Coinciding with the major exhibition Fuseli and the Modern Woman: Fashion, Fantasy, Fetishism (The Courtauld Gallery, 14 October 2022 – 8 January 2023), the 2022 Frank Davis lectures offer a platform for new perspectives on one of the most original and idiosyncratic of eighteenth-century European artists. A central concern for all the speakers will be Fuseli’s graphic treatment of the human figure – how his draughtsmanship ‘builds’ the body as an excessively expressive signifier, one equipped to communicate the bizarre and often highly erotic narratives that their author deployed to construct and promote his self-consciously singular brand. In the process, Fuseli’s bodies expose the classical tradition to the prospect of its own disintegration, under the unbearable pressures exerted by the advent of modernity.
Organised by Dr Ketty Gottardo (The Courtauld) and Professor David Solkin (The Courtauld).
