Sherrill Grace will explore the following issues: why a woman playwright
chooses to create a dramatization of another artist's life? what challenges
are faced when that artist is a famous woman? and how, specifically, Clark
addresses these questions in her play Life Without Instruction? Primary
focus will be on Clark's play with some attention to the wider contexts
of Artemisia Gentilleschi's life and self-portraits, her reception by art
historians, and a brief comparison with other women artists who have tackled
similar issues in their work--for example, Joyce Wieland in her film The
Far Shore. There will be illustrations.
05/25: 915