Art and Social Justice with Jennie Hirsh – G24070408
This course focuses on contemporary artists whose work addresses social injustices driven by inequities and prejudices rooted in racially, economically, and identity-driven issues. Organized thematically, the course will explore works whose subject matter foregrounds gender/sexuality, disability, race/ethnicity, class, climate change, and more. In a series of lecture/discussions focused on painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, and performance, this multi-media seminar will explore not only work that reflects inequities but also projects that actively push back against prejudice and discrimination. Specific artists whose work will be discussed include John Akomfrah, Ghada Amer, Janine Antoni, Rebecca Belmore, Candice Breitz, Tania Bruguera, Luis Camnitzer, Cassels, Nani Chacon, Marlene Dumas, Melvin Edwards, the For Freedoms group, Coco Fusco, Meshac Gaba, Charles Gaines, Ellen Gallagher, Jeffrey Gibson, David Goldblatt, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Martine Gutierrez, David Hammons, Jenny Holzer, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Alfredo Jaar, Arthur Jafa, William Kentridge, Byron Kim, Nikki Lee, Sherrie Levine, Glenn Ligon, Hew Locke, Ken Lum, Guadalupe Maravilla, Kerry James Marshall, Daniel J. Martinez, Steve McQueen, Cildo Meireles, Zanele Muholi, Wangechi Mutu, Shirin Neshat, Ernesto Neto, Chris Ofili, Gabriel Orozco, Adrian Piper, Martin Puryear, RAQS Media Collective, Charles Ray, Doris Salcedo, Jenny Saville, Yinka Shonibare, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Kim Sooja, Charlene Teters, Kara Walker, Nari Ward, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Instructor
-
Jennie HirshBased in Philadelphia, Jennie Hirsh is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Architecture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a BA in classics (UPenn), an MA in Italian (Middlebury), and MA and PhD degrees in History of Art (Bryn Mawr). The recipient of numerous research fellowships—including a U.S. Fulbright to Italy and a Gladys Krieble Delmas grant—she has studied, conducted research, and taught in various cities throughout Italy for more than three decades.
Jennie has authored numerous book chapters, exhibition catalogue essays, and critical reviews on artists and filmmakers, such as Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Yinka Shonibare, Regina Silveira, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. She is co-editor, with Isabelle Loring Wallace, of Contemporary Art and Classical Myth (Ashgate/Routledge, 2011) and Ventriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art (Routledge, 2023). She co-curated Invisible City (2020), a four-venue exhibition focused on visual culture produced between 1956 and 1976 in Philadelphia. Jennie is currently completing a monograph on self-representation in the painting and writing of Giorgio de Chirico, and her research areas also include fascist aesthetics, past and present, as well as visual culture and the holocaust, both subjects of future book projects under development.
Since 2009, Jennie has directed MICA’s summer travel intensive program focused on the history of the Venice Biennale of Art from its inception in 1895 to the present. When she is not teaching, writing, or doing research, she enjoys spending time with her golden retriever Tulip, who loves exploring. An enthusiastic teacher and occasional tour guide, Jennie enjoys offering online and in-person seminars on the history of art, architecture, and exhibitions for academic institutions and the general public.