Washington University’s own Douglas B. Dowd will give a talk at 5 p.m. Thursday, January 31, in Olin Library’s Ginkgo Reading Room (Level 1).
Dowd, a professor of art and American culture studies, has titled his presentation "Cheap Photography, Classy Illustration?: Class, Price, Style and Desire in Mid-Century American Periodicals for Men (and Women)."
Dowd is an active curator, essayist, and critic in the realm of modern graphic culture, writing on topics in comics, animation, and illustration. He writes the blog Graphic Tales and serves as an advisor to the Norman Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He is also an illustrator, animator, and printmaker.
"I’m interested in the prestige of illustration, followed by its collapse," he says, "and the transition from somewhat harsh black and white photography to the airbrushed color photography of post-Playboy."
A reception will follow the event, which is free and open to the public. The talk is sponsored by the University Libraries and given in conjunction with an exhibition currently on display in Olin Library, Thrill Seekers: The Rise of Men’s Magazines. For more information, contact Skye Lacerte, curator of WU’s Modern Graphic History Library, at slacerte@wustl.edu.
Comments