Artist Robert Morris will be the first visiting artist to participate in the Presidential Arts Fellows program at the University of Chicago. As the first fellow of 2013, Morris will give a public presentation titled “IS A POUND OF PASSIVITY WORTH A PINCH OF PIQUE?,” at 7 p.m. on Nov. 15, in the Performance Hall at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.
Robert Morris' art has been at the forefront of Minimalism, Performance Art, Process Art and Conceptual Art, to name just a few major artistic movements in the second half of the 20th Century. His career also has been marked by a restless intellect that works across the disciplines, engaging with dance, theater, philosophy, art history and criticism.
“The Presidential Arts Fellows will include some of the boldest figures of the art world,” said Lawrence Zbikowski, Associate Professor of Music and the Humanities and Deputy Provost for the Arts. “Moreover they represent an interest shared by UChicago's own artists and scholars to continually stretch modes, methods and forms of working in any field.”
In the current academic year, the UChicago will select a number of Presidential Arts Fellows, based on their pioneering work, ability to transcend disciplinary boundaries and intersection of interests with campus partners. The visit of each Presidential Arts Fellow will include both public events and more intimate engagements with students, faculty and members of the campus community.
The Morris event is co-presented by Critical Inquiry, the Department of Visual Arts and the Logan Center and is sponsored by cross-disciplinary and institutional partners that speak to Morris' stature as an artist and thinker.
Other sponsors include UChicago's Department of Art History, Graduate Student Affairs and the Open Practice Committee; the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art and Art History; Northwestern University's Department of Art Theory and Practice; and the Office of the Graduate Dean at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
