The Naked Eye

Jennifer Higgie approaches Marlene Dumas’ work through the broader context of the evolution of female self-representation. In her talk, she will explore how women artists from the Renaissance to the present day have engaged with the gaze, the body, and femininity as means of personal expression and social commentary,  from 16th-century Italian painter Lavinia Fontana to Paula Modersohn-Becker’s self-portrait of 1906, as well as a wider range of 20th-century artists who have examined questions of identity and representation through their own bodies.

Throughout the lecture, Higgie will also refer to artists and ideas explored in her recent books, The Mirror and the Palette: 500 Years of Women’s Self-portraits and The Other Side: A Story of Women, Art and the Spirit World, reflecting on the ways in which women artists have redefined the relationship between the gaze, the body, and identity over the centuries.