The Risk Pictures: Lauren Berlant
By Riva Lehrer and Lauren Berlant
2018, charcoal and mixed media on paper, 44" x 30"
Collection of The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum
Lauren Berlant was the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor of English at the University of Chicago. They sat for this image directly after undergoing surgery for cancer. Berlant died in June, 2021.
Risk Activity: Berlant chose to expose her recent surgical scar for the drawing.
​
This bio is by critic Jill Casid: Critical anatomist of national sentimentality and the intimate public sphere across the trilogy, The Anatomy of National Fantasy (1991), The Queen of America Goes to Washington City (1997), and The Female Complaint (2008); visionary theorist of the Cruel Optimism (2011) that keeps us attached to objects that wear us out; a blogger at their Supervalent Thought; and a frequent collaborator and collective co-conspirator; Berlant pursued the work of public feelings from Feel Tank, the Chicago cell of Feminism Unfinished, to Sex, or the Unbearable (2014) with Lee Edelman and The Risk Pictures: Laurent Berlant (2018) with artist Riva Lehrer.
Read a New Yorker article on this world-renowned literary and social theorist.
https://english.uchicago.edu/faculty/lauren-berlant
​