Art History Symposium at CSUS

Before the symposium started 

Recently I attended the Festival of the Arts, Art History Symposium at CSUS. I was able to stay for only two talks and found them both entertaining and interesting. First was Kathan Brown the keynote speaker, who discussed Crown Point Press. In 1962 Brown started Crown Point Press originally as a print workshop but eventually moved into publishing works by different artists. Brown talked fondly of the artist she worked with over the years like Chuck Close, John Cage, Richard Diebenkorn, as well as many others. She described the evolution of the Crown Point Press and how even today one can take a workshop on the weekend and learn the printing process. I enjoyed all the photographs and videos she showed from the beginning of her development of the press. Brown also talked a little about the development of different techniques by different artists, like acid used on plates as well as artists today using digital imagery. If I was able to ask her a question I would have liked to ask her how she feels about the progression of technology in terms of the printing process? And how she feels about the more frequent use of digital imagery for printing? What I enjoyed most about her talk was the discussion she had about the idea behind so-called collaboration works. She believes that the if artist has the idea even if they need people to help them to bring it to life the work should not be considered a collaboration. This is always a topic of discussion and I enjoyed the way she explained it.

Keynote speaker Kathan Brown

John Byck during his presentation.

John Byck during his presentation.

Unfortunately since the keynote speaker went over on her time I was only able to stay for one additional speaker. John Byck presented next and I found his talk to be really interesting. Byck is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and his presentation was on The Ship Engravings of Master W with the Key as Cultural Crossroads. He talked about a collection of ship engravings that were discovered that dated back to the 15^th Century. These engravings were particular because they were of a secular subject matter and are believed to be the first nautical engravings ever made. The artist is anonymous and known today only as Master W with the Key. Most of his works are signed with a monogram and eighty-five of his engravings survive today. Of his eighty-five works nine ornament ship engravings are his most well known. The argument of Byck’s paper is whether or not Master W was the first to make ship engravings or if the Italians were the first. Because of the obvious reproduction of certain ship engravings when the maritime print genre became popular, it is quite possible someone was copying work that was already done and not creating them simultaneously. Another problem in trying to figure out who made these engravings first is the issue of trade and movement of these prints across the sea in metropolitan areas, like where Master W was working. He ended by saying it is possible that we will never know who was the first but I still enjoyed hearing his presentation of the works.