Athens, Ga. – The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia will host a two-and-a-half-hour symposium on the modernist artists’ group Cercle et Carré on Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The symposium will feature scholars speaking on topics related to the exhibition “Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art.”
The exhibition focuses on the art and history of a rarely discussed modernist group formed by Joaquín Torres-García, Michel Seuphor and Pierre Daura.
“This exhibition has been an outstanding opportunity to make use of the primary resources of the Pierre Daura Center at the museum: the Daura archive and collection,” said Lynn Boland, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art at the museum, who also organized the event. “In addition to helping bring new research to light, this program highlights some of the university’s strengths in Modernist scholarship.” Martha Randolph Daura, the artist’s daughter, established the center in 2002 at the museum in honor of her father.
“The group’s 1930 exhibition is widely considered a landmark event in the history of modernism, and many of the participants are well known, but their journal and exhibition have been little studied before now,” Boland said. “There are also a number of lesser known participants long past due for ‘rediscovery,’ something the exhibition and the mini-symposium hope to encourage.”
Well known members of Cercle et Carré also included Wassily Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Kurt Schwitters and Sophie Taueber-Arp.
The mini-symposium and is free and open to the public. Boland will provide general remarks and an overview of the history and the development of the movement and its goals. Four speakers will give presentations on this forgotten movement.
Laura Valeri, associate curator of European art at the museum, will present Seuphor’s editing of the scholarly journals published by Cercle et Carré and the complementary exhibition “L’objet en Mouvement: Early Abstract Film.”
Jed Rasula, Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor in the department of English at the University of Georgia and a leading scholar of modernist literature and culture, will offer an informative pairing of the Cercle et Carré journal and the Surrealist-oriented publication Minotaure.
Nell Andrew, assistant professor of modern art at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at UGA, will present new research on Sophie Tauber-Arp from her forthcoming book.
Catherine Dossin, assistant professor of art history at Purdue University, will present research published in her essay in the exhibition’s catalogue about Seuphor and historiography of Cercle et Carré.
In the last hour after the presentations, Janice Simon, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Art History, will join the rest of the panel in a discussion portion moderated by Boland.
Partial support for the exhibition and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.
Museum information
Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is located in the Performing and Visual Art Complex on the East Campus of the University of Georgia. The address is 90 Carlton Street, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 30602-6719. For more information, including hours, see http://www.georgiamuseum.org or call 706-542-4662.
