The annual Paul H. and Erika Bourguignon Lecture in Art and Anthropology will feature Ann Bremner, art historian and former publications editor at the Wexner Center for the Arts, for a talk on “The Artist and the Anthropologist.”
Bremner will examine the life and work of this lecture series’ namesakes: the late artist Paul-Henri Bourguignon and anthropologist Erika Bourguignon. Paul-Henri Bourguignon’s artworks have been exhibited across the country, including in a fall 2014 retrospective at the Columbus Museum of Art. Erika Bourguignon is a former chair of the Department of Anthropology at Ohio State, where she taught for more than 40 years.
The couple met in 1947 in Haiti, where Erika was conducting fieldwork for her dissertation and Paul was a correspondent for a Belgian newspaper. Bremner will discuss the way the Bourguignons' relationship—especially the awareness it brought Paul of an anthropologist’s way of seeing and thinking—influenced his work as an artist. She will focus on images related to the Bourguignons’ time in Haiti: photographs Paul took in Haiti in 1947 and 1948 and paintings and drawings he made in Columbus that relate to Haiti.
Bremner met Dr. Erika Bourguignon in 1989 when she was invited to assist with an exhibition of Paul-Henri Bourguignon’s work at Capital University’s Schumacher Gallery. She also assisted with planning for subsequent exhibitions of the artist’s work at Ohio Wesleyan University’s Ross Art Museum (2009) and Columbus Museum of Art (2014–2015) and authored the lead essay for the catalog accompanying the Columbus Museum presentation.
The event is free and open to the public. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. There will be a memorial celebration for Erika Bourgugnon following the lecture, at 8 p.m. Join us as we celebrate Erika Bouguignon's life and achievements with her friends and colleagues.
RSVP requested, to Wayne Miller.
The annual Paul H. and Erika Bourguignon Lecture in Art and Anthropology is made possible by an endowment from Elizabeth (Betsy) Salt (MA, anthropology, 1975). The lecture was established by a gift from Erika Bourguignon. For more information, visit the Anthropology website.
