University Events

Description: Professor Suzanne Schireson's great grandfather profoundly affected her work as a figurative artist. A surgeon during the infancy of plastic surgery in the 1930's, he wrote, "Nature when imperfect is often very ugly and repellent. A thing cannot be beautiful and ugly." In her talk, Professor Schireson will discuss artwork she made in response to her great grandfather's medical practice, a conversation of sorts that spans the distance of nearly a century.

Professor Schireson's paintings and animations explore the inherent contradictions that underlie her great grandfather's work-- the necessity of precision vs. the risk of invention and the power to heal vs. the fostering of insecurity.

As a figurative artist, Professor Schireson is fascinated by her ancestor's surgical obsession with the aesthetics of the head and body. In telling this complex story about identity and changing appearance, she will discuss her search to understand his motivations through her artwork.