Lecture Archive

Please note that the full recording of this lecture is not available for research request.

Streetworks, conversions, Jasper Johns, The Ramones, Minimalism, Black Monolith, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Sex Pistols, Rock & Roll, Punk, Massive Attack

Conceptual/installation artist Janine Antoni presents a slide and video-illustrated lecture of her work, beginning with a piece called Wean, created shortly after her graduation from art school, which she feels was predictive of future work in its exploration of the relationship of the body to culture. The lecture includes commentary on her most recent work. The pieces, most of which are named, are described in detail: concept, materials, process, problems encountered. Also shown are works of artist Nari Ward. In response to a question Antoni discusses her conflicted attitude towards art as object.

Artists Kristen Jones and Andrew Ginzel known as Jones and Ginzel make sculptures and installations rooted in collaboration, urban space, and a longing for nature that can fill empty spaces with the inanimate world, Jones and Ginzel are also interested in creating spiritual and contemplative experiences for viewers by building exterior realities of sculpture to allow people to interact with them in order to look inward. Other ideas that form Jones and Ginzel’s collaborative work are the relationships between permanence and impermanence, the invisible dialogue of political climates, mental stability, the dialogue of unseen forces, and what it is that people seek when they enter into cinematic spaces to escape their lives. Jones and Ginzel end their lecture by reflecting on the importance of creating experiences where people can strip themselves of time sequences and surrender to contemplative works of art.

Interdisciplinary artist Glenn Ligon gives a lecture at Skowhegan spanning his interests in found collaboration, installation, photography, text, monochrome painting, African American writings, race and identity. Ligon specifically focuses on working with projections where he takes writing from specific essays and projects this material onto canvases to then transcribe them. This act of transcription allows for Ligon to find new ways of legibility and transformation when working with literary sources. Ligon also works with erotic portraits of black men, thinking about the context of these images to think about the construction of identity, visibility, and invisibility. Ligon continues to be interested in how images can re-circulate from the past to function in current moments of time. 

Painter Frank Moore reflects on his summer as a student at Skowhegan and then goes on to talk about his recent work, focusing on his complex iconography that most often addresses issues of sexuality and society, AIDS, and pollution and environmental degradation. Questions lead him to talk about his interest in individual and environmental health; how he came to develop his painting style; the frames he makes himself for each piece; commissioned paintings which he created for Gianni Versace (the fashion designer), and his working methods.

Art historian, Professor and writer Robert Farris Thompson gives a lecture at Skowhegan exploring the history of Congo from the continent of Africa. Thompson shows a series of films from Hollywood of characters to explore the history of Congo influence and talks about how it arrived to the South through the slave trade. He draws on Charleston and New Orleans to explore the meaning of African dance, African Art in Motion through a series of archival photographs and historical images of paintings, sculptures, and study of altars of the Black Atlantic world. Thompson ends his lecture by performing with the participants to experience Congo dancing.

Making no attempt to disguise her anger and frustration at being an African American woman painter at a time when privilege in the art world accrues to white men, Emma Amos declares, I am a witness to history; my painting is about what it’s like to be me, now, at the millennium. Amos’ spirited lecture, which includes examples of her painting, prints, weaving (which she viewed as a job, not art), mosaics and public works, is embellished with anecdotes. Topics include the craft of painting, communication, identity, photography, the figure, and race consciousness.

Dancer, performance artist and choreographer Bill T. Jones gives a lecture at Skowhegan. Jones talks about the importance of choreography for him as an artist that allows actions to dissipate into moments of stillness when dance simply ends. For Jones, dance is the movement of persons and things in space and time, where he can also become interested in ideas of how to create beauty and gesture. For Jones, the greatest politics as an artist is if he can resist irony to find something authentic, urging the viewers to also do this by pushing the boundaries and wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Jones ends the lecture with the question for the participants, asking them to contemplate if there is anything that can connect us at any given moment.

Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt tells stories about growing up gay, Catholic, idealistic and poor; about running away from home; confronting his sexuality; and coping with the poverty and homophobia in the late 1960s. He shows slides of his home, of family and people he knew growing up and as an adult, and of his art. Lanigan-Schmidt plays a couple of songs that are meaningful to him and shows a short clip (the lipstick scene) from a Jack Smith movie called “Flaming Creatures,” which was banned by the Supreme Court. His art theory is based on what he calls the two art forms that transcend everything else, spiritual arousal and sexual desire, and he makes numerous references to the issue of pornography. The recording is incomplete.

