Member Talk | Michael Leja: “Art for Skeptical Viewers, 1870 to Now”
Channel: Barnes Foundation
Date: 2023-09-22

In the later 19th century, the rampant deceptions and disorienting uncertainties of modern life presented challenging tests of visual acuity and credulity. Skeptical and wary forms of seeing became normalized in these circumstances, and art and visual culture were integral to them. This presentation will explore examples of art—past and present—that engage the cultural pressure to see skeptically, which has only increased in the era of deepfakes, conspiracy theories, and artificial intelligence. Skeptical seeing is essential for survival, but it can also lead viewers astray.

Speaker:
Leja is James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Looking Askance: Skepticism and American Art from Eakins to Duchamp, winner of the Modernist Studies Association Book Prize in 2005, and co-author with John Davis of Art of the United States, 1750 to 2000: Primary Sources (2020).

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About The Barnes Foundation:
The mission of the Barnes is to promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.

Our founder, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, believed that art had the power to improve minds and transform lives. Our diverse educational programs are based on his teachings and one-of-a-kind collections. 

Philadelphia art collector, Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951), chartered the Barnes Foundation in 1922 to teach people from all walks of life how to look at art. Over three decades, he collected some of the world’s most important impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, including works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. He displayed them alongside African masks, native American jewelry, Greek antiquities, and decorative metalwork.

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