Volume 3, No. 10 January 24, 2003
Art history scholar to lecture at SCAD By Andrew Nedd On Jan. 28, the Savannah College of Art and Design is sponsoring a lecture by Sarah Symmons, Ph.D., senior lecturer of art history at the University of Essex, England. Symmons, who has established an international reputation as an authority on the Spanish artist Francisco Goya and his contemporaries, will read a paper titled "Writing, Scribbling, Drawing, Printing: Goya’s ‘Universal Language’ of Art." The lecture will begin at 6 p.m. on the third floor of Ex Libris, 228 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Symmons lecture draws upon her current project, a new edition of Goya’s letters in English translation. Many of the documents have never appeared in English before, and her research has sparked an interest in artists’ letters in general. Her next project will include case studies of private letters of several 19th-century painters, including Delacroix and Van Gogh. Symmons trained as an art historian at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and has written extensively on the painting and sculpture of the 18th and 19th centuries. Her publications include "Flaxman and Europe," "Goya in Pursuit of Patronage," "Goya, Art and Ideas" and "Printing the Unprintable." Symmons’ latest book, "Goya: A Life in Letters," will be published this summer. Before becoming a student Symmons says she spent a study year in Spain where she first got to know and love Spanish art, especially the art of Goya, and learned to understand the language. Soon she decided to pursue art history. "I discovered that you could study artworks at university and earn your living talking about them," she said. After teaching in art schools, she was offered a full-time position at the University of Essex, one of the newest universities in England with a reputation throughout the 1970s for student revolutions and multiple sit-ins. "I feel I was fortunate to work at such a vibrant and modern institution and teach such questioning and enthusiastic students," she said. Along with teaching, Symmons researches and teaches early 20th-century British art movements, concentrating on Vorticism and the art of Walter Sickert. Along with her book on Flaxman, Symmons helped organize the large Flaxman exhibition held at the Royal Academy in London and the Hamburg Kunsthalle in 1979. She also put on a show of Goya prints in 1999 (which The Guardian newspaper called the "best provincial exhibition of the year"). SCAD art history professor Rebecca Blass assisted Symmons with that exhibition. Symmons says that she has never been in Georgia before and she is "very much looking forward to visiting Savannah." During her visit she intends to see a little of the countryside, have a look at the work in the SCAD collection, and visit with friends and colleagues at the University of Georgia. Nedd is an art history professor.
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