Cornelia Lauf: A Conversation on Today’s Realism
Third from left: Professor Cornelia Lauf
JCU Art History professor Cornelia Lauf organized a roundtable on Realism with the Polo Museale, Regione Siciliana, in Catania, Sicily on March 22. The event was a conversation on what Realism means today in various fields such as art, agriculture, finance, publishing, preservation, fashion, and archaeology. In addition to Prof. Lauf, the participants were Dr. Gioconda Lamagna, Director of Polo Regionale di Catania, Architect Giovanni Laudani, Director of Casa Museo Giovanni Verga, Architect Carmelo Distefano, Director of the University of Catania’s regional library, and Architect Santa Sorbello, cataloguer of Casa Museo G. Verga, Dr. Diego Tonus, artist, winner of the Italian Council Grant and curator of the exhibit “Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter,” Giuseppe Mendolia Calella, contemporary art curator, Dr. Gaetano Tirrò, agronomist, and, Architect Giuseppe Catalano di Mellilli, descendant of Italian author Giovanni Verga and moderator of the discussion.
Cornelia Lauf, an art historian and curator, teaches in JCU’s Art History M.A. program in Rome. She earned her Ph.D. at Columbia University. Her exhibition projects include Artist/Author, Contemporary Artist’s Books (American Federation of Arts, NY), Konstantin Gricic (Casa di Goethe, Rome; Harvard University, Cambridge; Klassik Stiftung, Weimar), Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists (Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland); Indeed, an international traveling exhibition on certificates of authenticity by artists. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of Imschoot, Uitgevers, in Belgium; co-founded Three Star Books in Paris, and produced numerous books and editions with contemporary artists. She is the art director of Agricola Due Leoni, an organic olive oil venture. She has lectured at many institutions, including Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities, Los Angeles; Tate, London; Musei Civici, Venice; Museum of Modern Art, New York.
