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African Studies Lunchtime Seminar: Painting/Photography/Politics

09 February 2017, 12:30 pm–2:00 pm

Painting/Photography/Politics: Marlene Dumas and the Figuration of Difference

Marlene Dumas and the Figuration of Difference

Event Information

Open to

All

Organiser

Institute of Advanced Studies

Location

IAS Common Ground, Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building

The second Spring Term seminar in the UCL African Studies Lunchtime Seminar Series welcomes Professor Tamar Garb, Durning-Lawrence Chair of History of Art and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies.

This lecture will look at the politics of portrayal, photography and figuration in relation to the colonial/apartheid archive. It focuses on Dutch/South African painter Marlene Dumas' reworking of selected images - both personal and public - in order to question contemporary painting's capacity to address history, in particular its spectacular/photogenic trace. Using the reworking of both an old school photograph and an iconic depiction of Pauline Lumumba, the lecture asks what painting can do when it takes on the photographic past. At the same time, it explores the interpretive filters that have coalesced around the iconic figure of the bare-breasted African widow.

The seminars will be held every other Thursday during term time from 12.30 to 2 pm in IAS Seminar Room 20 on the first floor of South Wing.

This new series is convened by the African Studies Research Centre and the Institute of Advanced Studies:

  • Dr Matt Davies
  • Dr Hélène Neveu Kringelbach
  • Professor Megan Vaughan 

All welcome.