Welcome to Montage 2008

Welcome to the second issue of Montage, an online art history journal produced annually by members of The University of Iowa Art History Society (AHS) that features contributions from graduate students across the country. The journal emerges from the annual graduate art history symposium sponsored by AHS. Each year, this symposium deals with a significant theme in art historical scholarship, and the 2007 symposium, entitled “In the Crosshairs: Intersections of Art and War,” focused on a particularly timely subject. The articles in this issue employ a variety of methodologies and address an array of time periods and media, as well as a wide selection of topics. For instance, this year’s edition includes a theoretical look at the relationship between the viewer and contemporary war photography, an examination of the effects of the atomic bomb in Japanese cinema, and an investigation of the implications of social biases in Civil War cycloramas.

Building upon momentum from last year’s inaugural issue, we have introduced two new sections in the journal to augment the articles: “Book Reviews” and an “Exhibition in Review.” The first evaluates Michael L. Krenn’s Fall-Out Shelters for the Human Spirit: American Art and the Cold War and John Bonehill and Geoff Quilley’s edited edition, Conflicting Visions: War and Visual Culture in Britain and France c. 1700-1830. The second discusses an exhibit of works by students of the School of Art and Art History’s studio art program that address the topic of war and its repercussions. Originally held in Art Gallery West in conjunction with the 2007 symposium, this on-line catalog of the show provides an opportunity to revisit the conversations begun in the student works. It is our hope that these two new sections will widen the context for dialogue on how issues of war impact upon the visual arts.

— Claire Kovacs, Editor-in-Chief