The Form Inventions of Barbara Rossi: Making as Meaning

The concept of form invention defined Barbara Rossi's artistic practice. In her words, it referred to a personal and abstract mode of expression "involved in going beyond what the physical eye perceives." The talk will introduce audiences to Rossi and the enigmatic, hybrid visual language she developed across her practices in drawing, painting, printmaking, and sewing. Stephanie Strother is a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Chicago, where she specializes in modern art of the 19th and 20th centuries. As a research associate in Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, she co-curated the 2024 exhibition "Four Chicago Artists: Theodore Halkin, Evelyn Statsinger, Barbara Rossi, and Christina Ramberg." She is currently writing a dissertation on the Atelier Martine, a Paris-based textile and decorative arts workshop founded in 1911 by leading fashion designer Paul Poiret. She holds an MA from the Courtauld Institute and a BA from Carleton College.