Socrates x Noguchi Field Guide: Exploring a “New Nature”
Saturday, September 3, 2022 11 am-1 pm
Free, at Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd
“To the artist, going to the moon was nothing new. I’ve been up there all the time.” Isamu Noguchi
Join art educator Joe Tokumasu Field at Socrates Sculpture Park to celebrate the moon through a haiku writing workshop inspired by the Japanese Tsukimi Festival. Try a mooncake, listen to koto music, and look at Isamu Noguchi’s lunar sculptures to motivate your writing. All ages welcome; no previous writing experience is necessary. Participants will be given a free pass to visit The Noguchi Museum after the workshop. Registration will open Saturday, August 13.
Music and Art 92NY Roundtable
Oct 20th, 2022 - Nov 10th, 2022
Art and Music features some fascinating moments where these areas combine. Highlighting major artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Laurie Anderson, Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, John Cage, Isamu Noguchi, and Christian Marclay to understand how musical inspiration serves as an essential component of their works. As part of a vibrant exchange between artistic mediums, learn how these visual artists shaped the music industry in turn. Bridge your senses — and sensibilities — in this unique class revealing the interplay of art and music.
School of Paris
Barnes Foundation
ONLINE / ART IN CONTEXT
Mondays, October 10 – October 31, 1 – 3pm
The School of Paris refers to a circle of foreign-born artists, who lived and worked in Paris in the early part of the 20th century. This lively course dives into the lives and practices of members of the group—including Amedeo Modigliani, Chaïm Soutine, Marc Chagall, Jules Pascin, and Jacques Lipchitz—and celebrates their unique artistic achievement. Drawing from key examples of painting and sculpture from the Barnes collection, we will study the connections between these convivial artists, their relationships with their art dealers, and Dr. Albert Barnes’s efforts to bring their works stateside. Ultimately, we will rethink the established narrative of this critical moment in the development of visual art.
Architecture for the Arts
92Y Continuing Education
Thursday June 9th-23rd, 2022
92Y Invites you to join art historian and museum educator Joseph Tokumasu Field to examine innovative architecture designed and built as homes for the arts. Considering the important intersections between architects and the institutions that commission them, this three-week course explores some of the most exciting spaces ever designed to experience the arts. Students will focus on works by prominent figures like Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Marcel Breuer, and Elizabeth Diller, as well as lesser-known designers worthy of our attention. We’ll travel to iconic institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, The Quai Branly Museum in Paris, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, among many other exciting examples. Each session will trace breathtaking designs up to present day while engaging with ideas around cultural tourism, sustainability, and urban renewal.
For those looking to experience architecture for the arts in-person, an optional fourth week will include a visit to the Marcel Breuer’s New York City masterpiece, currently housing the Frick Collection, as a critical example of 20th century architecture.
This course will take place on Thursdays, June 9, 16, and 23 from 12-1:30 pm ET. Class will take place live online with an opportunity to interact with the instructor and be recorded for later viewing by patrons. The visit to the Marcel Breuer building and Frick Collection will take place on Thursday, June 30 from 12-1:30 pm ET. Meeting location and details will be available upon registration for a combination ticket to both events
The Japanese American Century 1900-2000 April 14th-May 5th, 2022
Using the newest scholarship, this course celebrates important Japanese Americans and their critical contributions to visual art, design and education. The Japanese American Century will also focus on lesser-known artists whose inspiring work is worthy of your attention and our lively weekly discussions. Over four weeks, we will unpack these important Americans and their impact on the art world of the Twentieth century including moments of political activism and daring advancement of the arts. This course is offered completely independently at lower cost than large institutions. Meetings will take place online at 12 PM to 1:30 PM EST Thursdays beginning April 14th through May 5th, 2022. Each week focuses on dialogue, sharing ideas and rethinking established narratives. I really hope you can join in the conversation around this important time period and community. Classes are recorded for later review with optional readings and additional multimedia resources offered between sessions.
