Art historians, philosophers and anthropologists
will gather on Saturday, Oct. 4, for a symposium titled "Art or Not: Issues in Exhibiting Aesthetic Objects"
at the Yale University Art Gallery. The event is being presented in conjunction with the gallery's current exhibition "Baule: African Art/Western Eyes," which explores the different ways aesthetic objects are viewed in the two cultures.
The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be held 10:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m. in the gallery's lecture hall.
The event will open with introductory remarks by Susan Vogel, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the gallery and curator of the Baule exhibit. The other major topics and speakers will be:
* "What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Art?" by Kwame Anthony Appiah of Harvard University, whose prize-winning books include "In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture" and
(with Amy Gutman) "Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race."
* "Difference and Difficulty" by Svetlana Leontieff Alpers of the University of California at Berkeley, who has written ground-breaking studies of the way people look at art.
* "Real Objects -- Simulated Contexts, Primitivism Revisited" by Ivan Karp of Emory University's Institute of African Studies, who has written extensively about social theory and East African societies.
* "Formalism and Power" by Arthur C. Danto of Columbia University, who has written numerous books and articles on aspects of philosophy and art.
The scholars who will introduce the speakers and participate in the discussion of issues include several museum curators and directors, including Richard Burger of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History, Enid Schildkrout of the American Museum of Natural
History, Philip Ravenhill of the National Museum of African Art, Marla Burns of the University of Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and Francine Ndiaye of Musée de l'Homme in Paris. Other participants will include Ikem Okoye of Northwestern University, Christopher Steiner of
Connecticut College and
Yale faculty members Robert Farris Thompson, Mary Miller, David E. Apter, Karsten Harries and Lamin Sanneh.
The Yale University Art Gallery, located at 1111 Chapel St., is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday. For wheelchair access, call 432-0601; for general information, call 432-0600.