Tuesday, October 20, 2015 - 5:00pm
Lecture: 402 Claudia Cohen Hall, 249 South 36th Street; Reception: Jaffe History of Art Building, Room 104
JILL AND JOHN AVERY LECTURE IN THE HISTORY OF ART
"Sifted: Screenprinting and the Arts of the 1960s"
Jennifer L. RobertsElizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities
Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
Screenprinting was everywhere in American art and culture of the 1960s. But because the process has been so persistently associated with scholarly narratives of deskilling, it has largely been treated in negative terms, valued primarily for its evacuation of traditional artistic techniques. Examining the work of Andy Warhol, Corita Kent, Ed Ruscha and others, this talk will explore the specific material, historical, and conceptual qualities of the screenprinting medium, including its origins in the sifting and gauging processes of industrial milling, the material and political implications of its transparent screen matrix, and its complex interface with other screen- and grid-based reproductive media of the period.
Image: Ed Ruscha, Hollywood, 1968. Screenprint
Sponsored by the Jill and John Avery Fund in the Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
Free and open to the public