6 pm reception
6:30 pm lecture

Hungarian-born Ilonka and Mariska Karasz settled in New York in the 1910s and established themselves as avant-garde artists and designers of furniture, silver, ceramics, textiles, and fashion. Djuna Barnes was one of the era’s most transgressive writers and a fellow Greenwich Village habitué. In this conversation, Ashley Callahan will discuss the Karasz’s remarkable careers, as well as the continuing presence of European influences in their creations. Drake Stutesman will explore Barnes’ novel, Nightwood, as an expression of early 20th-century artists’ explosive rupturing of form.

Ashley Callahan is an independent scholar whose research focuses on modern American design and southeastern decorative arts.

Drake Stutesman is the editor of Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. She is completing the screenplay for the film adaptation of Nightwood.