Art History from Home:
Dawoud Bey: An American Project

Online, via Zoom

This series of online talks by the Whitney’s Joan Tisch Teaching Fellows highlights works in the Museum's collection and recent exhibitions to illuminate critical topics in American art from 1900 to the present. During each thirty-minute session, participants are invited to comment and ask questions through a moderated chat. Sessions are available live only, Tuesdays at 6 pm and Thursdays at 12 pm, but topics and speakers do periodically repeat. Check back here for more sessions added regularly.

This session explores the work of photographer Dawoud Bey, who uses his camera to visualize communities and histories that have been underrepresented. From his tender and perceptive portraits to more recent work that takes a historic turn, Bey’s images pose existential questions that suggest not just a kind of personal expression but the power and possibility of bearing witness through photography.   

Ayanna Dozier is an artist, lecturer, curator, and scholar. She recently completed her Ph.D. in art history and communication studies at McGill University. She is the author of the 33 ⅓ book on Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope. She is currently a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney and a lecturer in the department of communication and media studies at Fordham University.