Art Talk: Beth Ames Swartz in Dialogue with Susan Aberth
A Collaboration between PhxArt and ASU Jewish Studies and the Valley of Sun Jewish Community Center
January 31, 2024 | 6 – 7:30 PM
Presented in Whiteman Hall. Limited capacity.
TICKETS: Free for Members | $5 for the general public
Ecofeminist artist Beth Ames Swartz has been inspired by many intellectual, religious, and wisdom traditions, including Indigenous spirituality, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jewish mysticism, Chinese healing arts, Christianity, and Sufism, as she wrestles with the meaning of life, death, creativity, pain, and suffering. Hear from Beth Ames Swartz in conversation with Susan Alberth, Edith C. Blum Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Bard College, as they discuss how Swartz’s art and aesthetics are motivated by the Jewish ideal of Tikkun Olam. They will discuss how societal challenges such as feminism, social inequality, and injustice can be addressed if we appreciate our connectedness to the healing power of earth, water, air, and fire, and if we see ourselves as part of the cycle of birth, life, aging, death, and renewal. The program will begin with a screening of the documentary Beth Ames Swartz/Reminders of Invisible Light.
About the Speakers:
Beth Ames Swartz’s highly acclaimed career includes more than 80 solo exhibitions, four solo traveling exhibitions, three books, eight catalogs, and reviews in ARTnews, Art in America, and Artforum, plus many articles and videos. PBS stations have aired a 29-minute documentary on her life and art titled Beth Ames Swartz / Reminders of Invisible Light. Swartz received the Governor's Individual Artist Award in 2001. Her art is in many public and museum collections, including The Jewish Museum, The Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Phoenix Art Museum, and The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. One of her large fire works was recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art. Her books, catalogs, and film are in the Getty Research Institute, and her work can be seen in ACA Galleries in New York and her studio in Paradise Valley.
Susan L. Aberth is the Edith C. Blum Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The author of Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art (Lund Humphries, 2004), Aberth has focused her scholarship on women artists and occultism. The Tarot of Leonora Carrington, co-authored with Tere Arcq, will be reissued this summer in an expanded edition (Editorial RM, Madrid). Her essays are included in Surrealism and Magic (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation & Museum Barberini Potsdam, 2022); Witchcraft: Library of Esoterica (Taschen, 2021); Not Without My Ghosts (Drawing Room & Hayward Gallery, 2020); Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist, (Phoenix Art Museum, 2019); and Surrealism, Occultism and Politics (Routledge, 2018).