Kort præsentation

In focus of this my PhD project and forthcoming dissertation, "Art Critcism as Social Critique," is a historical specific transformation of art criticism into social critique, undertaken by two female art critics between 1962 and 1974, in USA and Italy. The subjects in focus are Italian art critic and separatist feminist Carla Lonzi, (1931–1982) and American cultural critic and lesbian activist Jill Johnston (1931–2009). Intertwining critique of art with that of life, their social critique was formulated and enacted against a formalist critical subjectivity which they all were embodying and simultaneously expressing a polemic standpoint against.

In the thesis, I introduce the notion of “the double character of the art critic,” specific for this context and period, to discuss the two-fold critique enacted by Lonzi and Johnston up until 1969, after which both dropped out from art criticism and turned to separatist autonomous feminism and radical lesbianism respectively. Despite the difference in context and activity that distinguishes Lonzi and Johnston, both of them abandon, negate, or sabotage formalist critical subjectivity in the same year; 1969. This year they make the critical subject – themselves – the object of critique, while simultaneously immersing their presupposed autonomy into the heteronomous social context in which they live.

Lonzi's and Johnston's self-reflections undertaken during the preriod in focus allows them to question their own conditions of possibility and along with it, the historical categories of art, gender, race, and sexuality. The research focuses on published material and works by both subjects and surrounding figures, along with travelling theories and concepts in the context and period, read in relation informal correspondence and diary notes. The resulting thesis provides a study of the relation between critique, crisis and subjectivity, as relevant in 1969 as it is today. 

Sprogkundskaber

Swedish (maternal), Danish (fluent), English (fluent), French (fluent), Italian (intermediate)