C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y RECORD March 7, 2003 7

Wallach Gallery Presents First U.S. Retrospective of French Artist Jean FautrierPaintings, works on paper,

sculptures, original multiplesand illustrated books by JeanFautrier, one of France's mostimportant wartime and postwarartists, are on display at theMiriam and Ira D. Wallach ArtGallery, 8th Floor SchermerhornHall, through Mar 29. “JeanFautrier: 1898–1964” is the firstretrospective of Fautrier's workin the United States and willinclude more than 60 worksfrom public and private collec-tions in Europe and the UnitedStates.

Fautrier is one of the fewmodern artists to have addressedwith profundity the horrors ofwar. His series of works theOtages (Hostages)—semi-abstract paintings of partiallyobliterated or disfigured facesand bodies of victims of Naziatrocities—grew out of hisdirect experience with the mur-der of French citizens duringNazi occupation.

Writing about these works inthe catalogue, BenjaminBuchloh, art history professor atBarnard and Columbia, says,“Fautrier’s images generate aprofound experience of psychicrevolt and physical revulsion.”

In another essay Yve-AlainBois, art history professor atHarvard University, proclaimsthat Fautrier’s art is one of the

most sophisticated exemplifica-tions of the informel, or form-less.

In other paintings— of nudes,animal carcasses and land-scapes—Fautrier evoked a worldof darkness and violence whilepushing the boundaries of tradi-tional representational art furtherand further into abstraction. Thisexhibition introduces new audi-ences to a major French mod-ernist who has been largelyoverlooked in the United States.

The exhibition is curated byKaren K. Butler, a Ph.D. candi-date in Columbia's Departmentof Art History and Archaeology,and Curtis L. Carter, the directorof the Haggerty Museum of Artat Marquette University. Theexhibition is jointly organizedby the Wallach Art Gallery, theHaggerty Museum of Art and theFogg Art Museum at HarvardUniversity.

The exhibition catalogue, thefirst major publication onFautrier in English, includestranslations of critical writingsby French writer and Resis-tance hero André Malraux, andJean Paulhan, French philoso-pher, writer and cultural critic.Linking Fautrier's postwarwork to its greater cultural con-text, the catalogue documentshis impact on contemporaryartistic and literary movements:

the art of Jean Dubuffet andl'art informel in Europe, andabstract expressionism inAmerica, particularly the workof Jackson Pollock.

In conjunction with the exhibi-tion, the Wallach Art Gallery, incooperation with Columbia'sMaison Française, will sponsor arelated symposium on Saturday,Mar 8, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00p.m. in Room 501, Schermer-horn Hall. Serge Guilbaut, pro-fessor of art history at the Uni-versity of British Columbia, willdeliver the keynote address.Bois, Buchloh, Butler, Carterand Perry will participate, as willAmes Hodes, Ph.D. candidate inColumbia’s French department;Anna-Louise Milne, indepen-dent scholar, and Eric Trudel,Bard College faculty member.The event is free and open to thepublic. Reservations are notrequired.

Support for the exhibition andsymposium is provided by theSterling Currier Fund, the Flo-rence Gould Charitable Trust,the Central-National GottesmanFoundation and Dr. Lee Mac-Cormick Edwards and friends ofthe gallery.

Gallery hours are Wednesday,Friday and Saturday 1:00 p.m. to5:00 p.m.; Thursday 1:00 p.m. to8:00 p.m. The exhibition is alsofree and open to the public. Bouquet of Flowers, 1927 by Jean Fautrier

A Complete Calendar for the Midnight’s Children Humanities FestivalMarch 2 at 1:00 p.m., Casa ItalianaA Matter for Us: Post-Colonial Nations and Color

Lines—The multiple international significance of thecolor line in formerly colonized nations—its personaland political meanings—are discussed by PatriciaWilliams, Gauri Viswanathan and Manning Marable,experts on the politics of race and language and colonialculture studies.

March 4 at 7:00 p.m., Riverside ChurchThe Colonial Context of Midnight’s Children—with

Nicholas Dirks.

March 5 at 7:00 p.m., Casa ItalianaDialogue with Edward Said—moderated by Akeel

Bilgrami.

March 6 at 7:00 p.m., Riverside ChurchTeach-In on Thirty Years of Indian and Pakistani His-

tory: A Tryst with Destiny. Gyan Pandey, Aamir Mufti.

March 7 at 7:00 p.m., Casa ItalianaWriters and Oppression—Writers concerned with the

issue of literary and intellectual freedom, including Inter-national Parliament of Writers President Russell Banks,Coco Fusco, Michael Scammell and Eduardo Machadodebate their views.

March 8 at 1:00 p.m., Riverside ChurchSouth Asia, Salman Rushdie and the Media—Journal-

ists and cultural commentators, Todd Gitlin, SreenathSreenivasan and Tunku Varadarjan, examine the devel-opment of the image of South Asians and South Asia inthe American media, both before, during and after the“Rushdie Affair.”

