2010 Art Criticism Conference: Johanna Drucker—Keynote Address
Sat, Aug 14, 2010 starting at 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Saturday, August 14, 2010
7:30pm
Taking the legacy of the Frankfurt School (in particular, the influential work of Theodor Adorno) as the prototype of many of the assumptions that still underwrite critical engagement with the arts, Johanna Drucker—whose talk is entitled “Reversing Polarity: Aesthetics and Criticism after Adorno”—will consider the question whether we can or should try to create an aesthetics and critical method that preserve the distinctive identity and function of art as a cultural practice but that forgo the celebration of resistance and difficulty.
Johanna Drucker has written and lectured widely on topics related to the visual arts, criticism, and aesthetics. She taught contemporary art history at Columbia University, Yale, Harvard, and Purchase College (SUNY), and has lectured at the Tate Modern, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Getty, and many other museum and gallery venues. Her book Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity (2005) suggests alternatives to habitual ways of approaching contemporary art. She is also known as a book artist and typographic poet, with works in many major collections. Her most recent titles include Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide (a collaboration with Emily McVarish) (2009), SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Speculative Computing (2009), and Combo Meals: Chance Histories (2008). She is currently the Bernard and Martin Breslauer Professor of Bibliography in UCLA’s Department of Information Studies.
Now in its twenty-fourth year, SFAI’s Art Criticism Conference is part of Summer Institute, SFAI’s thought-provoking summer series of courses, programs, and events designed for the general public as well as for enrolled undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and graduate students (for information on Summer Institute 2010, please go to www.sfai.edu/summerinstitute). Complementing a week-long seminar for enrolled students, two free public events—a keynote address and a staged reading—are regularly included as part of the conference. Consistent with SFAI’s crossdisciplinary curriculum, the goal of the conference is to acquaint participants with the contemporary practice of writing about art in its many poetic and professional subfunctions as well as with art-historical practice. The 2010 Art Criticism Conference is coordinated by art critic and chair of SFAI’s Painting department Mark Van Proyen.