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Susan Sontag

National Portrait Gallery

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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

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