Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art
A conversation with Caroline Fowler (Clark Art Institute) and Helga Davis
Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 6:00 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall
gallery@bgc.bard.edu
$15 General | $12 Seniors | Free for people associated with a college or university, people with museum ID, people with disabilities and caregivers, and BGC members
In her new book, Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art (Duke University Press, 2025), Caroline Fowler examines the fundamental role of the transatlantic slave trade in the production and evolution of seventeenth-century Dutch art. Fowler will engage in conversation with renowned artist and podcaster Helga Davis on the book, thinking about the role of poetics in writing history, the importance of Black feminism in rethinking art history, and the ways in which “Old Master” painting continues to impact how the world is seen and interpreted.
Caroline Fowler is Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute. Her previous books include The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas (Yale University Press, 2019) and Drawing and the Senses (Harvey Miller Series in Baroque Art, 2017). She coedits the series ART/WORK with Princeton University Press and occasionally hosts the podcast In the Foreground: Conversations on Art & Writing.
Helga Davis is a vocalist and performance artist with feet planted on the most prestigious international stages and with firm roots in her local community. She was most principal actor in the twenty-fifth anniversary international revival of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s seminal opera Einstein on the Beach. In 2024 she was commissioned by the Onassis Foundation as part of the Cavafy Festival and will present a new work in 2025 for the ten-year anniversary of National Sawdust. She is host of the eponymous podcast HELGA on WQXR, winner of the 2019 Greenfield Prize in composition, and the 2018–21 visiting curator for the performing arts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She serves on the board of the Jerome Foundation.