Artists of Note: Ruth Asawa, Isamu Noguchi, George Nakashima, Tōyō Miyatake, Leo Amino
Art and the City October March 3- 24th, 2022 92Y Continuing Education
Artists have incorporated, depicted, or paid tribute to cities around the world in myriad ways.
With a special focus on New York City, we will examine artwork that centers around depictions of city life, the issues around urban sprawl, and artists’ visions for the city of the future.
This course traces the migration of people to cities and the creative movements that emerged from urban environments. We’ll explore some amazing examples of artworks by Mondrian, Magritte, Neel, Holzer, and more, where the city is the subject, how the relationship of the artist and their city has been expressed, and how cities have provided exhibition locations for some of the most important works ever created.
Students will come away with a new appreciation and understanding of the role of the city in modern art, be able to recognize the influence of urbanization and industrialization, and a stronger awareness of our built environment.
This class will take place on Thursday March 3, 10, 17, and 24
Art in Public: Public Art, Public Scale, and Public Engagement March 2-23rd, 2022 Guggenheim
Art in Public is a four-part course that focuses on important precedents in public art, its history, and the contemporary significance of this monumental medium. Together, we will examine works in the Guggenheim’s collection that engage directly with the public, which are often on a grand scale or even outside the bounds of the museum walls! We will discuss the crucial role that a variety of Guggenheim collection artists, such as Tania Brugera, Daniel Buren, Luis Camnitzer, Christo, and Gillian Wearing have played in the advancement of public art, and explore how each have tested their own limits when called upon to memorialize and engage communities. Over the course of four weeks, the course will investigate the contrast between ephemeral and permanent artworks, consider scale, and discover colossal imagined artworks that were never realized. Art in Public will culminate in a turn towards the architecture of the Guggenheim itself, with a session in which we will study how artists think about place and context when producing public and socially-engaged works.
The artworks covered in this course, spanning the late nineteenth century to the present, trace the history of the Guggenheim’s collection through the lens of public and monumental art. Taught by Joseph Tokumasu Field, the course will utilize rich, interactive discussion and perspective sharing, as well as scholarship and critical analysis.
The Russian Avant Garde
January 20-February 10, 2022 92Y Continuing Education
The Russian Avant-Garde movement was responsible for major shifts in visual art thanks to now iconic artists like Popova, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Malevich.
Explore the origins of abstract art in Europe and how these artists spearheaded advances in abstraction, conceptual architecture, photomontage, experimental film, innovative textile design, as well as the state-backed war memorials and government buildings that characterize the era.. We’ll shed light on these canonized artists and introduce other key players who have yet to receive proper attention. Highlights from painting, architecture, sculpture, photography and film across movements like abstraction, suprematism, futurism, and constructivism will be examined in close detail.
Students will come away with a revised and rethought narrative around the Russian Avant-Garde, the important innovations that led to its renown, and the artists, both established and underrepresented, whose important work defines the incredibly and diversely productive artistic era.
This program is part of 92U, the online learning destination of 92Y.
Sculpture at the Guggenheim Museum November 3rd-24th, 2021 Guggenheim
Sculpture at the Guggenheim Museum course begins this Wednesday, November 3rd. This three-part course will unpack the practice and medium as the holdings of the Guggenheim exemplify the diversity of sculpture as an art form. Collection Artists include Simone Leigh, Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Naum Gabo, Alberto Giacometti, Isamu Noguchi, Roni Horn and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. As always, class discussion is highly valued and registrants are encouraged to contribute comments and reflections throughout the live sessions. Optional readings and additional multimedia resources will be offered between sessions.
Street Art November 1-22nd, 2021 92Y Continuing Education
A Brooklyn, New York, born graffiti artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat has come to be known as one of the world’s most well-known artists for his ability to both document and reflect the complexities of society.
