A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
A silhouette of a person against a blue background.

Sarah Estrela

Contact

Bio

Education: BA, 2015, Wheaton College, Norton, MA; MA, 2018, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; Ph.D. ABD, Northwestern University. 

Curatorial Experience: Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa, 2018, Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL (Graduate Fellow); Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, December 2024, Art Institute of Chicago (Curatorial Research Associate). 

Publications: Artforum, New City Brazil. 

Awards: Liz Warnock Summer Research Grant; COSI Mellon Curatorial Research Fellowship, Art Institute of Chicago; SSRC Dissertation Proposal Development Program; Barbara Smith Shanley Graduate Travel Fellowship.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1048

Credits

3

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

2448

Credits

3

Description

This class offers one survey of how artists have responded and adapted to moments of severe political, economic, and social uncertainty. Some, like Albert Speer in Nazi Germany and Antonio Ferro of the Estado Novo in Portugal proudly shaped the images of dictatorial regimes. Others, like Pablo Picasso, created works that spoke to the horrors committed under Francisco Franco of Spain; others, like Malangatana Ngwenya, made drawings while imprisoned and awaiting trial. We will look at a spectrum of artists whose responses to their circumstances vary widely.
Together, we ask: how does one cultivate and protect free expression? How do we historicize art made during moments of crisis, censorship, and severe oppression? Each week, we will concentrate on a particular time and regime within the twentieth century across five continents. We will begin in Ancient Rome to explore the concept of the dictator perpetuo, and will explore one regime per week in the following countries: Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Soviet Union, Germany, Cuba, Cambodia, North Korea, China, and Sudan. Texts will primarily consist of primary sources, artist interviews, documentaries and art-historical articles and book chapters. Secondary texts include Mary Beard's 'Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern' (2021); Claudia Calirman's 'Brazilian Art Under Dictatorship: Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio, and Cildo Meireles' (2012), and Douglas Gabriel's 'Over the Mountain: Realism Toward Unification in Cold War Korea, 1980-1994' (2019, diss.).
Assignments include one 5-page exhibition proposal and one final exam.

Class Number

2263

Credits

3