In “Untitled (Colored People Grid)” (2009–10), conceptual photographer Carrie Mae Weems collects 11 ink-jet portraits — each depicting a young African-American boy or girl, each tinted a different hue — and scatters them amidst a modernist grid of solid, silk-screened panels. The effect is to critique both a word once used to identify African Americans (“colored”) and the hierarchy of social values it represents, while also reclaiming it as a potential signifier of diversity and pride.
Last fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum acquired “Untitled (Colored People Grid)” for its permanent collection. On Monday, Feb. 2, Weems — who has spent the last three decades confronting the visual cues and conventions that shape our understandings of race, gender and class — will discuss her work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ spring Public Lecture Series.
The talk, titled “Color: Real and Imagined,” is free and open to the public and begins at 6:30 p.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. A reception for Weems will precede the lecture, at 6 p.m., in the Kemper Art Museum.
Sam Fox School Public Lecture Series
In all, the spring Public Lecture Series will feature 14 presentations by nationally and internationally known artists, architects, curators and designers.
Events begin Monday, Jan. 26, with Javier Maroto, the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture, who will discuss “Living Better Than Inhabiting.”
Following Weems, the series will continue Feb. 11 with Shashi Caan, founding partner of SC Collective, who will deliver the inaugural Ruth Kahn Lynford Lecture. Other speakers will include Kenyan-born artist and activist Wangechi Mutu (March 23) and architect Bernard Tschumi (March 27).
All events are free and open to the public and begin at 6:30 p.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium, unless otherwise noted. Each will be preceded by a reception at 6 p.m.
Steinberg Hall is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards, immediately adjacent to the Kemper Art Museum.
For more information, call 314-935-9300 or visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu/calendar/events/lectures.
Spring 2015 speakers
Monday, Jan. 26
Javier Maroto
Co-Founder, SOLID architecture and Maremoto Paisajes;
Professor, Escola Técnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona
Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture Lecture
Monday, Feb. 2
Carrie Mae Weems
Artist
Bunny and Charles Burson Distinguished Visiting Lecture
* Reception at 6 pm in the Kemper Art Museum
Wednesday, Feb. 11
Shashi Caan
Founding Partner, SC Collective
Ruth Kahn Lynford Lecture
Monday, Feb. 16
Luis Cruz Azaceta
Artist
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture
Thursday, Feb. 19
Achim Menges
Architect, Professor, & Founding Director, Institute for Computational Design, University of Stuttgart
AIA St. Louis Scholarship Fund Lecture
Monday, Feb. 23
Paula Wilson
Artist
Louis D. Beaumont Artist in Residence Lecture
Monday, March 16
Sam Durant & Candice Hopkins
Durant is an American artist; Hopkins is the Elizabeth Simonfay Curatorial Resident in Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada
In conjunction with “Sam Durant: Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions, Washington, D.C.”
* Reception at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum
Monday, March 23
Wangechi Mutu
Artist and activist
* Editor’s note: This talk, originally scheduled for March 23, has been cancelled. We are hoping to reschedule for fall 2015 and will provide updates. We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause.
Friday, March 27
Bernard Tschumi
Founder, Bernard Tschumi Architects; professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
Cannon Design Lecture for Excellence in Architecture and Engineering
Graduate Architecture Open House Lecture
Wednesday, April 1
Matthew Coolidge
Founder and director, Center for Land Use Interpretation
Anova Lecture for Landscape Architecture
Monday, April 6
Jesse Reiser & Nanako Umemoto
Principals, Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture, PC
Fumihiko Maki Lecture
Tuesday, April 7
Mariam Ghani
Artist
Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow Lecture
6:30 p.m. at the Saint Louis Art Museum
Tuesday, April 13
Catherine Dossin
Associate professor of art history, Purdue University
In conjunction with “From Picasso to Fontana—Collecting Modern and Postwar Art in the Eisendrath Years, 1960-1968.”
* Reception at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum
