I'm not quite sure what photographic judgement or ability might be involved in taking a screen shot - but it was so good this morning to be able to celebrate this happy occasion, as my student Avigail Moss successfully defended her wonderful dissertation on Insurance and the British Art World in the long nineteenth century. This was stunningly broad and deep in its reach and research - even allowing for pandemic problems, she'd spent so much time in the archives of art institutions (most notably the V&A) and in those of insurance companies. She made one think about the iconography of art insurance; the difference between insuring an art work and an (artist's) life; the relationship of insurance to "value" (and the problems attendant on this when it comes to shifts in taste); what it meant to insure an exhibition (including exhibition maps with fire hose outlets marked); and the whole question of risk. I could go on - this was a full, rich, and fascinating piece of work, and I much look forward to its published iterations in years to come.
(and then I sat on another dissertation committee for Sanders Bernstein, who also successfully defended this afternoon, on "U.S. Culture and Global Fascism, 1914-1933," and that was also a truly impressive piece of work from which I learned masses). But I forgot to take a photo until I was walking away! Alas. (That one was held in person). So it was a busy day ...
So it's been a busy day.
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