Richard Meyer, an art history professor at Stanford University, was invited to Carleton to discuss two of his books, “What was Contemporary Art?” and “Art and Queer Culture,” on Jan. 6.
The discussion was entitled “Queering Art History” and was presented as a part of the Sexuality Studies Speakers Series hosted by the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies.
Meyer talked about contemporary art and queer culture in the 20th century.
“People think of the contemporary as a period that comes after the modern,” he said.
Meyer said he was more interested in the relational definition of contemporary.
“It didn’t necessarily mean new or now, but being alive at the same time as,” he said.
Meyer added he wanted to include artists in his book who weren’t just representing their own personal experience in their art, but ones that could relate to a community or subculture.
“A lot of the art has not been seen by a large audience,” Meyer said.
Meyer said it was important to include art that would surprise his audience. He said he wanted to “expand people’s idea of what queer culture is, to give them a historical consciousness about it.”
Meyer defined queer culture as being inclusive of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender populations.
Meyer said this type of discussion is important because of the increasing amount of images being thrown at us everyday.
“What I try to do in a talk like this, or with my students, is just get them to actually have the tools to analyze and think critically about these visual images rather than just taking them for granted,” he said.
“I hope that for students it’s a way to realize that ‘oh, images actually construct reality.’ They don’t just reflect it,” Meyer added. “Images can be a resource for us, as a way to think differently about our lives or the culture we live in.”
Andrew Gayed, a graduate student in art history, said he attended the event because of his interest in the topic of queer art history.
“My research is Middle Eastern contemporary art, and I look at the queer diaspora. Having Richard Meyer be an art historian—a queer art historian with a western focus—had a lot of benefit for my own research,” he said.
Gayed said this topic can relate to many disciplines and said everybody can kind of benefit from that discussion, not just the art historians.
Event organizer Jennifer Evans said this discussion gives students an opportunity to explore a topic that they may not have discussed before.
“Many different people can also participate in critiquing and having an informed opinion about, in this case, queer sexuality and its history,” she said.
More talks from the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture on the intersection between queer studies and transnational studies are scheduled for Jan. 7.
