Arnold Newman Lecture Series on Photography: Lorna Simpson

Lorna Simpson, artist. Born in 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, Lorna Simpson earned her BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1983, and her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 1985. She first gained recognition in the mid-1980s for her large photograph-and-text works that confront and challenge, conventional views of gender, identity, culture, history, and memory. With unidentified figures as a visual point of departure, Simpson uses the human form to examine the ways in which gender and culture shape the interactions, relationships, and experiences of contemporary American lives. On September 10, 2016, Simpson delivers the inaugural presentation of the Arnold Newman Lecture Series on Photography held at the National Gallery of Art. Her work is represented in the Gallery’s collection by Two Pairs, a photogravure published by Graphicstudio, U. S. F., and Untitled (Two Necklines), two gelatin silver prints and 11 engraved plastic plaques. Untitled (Two Necklines) is on view in the exhibition Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art through January 2, 2017.