Description:

The first Elizabeth and Todd Warnock Lecture of the academic year. 

Screenprinting was everywhere in American art of the 1960s. But because the process has been so persistently associated with scholarly narratives of deskilling, it has tended to be treated in purely negative terms, as an evacuation of traditional artistic techniques. Examining the work of Andy Warhol, Corita Kent, Ed Ruscha and others, this talk will explore the specific material, historical, and conceptual qualities of the screenprinting medium, including its origins in the sifting and gauging processes of industrial milling, the material and political implications of its transparent screen matrix, and its complex interface with other screen- and grid-based reproductive media of the period.