The Winter 2009 issue of Art Journal

<http://www.collegeart.org/artjournal/>

CAA's quarterly of cutting-edge art and ideas, has just been published.
In a Forum called "The Shape of Time, Then and Now," five authors
explore the contemporary relevance of George Kubler's 1962 book, The
Shape of Time. As Judith Rodenbeck, the editor-in-chief of Art Journal,
writes, the book "took up set theory to help think about traditional
art-historical devices of temporal framing: style, influence, reference,
oeuvre, and so on." An outline of key concepts in Kubler's book and
important bibliographic references appear in Reva Wolf's introduction.
Next, Mary Miller gives a "fibrous" (to use Kubler's words) account of
Kubler's project, and Shelley Rice details the importance of his ideas
for critics in the 1960s, in particular Lawrence Alloway, her mentor.
Two artists also contribute: Ellen K. Levy reviews Kublerian entwining
of scientific and artistic discourses, while Suzanne Anker considers
contemporary possibilities for his concept of the "prime object."

The Winter issue also includes Time Drills, a related artists' project
by the collective Spurse, and features two essays on quite contemporary
art-Qadri Ismail's "Bound Together: On a Book of Antiwar Sri Lankan
Drawing" and Nissim Gal's "Bare Life: The Refugee in Contemporary
Israeli Art and Critical Discourse."

Photography is the focus of the Reviews section. Stephanie Schwartz
evaluates Words without Pictures, a recent collection of essays by
artists and theorists, published in book form and online, and Jason
Weems reviews a trio of books: On Alexander Gardner's Photographic
Sketch Book of the Civil War, Lynching Photographs, and Weegee and Naked
City.

Art Journal, Winter 2009

In This Issue

Judith F. Rodenbeck
The Shape of Time
5

Features

Qadri Ismail
Bound Together: On a Book of Antiwar Sri Lankan Drawings
6

Nissim Gal
Bare Life: The Refugee in Contemporary Israeli Art and Critical
Discourse
24

Artists' Project

Spurse
Time Drills: Deep Time Rapid Time Exercises
44

Forum: The Shape of Time, Then and Now
Reva Wolf
The Shape of Time: Of Stars and Rainbows
62

Mary Miller
Shaped Time
71

Shelley Rice
Back to the Future: George Kubler, Lawrence Alloway, and the Complex
Present
78

Ellen K. Levy
Classifying Kubler: Between the Complexity of Science and Art
88

Suzanne Anker
Prime Objects and Body Doubles
99

Reviews

Stephanie Schwartz on Words without Pictures, ed. Alex Klein; Jason
Weems on Anthony W. Lee and Elizabeth Young, On Alexander Gardner's
Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, Dora Apel and Shawn Michelle
Smith, Lynching Photographs, and Anthony W. Lee and Richard Meyer,
Weegee and Naked City
106

Nicola Courtright <mailto:nmcourtrightamherst.edu>
Associate Dean of the Faculty and

Professor, Department of Art and the History of Art
Amherst College
Amherst, MA 01002
413/542-2123 (o)
413/542-7917 (FAX)