Argentine painter Fabian Marcaccio presents a philosophical and analytical lecture about his work and the general artistic context (including music, photography and literature) in which it was produced, touching on topics such as the various kinds of time (both in art and elsewhere), space, color, the change in the character of photography as a result of digitalization, and the dual nature of paintings as art objects and representations. The lecture is accompanied by slides of the artists’ paintings.

Showing only his most recent work, artist Lari Pittman presents a philosophical and theoretical view of what he tries to accomplish in his work. He discusses the cultivation of a voice within the paintings, the capacity of paintings to lie, how his homosexuality is reflected in the art, parody, the audience, and more. Works are identified by titles.

In this autobiographical lecture, artist Bernarda Shahn shows a series of photographs and slides of her paintings and frescoes, talking about her various interests rooted in landscape and still life. Shahn also talks about her time as an illustrator which allowed her to develop an ongoing interest in surrealism and a surrealist way of looking. Shahn ends her lecture by reflecting on her long standing relationship to Maine and Skowhegan, and says that for her, being free and liberated will always be important for her as an artist and activist.

Artist Carroll Dunham presents a slide lecture in which he offers autobiographical information as well as the situation in the New York art world when he first arrived there in the 1970s, progressing to the 1980s and on into the 1990s. Dunham focuses attention on his thoughts, feelings and experiences when he was starting his career, including his discovery of various materials and the development of ideas, and then introduces more contemporary work. In the Q&A he addresses the importance of drawing and color in the creation of his art.

In this personal, intimate lecture, Nan Goldin talks about her artistic practice which is rooted in photography, specifically 35mm film. Goldin shows a series of photographs that depict her friends, and her personal life. Goldin also shows photographs when she started documenting the drag culture in New York during the 1970s, specifically the trans community. Goldin also talks about the importance of working with and photographing the same group of people for over 25 years, which has allowed her to develop a loyalty and longevity that can be hard to find. For Goldin, her work as a photographer is very much a part of her life, and she continues to feel connected to the people she photographs. Golden also speaks to the psychology about her work, which is more important than any theoretical notions about art. Goldin comments on her interests in series, tracing histories, and the complexities of the people she photographs. Themes of generosity, love, desire, and homage continue to be at the core of Goldin’s practice. Goldin ends her lecture by stating that reconstructing her family structure is constantly looking at the past. There is a big difference between the past and the present. Photography allows her to make a bridge between these two ideas, while also teaching her what it means to be human, the struggle to get close, and the struggle between autonomy and dependency.

In his final lecture at Skowhegan, painter Jacob Lawrence again offers an autobiographical lecture, sharing life experiences and interests which have shaped his art. This talk includes mention of some people and circumstances not included in previous lectures which had a significant impact on the artist.

Filmmaker, composer, writer, and interdisciplinary artist Trinh T. Minh-ha gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about her artistic practice. Minh-ha speaks about the importance of being invited to a place aligned with nature that offers her a trajectory which takes into its movement the question widely raised in our times about the migrant self, boundaries, and multiplicity. For Minh-ha, the migrant self moves physically and is a self that embarks on a practice having to negotiate between home and abroad, native culture and adopted culture, between a here, a there, and an elsewhere. Minh-ha speaks about her practice always being itself and more then itself, reflecting on how there is also always more to reality then what we are able to see, hear, or touch. Minh-ha believes that reality does not stop at our limits, and the boundaries we set up between what is real, what is natural, and what is supernatural speaks of and to our limits. Minh-ha then states that what is cinematic, poetic, and political thrives at the boundaries of cinema, poetry, and politics. Whether it’s the writing of a book or the making of a film, both creative acts transforms the way the artist sees herself and the world around her. The work is a gift, and whether it is worth passing it on or not depends on whether it succeeds in taking her elsewhere then where she started out. Minh-ha ends her lecture by stating that it is only in the transformative potential of the work that one can hope to make a difference in other peoples ways of seeing and experiencing.

