GWS Co-Sponsored Event: Jonathan Katz

GWS is co-sponsoring an event Tuesday, November 18 at 5 PM. This talk will be given by Jonathan Katz and is titled, "How Not to See Sexuality in Art: A Primer."

Dr. Jonathan Katz is a pioneering academic and gay activist who works at the intersection of art history and queer history. He founded the Queer Caucus for Art of the College Art Association and the Harvey Milk Institute, and has served as the executive coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University. At present, Jonathan Katz directs the doctoral program in Visual Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

As a specialist in Cold War-era art, Katz is concerned with the question of why the American avant-garde came to be dominated and defined by queer artists (Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, among others) during what was perhaps the single most homophobic decade in this nation’s history. He has published numerous articles and book chapters, and has a forthcoming book on The Homosexualization of American Art.  In 1995, he was actually kicked out of a conference on Rauschenberg at the Guggenheim for mentioning the artist’s relationship with Johns. 

Katz's recent work includes co-curating, with David C. Ward and Jenn Sichel, the exhibition “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Art,” at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. This exhibition was the first major museum exploration of the impact of same-sex desire and identity in the creation of modern American portraiture.