Preston McLane
Director, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts

“‘Let’s Mechanize the Donbass’: Images of Industry from a Contested Heartland”

Southern Ukraine is both riven with strife and ribboned with rivers, arable land, and some of the richest coal and metal ore deposits on earth. Through an exploration of art and images from before the Russian Revolution through to the present day, this talk will illustrate how central the Donets Basin (Donbass) has been to shaping national identities, industrial aesthetics, and futurist visions of a landscape that is both inalterably mechanized and eternally pastoral. Conquering and controlling this storied territory—home of the Don Cossacks, the Crimean Khanate, the Red Army’s stand against Nazi Germany, and endless successions of robber barons—becomes the story of how the pursuit, capture, and defense of natural resources forged Soviet and post-Soviet visual culture more broadly.

Friday, February 21, 12:15 pm
38 West 86th Street, Seminar Room

Preston McLane is the Director of the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA). Prior to coming to Florida State, he lived in Moscow, Russia, where he received his MA from Lomonosov Moscow State University with a thesis on the emergence of synthetic realism in early Soviet easel painting. In addition to his academic pursuits, he has worked for more than a decade as an attorney, both in private practice and in government, focusing on environmental law and regulatory issues. Dr. McLane previously served as a curatorial fellow at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the Appleton Museum of Art, and the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. His research interests include artistic adaptations of the picaresque literary genre; fictitiousness in early modern and contemporary art; nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian and Soviet art; and the application of property theory to cultural resources and heritage sites.

COPY AND PASTE CODE BELOW TO MAILCHIMP

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
               <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
               <head>
                  
                  <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scal=1.0, width=device-width">
                  <style type="text/css">
                     body {
                        margin: 0;
                        padding: 0;
                        min-width: 100%!important;
                        color:#000000;
                     }
                     img {
                        display: block;
                     }
                     a img {
                        border:none;
                     }
                     h4 {
                        display: inline;
                        font-size: 8pt;
                        font-style: normal;
                        font-weight: normal;
                     }
                     h5 {
                        display: inline;
                        font-size: 8pt;
                        font-style: normal;
                        font-weight: normal;
                     }
                     hr {
                        border: 1px solid #dddddd;    
                        width: 600px;
                        margin: 34px 0 30px 36px;
                     }
                     .content {
                        width: 800px;
                        padding: 20px 50px 0;
                        font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
                        font-size: 14px;
                        line-height: 19px;
                     }
                     .content td {
                        font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
                        font-size: 18px;
                        line-height: 24px;
                        color:#000000;
                     }
                     .masthead {
                        font-size: 24px;
                        padding: 0;
                     }
                     .masthead a {
                        text-decoration: none;
                        color: #ee3128;
                     }
                     #intro_text p {
                        padding: 6px 0px 0px 36px;
                        margin-bottom: 0px;
                        width: 600px;
                     }
                     .intro_register_button{
                        margin: 20px 0 20px 36px;
                        padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px;
                     }
                     .register_button {
                        margin-left: 36px;
                        /*margin-bottom: 20px;*/
                        padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px;
                     }
                     .learn_more_button {
                        border: 1px solid;
                        margin-left: 36px;
                        margin-top: 20px;
                     }
                     .event_image {
                        display: block;
                        margin-left: auto;
                        margin-right: auto;
                        margin-top: 35px;
                     }
                     .event_text {
                        margin-left: 36px;
                        margin-bottom: 0px;
                        width: 600px;
                     }
                     /*.event_text p {
                        margin-top: 0px;
                     }*/
                     .section_title {
                        background-color:#eff0ed; 
                        padding: 25px 10px 25px 0px; 
                        text-align: right;
                     }
                     .footer {
        font-size:12px;
        line-height:19px;
        font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
        color:#8c8c8c;
        margin:auto;
        padding:19px 26px 20px 25px;
      }
      
      .footer td {
        font-size:12px;
        line-height:19px;
        font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
        color:#8c8c8c;
      }
      
      .footer a {
        text-decoration:none;
      }
      
      .image_credits_footer {
        font-size:12px;
        line-height:19px;
        font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
        color:#8c8c8c;
        padding:0 0 30px 24px;
        margin:auto;
      }
      
      .image_credits_footer p {
        font-size:12px;
        line-height:19px;
        font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
        color:#8c8c8c;
      }

/* COLOR SCHEME FOR ACTIVE LINKS */
                     .red a {
                        color: #EE3128;
                        font-weight: bold; 
                     }
                     .red img{
                        background: #EE3128;
                     }
                     .turquoise a {
                        color:#00A88E;
                        font-weight: bold; 
                     }
                     .turquoise img {
                        background: #00A88E;
                     }
                     .blue a {
                        color:#004C83;
                        font-weight: bold; 
                     }
                     .blue img {
                        background:#004C83;
                     }
                     .burgundy a {
                        color:#B4314D;
                        font-weight: bold; 
                     }
                     .burgundy img {
                        background: #B4314D;
                        border-color: #B4314D;
                     }
                     .black a {
                        color:#000000;
                        font-weight: bold; 
                     }
                     .black img {
                        background: #000000;
                     }
                     .gray a {
                        color:#BAB8AD;
                        font-weight: bold; 
                     }
                     .gray img {
                        background: #BAB8AD;
                     }
                     /* END COLOR SCHEME FOR ACTIVE LINKS */
               </style>
            </head>
            <body bgcolor="#ffffff">
                
               
               <span class="mcnPreview Text" style="display:none; font-size:0px; line-height:0px; max-height:0px; max-width:0px; opacity:0; overflow:hidden; visibility:hidden; mso-hide:all;">*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*</span> 
               
               <div style="display: none; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">
                   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 
               </div>
               <table width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                  <tr>
                     <td>
                        <table class="content" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
                           <tr>
                              <td>
                                 <table width="700" class="masthead" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                                    <tr>
                                       <td width="14" bgcolor="#000000" height="30">
                                           
                                       </td>
                                          <td valign="bottom">
                                             <a href="http://bgc.bard.edu/"><img src="http://eblasts.bgcdml.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BGC_Logo_Gray.png" width="89" height="56" style="margin-left: 5px;" alt="Bard Graduate Center Logo"></a>
                                          </td>
                                    </tr>
                                    <tr>
                                       <td colspan="2">
                                          <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                                             <tr>
                                                <td width="14" bgcolor="#000000">
                                                </td>
                                             </tr>
                                          </table>
                                       </td>
                                    </tr>
                                 </table>
                              <table width="700" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                                 <tr>
                                    <td width="14" bgcolor="#000000">
                                        
                                    </td>
                                    <td>
                                                                              <a href="" target="_blank"><img src="https://eblasts.bgcdml.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Why-Come-to-Hear_051419.jpg" align="left" style="margin-top: 20px;" alt="Banner Image"></a>
                                    </td>
                                 </tr>
                              </table>
                                                                    <table class="blue" width="700" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                                          <tr>
                                             <td width="14" bgcolor="#000000">
                                                 
                                             </td>
                                             <td id="intro_text">
                                                <p><strong>Preston McLane<br />
</strong>Director, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts</p>
<p><strong>“‘Let’s Mechanize the Donbass’: Images of Industry from a Contested Heartland”</strong></p>
<p>Southern Ukraine is both riven with strife and ribboned with rivers, arable land, and some of the richest coal and metal ore deposits on earth. Through an exploration of art and images from before the Russian Revolution through to the present day, this talk will illustrate how central the Donets Basin (Donbass) has been to shaping national identities, industrial aesthetics, and futurist visions of a landscape that is both inalterably mechanized and eternally pastoral. Conquering and controlling this storied territory—home of the Don Cossacks, the Crimean Khanate, the Red Army’s stand against Nazi Germany, and endless successions of robber barons—becomes the story of how the pursuit, capture, and defense of natural resources forged Soviet and post-Soviet visual culture more broadly.</p>
<p><strong>Friday, February 21, 12:15 pm<br />
</strong>38 West 86th Street, Seminar Room</p>
                                                                                                      <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJfgS1HAtKuZvAFwQFz_Nat97pRFa0Li2bXBGDezcLyU9ozg/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank"><img class="intro_register_button" src="http://eblasts.bgcdml.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Register_Button.png" width="207" height="19" alt="Register Button"></a>
                                                                                                                                                                                                      <hr>
                                                                                             </td>
                                          </tr>
                                       </table>
                                                                                                                                                <table class="blue" width="700" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                                                <tr>
                                                   <td width="14" bgcolor="#000000">
                                                       
                                                   </td>
                                                   <td>
                                                          
                                                                                                                                    <table class="event_text blue" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                                                                     <tr>
                                                                        <td>
                                                                           <p><strong>Preston McLane </strong>is the Director of the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA). Prior to coming to Florida State, he lived in Moscow, Russia, where he received his MA from Lomonosov Moscow State University with a thesis on the emergence of synthetic realism in early Soviet easel painting. In addition to his academic pursuits, he has worked for more than a decade as an attorney, both in private practice and in government, focusing on environmental law and regulatory issues. Dr. McLane previously served as a curatorial fellow at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the Appleton Museum of Art, and the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. His research interests include artistic adaptations of the picaresque literary genre; fictitiousness in early modern and contemporary art; nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian and Soviet art; and the application of property theory to cultural resources and heritage sites.</p>
                                                                        </td>
                                                                     </tr>
                                                                     </table>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                                                                                    <tr>
                                                                                       <td height="0">
                                                                                         
                                                                                       </td>
                                                                                    </tr>
                                                                                 </table>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                                                                                    <tr>
                                                                                       <td height="0">
                                                                                         
                                                                                       </td>
                                                                                    </tr>
                                                                                 </table>
                                                                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                                                                                    <tr>
                                                                                       <td height="0">
                                                                                         
                                                                                       </td>
                                                                                    </tr>
                                                                                 </table>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                                                                                    <tr>
                                                                                       <td height="0">
                                                                                         
                                                                                       </td>
                                                                                    </tr>
                                                                                 </table>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  </td>
                                                </tr>
                                             </table>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            <table width="700" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                                    <tr>
                                       <td>
                                          <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                                             <tr>
                                                <td width="14" height="40" bgcolor="#000000">
                                                      
                                                </td>
                                             </tr>
                                          </table>
                                       </td>
                                    </tr>
                                 </table>
                                 
<table width="700" class="footer blue" bgcolor="#eff0ed" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td class="credit" width="700" colspan="2"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="220">
   <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BardGradCenter" style="font-weight: normal;"><img src="http://eblasts.commons.bgc.bard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2015/08/facebook-square-icon.png" width="14" height="14" style="display:inline; vertical-align:sub; padding-bottom:0px; background: none;" alt="Facebook Icon">  Like us on Facebook</a><br>
   <a href="https://twitter.com/BardGradCenter" style="font-weight: normal;"><img src="http://eblasts.commons.bgc.bard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2015/08/twitter-icon.png" width="14" height="14" style="display:inline; vertical-align:sub; padding-bottom:0px; background: none;" alt="twitter-icon.png" alt="Twitter Icon">  Follow us on Twitter</a><br>
   <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bardgradcenter/" style="font-weight: normal;">
   <img src="http://eblasts.bgcdml.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Instagram.png" width="14" height="14" style="display:inline; vertical-align:sub; padding-bottom:0px; background: none;" alt="Instagram Icon"> Follow us on Instagram</a><br><br>
   <a href="*|FORWARD|*" style="font-weight: normal;">Forward this email to a friend.</a><br>
   <a href="*|UNSUB|*" style="font-weight: normal;">Unsubscribe from this email list.</a>
</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="480" style="text-align:right;">
   Bard Graduate Center<br><a href="http://bgc.bard.edu" style="font-weight: normal;">bgc.bard.edu</a>
   <br><br><br>
   Bard Graduate Center Gallery: <a style="text-decoration:none; color:#000000; font-weight: normal;">18 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024</a><br>
   Academic Programs and Library: <a style="text-decoration:none; color:#000000; font-weight: normal;">38 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024</a>        
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<table width="700" class="image_credits_footer" bgcolor="#eff0ed" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td class="image_credits">
   </td>
</tr>
</table>
 
               </body>
               </html>