Lamar Dodd School of Art Lecture: Dr. Susan Sidlauskas

Image: John Singer Sargent. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes. 1897

Dr. Susan Sidlauskas, professor of art history at Rutgers University, will present a lecture on John Singer Sargent titled “Sargent's Bodies and the Unmaking of History” on Thursday, April 8, at 5 p.m. in lecture hall S150 of the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Sidlauskas will discuss Sargent’s portraits and how, through his gestural and transformative painting practices, his forms often approach pure abstraction. Sidlauskas argues that Sargent’s approach to portraiture, which is described as an “unmaking, or dismantling of recognizable form,” could produce significant shifts in the meaning and purpose of representation.

Sidlauskas specializes in art and theory of the 19th and 20th centuries. Her studies also include intersections between art and architecture, interiority in representation, gender studies and contemporary art. This talk is part of the series of lectures sponsored by the Association of Graduate Art Students.