ArtSpeaks
Art speaks. We listen.
ArtSpeaks: Heavyweight / Black Boxers and the Fight for Representation
Friday, March 7 / 6:30PM-8PM
Drawn from Dr. Jordana Moore Saggese's latest book, Heavyweight: Black Boxers and the Fight for Representation, this lecture examines images of Black heavyweight boxers to map the visual terrain of racist ideology in the United States. Saggese will focus on the case of Australian heavyweight boxer Peter Jackson, known as “the Black Prince,” and a series of nude photographs taken of him in San Francisco in 1889. Connecting to the themes of the exhibition Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing on view at the Norton, she will explore how these unconventional renderings of Jackson’s body set the stage for contemporary discussions about the intersecting discourses of Blackness, masculinity, and sport in the United States.
Jordana Moore Saggese (she/her) is a Professor of modern and contemporary American Art at the University of Maryland, College Park, and former Editor-in-Chief of Art Journal. An internationally recognized expert on the American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988), she has published two books on his life and work: Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art and The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader: Writings, Interviews, and Critical Responses. Her latest book, Heavyweight: Black Boxers and the Fight for Representation, was published by Duke University Press in 2024.
Space is limited; online registration required (available January 25 members and February 1 for non-members).
Cost: Museum Admission/Members FREE
Stiller Auditorium
Support for this program was provided by the Gayle and Paul Gross Education Endowment Fund.