March 9 at 1:00 p.m., Casa ItalianaReligion and Politics—Amaney Jamal, Rachel

McDermott and E. Valentine Daniel have expertise in thefaiths of the Middle East and South Asia and talk aboutreligions’inextricable ties to politics. Moderated by PeterAwn.

March 9 at 3:30 p.m., Casa ItalianaBombay: The Power of Place and the Idea of the

City—The centrality of Bombay in the novel Midnight’sChildren inspires a discussion among Gyan Prakash,Janaki Bakhle and Homi Bhabha about the dynamicpower of a world city that is as palpable in the imagina-tion as it is in reality. Moderated by Nicholas Dirks.

March 11 at 7:00 p.m., Riverside ChurchTeach-In on Thirty Years of Indian and Pakistani History:

Bangladesh—Gowher Rizvi, Tariq Banuri.

March 12 at 7:00 p.m., Miller TheatreWriters’ Roundtable—Writers Vikram Chandra, Michael

Cunningham, Farzana Moon and Neil Bissoondath read fromtheir work and discuss ideas and genres related to SalmanRushdie’s novels, such as magic realism, non-linear narrative,and the relationship between film and the novel. Moderatedby Jayme Koszyn.

March 13 at 7:00 p.m., Riverside ChurchTeach-In on Thirty Years of Indian and Pakistani History:

A State of Emergency—Partha Chatterjee.

March 17 at 6:30 p.m., Asia Society, 725 Park Ave at70th Street

Midnight’s Children: Musings of the Past/ Envisioning theFuture—This inter-generational panel of South Asians willinclude those who were involved in the independence move-ment of India and the founding of Pakistan. Panelists will dis-cuss the history and legacy of these movements and theirimpact on local and global communities. ($7 Asia SocietyMembers, Students and Seniors; $10 General. For furtherinformation on this event, or speakers call 212-517-ASIA.)

March 22, at 1:30 p.m., Altschul Auditorium, Interna-tional Affairs Building

Interview with Salman Rushdie—Conducted by ColumbiaPresident Lee C. Bollinger.

March 22 at 3:30 p.m., Altschul AuditoriumFrom Novel to Dramatic Presentation—Salman Rushdie,

Simon Reade and members of the creative team who adaptedthe Midnight’s Children discuss the journey from the novel tothe stage.

March 25 at 7:00 p.m., Riverside ChurchIndia and Pakistan: Culture and Society—The intersection

amongst diverse aspects of contemporary South Asian societyis addressed by a cross-disciplinary group of experts on Indiaand Pakistan, including: Anupama Rao, Arvind Rajagopaland Syed Nauman Naqvi.

March 26 at 7:00 p.m., Black Box Theater in AlfredLerner Hall

Open Table Rehearsal—Midnight’s Children cast mem-bers Zubin Varla, Syreeta Kumar, Selva Rasalingam and

Anjali Jay and Assistant Director/Live Music DirectorAileen Gonsalvez reveal the process of working on ascene from the play. Co-Sponsored by the King’s CrownShakespeare Troupe.

March 27 at 7:00 p.m., Miller TheatreHigh Art and Low Art: The Mix of Language and

Class in Literature—Two cultural commentators, aShakespearean, and a scholar on Yiddish language lookat the way contemporary and historical writers havemediated between the high and the low. John Rockwell,Jim Shapiro, Jeremy Dauber, Margo Jefferson. Moder-ated by Ben Cameron.

March 30 at 7:00 p.m., Miller TheatreThe Performed Novel—Actors read passages from

Midnight’s Children.

March 24-April 5, LeRoy Neiman Center for PrintStudies, Dodge Hall

The Broken Mirror: The Midnight’s Children Exhibi-tion—The Midnight’s Children Humanities Festivalhosts a visual arts exhibition, curated by Chitra Ganeshand featuring the work of Rina Banerjee and YukenTeruya. The Broken Mirror will present paintings, sculp-ture, and installations by nine contemporary artists fromSouth Asia and the United States who investigate therelationship between history and myth. Exhibition is freeand open to the public, Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.- 5:00p.m., Saturday noon – 6:00 p.m.

The Midnight’s Children Humanities Festival is pro-grammed by Jayme Koszyn Consulting. Unless other-wise noted, all tickets are $5 and are available throughthe Miller Theatre Box Office, 2960 Broadway (at 116thStreet), 212-854-7799, or online at www.midnightschil-drenNYC.com. Complete Festival information and par-ticipant bios are also available on this Web site.

Columbia University Venue AddressesCasa Italiana, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (between W.

116th and 118th) Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue (between W.

120th and 122nd St.), Assembly Hall Miller Theater, 2960 Broadway (northeast corner of

W. 116th and Broadway)Altschul Auditorium, located in the lobby of the Inter-

national Affairs Building: 420 W. 118th Street (andAmsterdam) Black Box Theater, Alfred Lerner Hall,Broadway at W. 115th Street.