January 21, 2009

Two seniors share art history honor

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Two senior art history students share the Tony Fehm Memorial Achievement Award in Art History at Southern Illinois University Carbondale for this academic year.

Robin Hill (Arlington Heights) and Catherine Shotick (Peoria) are the co-recipients of the competitive award. Each will receive $500 for their research in art history.

The annual award goes to an SIUC advanced undergraduate art history student who submits a paper demonstrating excellence in critical analysis and research.

Hill’s paper, “Merging Old and New: Renoir’s Endeavor toward Classical Impressionism,” questioned use of the term “anti-Impressionist” to describe a particular period of August Renoir’s painting.

Shotick’s paper, “Questioning Vanora Bennett’s Novel Portrait of an Unknown Woman: Are There Really Hidden Symbols in Hans Holbein’s Thomas More’s Family Portrait?” examined the plausibility of a recent interpretation of Holbein’s portrait of Sir Thomas More’s family portrait.

Successful applicants for this award must have at least 86 credit hours, and preferably hold at least a 3.0 overall grade point average and a 3.5 grade point average in art history.