2019

Jessica M. DiTillio

  • Doctoral Candidate
  • University of Texas at Austin
Picture of Jessica M. DiTillio

Project

After the Punchline: American Visual Parody since the 1970s as Generative Form

Program

Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art

Department

Art and Art History

Abstract

Modern and contemporary American art contains abundant examples of visual parody, yet there is little analysis of this pervasive form. This project focuses on American artists of color who have used parody as a technique to generate new readings of art history. It examines parodies by Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon, and Nao Bustamante to ponder questions of race, sexuality, authorship, and power. Reading these parodies in dialogue with the artworks they target, each chapter uses the dialogical structure of parody as a method for integrating the insights of contemporary art with the study of earlier periods of art history.