The Tragicomic Self: Amy Sillman and Philip Guston

Authors

Rachel Haidu, University of Rochester
Academic Affairs, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow
Graduate Studies, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow
Liberal Arts, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow
Fine Arts Division, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow
Theory & History of Art & Design Department, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow

Files

Description

Both Amy Sillman and Philip Guston make painting, in their different historical moments (respectively, the present and the 1960s-70s), into a tragicomic enterprise. This talk examines the role that shape plays in that enterprise, when it is seen not as a formal or compositional element but as key to both the tragic aspect of a painting’s historical reflection and its comic operations—its funniness. Tragicomic shape is the means that painting has at its disposal for exploring selfhood, a concept that Haidu develops in relation to not only painting but also video and dance in her new book.

Rachel Haidu is Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History and the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester. She is the author of The Absence of Work: Marcel Broodthaers, 1964-1976 (October Books: MIT Press, 2013).

Publication Date

4-23-2018

Publisher

Rhode Island School of Design

City

Providence

Disciplines

Art and Design | Contemporary Art

Recommended Citation

Haidu, Rachel; Affairs, Academic; Studies, Graduate; Arts, Liberal; Division, Fine Arts; and Department, Theory & History of Art & Design, "The Tragicomic Self: Amy Sillman and Philip Guston" (2018). The Gradual Contemporary: Conversations on Contemporary Art. 2.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/havc_conversationsoncontemporaryart/2