Location: Graham Auditorium
Registration is required.

By the last half of the 19th century, the art movement of Neo-Classicism became the most acceptable mode for addressing the erotic by allowing Northern European sexual fantasies to be visualized through depictions of Greek myths. But Classical culture’s permissiveness of same-sex desire was controversial, so artists such as Alma Taddema instead sought to “straighten” up the Classical past, as in his oil painting Sappho and Alcaeus from 1881. In this talk, learn from Jonathan Katz, a trailblazing queer art historian, curator, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, as he addresses how to locate queerness in some of the most celebrated works of the 19th century.

This program highlights works from the museum’s forthcoming exhibition From Gérôme to Monet: Stories from the 19th-Century Collection.

Queering the Collection is an in-gallery program series that invites artists and scholars to participate in conversations that connect queer-identifying perspectives with artistic and art-historical knowledge about works in our collection. Speakers will discuss works of art in our galleries, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.