SwatTalk: “Vermeer’s Afterlives” with Ruth Yeazell ’67

When the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer died in 1675, he and his work quickly faded into obscurity. It wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century that his paintings were rediscovered by a French art critic and the Dutch painter entered the pantheon. Subsequent generations have continually rediscovered Vermeer, who, despite his early death at the age of 43 and modest output of perhaps no more than 50 paintings, is today one of the world’s most famous and influential artists.

In her new book, Vermeer’s Afterlives, Ruth Yeazell ’67, the Sterling Professor of English at Yale University, chronicles the painter’s extraordinary posthumous impact on art and culture. Telling the stories of the critics, artists, writers, and filmmakers who have expanded, innovated, and sometimes transformed the meaning of Vermeer’s work, Yeazell marks the 350th anniversary of Vermeer’s death by showing how his paintings have taken on afterlives of their own.

Register for the SwatTalk Vermeer’s Afterlives with Ruth Yeazell ’67.

SwatTalk: “Walter Jenkins and the Scandal that Brought Queer Life into American Politics” with Timothy Stewart-Winter ’01

Walter Jenkins was Lyndon Baines Johnson’s longest-tenured and most trusted advisor, working for LBJ in Congress, the Vice President’s office, and ultimately the White House, where he served as de facto chief of staff. Jenkins also sought anonymous sex with men—a secret he kept as a married father of six. In October 1964, a few weeks before the presidential election, Jenkins was arrested for soliciting sex in a YMCA bathroom two blocks from the White House—triggering his resignation and an avalanche of news coverage.

In his new book, Outed: LBJ’s Confidant and the Arrest That Transformed a Presidency, Rutgers University history professor Timothy Stewart-Winter ’01 writes about how Jenkins’s political downfall served as a watershed in making straight America aware of queer life and the ways in which antigay policies and the revelations around them continue to reverberate today.

As part of LGBTQ+ History Month, and in partnership with Swarthmore’s LGBTQ+ Alum Network, please join Stewart-Winter for a conversation with Sasha Issenberg ’00, the author of The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage, about Jenkins, LBJ, and this important chapter in political—and gay—history.

Registration Coming Soon