Susan Sontag

Object Details

Artist

Peter Hujar, 1934 - 1987

Sitter

Susan Sontag, 16 Jan 1933 - 28 Dec 2004

Exhibition Label

Born New York City

Susan Sontag’s desire to accomplish what she termed “self-transendence” coincided with the emergence of a 1960s counterculture. She became an international icon after the 1964 publication of her essay “Notes on ‘Camp,’” a study of the aesthetics of artifice and popular culture. Soon thereafter, Against Interpretation (1966), a volume of her critical writings, reinforced her status.

During the 1980s, Sontag chronicled the impact of the AIDS epidemic on artists and intellectuals in such pieces as “The Way We Live Now” (1986), which she penned for the New Yorker. In a later work, Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), she explored the disconnect between images of war, the experiences they represent, and the audiences that consume those images. The book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Throughout Sontag’s life, she was dedicated to freedom of expression and the advancement of literature, which she declared “the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom.”

Nacida en la Ciudad de Nueva York

La aspiración de Susan Sontag a lo que llamó la “autotrascendencia” coincidió con el surgimiento de la contracultura de los años sesenta. Sontag se convirtió en ícono internacional luego de publicar en 1964 su ensayo “Notas sobre lo camp”, un estudio de la estética del artificio y la cultura popular. Su posición pronto se consolidó con Contra la interpretación (1966), un volume de sus textos críticos. Durante la década de 1980, Sontag hizo la crónica de la epidemia del SIDA entre los artistas e intelectuales con ensayos como “Cómo vivimos ahora” (1986), escrito para The New Yorker. En Ante el dolor de los demás (2003) exploró la disociación entre las imágenes de la guerra, las experiencias que representan y los públicos que las consumen. El libro resultó finalista del Premio del Círculo Nacional de Críticos Literarios. Sontag dedicó su vida a promover la libertad de expresión y el avance de la literatura, la cual definió como “el pasaporte a una vida más amplia, es decir, la zona de la libertad”.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

1975

Object number

NPG.2005.33

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Copyright

© The Peter Hujar Archive, LLC

Type

Photograph

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 37.1 x 37.6cm (14 5/8 x 14 13/16")

Sheet: 50.3 x 40.3cm (19 13/16 x 15 7/8")

Mat: 71.1 x 55.9cm (28 x 22")

Place

United States\New York\Kings\New York

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Interior

Susan Sontag: Female

Susan Sontag: Literature\Writer

Susan Sontag: Performing Arts\Director\Motion pictures

Susan Sontag: Literature\Writer\Novelist

Susan Sontag: Performing Arts\Director\Theater

Susan Sontag: Literature\Writer\Playwright

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.2005.33

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4b1970ec4-b0c0-41b1-9a8a-227d606a3214