Fred Wilson examines his experiences as a museum employee and curator which eventually led to what he considers his watershed work at the Longwood Gallery in which he showed how context could change the meaning of similar objects. This work culminated in a defining project at the Baltimore Historical Society called “Mining the Museum” and subsequent installations. The artist shares what happens when he invites museum-goers to join him in investigating largely unchallenged assumptions, attitudes, and methods of presentation within different types of museums (gallery, ethnographic, historical, natural history).

Jean Cohen gives a lecture reflecting on her experiences being one of the first participants at Skowhegan. Cohen also talks about her painting practice, and how it is something that she seeks to always be expressive and impressionistic. Abstract painting is also important for Cohen. Cohen seeks to challenge herself to create a painting that is purely abstract which is non referential and non geometric, but that can add elements of landscape and have a fine line between what is recognizable and what is abstract. Another source of inspiration for Cohen is playing with triptychs, because it allows Cohen to understand in between dimensions in her work.

Performance artist Pat Oleszko presents slides of various performance pieces she has created along with anecdotes which mainly relate to audience reaction to her work. She also discusses the differences between stage shows and working on the street. A substantial portion of the end of this lecture is concerned with brainstorming for a piece on which the school’s participants were invited to collaborate.

Feminist artist Mira Schor delivers a highly personal overview of her life in art, beginning with growing up in a home where both parents were artists and interested in art, continuing through her formal education and including a representative sampling of her work and observations on how her particular view of gender issues influenced the content of that work as well as her writings. Many of the works are identified by title.

Vincent Scully gives a lecture talking about his artistic practice. He reflects on the importance of architecture and how it is a relationship that mediates between the individual and natural laws. Scully says that all human culture wants to humanize nature and art and he uses architecture as an example due to the building’s relationship with the natural world. Scully asks the participants why humans should make art. For Scully, making art is the basic method whereby human beings can make something for themselves in a world where the natural laws are unbearable. Artists have to create environments for themselves where art can lead to experiencing empathy.

Bernarda Shahn gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about her long standing relationship to Skowhegan. Bernarda Shahn talks about her relationship with her partner Ben Shahn and the many summers they spent painting in Maine. Shahn also talks about her painting practice showing a series of slides. Working as a commercial artist and illustrator is another aspect that Shahn talks about, saying that illustration taught her how to create visual stories for herself. Shahn ends the lecture by telling participants about the importance of knowing how valuable they are and to always cherish their talents.

Painter Yvonne Jacquette addresses a variety of subjects (Maine, Alzheimer’s disease, Japan, Buddhism, the hazards of nuclear power) and the effects of these topics on her painting in the early 1970’s. Jacquette also talks about the different brushwork techniques she employs and her ongoing and evolving interest in aerial views of landscapes and cityscapes, and her more recent efforts at collage and modifying what is actually seen to create something other than an artist’s documentary. The lecture ends with a collaborative film between Jacquette and her husband, Rudy Burckhardt.

Judy Pfaff talks introspectively about the path that led her away from painting and towards sculpture and installation work. She shows slides of numerous pieces, devoting some attention to her drawings and expressing regret that few of her installations exist as anything more than slide images.

Artist Donald Baechler shows slides of his work beginning with student work and progressing to later collage/paintings and finally sculpture, commenting on his process and working methods and denying any attempt at creating a narrative with his art. The lecture generates many questions, and eventually evolves into a lively and energetic discussion about the ethics and aesthetics of appropriation when the speaker reveals that he likes to purchase naive drawings of objects he has requested from prisoners, juvenile delinquents and drug addicts which he then incorporates into the collaged background of his works.

African American artist Willie Birch lectures on growing up and his education as a Black artist in the segregated South, his first discovery of museum art when he was a member of the Air Force stationed in Europe, and his subsequent exposure to African American artists on his return to civilian life. Like his artwork, the talk is rich with references to African and African-American political, social and cultural history from Egypt to modern times, and the artist’s interest in the subject matter, symbolism, and layers of meaning which figure in his art is almost contagious. The works shown in the slides are named.

