On February 12, PICT visiting faculty member Lauren Jimerson spoke at the 108th CAA Annual Conference in Chicago. Lauren’s paper, entitled “Subversive Selves: Women Artists’ Nude Self-Portraits,” focused on the work of the French artist Émilie Charmy (1878-1974).
A largely overlooked artist, Émilie Charmy devoted much of her career to a subject that few artists had dared to explore—the nude self-portrait. Only subtly recognizable as self-portraits, Charmy’s nudes collapse the long-established division between artist and model, subject and object. Moreover, through what Lauren calls an “aesthetics of female jouissance,” Charmy’s self-portraits reveal female pleasure and autoeroticism. In conclusion, Lauren maintained that Charmy’s work asserts her agency as well as a liberated, sexually conscious self, offering pioneering examples of modern body imagery.
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal US academic organization devoted to the visual arts.
