Course: Short Course on Chinese Contemporary Art @AW Asia

On four Tuesday nights in October, AW Asia (here) is putting on a free Short Course in Chinese Contemporary Art. Information on the course can be found here. The four sessions (an hour and a half each) include:

• From Mao to Now: An Overview of Chinese Contemporary Art
• Evening with Melissa Chiu, Director of the Asia Society and Museum
• Visit with Christopher Phillips, Curator ICP
• 21st Century China & the Global Art World

These look like excellent sessions for those of us who need to get better informed on contemporary photography in China. Registration is required.

Taliesin Thomas
Director, AW Asia
545 West 25th Street, Floor 7
New York, NY 10001
taliesin@awasiany.com

In a related note, Larry Warsh, the collector behind AW Asia, has recently sold groups of Chinese contemporary photography to both MoMA and the Getty. (here)

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Course: In Focus @Catherine Edelman

While we've been collecting for quite a few years now, it wasn't so long ago that I have forgotten what it was like when we made our first purchases. I remember the process to be a heady mix of excitement and uncertainty, with a strong undercurrent of trying not to make a mistake; the truth is, it's still a little like that.

Many gallery owners, especially in this environment, seem fixated on how to attract entry level and new collectors. Surprisingly, they often think that low prices and "deals" will make all the difference. While price certainly matters, I think this strategy is generally misguided. What collectors need, especially new and inexperienced ones, is information and education to settle their nerves. Only when a buyer feels comfortable will his/her wallet open.

I was therefore pleased to hear about a new set of lectures being put on this fall by the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago (here). For $100 (and if you're not willing to invest $100 in your photography education you have no business calling yourself a collector), the In Focus series (here) takes place on four Saturday mornings and covers a wide range of practical topics, with input from the gallery staff and outside experts (collectors, critics, professors, etc.). Even as an experienced collector, if I lived in Chicago, I'd be tempted to attend these discussions, mostly to hear how Edelman and the others view the current market and its opportunities. And of course, we never get tired to talking about photography.

The trick is of course to get people to show up. So Chicagoland readers, make an effort to support this lecture series, as it's the kind of thing we need to see more of. And for New York area galleries, this is a great example of a low cost/low impact way to invest in your client base to build sales down the road.

Lecture: Inside the Met: The Curatorial Departments - Photographs

The three Photography curators from the Met will be giving an overview of the department and its history on March 11th at 6:00PM. Here's the synopsis from the website:

"Although an independent Department of Photographs was established only in 1992, the Metropolitan has collected photography as art since 1928, when Alfred Stieglitz donated twenty-two of his own works, including portraits of his wife Georgia O’Keeffe. During the intervening decades, and especially since the mid-1980s, the photography collection has grown to encompass the full history of the medium, from its invention in the 1830s to the present day. Malcolm Daniel traces major steps in that expansion, including landmark acquisitions from the Stieglitz Collection in 1933 and the Gilman Collection in 2005; Jeff L. Rosenheim discusses the extraordinary archives of American photographers Walker Evans and Diane Arbus, acquired in 1994 and 2007; and Doug Eklund presents the department’s recent activities in the field of contemporary photography."

Tickets are $23 and can be purchased here.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

Course: History of Photography @MoMA

Starting in February, Diana Bush will be teaching an eight part evening series on the History of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. This course is part of the larger series of adult academic programs offered by the museum. The class synopsis is below:

"Moving from its beginnings in the 1830s to the recent projects of contemporary artists, this course introduces participants to the history and historiography of the photographic image. A primary interest of the course is visual literacy, and, drawing on the exhibition The Printed Picture, class discussions take shape around the complex and diverse functions of graphic and photographic objects in specific historical contexts. At the same time, in the context of The Museum of Modern Art, we discuss the challenges of writing the history of photography, both within and outside of greater histories of modernism and modern art."

Given the text above, the approach looks to be different from a traditional chronological slide lecture. The fee is $415 ($355 for members).

Further information on the course (and links to registration) can be found here.

Upcoming Lectures and Courses

Here are three upcoming lectures and courses of interest to collectors:

1.) Collector's Workshop: Introduction to Affordable Photography Panel Discussion @Aperture

Panelists:
Kellie McLaughlin (Aperture Limited Edition Photographs Program)
Amani Olu (Humble Arts Foundation)
Ruben Natal-San Miguel (collector/blogger ARTmostfierce)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
6:30PM

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
4th floor
New York, NY


2.) Aspects of Photography @Christie's Education

This is a short course, including 4 nights of lectures (one at the NY Public Library collection) and a sale walk through with one of the specialists. The course plans to "look at photography from different angles including a history of processes and photography’s place within contemporary art".

September 12-October 12, 2008
$450


3.) The Photographers Lecture Series @ICP

This is a 10 week series of evening talks, given by photographers who show/discuss their work. Here's the schedule:

October 1: Susan Meiselas, In History
October 15: Jeff Liao, From the 7 Train
October 22: Tierney Gearon, Family
October 29: Morten Andersen, Never is Forever
November 5: Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Saga
November 12: Thomas Holton, People
November 19: Ed Kashi, Black Gold
December 3: Andrew Bush, Stories
December 10: Lynn Saville, At Night
December 17: Burk Uzzle, Social Landscapes

$155/$130 for members

You can see some highlights of past lectures here. The talks by Joan Fontcuberta and Vik Muniz are worth checking out.

International Center of Photography (school)
1114 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036