Lecture: Mary Garrard April 21, 2005

Mary Garrard, professor of art history at American University and a leading expert on feminist art, will present a speech titled ?Artemisia?s Hand: Does Gender Play a Role in Distinguishing the Art of Artemisia Gentileschi from that of Her Father Orazi?? at 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 21 at Carleton College?s Boliou Hall, Room 104. The event is free and open to the public.

The speech will focus on Artemisia Gentileschi, widely accepted as the most important woman painter of early modern Europe. A woman with artistic creativity then thought to be exclusively a male talent, Gentileschi is now praised as an innovative genius. Greatly influenced by Michelangelo, she is best known for her breathtaking interpretation of ?Susanna and the Elders? (1610), a work she painted at age 17.

Garrard, an author, professor and leading expert on Gentileschi, has lectured at universities, colleges and museums in the United States and abroad. Specializing in feminist art, she also has an extensive knowledge of Michelangelo, Baroque art, Leonardo da Vinci, women and gender in Renaissance art and women artists from antiquity through the 18th century. Serving as the national president of Women?s Caucus for Art from 1974 to 1976, Garrard has been a member of the Board of Directors of the College Art Association and the chair of the organizaton?s Committee on the Status of Women.

The author of many books, articles and reviews on Gentileschi, feminist art theory and Raphael, among others, Garrard has long been regarded as one of the principal specialists in the field of art history. Her books have included ?Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art? and ?Artemisia Gentileschi Around 1622: The Shaping and Reshaping of an Artistic Identity.? She also has published articles in ?The Art Bulletin,? ?Burlington Magazine,? ?Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes,? among others. With colleague Norma Broude, Garrard edited and contributed to textbooks such as, ?Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany? and ?The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History.?

Garrard received her B.A. from Tulane University, her M.A. from Harvard University and her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University.

For more information and disability accommodations, call Carleton?s art and art history department at (507) 646-4341.