University Libraries

The University of Iowa Libraries is pleased to announce the launch of its latest digital collection, Félix de la Concha’s Portraits in Conversation— http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/felixdelaconcha .

De la Concha is a painter who creates multidimensional portrayals of his subjects while conducting and recording interviews about their life, work, and views on art. The collection features Spanish-language interviews with some of the leading cultural figures in Spain, as well as English-language interviews recorded in the U.S., including with writers at The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program.

Spanish-born de la Concha studied at the Facultad de Bellas Artes in Madrid, where he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome. His work has been exhibited in museums around the world, with solo exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States. De la Concha lives in Madrid and Iowa City with his wife, poet and University of Iowa professor Ana Merino. The two are close collaborators, with Merino frequently drawing upon de la Concha’s work in her scholarship on the choreography of storytelling.

In 2005 de la Concha embarked on a project to record his portrait sittings with writers and artists. “This series started as a kind of experiment: I wanted to see what kind of portrait would come about if, while I was painting the model, the focus was kept on conversation, and the model’s pose was constrained for only two hours,” he explains. “Each portrait was an unpredictable adventure, both in its conversation and in the painting that resulted.”  In 2007 de la Concha began a similar project creating portraits of Holocaust survivors. He has exhibited these works at museums such as the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid and the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.

This collection of de la Concha’s interviews and portraits is the latest edition to the Iowa Digital Library ( http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu ), which features more than 300,000 digital objects created from the holdings of The University of Iowa Libraries and its campus partners. Included are illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, fine art, political cartoons, scholarly works, and more. The University of Iowa Libraries is a staunch supporter of new forms of scholarly publishing, digital humanities, data curation, and open/linked data.

The University of Iowa Libraries has recently posted the Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report (1893-1941) online.  The annual reports contain information on the topography and geological formations of all of Iowa’s counties, assessments of Iowa’s mineral resources, and reports on Iowa’s water resources.  Whether being used to grow crops in the field, livestock in the pasture, or to harvest minerals from the ground, the physical environment of Iowa has been the lifeblood of Iowa’s economy.  These reports were the first detailed, organized reports on the geology and natural history of Iowa and sometimes included other information like the plant species of the time.  

We anticipate this material will be most useful to educators and other individuals in Iowa and surrounding states.  This digital collection features the full volumes, complete with scans of both the color and the oversized plates.  Some images in this publication may be of lower quality, but there is a collection of exceptional photographs of many parts of Iowa by one of IGSAR’s frequent authors (and former State Geologist), Samuel Calvin.