Name: Angela Pastorelli-Sosa
Year: 2016
Major: Art History
Hometown: Yonkers, New York
You spent the summer in Madrid on a Williams’ travel fellowship. Could you tell us a little bit about the work you did there and your experience living abroad?
I was in Madrid studying Francisco de Goya’s print series, Los Caprichos and Desastres de la Guerra. My summer research paper aimed at studying Goya’s politics around the time these prints were produced. Historiography has rendered Goya as this radical, antiestablishment hero, who many modern and contemporary artists love to identify with, so I set out to investigate his political ideologies and influences. I was able to conduct archival research at the Museo Nacional del Prado, and was lucky enough to see the original prints—hands down, the most exciting thing to happen to me, ever.
But because the Prado worked on a summer schedule and closed in the early afternoons, I was also able to take in the city. Madrid is absolutely beautiful, it has these wide boulevards and a lot of green open spaces like the regal Parque del Retiro-I mean, the park is littered with Neo-Classical statues and fountains. And something else that I loved about the city was their cultural centers, which are open to the public. And these are spaces where people can go do work, or hang out with other people, and they have some pretty interesting art exhibits too, ranging from performance art displays to contemporary Mexican photography.
The food was also a highlight. The Spanish sure do love their jamón and tapas, and so do I. But aside from going out to restaurants or cafés, one of my favorite things to do was go food shopping. On the weekends, there are a lot of open-air markets, where not only is the food incredibly fresh but you talk about food and recipes with the people selling you produce. And so many people are at the markets, it’s not isolating like when you’re at a supermarket or even the grocery store. It was at the market that I understood their culture the most.
How is the research you did in Madrid translating into your work back on campus?
The research I conducted on Goya in Madrid was the first part of a research paper aimed at investigating how artists typically associated with leftist movements recycle the radicalized image of Goya in an attempt to create symbolic continuity within the narrative of political oppression. I am currently investigating one contemporary artists named Enrique Chagoya –and no he did not change his last name—who has transformed Goya prints from both Caprichos and Desastres into commentary on Goya’s print series and the radicalized image of Goya has been recycled in the narrative of political oppression. Artists typically associated with leftist movements
Would you say that studying abroad, both over the summer in Madrid and last semester in Rome, has made your postgrad vision more clear?
I think the most important thing for me about studying abroad was getting out of the Purple Bubble and immersing myself in different cultures and different ways of life. Being able to understand and connect with the culture and influences of different places is so important in my field, especially in the area I want to study—the intersection of politics and art. Living and studying abroad has opened up a whole new world for me. Before coming to Rome, I never considered studying outside of the US for graduate school, but now I’m considering applying to several programs in the UK and Spain. I now understand how important it is to study art from numerous vantage points and perspectives—cultural and otherwise.
What is one piece of advice you would give to freshmen about finding their passion?
Try everything! Take classes in all different subjects and find something that you connect with and go after it. When I came to Williams I thought I was going to be an Anthropology major, but my freshman fall I enrolled in Art History 101 and fell in love. Don’t have your heart set on one major. So many people come to college with this grand ambitious view about what they’ll study and what their future looks like and often it doesn’t work out quite that simply. On the other hand lots of people come to college with no idea about what they want to study. The beauty of a place like Williams, and liberal arts colleges in general, is that there’s room to explore and find something you really love!