Internationally acclaimed poet and writer Allen Ginsburg gives a lecture at Skowhegan. The lecture is split into two parts. The first part consists of Ginsburg singing and performing songs to the participants. Some of the issues that Ginsburg sings about include the history of poetry, reflections on meditation and spirituality, world peace and the war on drugs. The second part of the lecture consists of Ginsburg reading a selection of poetry from 1980-1994 that he shares with the participants.

Artist Robert Gober gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his painting and sculpture practice, specifically using painting as a process that arrives at sculpture. Drawing from identity and personal experiences, Gober is interested in the tradition of sculpture to create something that is exactly what it represents and uses the cube to inject it with expressionistic, perverse, and Freudian content. Gober is interested in cliches of everyday objects, using found imagery to create them and working with craftsmen to cultivate new skills to build these objects. Gober ends his lecture reflecting on his ongoing desire for cleansing, and how this helped him to deal with coming out as gay during the Aids epidemic in the 1980s.

Sculptor Kiki Smith shows slides of her work, commenting on the content, materials, and narratives contained in them, as well as her perspective on their success or failure to express her ideas. Questions asked cover a variety of topics, with special emphasis on the artist’s experience in working with glass, and her perception of her art as speaking for the victimized.

Performance artist Penny Arcade (art name for Susan Ventura) presents a program of original performance pieces (mostly not transcribed) and talks about the need for practice, apprenticeship, patience and discipline, which she feels are critical to the development of an artist, and how she feels the contemporary art world has failed in this regard. Much of the lecture is autobiographical. The recording is not complete, ending during the Question and Answer period.

Artist John Baldessari shows a selection of his paintings which derive from “found” photographs which are cropped, blocked, and/or paired in a variety of ways, commenting on themes, motifs and concerns which recur throughout his work in this particular medium.

Lecture and artwork images © 2026 John Baldessari Family Foundation
Courtesy: Estate of John Baldessari

In this lecture painter Guy Goodwin shares the evolution of his painting in relation to changes in his life, beginning with works influenced by reproductions of contemporary art encountered in magazines. He discusses his childhood near Birmingham, Alabama, moving to New York as a young adult, meeting other artists and having to admit that he was a painter when confronted with the cliché that painting is dead. He describes a period in his work when he applied paint as thick as nine or ten inches on the surface of the canvas and the technical and conservation issues it posed. Goodwin also describes his rediscovery of the work of Arshile Gorky, whom he had admired early in his career, with the ultimate result that he labored to break down the surface, the opaqueness and the density of his paintings and began to experiment with different ways of painting and drawing.

Ann Hamilton presents slides of performance work from her “toothpick suit” made in graduate school at Yale, and additional work involving the body (her own and others), in various situations which relate the animate and the inanimate. Hamilton reflects on the surprises that came out of the work, such as the discovery that situations she had envisioned as sensual were closer to torture for friends who performed in the work for or with her. This led to increasingly complex, labor intensive installations which Hamilton wants simplified in order to engage the viewer by various means (the body and the senses) other than language, and to find ways to express her ideas concerning consumption and economies without being part of the problem.

Noted African American scholar bell hooks reads extensive fragments (with numerous additional remarks and asides) from two of her essays, one called “Art on My Mind,” which deals with her early experience of thinking about being an artist in a Black family and culture which did not see that as an option in terms of being a way to make a living; and the other one, which is not mentioned by title, concerned with two films, “The Bodyguard” and “The Crying Game,” and the complexities of gender and race relations embodied in them.

Reprinted by permission of The Estate of Gloria Watkins. All Rights Reserved.

The Agosto Machado lecture is split into two parts. The first one is an intimate lecture in which Machado shows slides and gives a lecture talking about his experience living in New York and his role as an interdisciplinary artist. Machado also talks about the many influences that have shaped his practice, and mentions the importance of making work around the AIDS crisis in New York. Throughout the lecture, Machado pays tribute to his friends who have passed away: many who are artists and who have influenced his practice as an artist and performer. The second part of the lecture includes an invocation to filmmaker Jack Smith by 1993 resident faculty artist Penny Arcade. Arcade talks about the importance of Jack Smith’s artistic and writing practice and philosophy, showing slides of Smith’s apartment and playing music.

