For three faculty members in the Fine Arts department, the end of 2013 also brought about a conclusion to some of their most recent works of scholarship. Profs. Gannit Ankori (FA), Peter Kalb (FA) and Jonathan Unglaub (FA) each finished a book on their particular area of art history expertise: Ankori published a biography on artist Frida Kahlo, Kalb published a textbook on contemporary art and Unglaub published a book on a work by painter Nicolas Poussin. All three volumes are now available for art history buffs and academics alike. From a biography to a Masterpiece Series contribution to a comprehensive textbook, these new publications will undoubtedly be showing up in course syllabi soon enough.

Remembering Frida Kahlo
Midway through fall semester, Prof. Gannit Ankori published a 224-page volume that chronicles the life of an artist about whom she has taught many classes during her time at Brandeis.

Her book, Frida Kahlo, published on Oct. 15 by Reaktion Books and distributed by the University of Chicago Press, is a thoughtful biography of the title artist.

Ankori regularly teaches the Fine Arts course FA 178A: "Frida Kahlo: Art, Life and Legacy" in addition to a variety of courses that focus on Israeli and Palestinian art, women artists and contemporary art.

Though Ankori could not be reached by press time, a passage about her work included on the University of Chicago Press' website expresses the way her book conveys the characteristic passion that propelled Kahlo into a lasting legacy of exceptional ability and innovative expression: "Cutting through 'Fridamania,' this book explores Kahlo's life, art, and legacies, while also scrutinizing the myths, contradictions, and ambiguities that riddle her dramatic story. Gannit Ankori examines Kahlo's early childhood, medical problems, volatile marriage, political affiliations, religious beliefs and, most important, her unparalleled and innovative art."

In her book, Ankori draws upon a well-researched pool of resources to share Kahlo's story with readers in a way that cultivates a genuine interest in and passion for her art. She integrates not only the artist's paintings, but also takes information from Kahlo's personal records, including diary entries, photographs, letters, interviews and medical records.

Rethinking religious painting
Hitting shelves just last month, Prof. Jonathan Unglaub's (FA) latest book, Poussin's Sacrament of Ordination: History, Faith, and the Sacred Landscape, was published by Kimbell Art Museum through Yale University Press on Dec. 11. The comparatively short, 108-page book addresses a work within Unglaub's niche area of scholarship: French baroque painter Nicolas Poussin's masterpiece painting "Ordination."

In an interview with the Justice, Unglaub explained that "Poussin's Ordination was one of a series of paintings of the Seven Sacraments, which was painted for his foremost Roman patron, Cassiano dal Pozzo, and they were some of his greatest masterpieces in Rome." Unglaub did not initially plan to write this book, but rather the project resulted from an opportunity that was presented to him as "Ordination" was recently privately acquired by Texas' Kimbell Art Museum from its former home in Britain, along with the rest of the paintings in the Seven Sacraments series.

"I was invited to give a lecture on this painting, on Poussin's 'Ordination' at the Kimbell Museum. I believe that was in January of 2012," Unglaub told the Justice. He was invited to give the lecture at the Kimbell Museum just after the painting went on view there, and afterward, the museum's curator encouraged him to publish the book, which ended up being produced as a part of Kimbell's Masterpiece Series through Yale University Press. The series is comprised of texts that discuss paintings in Kimbell's collection, all written by experts on their respective pieces.

"This is the eighth, I believe, in the series. ... I basically wrote the book this past year, in early 2013," said Unglaub, adding that he had finished writing it in a month or two, and then began the back-and-forth editing process with Kimbell.
Elaborating on how this publication fits into his personal scholarship, Unglaub said, "I've written one book on Poussin, I'm writing a more general book on his life and art currently, so this was kind of a detour from my research, but it was a good opportunity, so I was happy to work on this. It forced me to focus on ... this painting, [and] really made me see it in a new light."

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Examining contemporary works 
Toward the beginning of last semester, Prof. Peter Kalb's (FA) sizable textbook volume Art Since 1980: Charting the Contemporary was published by Pearson on Sept. 26. The 336-page work provides a comprehensive survey of works of contemporary art, social and historical institutions since the year 1980. 

In an email interview with the Justice, Kalb shared the origins of the project. "I originally proposed the book in 2000, before one third of the art that is in it was even produced. Research began then both in traditional ways-libraries, archives, interviewing artists and also in the classroom. ... The text as it finally appeared was written and edited between 2005 [and] 2011 roughly." During the year 2000, he was teaching his first contemporary art classes at Middlebury College in Vermont. 

The extended time that the process took from initial research to final publication, he explained, is due to changes in the way that books are produced over the last decade. "There were many hurdles that the publishers dealt with," he wrote,"which created pauses in the process that lay outside the normal writing process."

The difficulty with approaching contemporary art from an art history perspective also accounts for the length of the process, he wrote. For example, some of the earliest works discussed in the book, from the 1980s to 1990s, are already entering into art historical discussions, while the post-millennial works have yet to. For the artists of these earlier works, he wrote, "The goal is to reflect on why we talk about them in the field and to include less-discussed artists whose work helps us better understand the period."As for deciding which of the more recent body of contemporary works to discuss, he wrote: "I chose artists I thought made interesting work, artists whose work conveyed important moments in global contemporary art, and artists I knew from experience teaching resonated with students." The amount of time that Kalb spent on this publication certainly seems to have facilitated a thoughtful and pleasantly calculated approach to his work.

As for his hopes for the book, he wrote, "I hope this book invites students to claim art as part of their world and to integrate into their academic lives, and just as important into their personal lives. And I hope art students find it a useful tool for comprehending the world they are about to enter."
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