Lecture Another self. The alter ego in modern and contemporary art

Another self. The alter ego in modern and contemporary art

a lecture by dr. Timea Andrea Lelik

For 40 years, the persona of Liz Taylor has functioned as an alter ego in the oeuvre of Kathe Burkhart, whose exhibition Coronawijf and Other Works is on view at ROZENSTRAAT through the end of November. In her personality, Burkhart found the ideal Doppelgänger. Or as she herself says, “I wanted to represent a kind of woman who wasn’t represented, who wasn’t complicit, who was a noncompliant subject with agency. ^[1]

Artists have frequently used alter egos, in the form of a mask or pseudonym, to escape from themselves or more overtly, for the purpose of experimenting with a different aspect of personality or gender identity. ROZENSTRAAT previously showed the work of Lynn Hersman Leeson, Pola Weiss and Jonathan Hielkema & Jacopo Planet who all, with varying motivations, provided a stage for ‘another self ‘ through their art.

Based on the work of Marcel Duchamp/Rrose Selavy, Claude Cahun, Cindy Sherman, Theaster Gater and Lynn Hershman Leeson, Timea Andrea Lelik will talk during this evening about alter egos of artists in general. What role did they play and in what ways did they take a position, or were they represented?

Timea Andrea Lelik is an art historian, curator, writer and lecturer based in Amsterdam. She received her PhD on the portrait genre in 20th century painting and has been writing, teaching and publishing in the field of modern and contemporary art for more than a decade. She is currently working on a monograph on the work of Lynn Hershman Leeson.

The lecture will be in English.

^[1] Annabel Graham, ‘Suck them in with beauty, knock them out with the truth: an interview with Kathe Burkhart’, Autre Magazine, 20 april 2012