The Agosto Machado lecture is split into two parts. The first one is an intimate lecture in which Machado shows slides and gives a lecture talking about his experience living in New York and his role as an interdisciplinary artist. Machado also talks about the many influences that have shaped his practice, and mentions the importance of making work around the AIDS crisis in New York. Throughout the lecture, Machado pays tribute to his friends who have passed away: many who are artists and who have influenced his practice as an artist and performer. The second part of the lecture includes an invocation to filmmaker Jack Smith by 1993 resident faculty artist Penny Arcade. Arcade talks about the importance of Jack Smith’s artistic and writing practice and philosophy, showing slides of Smith’s apartment and playing music.

Beginning with slides of the Watts Towers by Simon Rodia, artist Alison Saar comments on how, from an early age, that project influenced her perceptions of what art is and what it can be made from, particularly found and collected objects which have a spirit or story behind them. She continues with slides of her own work, accompanied by descriptions of materials and content; biographical information; additional influences, such as ethnic art, myths, and urban living; and her method of working. A number of her pieces have been vandalized, a situation she deals with philosophically. The slides shown include a range of media: assemblage, installations, drawings and paintings, sculpture, and fresco, many of which deal with race, gender and social issues.

Philip Taaffe juxtaposes slides of his own work with that of other artists and the abstract imagery of several cultural traditions to illustrate the derivative nature of his painting, collages, and prints, citing in addition the influence of music on his work. Specific works are mentioned by title, and he talks about techniques used and artistic goals for individual pieces.

African American sculptor Melvin Edwards reveals how his travels to various African countries have affected his welded sculptures. Many individuals and events are named as sources of inspiration for the work he shows, and he takes the audience quickly through the process involved in creating one of his public sculptures in Columbus, Ohio. During the question and answer period, Edwards is asked about the role of chains in his work, how he came to take up sculpture, the “Lynch Fragment” works, “Négritude,” and whether he thinks art can make a difference in society.

With slides of her work running concurrently but not directly addressing them in her lecture, artist Elizabeth Murray (who previously spoke at the school in 1979 and 1985) speaks with frank introspection about her decision to become an artist and her subsequent personal journey as student, fledgling artist, moving to New York, being a single parent with a child, achieving public recognition, and moving into the realm of political activism.

Using recent work as examples, artist Jane Hammond shows how she uses a palette limited to four colors and black and white along with a lexicon of 276 found images distilled from various bits of information she has collected in her life to create oil paintings which explore subjects like alchemy, magic, dreams, psychology, pornography, women’s issues, and the artist’s personal history. She also discusses experiments with rule based works.

Declaring himself to be a classical artist whose approach to landscape involves a primitive simple vocabulary based on lines and circles, British artist Richard Long shows how he has used raw materials such as stones, water, wind, mud, and the elements to make art which is ephemeral and rooted in nature. His ideas are expressed in a variety of ways, drawings of his walks on maps, photographs of his sculptures, gallery installations, or text works derived from ideas generated by his walks.

In his second lecture at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (previous lecture in 1983), artist William Wegman shows video and slides of photographic work, devoting considerable attention to his polaroid portraits of his Weimaraners; Man Ray; Bettina and Fay; drawings; “altered” photographs; and paintings. He also talks about the difficulties he encountered when he returned to painting at the age of forty.

Lithuanian-born artist Rudolph Baranik prefaces a slide presentation with autobiographical information and comments on sexism in the art world. In showing his work, most of which are not identified by name, he discusses his working methods, tools, materials, and sources for his imagery, much of it concerned with political issues. The talk includes numerous anecdotes about his own life in art and about political activism in which he and other artists participated, augmented by the speaker’s views on the education of artists.

Speaking extemporaneously, Vija Celmins talks about her life as an artist, other painters and influences on her art, the artistic goals which have informed her art at various stages in her development, and the circumstances that led her to move from one medium or one technique to another over the course of her artistic career. Slides are used to illustrate this lecture.

Addressing an audience of artists at Skowhegan several months after he was fired from his chairmanship at the National Endowment for the Arts amidst controversies surrounding NEA grants, John Frohnmayer speaks about the history of law and the history of censorship, the First Amendment, the value and perils of publicly funded art, the status of art within American society at the time of the lecture, and the gifts of inquiry and advocacy which artists give to society in their search for truth and meaning.

