David Getsy to Deliver Inaugural Pamela H. Simpson Lecture in Art History
David J. Getsy, the chair of the department of art history, theory and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will deliver the inaugural Pamela H. Simpson Lecture in Art History at Washington and Lee University on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 5 p.m. in the Stackhouse Theater in the Elrod Commons.
The lecture is titled, “Approximate Invisibility: Dan Flavin’s Dedications.” The event is free and open to the public.
Getsy is the Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor of Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Getsy received his Ph.D. in 2002 from Northwestern University and has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 2005.
He is the author or editor of five books and numerous academic articles on subjects related to modern and contemporary art, performance art and gender and sexuality studies. His next book, “Abstract Bodies in American Sculpture of the 1960s,” will be published next year by Yale University Press.
Dan Flavin (1933—1996), the subject of Getsy’s talk, was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptures and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures. His first mature work was “Diagonal of May 25, 1963,” a yellow fluorescent light placed on a wall at a 45-degree angle.
The Pamela H. Simpson Endowment for Art, established in 2011, is a permanently endowed fund to support distinguished academics and professional visitors to W&L to work directly with students and faculty in Washington and Lee’s Department of Art and Art History. Pamela H. Simpson served on the faculty of Washington and Lee University for 38 years. She was the first female tenure-track professor at W&L and the first female professor to receive an endowed chair.
For more information, please call 540-458-8861.
