ART HISTORY: Loren Lerner

I am a professor and incoming chair of the Department of Art History, Concordia University. I have an interdisciplinary foundation that comes from my studies in art history (M.A., University of Michigan), library studies (M.L.S., McGill University) and communication (Phd, Université de Montréal). My recent research interests include: nineteenth-century art that addresses class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and colonialism; postmodernist approaches in recent Canadian art, particulary amongst post-World War II Canadian artists of eastern European origins; and visual explorations of the violence mythos, especially from feminist perspectives.

In my teaching and research I tend to adopt a feminist postmodern critique of the cultural and social world, in seeking to define and describe the critical silences subordinated by traditional historical representations of knowledge and experience. Teaching I define as a sensemaking activity generated through conversation that reaches beyond the confines of the classroom. To teach is to facilitate, I believe, not to pretend to be the expert. From this viewpoint I also seek to create community, by encouraging profound and sustained collegial interactions that include faculty, students, researchers and representatives of different sectors of a cultural society.

ASSIGNMENT:
(later)

PUBLICATIONS:
(last eight years, selective)

Canadian Artists of Eastern European Origin. Canadian Heritage, Multiculturalism Canada research grant, 1999.

"Art in Context" . (The Judaica artifacts collection of the Temple Emanu-el Beth Sholom), Schoolnet, Industry Canada, 1996. In collaboration with Percy Johnson.

Taylor, James and Loren Lerner. "Making sense of sensemaking: How managers construct their organization through their talk." Studies in Culture, Organizations and Societies 2 (1996); 257-286.

PRESENTATIONS:
(last five years, selective)

"Monet's Private Gardens at Giverny: The Metamorphosis of Effect into
Sacred Space." Concordia Alumni Association (March 17, 1999) and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (March 24, 1999).

"The Shadow of the Holocaust in Contemporary Canadian Art." The Centre for Community and Ethnic Studies, Montreal (February 3, 1999).

"Remembrances and Reinterpretations: Jewish Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art." Canadian Council for Reform Judaism Biennial, Toronto
(November 14, 1998).

"Montreal of the 1970s in the Prints of Hungarian-Canadian Artist Eva Landori." Universities Art Association of Canada, University of Western
Ontario, London (November 6, 1998).

"Rita Briansky's Kaddish Series: A Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust." Held in conjunction with the exhibition at the Temple Emanu-El Beth Sholom co-sponsored with the Montreal Memorial Holocaust Centre (June 7, 1998).

"Shifting Diaspora: An Exploration of Generational, Intercultural, and Territorial Identities of Lev and Dina Podolsky, Father and Daughter Refusenik Artists." Universities Art Association of Canada, Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver (November 7, 1997).

TEACHING:
(1998-2000, selected)

ART HISTORY GRADUATE SEMINAR (ARTH 610G/4)
Hate, Violence and Genocide Effects in Twentieth-Century North American Art and Theory
(to be offered Winter 2000)

The Holocaust, a defining event of this century, was a brutal offence to
human dignity, yet fifty years after Nurenberg we have still not developed
an international moral culture to prevent intolerance and violence. This
seminar investigates North American representations of the Holocaust and
other twentieth-century genocides, and the critical strategies that define
the positions of experiencing, remembering and being subjects of that
historical consciousness. Exploring how artists in a variety of contemporary modes of art practice, including the counter-monument, performative-based works, and public artistic interventions, have responded to pervasive violence, acts of political terror, violations perpetuated by individuals and family violence, are also crucial aspects of this study. The theoretical readings draw upon historical writings, testimonial literature, philosophical reflections, documentary and imaginary poetry, prose, film and drama.