Artist and activist Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt gives a lecture talking about his interdisciplinary practice which ranges from sculpture, drawing, and installation. Lanigan-Schmidt has many sources of influence that inspire his work, including catholicism, his sexuality and his memories of being an activist in the Stonewall riots, and finally visiting libraries. For Lanigan-Schmidt, his source for making art has and continues to be looking at the periphery.

Sculptor Christy Rupp shows slides of her work and comments on the social, ecological and political issues which inspired it, and the metaphors embedded within the pieces, many of which are humorous. Most of the works discussed are identified by their titles.

May Stevens gives a lecture that is split into two parts. The first part of her lecture shows a series of slides featuring the work of many women artists who have inspired Stevens. The second part of the lecture is a focus on Steven’s own work. Steven shows a series of slides of the work she has made and does a reading. Some of the themes that move Stevens the most to make work are exploring the lives of women, language, words, water, speech, silence, loss, and time. All of these contemplations provide Stevens a way to look at many different vertical intersections in her life as a Women artist and the lives of all women artists who have come before her.

May Stevens gives a lecture that is split into two parts. The first part of her lecture shows a series of slides featuring the work of many women artists who have inspired Stevens. The second part of the lecture is a focus on Steven’s own work. Steven shows a series of slides of the work she has made and does a reading. Some of the themes that move Stevens the most to make work are exploring the lives of women, language, words, water, speech, silence, loss, and time. All of these contemplations provide Stevens a way to look at many different vertical intersections in her life as a Women artist and the lives of all women artists who have come before her.

Artist Sidney Tillim talks about his extensive painting practice over the decades. Tillim is interested in history painting and exploring the everyday lives of Americans. Tillim also shares the work of various artists, talking about his role as an art critic. Tillim speaks to the importance of dichotomies in his work: the heroic and the banal, the figurative and the abstract, the relationships between archival information and early colour illustration. It is many of these ideas which continue to drive Tillim’s work.

Beginning with autobiographical information, Gregory Amenoff presents a slide presentation of his paintings from 1973 onwards. Earlier works are not referred to by name; later works are. Included in his narrative are commentaries about paintings which he considered important in setting new directions for him, as well as influences on his work. Amenoff shows work by Hilma af Klimt, Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum, John Searle, Frank Jones, and Martino Ramirez.

Artist Sue Coe shows examples of her work which illustrate her political involvement with social, political and humane issues including AIDS, the bombing by the U.S. of Grenada and Iraq, the covert occupation of Panama and the use of Stealth bombers on a civilian population, the support of Noriega, the role of trans-national corporations on many fronts, the twin dangers of patriarchy and capitalism, Supreme Court nominations, the inhumane treatment of animals and labor in slaughterhouses around the world, and more. Comic books and graffiti, according to this artist, are the only forms of live art currently in existence

Artist David Driskell shares personal experiences and thoughts related to art and social justice, particularly in regards to gender and race in the art world. These experiences began with his summer at Skowhegan, when, after working with Jack Levine, he returned to college determined to be a social commentary artist, and continued into his work as a curator and as the first Black chairman of the Art Department at the University of Maryland. The artist also shows slides of his work and his homes and gardens.

Peter Gourfain gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice which is initially rooted in painting and drawing. Gourfain’s work addresses themes of politics, activism, and identity, where he draws from news sources and other images to construct these narratives. Gourfain also talks about the importance of landscape painting for him, specifically painting the sea and other rural scenes. Gourfain ends his lecture by talking about leaning new skills for him as an artist: including how to make his own pigments, paints and finally clay to create ceramics.

Speaking about her art for the first time in a number of years, installation/performance artist Ann Hamilton shows slides from twelve projects, beginning with the toothpick suit, in which she was concerned with the body as an object. This project led to other works about vulnerability and later to site-specific installations that deal with systems, both human and non-human. The lecture is rich with allusions to books and music that have have functioned as the impetus for the labor-intensive work which Hamilton has found both rewarding and exhausting. As a result, Hamilton has had to accept the help of other hands, with the result that many of the pieces have enjoyed a strong sense of community in the process of making them.

