Eleanor Antin’s trailblazing art stretches back 50 years and more. Sensuous, witty and affecting, her best-known works include The Last Days of Pompeii and 100 Boots.

Art 21 describes her films, photographs and performance art as highly theatrical: “Antin draws from the childhood play, an infatuation with stand-up and slapstick comedy,
and the tragic humor that is part of her Jewish heritage. ‘I always tend to see the funny side of things,’ she says. ‘That’s the richest experience, when it’s the laughter and it’s the tears together.’”

The Last Days of Pompeii is a commentary on the affluent residents of the paradise of La Jolla, California. There is a comparison to be made, Antin explains, “between America, as this great colonial power, and one of the early great colonial powers, Rome.”

It is the generosity of Jane Fortune—author, cultural editor, art historian, art collector and philanthropist—that brings Butterfield to Herron. As her 2009 book, Women: Forgotten Artists in Florence, illustrates, one of Fortune’s passions is elevating women artists. “I want to make an impact on the community that surrounds me and help make the arts accessible to our residents. For me, supporting Herron makes sense. Why would you not want to support excellence?” she says. Past lecturers include Polly Apfelbaum, Deborah Butterfield, Judy Chicago and Magdalena Campos-Pons.

Antin’s lecture will coincide with Herron’s opening of the annual Undergraduate Exhibition.

The lecture is free and open to the public.