Reflection
Andrew Marvick spoke on our campus on February 2nd, 2017 for our first Convocation for 2017! He was our 2017 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, and his topic was "UnSelfies: The Dissolution of Identity in 20th and 21st Century.” He traced the “selfie” from its beginnings at the end of the 19th century to its current appearance in the “selfie culture” of our time. In modern art, is seems that the “selfie” acts less within the public sector of social media and popular entertainment, and instead more in the context of the contemporary art scene. The talk then followed with the curious incidence of the unidentifiable face in modern western art from its early manifestation in French post-impressionist painting and continuing across multiple phases of modernism including fauvism, expressionism, cubism, dada, surrealism, abstract expressionism and conceptual art, as well as the process-painting, conceptual digital- image and expressionist-realist trends of our time. Dr Marvick showed so many amazing art works, both that were famous historically as well as new up and coming artists today. Dr Vartan asked some questions about the artist’s motivation and inspiration, and several audience members asked questions about teaching, specific artists and Dr Marvick's opinions on some new people in the contemporary art scene. Our next speaker will be Cristina Ibarra on February 9th at 11:30 am in the Great Hall, and she will be speaking about how her identity was formed and the films she was involved in that changed her life. We hope that we will see you guys there!
