Representation, Identity, and Ethics in Art
Paul C. Taylor, Vanderbilt University
Friday, May 14th at 4:00 pm PST

Professor Taylor’s talk will be presented electronically on Friday, May 14th at 4:00 pm PST.  For information on how to stream the talk, please contact Julian Fischer at jfischer@humnet.ucla.edu.

ABSTRACT:

In the last few decades of the twentieth century, conflicts related to political representation, aesthetic representation, and social identity began to shake global artworlds with increasing frequency and urgency. Those conflicts foregrounded a handful of recurring questions. Should subjects with special meaning for particular groups be left to artists only from those groups? Should the leaders of artworld institutions look or think like the people in their surrounding communities? How does political representation relate to artistic representation? This talk will take up questions like these, linking them where appropriate to such cases as the controversies over Dana Schutz’s “Open Casket,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, and the “art-washing” of ill-gotten fortunes with cultural philanthropy.