ARTHIST 417A: Persona: The Artist as Fabricator of the Self

Course Description

Beginning with the Renaissance, artists came to recognize that their very conduct - how they presented themselves - was as much a medium as the work they produced. This course traces this evolution through a lineage of figures, from early modern masters like Raphael and Artemisia Gentileschi to contemporary provocateurs such as Sophie Calle, Cindy Sherman, and Gillian Wearing, culminating in the speculative biographical landscapes of Catherine Lacey's Biography of X. At its core, the course asks: Can true transformation be realized? How do artists navigate the limits of appearance, identity, and talent? And, through these acts of self-reinvention, can they propose an alternative way of living, one both conceivable and, perhaps, attainable?