Christine Petra Sellin, Ph.D.
Professor of Art
csellin@callutheran.edu
(
William Rolland Art Center #101
About
Art historian Christine Sellin, now professor emeritus, specializes in the religious art, literature, and narrative imagination of the early modern northern Netherlands, the Old Testament in particular. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from UCLA and a B.A. degree in English literature from UC Berkeley. Professor Sellin has produced scholarly books, articles, reviews and translations and continues as research associate of UCLA's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Professor Sellin taught numerous courses at Cal Lutheran: the major art history surveys, parts I and II; Medieval art (200-1300 AD); Pre-Columbian and Andean Art (1500 BCE- 1500 CE); Modern and Contemporary art (1850s-1970s); American art (1500-1960s); Art and Civilization, 16th-19th centuries (honors course); and Medieval Manuscripts (honors course); Special topic courses taught elsewhere include: Ancient Greek and Roman art; Marcel Duchamp, Dada and Surrealism; Abstract Expressionism; 17th century Dutch Art; Baroque Art; Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer; and Italian Renaissance Art quattrocento and cinquecento.
Prior to her academic career, Sellin was a professional filmmaker, specializing in producing visual effects for a decade. She worked on major motion pictures, documentaries, music videos, commercials, and television shows. Techniques involved computer-generated imagery, traditional cel animation, stop-motion animation, motion-control models and minatures, matte paintings, and pyrotechnics, among others. She worked most often on combination projects: that is, the combining of live action and visual effects elements via optical and digital composites. She has experience working in a number of film formats: digital, of course, but also IMAX, 65mm, Vista Vision, 35mm, and 16mm. Her screen credits include, but are not limited to: Ghost (Jerry Zucker, 1988), Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1990), and Pee Wee's Playhouse (Paul Reubens, 1986-87), as well as one of the worst movies ever made in Hollywood, Solar Crisis (Richard Sarafian, 1990).
Education
2003 Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, UCLA
- Dissertation Thesis: 'Uitgedreven en door Godts Engel geredt’: The Biblical Hagar and Ishmael in 17th Century Netherlandish Painting and Literature
- Major Specialization: 17th Century Netherlandish Art
- Minor Specialization: Italian Renaissance Art
- Advanced to Candidacy 2/26/01. Degree award date: 4/28/03.
1999 Masters of Arts in Art History, UCLA
- Master's Thesis: Portrayals of the Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael in 17th Century Dutch Painting
- Major Specialization: Baroque/Renaissance Art
- Minor Specializations: Southeast Asian; contemporary Latin American art.
1984 Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, UC Berkeley
- Senior Thesis: Art, Women, and Creation in James Joyce’s 'Ulysses'
Publications
2017 "The Fate of Sir Walter Ralegh’s “Lost” Map of the “Empyre” of Guiana" (in collaboration with P. R. Sellin), ed. E. Geleijns, Een Oud Boeck is Oud Goud: Studies over Bizondere Werken bij het Afscheid van Ad Lierentveld als Conservator Moderne Handschriften van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Koninkljke Bibliotheek/De Buitenkant: The Hague, 2017, pp. 238-252.
2015 Exhibition Review. "Spectacular Rubens: the Triumph of the Eucharist at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles", (solicited) College Art Association Reviews, A. Gilbert and D. Raskin, eds. (http://www.caareviews.org/reviewers/2147). August.
2012 Book review. Matthias Hüning, Jan Konst, Tanja Holzhey (eds.), Neerlandistiek in Europa. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de universitaire neerlandistiek buiten Nederland en Vlaanderen (solicited). BMGN: Low Countries Historical Review, The Hague, vol. 127, March (http://www.bmgn-lchr.nl/index.php/bmgn/article/view/URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-109781).
2011 Crossing Boundaries and Transforming Identities: New Perspectives in Netherlandic Studies (co-edited with M. Lacy Bruijn). Publications of the American Association for Netherlandic Studies, Münster: Nodus Publikationen.
2011 Guest editor, Dutch Crossing: A Journal of Low Countries Studies(Fall issue), Association for Low Countries Studies in Great Britain. Leeds: Maney Publishing.
2011 Guest editor, Dutch Crossing: A Journal of Low Countries Studies (Summer issue), Association for Low Countries Studies in Great Britain. Leeds: Maney Publishing.
2011 Translation. Yvonne Bleyerveld, “A Perfect Means of Communication: Allegorical Prints with Moral and Religious Messages Invented by Willem van Haecht”, in Bart Ramakers (ed.) Understanding Art in Antwerp. Classiciszing the Popular, Popularizing the Classic (1540-1580), Groningen: Groningen Studies in Cultural Change 45, pp. 93-107.
2010 From Unholy to Holy: The Four Female Ancestors of Jesus Christ In the Gospel of Matthew (co-authored with Ruth Mellinkoff), Ruth Mellinkoff Publications, Los Angeles.
2009 “Chin-Chucks and Transparent Veils: The Biblical Judah and Tamar (Gen. 38) in Early Modern Netherlandish Art and Literature”, History in Dutch Studies, ed., M. Lacy (Publications of the American Association for Netherlandic Studies). Münster: Nodus Publikationen, pp. 209-219.
2008 “Abraham as ‘Polygamist’?: Theological, Literary and Artistic Developments in 16th and 17th century Netherlandish Culture”(solicited), History in Dutch Studies, ed. M. Lacy (Publications of the American Association for Netherlandic Studies), Münster: Nodus Publikationen, pp. 201-212.
2006 Fractured Families and Rebel Maidservants: The Biblical Hagar in Seventeenth Century Dutch Art and Literature. New York/London: T&T Clark/Continuum Books.
2003 "The Biblical Hagar and Ishmael in Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Painting and Conceptions of Family and Community,” History in Dutch Studies, ed. M. Lacy (Publications of the American Association for Netherlandic Studies), Lanham: University Press of America, pp. 181-196.
1997 "The Making of 'Che!': The Demythification of an Icon," in D. Kunzle, ed., Che Guevara: Icon, Myth and Message, Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, pp. 98-103.