Artist Will Insley begins by conjecturing where art began in terms of civilization and where it begins in the individual, sharing anecdotes from his own experiences as a child, as an architectural student, in the army, and working as a file clerk in the photo studio of the Metropolitan Museum which influenced his future work. He continues with autobiographical information about his efforts at and dissatisfaction with expressing himself as a painter and leading up to his decision to return to abstract work based on his training in architecture, culminating in a description of his well-known One City project. This is followed by a chronological showing of slides with commentary and description, again with a detailed look at One City, but including work after the show of that work at the Guggenheim Museum.

Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt gives a lecture at Skowhegan spanning his life as an interdisciplinary artist and activist. Throughout the lecture, Lanigan-Schmidt shows slides of works that have influenced him and shares anecdotes about his life experiences. Lanigan-Schmidt also talks about his reverence for folk art, the role humour plays in his work, and his reverence for working with unconventional materials. Lanigan-Schmidt ends his lecture by focusing on his sculpture practice and how it has become increasingly become important for him to look at his neighbourhood in New York City through the lens of economic oppression.

Interdisciplinary artist Yvonne Rainer talks about her experiences as a choreographer, film-maker and dancer, implementing these modes of working to navigate her identity through the lens of race, gender, class and sexuality. Rainer also has an open discussion with the participants where the conversations range from politics, feminism, visual art, and pop culture. Rainer tells the participants about the shift she made in her practice to expand from dance into experimental film, specifically being inspired by Laura Mulvey and Merce Cunningham.

Warren Robbins gives a lecture at Skowhegan spanning his interests in African art and modernity, specifically talking about the over 250 distinct styles that exist of African art. Robbins speaks heavily about the oeuvre of Pablo Picasso and the relationship his work has had with African art, while also mentioning the artists Henri Matisse and Paul Klee who also had an interest in African art. Robbins tells the participants of the importance of ridding themselves of eurocentrism and acknowledging how artists also draw on a wide range of cultures. Robbins ends his lecture saying that Western Art histories steeped in Western Culture need to start seeing the nuances to approach the subject of the European art form in relation to the African element.

Artist Joan Semmel gives a lecture of her work talking about her personal, political and aesthetic influences. Semmel also goes into detail talking about her painting practice which ranges from still life, landscape, and portraiture as well as her time living in Spain and the United States. Semmel is specifically interested in sexual fantasies and experiences to express her feminist identity which had not been seen in the art history she studied. Semmel is also interested in the non-idealized body from one’s own body and one’s own point of view. Semmel uses this as a jumping off point to explore separateness and intimacy in her painting practice in order to imbue it with a surreal quality. Another source of imagery that Semmel works with is black and photographs and colour xerox machines. Semmel talks about the process of projecting an image to get across an idea through an image. For Semmel, photography communicates images that allows her to accept distortions and take those sources to make it her own when painting it. Semmel ends the lecture by urging the participants if there is a skill they want to acquire, they have to put in the work to go out there and figure out how to learn it.

Painter Ross Bleckner shows slides of his work dating from 1981 and attempts to communicate his philosophy of art in general, and what he is trying to express in his own work more specifically. Some of the works are identified by title. During the Questions and Answer session, the questions are inaudible.

Interdisciplinary and collaborative artist Houston Conwill gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he seeks to create a common ground for Black American Culture. Conwill’s work is inspired by African language systems, black music and dance, African writing systems, and waters and rivers: specifically the deep Mississippi rivers. Conwill draws on many writers, theorists and activists to explore these ideas. Conwill goes further with the importance water plays in his work. For Conwill, he sees Water as a symbol for African American freedom, a cross-cultural centre for renewal and purification, and an expression of the fertile forces of nature. Conwill works with archetypes and uses cross cultural references to communicate these ideas, ranging from gardens and libraries, to tombstones and stand-posts. Humour is also an important element in Conwill’s work. It functions as a way to distance oneself from pain and suffering, and not to be pulled down by one’s own ego which is very important to Conwill as an artist.

Painter Grace Hartigan reflects in a very personal way on a fifty-year career as an artist, looking back to her introduction to the New York art world when she was just starting out, during World War II, a time she refers to as purer, in that there was a true community of artists, with little competition for money or fame, and few galleries. The slides shown cover the span of her work chronologically and are accompanied by additional artistic, personal, cultural and social information and anecdotes, as well as commentary on the materials and methods relevant to the works themselves.