CONF 25.11.2011

Winold Reiss as a Paradigm of Transnational Studies (Berlin, 1-3 Dec 11)

John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies/FU Berlin; American Academy Berlin, 01.–03.12.2011

Julian Henneberg

Cultural Mobility and Transcultural Confrontations: Winold Reiss as a Paradigm of Transnational Studies

This international symposium will bring together scholars of the humanities--from both sides of the Atlantic—for the first-ever conference dedicated to the art of Winold Reiss (1886-1953), honoring the 125th anniversary of his birth. This extremely versatile German-American painter, designer, and teacher was once celebrated by Du Pont Magazine (March 1931) as a "modern Cellini.” In the 1920s and 1930s, Reiss emerged as an influential figure in transatlantic encounters and modernist aesthetics. Recognized for his portraiture and commercial-design work, he was also much in demand for the elaborate mosaics he created for restaurants and other public buildings, including the Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio. Reiss collaborated with leading artists and intellectuals including Alain Locke, Katherine Anne Porter, Paul Kellogg, Miguel Covarrubias, and Langston Hughes. Among his students was Aaron Douglas, the key African-American figure in the visual Harlem Renaissance. Reiss was also the primary contributor to the visual narrative of the anthology, The New Negro (1925).
Cultural Mobility and Transcultural Confrontations: Winold Reiss as a Paradigm of Transnational Studies will rethink Reiss's role in the visual representation of ethnic American identities during the first half of the 20th century. A Germanic element is woven into the fabric of his complex engagement with American ethnicity and with racial conflicts—the European artistic background he brought to the American scene demanded a specific interdisciplinary and international perspective. The symposium will examine this perspective, exploring aspects and processes of international exchange, intercultural translation, and transcultural confrontation.
The symposium will focus on the following themes/topics:
1) Rediscovering the life and work of Winold Reiss on both sides of the Atlantic. This project hopes to establish Reiss as a central figure working in the interwoven tensions of ethnicity, modernity, and modernism.
2) Examining questions of cultural mobility (in the sense of Stephen Greenblatt) and transcultural confrontations as a key to understanding, decoding, and re-evaluating the complex oeuvre of Winold Reiss.
3) Questioning the institutional powers and aesthetic premises at work in the reception of Winold Reiss’s oeuvre. The conference will attempt to explore the reasons behind Winold Reiss’s relegation to the footnotes of American art history.

The John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American studies, with its interdisciplinary focus on intercultural exchange, is an ideal venue for a symposium dedicated to the rethinking—and establishing— of Winold Reiss as an exemplar of transnational studies.

Conference Program
Dec. 1: Thursday
1:30 pm Conference opening
2:00 pm Panel 1

Julie Kennedy (München)
"From the School of Applied Arts to Franz von Stuck’s Academy Painting Class: Winold Reiss's Formative Years in Munich 1911-13"

Sydelle Rubin-Dienstfrey (New York)
"Winold Reiss and Transatlantic Modernism: From German Cultural Anthropology to the Harlem Renaissance"
3:30 pm Coffee break
4:00 pm Panel 2

Karl Markus Kreis (Dortmund)
"From Fantasy to Show - Changing Images of ‘The Indian’ in German-speaking Europe at the Beginning of the 20th Century"

Jochen Wierich (Cheekwood)
"Reiss' Indians: Between Old and New West"
5:30 pm Coffee break
6 pm Keynote 1 / JFKI Colloquium

Jeffrey Stewart (UC Santa Barbara)
"Looking Backward to Look Forward: Winold Reiss in Context"
8 pm Reception
9:30 pm End of conference day


Dec. 2: Friday
9 am Introduction
9:30 am Panel 3

Caroline Goeser (Cleveland Museum of Art)
"Transcultural Modernism: Winold Reiss and American Print Culture"

Martha J. Nadell (Brooklyn College)
"Covarrubias' Caricatures Meet Reiss' Portraits: Locating the Visual Modernism of the Harlem Renaissance"
11 am Coffee break
11:30 am Panel 4

Winfried Fluck (JFKI Berlin)
"The Construction of Indianness"

Patricia Hills (Boston University)
"Folklorist of the Brush and Palette: Winold Reiss’s Illustrations for the New Negro, Paul Kellogg, Alain Locke, and Transcultural Modernity"
1 pm Lunch break
2:30 pm Panel 5

Katherine E. Manthorne (CUNY Graduate Center, JFKI)
"THINKING BIG: Winold Reiss and Muralism in America"
3:30 pm Excerpts from Winold Reiss's Letters and Diaries
Introduction by Frank Mehring
Reading by members of the Reiss family
4:30 pm Break
5:30 pm Transition to the American Academy in Berlin
6:30 pm Welcoming to the American Academy in Berlin
7:15 pm Panel 6

Frank Mehring (JFKI Berlin)
"Winold Reiss’s Synaesthetic Approaches to Harlem"

Musical Performance
Jens Barnieck (Wiesbaden)
"Winold Reiss and the German-American Music Scene; Between the Weimar Republic and the Jazz Age" (see separate program)
9:00 pm Reception
10 pm End of conference day


Dec. 3: Saturday
9:30 am Panel 7

Asta v. Schröder (Leuphana University Lüneburg)
"Race, Class and Gender in Winold Reiss's 'Worker Murals'"

Julie Levin Caro (Warren Wilson College)
"Winold and Henriette Reiss and the Development of an African American Aesthetic in American Art, 1915-1945"
11:00 am Coffee break
11:30 am Keynote 2

Ford Peatross (Library of Congress, DC)
"Multicultural and Modern Design: The Singular Vision of Winold Reis, 1914-1952"
12:30 pm Final discussion
13:00 pm End of conference
Speakers

Key speakers and artists include: Jens Barnieck (Wiesbaden), Julie Caro (Warren Wilson College), Winfried Fluck (JFKI), Caroline Goeser (Cleveland Museum of Art), Patricia Hills (Boston University), Julie Kennedy (Munich), Karl Markus Kreis (Dortmund University, emer.), Katherine E. Manthorne (CUNY Graduate Center, JFKI), Frank Mehring (JFKI), Martha Jane Nadell (Brooklyn College), Ford Peatross (Library of Congress), Sydelle Rubin-Dienstfrey (University of Colorado at Boulder), Asta v. Schröder (Leuphana University Lüneburg), Jeffrey Stewart (UC Santa Barbara), Jochen Wierich (Cheekwood).

Special guests: Members of the Reiss Family.

The talks and discussions will be in English.

More information and registration under:
www.fu-berlin.de/winold-reiss

Quellennachweis:
CONF: Winold Reiss as a Paradigm of Transnational Studies (Berlin, 1-3 Dec 11). In: ArtHist.net, 25.11.2011. Letzter Zugriff 29.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/2139>.

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