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![[Photo: Ralph Ubl]](images/ralph_ubl.jpg)
Ralph Ubl
Ralph Ubl, born in Vienna in 1969, is the Allan and Jean Frumkin Professor of Visual Art in the Committee on Social Thought and in the College. He holds a PhD in art history from the University of Vienna. After teaching in Vienna, Berlin, Basel, Baltimore, and Karlsruhe, he joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2007. He works primarily on art and art theory since 1800. He has published extensively on modern painting and its after-effects in photography, collage, film, and beyond. In his book on Max Ernst, Prähistorische Zukunft. Max Ernst und die Ungleichzeitigkeit des Bildes, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich, 2004, he examines fundamental concepts of historical discontinuity in the avant-garde. He has written several articles on the poetics of drawing, theoretical and methodological issues of art history, the depiction of animals, and political representation in 17th century Rome. Professor Ubl's current research focuses on concepts of space and orientation, the history and theory of drawing, and French Romanticism. He is presently working on a study of Eugène Delacroix and the temporalization of painting.
Please join Ralph Ubl, Allan and Jean Frumkin Professor of Visual Art in the Committee on Social Thought and in the College for his lecture on:
A Painter’s Quest for the Other:
Eugène Delacroix’ "A Jewish Wedding in Morocco"
Delacroix spent six months in Morocco in 1832, producing numerous
sketches and making copious notes. This material provided the basis for a
number of Orientalist paintings in the following three decades. In the case
of Delacroix, we can speak of Orientalist paintings not only for
iconographic reasons, but also, and more importantly, because his paintings
in themselves display perceptive and imaginative qualities considered
Orientalist. While one can certainly look at it as the transformation of
Morocco into the Orient of painting, this in no way means that the
geo-cultural space of Morocco is completely absorbed into the imaginary
space of Orientalism. There are many and obvious connections to
Delacroix’ voyage to Morocco. As before, these are not only iconographic in
nature, demonstrating an exact study of North African architecture,
clothing, and customs; but of equal importance is the fact that these
paintings bear witness to the conditions of visibility that determined how
Delacroix perceived and depicted North Africa. The focus of this lecture
will be on a single painting Delacroix painted between 1837 and 1841 and
which he exhibited in the Salon of that year: "A Jewish Wedding in
Morocco". Representing a ritual which consisted of different degrees and
phases of showing and concealing this picture gives a fine example of
Delacroix’ highly reflective approach to cultural alterity.
| When: | Tuesday, March 11th |
| Lunch at 11:30 a.m. followed by Mr. Ubl's program at 12:00 noon | |
| Location: | The Chicago Club 81 East Van Buren Street Chicago, Illinois |
| Cost: | The cost is $40 per person, members and guests |
Please respond by Tuesday, March 4, 2008