Jennifer Noonan: USA, Biennials and Cold War Policies

Jennifer Noonan presents a portion of her current research on international print exhibitions and their accompanying graphic art workshops. Her talk focuses on the contributions made by US curators and artists to the international biennials in Venice and Ljubljana, but also considers how at times the US government’s Cold War policies impacted these cultural exchanges.

Jennifer Noonan specialises in art of the twentieth century with a particular focus on the history of prints and international exhibitions. Her research has appeared in Print Quarterly and, most recently, she was the guest editor and contributor to a special edition of OBOE (On Biennials and Other Exhibitions), a journal dedicated to exhibiting prints in large-scale international exhibitions. Her research has been supported by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Terra Foundation at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a Tyson Fellowship at Crystal Bridges. Her current book project (under contract with Routledge) provides the first written account of the Smithsonian Institution’s International Art Program’s Graphic ArtsWorkshop, considering its activities as one element of the soft diplomacy that advanced US interests in the increasingly complex and shifting geopolitical landscape of the Cold War.

The lecture is part of the From Biennale to Biennale events. It is held in English language.

The event will be followed at 16.00 by a presentation entitled "The Culture of Printmaking in the Context of the Examination of the Natural Pigment from Sitarjevec Litija Mine – The Sustainability of Printmaking".

Photo: Archive of the artist