Symposium
May 18, 2012
5th Ave at 89th St
New York, NY 10128
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is pleased to announce the afternoon symposium Art in the 1970s: Through the Lens of Francesca Woodman, presented in conjunction with the exhibition Francesca Woodman, on view through June 13.
On Friday, May 18, beginning at 4pm, scholars and artists examine the relationship between the still and moving image in Francesca Woodman’s and other artists’ production during the 1970s, particularly as associated with Post-Minimalism, performance, and video. Using the framework of Woodman’s work, which the New York Times calls “a rare and beautiful thing,” this series of brief talks and group conversations reconsiders artistic video in the 1970s, notions of time and space in Woodman’s work, and feminist practice during the transformative artistic juncture of the period. Woodman’s recently released short videos will be screened.
Organized by Jennifer Blessing, Senior Curator, Photography, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Topics and speakers include:
Corner Pieces
George Baker, University of California, Los Angeles
The Odd Geometry of Time
Jane Blocker, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Memoir on the Work of Francesca Woodman
Moyra Davey, New York
Artist Conversation
Joan Jonas, New York, with Jennifer Blessing
Francesca Woodman in the Context of Early Video Art
William Kaizen, Northeastern University, Boston
About the Speakers
George Baker is associate professor of art history at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he has taught modern and contemporary art and theory since 2003. A New York and Paris-based critic for Artforum throughout the 1990s, he also works as an editor of the journal October and its publishing imprint October Books.
Jennifer Blessing is Senior Curator, Photography, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and organized the New York presentation of Francesca Woodman, on view through June 13. She recently cocurated Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance (2010) and organized Catherine Opie: American Photographer (2008). In conjunction with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, she also co-organized the midcareer survey Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective, opening at the Guggenheim on June 29.
Jane Blocker is professor of art history at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is the author of Seeing Witness: Visuality and the Ethics of Testimony (University of Minnesota Press, 2009), What the Body Cost: Desire, History, and Performance (University of Minnesota Press, 2004), and Where is Ana Mendieta? Identity, Performativity, and Exile (Duke University Press, 1999). Her current book project is titled History as Prosthesis: Contemporary Art and Historical Method.
Moyra Davey is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker who lives and works in New York. Davey’s solo and two-person exhibitions include Speaker Receiver, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2010); My Necropolis (2009), and Spleen. Indolence. Torpor. Ill-humour. (2012), Murray Guy, New York; and Long Life Cool White, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (2008). Davey’s work is included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial.
Joan Jonas has, since the late 1960s, pioneered a multimedia practice that combines performance, video, drawing, and installation. She has been the subject of several major retrospectives and her most recent exhibitions include Drawing/Performance/Video, Location One, New York, and Performance 7: Mirage by Joan Jonas, Museum of Modern Art, New York (both 2010). In 2009, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the first annual Art Awards.
William Kaizen is assistant professor of art history and media studies at Northeastern University. His current book project is a history of video art and politics in the 1960s and 1970s, forthcoming from Duke University Press. He recently curated the exhibition Pop Cinema: Art and Film in the U.S. and U.K., 1950s–1970s at the International House Philadelphia, for which he was awarded a Pew Exhibitions Initiative grant.
The program is immediately followed by a private reception and includes an exhibition viewing of Francesca Woodman.
For tickets and information, visit guggenheim.org/publicprograms or call 212 423 3587. Student tickets are FREE with a valid ID and RSVP.
Program is subject to change.
Francesca Woodman is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
This exhibition is supported by the Leadership Committee for the Guggenheim Museum’s 2012 Photography Exhibitions.
