on Earth": The Visual Codes of Middle Byzantine Church Exits

Allison Caplan
Ittleson Fellow, 2016–2018
[Tulane University]
Their Flickering Creations: Value, Appearance, and Surface in Nahua Precious Art

Grace Chuang
Samuel H. Kress Fellow, 2016–2018
[New York University]
The Furniture of Bernard II Vanrisamburgh, Master Cabinetmaker in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Catherine Damman
Twenty-Four-Month Chester Dale Fellow, 2016–2018
[Columbia University]
Unreliable Narrators: Laurie Anderson, Julia Heyward, and Jill Kroesen Perform the 1970s
María Lumbreras
David E. Finley Fellow, 2015–2018
[Johns Hopkins University]
Likeness and Certainty: The Making of Artistic Knowledge in Golden Age Spain

Fatima Quraishi
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, 2016–2018
[New York University]
Necropolis as Palimpsest: The Cemetery of Makli in Sindh, Pakistan (c. 1350–1650)

Predoctoral Dissertation Fellows (not in residence)
Ravinder S. Binning
Paul Mellon Fellow, 2016–2019
[Stanford University]
The Medieval Art of Fear: Christ Pantokrator after Iconoclasm

Rachel E. Boyd
David E. Finley Fellow, 2017–2020
[Columbia University]
Experimentation and Specialization: The Glazed Terracotta Sculpture of the Della Robbia Workshop, c. 1430–1550

Ashley Dimmig
Ittleson Fellow, 2017–2019
[University of Michigan]
Making Modernity in Fabric Architecture: Imperial Tents in the Late Ottoman Period

Michele L. Frederick
Samuel H. Kress Fellow, 2017–2019
[University of Delaware]
Shaping the Royal Image: Gerrit van Honthorst and the Stuart Courts in London and The Hague

Ximena A. Gómez
Twenty-Four-Month Chester Dale Fellow, 2017–2019
[University of Michigan]
Nuestra Señora: Confraternal Art and Identity in Early Colonial Lima

Andrew P. Griebeler
David E. Finley Fellow, 2016–2019
[University of California, Berkeley]
The Byzantine Illustrated Herbal and Its Use in the Transmission and Transformation of
Botanical Knowledge, from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Annika K. Johnson
Wyeth Fellow, 2017–2019
[University of Pittsburgh]
Agency at the Confluence of Euro-American and Eastern Dakota Art, 1835–1900

Suzanne van de Meerendonk
Robert H. and Clarice Smith Fellow, 2017–2018
[University of California, Santa Barbara]
Public Displays of Affection: Negotiating Power and Identity in Ceremonial Receptions in Amsterdam, 1580–1660

James Pilgrim
Paul Mellon Fellow, 2017–2020
[Johns Hopkins University]
Jacopo Bassano and the Ecology of Painting

Emma R. Silverman
Twelve-Month Chester Dale Fellow, 2017–2018
[University of California, Berkeley]
From Eyesore to Icon: The Watts Towers and Modernism in the Margins

Lauren Taylor
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, 2017–2019
[University of California, Los Angeles]
The Art of Diplomacy in Dakar: The International Politics of Display at the 1966 Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Predoctoral Fellows for Historians of American Art to Travel Abroad
Alba Campo Rosillo
[University of Delaware]

Anne S. Cross
[University of Delaware]

Matthew Limb
[University of California, Santa Barbara]

Krystle Stricklin
[University of Pittsburgh]

Press Contact:
Christina Brown, (202) 842-6598, [email protected]