Dr. Joni Hand
The Dada and Anti-Art Movement will be the focus of the March 19 installment in the Historic Tuesday Talk series in the Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II Museum at Southeast Missouri State Universitys River Campus.
Dr. Joni Hand, associate professor of art history at Southeast, will give the presentation at 7 p.m., which is free and open to the public.
One of the most controversial moments in the history of art occurred in the early 20th century when artists in Germany, Switzerland, France and the United States began to examine the art world both from within as a reflective exercise and from outside as a method with which to make sense of an otherwise senseless time. Dada artists questioned their own art making and embraced irony, irreverence, chance and nonsense to create politically and socially charged works of art. This lecture will trace the evolution of Dada and attempt to make sense of the chaos it attempted to define.
Hand earned a Bachelor of Arts in graphic design from Kent State University, a Master of Arts in painting from Bradley University, a Master of Arts in art history from Hunter College of the City University of New York and a doctorate in art history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research concerns late medieval manuscripts in northern Europe and female patronage. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Women, Manuscripts, and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350-1550 (Ashgate, 2013) and Bound for the Midwest: Medieval and Early Modern Religious Manuscripts in the Charles Luce Harrison Collection, Kent Library, Southeast Missouri State University (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2017).
Hand is also a practicing artist, working in mixed media, oils and graphite. Her current work explores physical and metaphysical journeys. She leads the viewer on these pilgrimages through the objects, images or drawings she incorporates into each piece. The destination of each trip is different for each viewer and for each time the work is viewed. She lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, with her husband Kevin.
The Historic Tuesday Talk series takes place at 7 p.m. on select Tuesdays in the Crisp Museum through April 16. The talks consist of short, informational presentations and discussion sessions, and topics include movements, Civil War, World War I, riverboats, railroads, socio-cultural issues, space exploration, regional history, natural resources, fossils, geology and more. For more information, semo.edu/museum/education.html.
Crisp Museum is located at Southeast Missouri State Universitys River Campus at 518 S. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, Missouri. For more information, email museum@semo.edu or call (573) 651-2260.