AICA-USA Lecture

Naomi Beckwith delivers the ninth annual AICA-USA Distinguished Critic Lecture, presented in a partnership between AICA-USA and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.

Titled “Curating the Errant Form,” Beckwith’s talk explores her approach to curating as a problem-solving activity, a way to work through art-historical challenges posed by certain art and artists, as well as her particular investment in using exhibitions to comprehend and apprehend work by artists of African descent and make useful linkages with the broader narrative of Western Art History.

Naomi Beckwith is the Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, following appointments as curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her numerous exhibitions include 30 Seconds off an Inch at The Studio Museum, focusing on 42 artists of color or inspired by black culture. She has been an early champion of such rising artist as Rashid Johnson, Xaviera Simmons, Sanford Biggers, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. She served on the jury of the 56th Venice Biennale 2015, currently on view.

This is the ninth AICA-USA Distinguished Critic Lecture at The New School, an annual event addressing current issues in the world of art criticism presented in partnership with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. Previous AICA-USA Distinguished Critic lecturers have been Michael Brenson, Linda Nochlin, Roberta Smith, Holland Cotter, Peter Schjeldahl, Michelle Kuo, Lucy Lippard, and Carolyn Christoph-Bakargiev.

AICA was founded in the wake of World War II to protect the openness of global discourse in the arts. There are now chapters in 64 countries currently promoting art criticism and its insights into contemporary culture. AICA-USA, with a nationwide membership, contributes significantly to the current dialogue.