Once thought of as outsider art at best and defacement at worst, street art and artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring have come to dominate the art market and have mounted some of the most well-received solo exhibitions at major institutions in recent years. Contemporary art educator Joseph Tokumasu Field will explore one of the most important American art forms from its infancy to its recognition within the art history canon, highlighting its most celebrated icons like Basquiat and Haring as well as the lesser-known talents that had indelible impacts on the genre. Participants will come away with a better understanding of the significance of this art form, the important collaborations that led to its renown, and the artists whose important work carries social messages which are even more relevant now.
Alberto Giacometti October 5-26th, 2021 92Y Continuing Education
One the most celebrated sculptors of the 20th century, Alberto Giacometti’s work consistently achieves the highest asking prices at auction, only breaking his own records at this point.
With works like Walking Man, Woman of Venice, and Man Pointing, Giacometti has established a portfolio beloved by both private and institutional collectors. Art educator Joseph Tokumasu Field will lead this four-week deep dive in the artist’s life and work and help reveal the impetus behind this Swiss sculptor’s ascent to the pinnacle of modern art in spite of his complicated relationship with patrons and colleagues. Explore Giacometti’s formative years and earliest inspirations to his deep studies in portraiture and the sculptures for which he is best known, his deeply personal studies and ideas for grand public memorials and works that were designed to fit in a match box, and his commercial and public commissions that make up the most pivotal points in his career.
American Museums from Home July 8-29th, 2021 92Y Continuing Education
As museums and other cultural institutions continue to reimagine and reopen their physical spaces cautiously, my #continuing education course for 92Y, American Museums from Home, will deep dive into the most exciting exhibitions on view across the United States. Make connections to artwork across American artists, eras and movements without the hassle of travel. Immerse yourself in the world of virtual museum experiences and gain a better understanding of all that American institutions have to offer. This class will be recorded for later viewing by patrons.
Women of the 20th Century Art World May 4- 25th, 2021 Guggenheim
A four-part course highlighting the powerful influence and creative achievements of women in the art world. Explore the Guggenheim’s collection and history which feature and celebrate the female artists, collectors, and curators who made immense contributions to art of the 20th century, despite gender discrimination. This course will challenge long-established narratives and offer a critical rethink of one of the most important centuries in art history. Over four sessions, participants will learn about some of the lesser known but crucial figures that their male counterparts were influenced by, and sometimes simply stole from, including Hilla Rebay, Anni Albers, and Lucia Moholy, among many others.
This course will utilize close looking, structured interpretation, and shared discovery to explore session themes. Class discussion is highly valued and registrants are encouraged to contribute comments and reflections throughout the live sessions. Optional readings and video content will be offered to participants between sessions.
Artist as Creator, Curator, and Collector July 6 - 27th, 2021 Guggenheim
Does an artist have a role beyond making art? How have artists bent expectations about their role as "producers" to challenge the purpose of museum spaces? Examining recent exhibitions and key figures in the Guggenheim's history, this four-part course taught by Joseph Tokumasu Field will highlight what happens when the traditional role of artist as "creator" expands to that of greater power. Featuring artists as collectors (Hilla Rebay), directors (Isamu Noguchi), collaborators (Danh Vo), and curators (Jenny Holzer), each class will raise questions about who dictates what is collected and how it is displayed by public institutions, and the ramifications these choices have on the shaping and sharing of visual culture. Exhibitions discussed will include Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection, Danh Vo: Take My Breath Away, and Tino Sehgal.Examining recent exhibitions and key figures in the Guggenheim’s history, this four-part course will highlight what happens when the role of artist expands beyond the traditional “creator” to include capacities of broader reach and impact.
Great American Artists May 13-June 3rd, 2021 92Y Continuing Education
The bold, abstract paintings of Irene Rice Pereira … the subtle delicacy of those by Whistler … the Surrealist works of Man Ray … the wire sculptures of Ruth Asawa … all of them American, all of them born of vital movements in modern art. Join professor and modern art historian Joseph Field for this new four-part course examining American artists from the 19th century to the present day.