Jan

Addressing (and Redressing) the Silence: New Scholarship in Sexuality and American Art

(Image: Detail from “Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a Taxi, NYC,” 1991, by Nan Goldin.)

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery will present a symposium Jan. 29 in conjunction with the exhibition “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” “Addressing (and Redressing) the Silence: New Scholarship in Sexuality and American Art” gathers American art historians who will propose and promote new paradigms for understanding the fraught relationship between sexuality and portraiture. In 11 papers spanning 100 years of American history, themes of racial, sexual and gendered difference will be reassessed to yield new interpretations of the history of modern American art.

Participants must register to attend the symposium, which will take place at the National Portrait Gallery Jan. 29 in the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium. Registration is online only at http://hideseeksymposium.eventbrite.com.

Schedule

9:00–9:15 Introduction

9:15–10:45 Archives and Discovery

9:15–9:50 Jonathan Weinberg, Lost and Found: Searching for the Lesbian and Gay Presence in the Archives of American Art

9:50–10:25 Joe Lucchesi, Romaine Brooks in the Archive

10:25–10:45 Discussion

10:45–11:00 Break

"Dinner at Gertrude Stein's" 1991, Faith Ringgold

11:00–1:15 Racing Desires

11:00–11:35 Tavia Nyong’o, The Confidence Man as Painted Lady: Dandyism and Transgendered Self-Fashioning in Antebellum New York

11:35–12:10 Tirza Latimer, Modernism’s Other Others: Faith Ringgold’s Dinner at Gertrude Stein’s

12:10–12:45 Diana Linden, “I Am a Man!”: Race and Gender in William Christopher’s Paintings in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

12:45–1:15 Discussion

1:15–2:15 Lunch and opportunity to view the exhibition, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.”

Still from "Flaming Creatures" (1963) by experimental filmmaker Jack Smith.

2:30–4:45 Desire at Mid-century

2:30–3:05 James Boaden, Jess’ Imaginary Portraits

3:05–3:40 Jonathan D. Katz, The Sexuality of Abstraction: Agnes Martin

3:40–4:15 Dominic Johnson, Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures, or the Burden of Disgust

4:15–4:45 Discussion

4:45–5:15 Break

David Wojnarowicz, "Aus Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978-79." Courtesy of the estate of David Wojnarowicz, Cabinet London, PPOW, New York, © The Estate of David Wojnarowicz

5:15–8:00 Desire and the Public

5:15–5:50 Chris Reed, Imagining Identity: Sexuality, Regionalism, and Legacy in Mid-20th Century American Art

5:50–6:25 David Getsy, Open Seating: Scott Burton, Performance Art, Public Art, and the 1970s

6:25–7:00 Jennifer Doyle, Hold It Against Me: Difficulty, Emotion, and David Wojnarowicz

7:00–8:00 Discussion