Breast, Baby and the Viewer’s Desire

Anne Wagner writes frequently on women’s art, maternity, and visual representation, as well as sculpture and performance. An emerita professor at the University of California, Berkeley, she has lived in London since 2008.

Her talk at LUX takes up questions of closeness, distance, and desire as manifested in the imagery of mother and child.

This event is presented as part of the public programme for Kate Davis’ exhibition at LUX, Charity, which continues until 28 October 2017.

An art historian, critic and teacher, Anne M. Wagner writes on a range of topics in 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st century art, especially sculpture. Class of 1936 Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, she is now based in London, where in 2013 – 14 she was Visiting Professor at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her books include Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Sculptor of the Second Empire, 1986; Three Artists (Three Women), 1996; and Mother Stone: The Vitality of Modern British Sculpture, 2005. A House Divided: On Recent American Art appeared in 2012. With T. J. Clark, she is the curator of Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life, a major exhibition staged at Tate Britain in 2013, as well as the co-authored book that accompanied the show. Her articles and essays have appeared in such journals as Art History, Representations,October, the London Review of Books, and Artforum.