Kuspit will illustrate the tensions presented between the phallic and the womanly and how this suggests Bourgeois’ uncertainty about the nature of the female body and the character of female selfhood. An uncertainty that Kuspit will trace to animosity towards men, rooted in childhood traumas, making her a feminist by default, even when she explicitly denies that she is one. Bourgeois can be seen as the last of the -‘‘classical’’ modern artists, as much as a -‘‘postmodernist’’, for she reconciles Construction and Expression, the two poles of modern art which thinkers such as Adorno and Greenberg erroneously thought were at their best when they were kept apart.
Donald Kuspit is University Distinguished Professor of Art History and Philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is a contributing editor at Artforum, Sculpture and Tema Celeste and the Editor of Art Criticism.
Date: December 4, 2008
Location: Witte de With’s Auditorium
Time: 7 – 8.30 p.m.
Entrance: €10,- (reduced price €7,-)
Language: English
Reservations: reservations@wdw.nl
Check out the website of Witte de With for all information on their Cornerstone Lectures.