Surrealism and the Americas
Program, Rice University, Nov. 4-6, 2010
Houston, Texas
This conference is made possible through major grants from The Terra
Foundation for American Art and Rice University. Additional conference
sponsors include: Rice University Department of Hispanic Studies and
Humanities Research Center; the Art History Faculty, Arizona State
University.
Thursday, November 4, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Freed Auditorium, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Surrealism's Collectors and Collections in the Americas
Introduction/Opening of the Conference: Diane Wolfthal, Chair,
Department of Art History, Rice University
Chair: Claudia Mesch, Arizona State University; Alison de Lima
Greene, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Off the Beaten Track: Julien Levy and Surrealism's Postwar Itineraries
Susan Power, Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne
Katharine Kuh's American Abstract and Surrealist Artists (1947): its
Critical Reception and Enduring Importance
Mary Caroline Simpson, Department of Art, Eastern Illinois University
Respondent: Ellen Landau, Case Western Reserve University
Break
Witnesses to a Surrealist Vision: a Houston Cabinet of Curiosities at
the Menil Collection
Katharine Conley, French and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College
Vivísimo Muerto: Surrealism in Latin America at the Getty Research Institute
Donna Conwell and Annette Leddy, Getty Research Institute
Respondent: Kristina van Dyke, The Menil Collection
Welcoming reception sponsored by the School of Art, Herberger Institute
for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University
Thursday evening, November 4
Farnsworth Pavilion, Rice University
Keynote Lecture, 5:30 p.m.
Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art, Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston
Introduction: Josef Helfenstein, Director, Menil Collection
Friday, November 5
Freed Auditorium
Chair: Graham Bader, Rice University
Surrealism and Surrealist Networks in the Americas, Part I
8:30-11:30 a.m.
Don't Forget I Come From the Tropics': Reconsidering the Surrealist
Sculpture of Maria Martins
Michael Taylor, Philadelphia Museum of Art
César Moro's Transnational Surrealism
Michele Greet, Art History, George Mason University
Edward James and Plutarco Gastélum: a Surrealist Installation in Xilitla
Irene Herner, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, Universidad
Nacional Autonoma de México
Respondent: Luis Duno-Gottberg, Rice University
Surrealism and Surrealist Networks in the Americas, Part II
1:30-3:30 p.m.
Risking Mexicaness: Gerzso's Dialogues with Surrealism and Abstraction
Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez, Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus
Juan Soriano and Mexican Surrealists in Philadelphia
Edward Sullivan and Rachel Kaplan, Institute of Fine Arts and Dept. of
Art History, New York University
Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Surrealism
Ian Walker, School of Art, Media and Design, University of Wales, Newport:
Respondent: David Craven, University of New Mexico
Saturday, November 6
Freed Auditorium
Chair: Gordon Hughes
Legacies: the Afterlife of Surrealism Part I
9:30-11:30 a.m.
Dirtying the Corner: Duchamp, Rauschenberg and Surrealist Exhibition
Interiors
Lewis Kachur, Kean University of New Jersey
Eduardo Paolozzi: Between Surrealism and Pop
Ryan Johnston, University of Melbourne
What Makes Indians Laugh: Surrealism, Ritual and Return in Steven Yazzie
and Joseph Beuys
Claudia Mesch, School of Art, Arizona State University
Respondent: Samantha Kavky, Penn State University
Legacies: the Afterlife of Surrealism Part II
1:00-3:00 p.m.
Secret Agency: When Pop Claimed Magritte
Sandra R. Zalman, University of Houston
Notes for a Historiography of Surrealism in America, or the Reinterpretation
of the Repressed
Samantha Kavky, Penn State University
Auto, Body: L.A.'s Finish Fetish and the Vernacular Surreal
Robert Stalker, Independent Scholar
Respondent: Manuel Gutierrez, Rice University
Reference:
CONF: Surrealism and the Americas (Houston, 4-6 Nov 10). In: ArtHist.net, Oct 30, 2010 (accessed Nov 5, 2025), <https://arthist.net/archive/33127>.