Norman Lewis working on Composition I, 1945. Courtesy Willard Gallery Archives

Join us for our Art History Faculty Lecture Series. Assistant Professor Tracey Johnson, based in the UGA Department of History and the Institute for African American Studies, will present a lecture on March 18th at the Lamar Dodd School of Art in room N100 at 5:30 pm.

"Artist or Oddity?: The Double Bind of Black Artists" explores exclusion of Black artists during the WPA and into the Cold War. This lecture explores the artwork and activism of Augusta Savage and Norman Lewis. The talk highlights how Black artists engaged in an art world that resisted their presence while also working within the Black community to provide access to the arts. Their work on behalf of African Americans often hindered their professional progress.

Speaker Bio

Tracey Johnson is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Georgia. She specializes in 20th-century United States History, History of Education, and U.S. social movements. Johnson earned her BA at The College of William & Mary and her PhD at Rutgers University.