"Specters of Idolatry" presentation

Monday, November 5, 2012

 

 

“Specters of Idolatry” presentation

Dr. Cristina Cruz González will present “Specters of Idolatry” on Thursday, Nov. 8, from noon to 1 p.m. in room 104 of the Bartlett Center. The talk is free and open to the public.

The sixteenth-century encounter between Spain and the New World is traditionally defined by both destruction and conversion. This talk begins by exploring the destruction process – the breaking of images, the leveling of buildings – as a defining component for religious conversion in colonial Mexico. González proceeds with a vested interest in the absent figure of the idol – the false image as ghost – in order to better understand late colonial and nineteenth-century poltergeists and corresponding exorcisms.

Gonzalez is assistant professor of art history at Oklahoma State University. She is completing a book on Franciscan image

theory in the New World. Her current research is steeped in hauntology and investigates the specter of the idol beyond idolaclasty.

Gonzalez’s talk is part of an art faculty-led series. Click here for more information on the series. For museum blog, click here. For Museum of Art website, click here.