Talks
Author Talk: Joseph Leo Koerner on Art in a State of Siege
What signals do artists send when enemies are at the city walls, when the rule of law breaks down, or when a ruler suspends the law to eradicate internal opposition? Art historian Joseph Leo Koerner grapples with these questions by reaching back to the eve of iconoclasm to explore the most elusive painting ever painted. Art in a State of Siege tells the story of three compelling images created and experienced in dangerous moments.
When
Where
Perelman Building,
Perelman Auditorium
Overview:
In Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Delights, enemies are everywhere: at the city gates, conspiring at home, or lurking in the beholder’s own mind. Following a paper trail from Bosch’s time through World War II, Koerner considers a self-portrait by Max Beckmann. Created when Germany was governed intermittently by emergency decree, Beckmann’s canvas brazenly claimed that artists should decide Europe’s future—until Hitler deemed those artists to be threats to his regime and targeted them as enemies. For South African artist William Kentridge, Beckmann exemplified “art in a state of siege.” A beacon during South Africa’s repressive apartheid rule, Beckmann inspired Kentridge’s animations of drawings sketched, erased, and resketched.
Spanning half a millennium but urgent today, Art in a State of Siege is an art historical epic for dangerous times. At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Koerner will present the book’s argument using works from the museum’s permanent collection. He will also be in conversation with Assistant Curator of European Paintings and Sculpture Tara Contractor.