ART HISTORY GRADUATE SEMINAR (ARTH 610C/4)
Canadian Artists of Eastern European Origin
(offered Winter 1999 and Fall 1998)

Spanning the period from the 1940s to the present, this seminar considers
Canadian artists that are somehow connected with what the Soviets labelled
"eastern Europe." Its focus is primarily on the experiences of emigrés and
their descendants from Bosnia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Rumania,
Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. Many came to Canada as refugees: in the 1940s and early 1950s after the Second World War; in the mid-1950s due to the Hungarian rebellion, in the 1970s because of the Czechoslovakian uprising and the release of Russian Jewish refuseniks, and in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of the demise of the Soviet Union and the unrest in Serbia and Croatia. Exploring how these transplanted artists of eastern Europe have identified with their original and adopted countries and how descendants have recently been reconnecting with their heritage will be an important connective thread in this study.

The principal objective is to treat this eastern European / Canadian
geographical and historical entity as a site in which to examine recent
theoretical concerns in cultural studies. Broadly speaking these are discussions on exile and creativity; migrancy, diaspora and identity;
ethnicity and multiculturalism; landscape and memory; Holocaust and genocide; and ways of remembering the subject, the society, and art's past.

The concentration is mostly on living artists, with primary and secondary
sources such as exhibition catalogues, newspaper articles, artists' files,
interviews, archival documentation and videos providing the material
evidence for this inquiry.

EXHIBITIONS IN PROGRESS:
(for the year 2000)

Exhibition title (tentative): Re-Constructing A Collective Memory:
Canadian Women Artists Re-Present the Holocaust
Co-Curators: Dr. Loren Lerner and Allyson Adley
Place: Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
Date: April-May 2000

This exhibition will deal with contemporary representations of the
Holocaust by our Canadian women artists (confirmation pending):

Sorel Cohen
Katja MacLeod
Mindy Miller
Yvonne Singer
Marion Wagschal

Although none of the artists under consideration were actual Holocaust survivors, their personal histories connect to the Holocaust and resonate with the pain of loss and displacement, compelling them to contribute their stories to a collective Holocaust memory. Artistic forms of narration assume great significance especially when we consider that the Nazi's objective was not merely to annihilate the Jewish people, but also to obliterate their memories. The eradication of memory can be a powerful weapon, especially when it is used against a people whose traditions and culture are inextricably tied to acts of personal, familial and community remembrance. The intersections of biography and history and the legacy of memory from one generation to the next will therefore be an important focus of this exhibition. With the generation of Holocaust survivors aging, it seems crucial to examine how and why these artists are re-constructing and re-presenting creative works related to the Holocaust.

The exhibition will be presented as the inaugural, first temporary exhibition of the newly-renovated Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. Various art works in diverse media such as painting, sculpture, photography and installation will be assembled as a means of stimulating informed reactions to current discursive constructions of the Holocaust. As we feel the exhibition will foster discussion and debate about these recent multi-layered responses to the Holocaust, we are also suggesting that a symposium, open to the general public, be held in conjunction with the exhibition. Artists will be invited to speak in order to encourage exchanges and questions about the role art can play as a commemorative and instructional tool, and will address why they have chosen to represent the Holocaust in their work. Art historians will also speak about Holocaust effects on contemporary art. Tours of the exhibition will be given by the co-curators with assistance from a group of Concordia graduate students from the Department of Art History in both English and French to elementary school, high school, CEGEP and university students and to the general public.

Exhibition Title (tentative): Testimonies and Memories
co-curators: Dr. Loren Lerner and Carole Brisson
Date: November-December 2000
Place: Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University

"Testimonies and Memories" is an exhibition of art works in different media
by refugee and emigré artists who came to Canada in the twenty-year period following the Second World War. In grouping these artists according to thisset of historical and geographical entities, the intention is to show how these transplanted artists have variously explored personal and collective memory and biography. Several important themes surface in the shared concerns and commonalities of these artists. These include the echoes of war experienced as a child, the lingering trauma of the Holocaust, and the diasporic effects of loss, dislocation and immigration. Also of significance is an emphasis on ethical and moral responsibility, in artistic narratives that defy the boundaries of geographical space and historical time.

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