David J. Getsy
davidgetsy.com
New book out May 2026
Magic Episodes and Other Synchronicities: The Transhemispheric Correspondence of Scott Burton and Eduardo Costa, 1970-1980
Magic Episodes and Other Synchronicities: The Transhemispheric Correspondence of Scott Burton and Eduardo Costa, 1970-1980
Online bookstore and trade distributor representing the best in independent publishing.
Upcoming talks 2026
2/25: Dia Chelsea: The Magic Hype: Andy Warhol and Trans Visibility in the 1970s
2/25: Dia Chelsea: The Magic Hype: Andy Warhol and Trans Visibility in the 1970s
Dia Art Foundation is a contemporary arts organization with locations in Beacon, New York, and the American West.
New essays Fall 2025
Appearing Asymptomatic: Scott Burton’s Public Art and the Knowledge of AIDS
Appearing Asymptomatic: Scott Burton’s Public Art and the Knowledge of AIDS
Scott Burton’s (1939–89) sculpture of the 1980s took the form of inconspicuous sculptures of benches, settees, and tables. With these works, Burton helped to redefine public art in the decade. His move into public art paralleled the first phase of the AIDS crisis—from 1981 to 1987—and was informed by his living with AIDS. This essay interweaves these histories in order to make a case for Burton’s sculpture as responding to AIDS while camouflaging that response—that is, by appearing asymptomatic. The genre of public art was particularly inhospitable to queer artists or artists with HIV, but Burton infiltrated it to create works that offered contact and support in public to many. By offering this account of Burton’s tactics of dissemblance, I argue that the knowledge of AIDS and its effects shaped his commitment to public art, which modeled one proposal for how to live through the AIDS crisis.
Where There's Smoke: Enduring Inhabitations in Alex Da Corte's Rubber Pencil Devil
Where There's Smoke: Enduring Inhabitations in Alex Da Corte's Rubber Pencil Devil
Public Affections: The Figurative Revelation of Scott Burton’s Late Work
Public Affections: The Figurative Revelation of Scott Burton’s Late Work
Queer Life and its Avoidance in 60s Art
Queer Life and its Avoidance in 60s Art
Bio / Portfolio
website (with PDFs of publications)
website (with PDFs of publications)
David Getsy is an art historian, curator, and art writer whose books include Queer Behavior: Scott Burton and Performance Art, Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender, and Queer. He is the Eleanor Shea Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia.
Latest book: Queer Behavior
Queer Behavior: Scott Burton & Performance Art
Queer Behavior: Scott Burton & Performance Art
New lecture recordings
Lecture Recording: Scott Burton & Queer Behavior
Lecture Recording: Scott Burton & Queer Behavior
Public Affections: The Revelations of Scott Burton’s Last Works @ Art Institute of Chicago, 9 October 2025
Public Affections: The Revelations of Scott Burton’s Last Works @ Art Institute of Chicago, 9 October 2025
Queer Abstraction in American Art @ ZeM October 28, 2025
Queer Abstraction in American Art @ ZeM October 28, 2025
Selected recent articles and essays
Interview: Paradoxes of Queer Visibility in Art History
Interview: Paradoxes of Queer Visibility in Art History
Geoffrey Hendricks and the Ambivalence of Queer Visibility
Geoffrey Hendricks and the Ambivalence of Queer Visibility
How to Teach Manet's Olympia after Transgender Studies
How to Teach Manet's Olympia after Transgender Studies
Waking Dreams: Colette's Performance Art
Waking Dreams: Colette's Performance Art
Martin Wong's Queer Fantasies
Martin Wong's Queer Fantasies
Lesbian Feminist Abstract Painting in the 1970s
Lesbian Feminist Abstract Painting in the 1970s
News
2022 Award for Distinction (Art Journal Award) from the College Art Association
2022 Award for Distinction (Art Journal Award) from the College Art Association
CAA announces the 2022 recipients of Awards for Distinction. By honoring outstanding member achievements, CAA reaffirms its mission to encourage the highest standards of scholarship, practice, conn…
2023 Robert Motherwell Award for Queer Behavior
2023 Robert Motherwell Award for Queer Behavior
Keynote announced for 50th annual conference of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand
Keynote announced for 50th annual conference of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand
David J. Getsy is a historian of art and performance whose research focuses on queer and transgender themes in modern and contemporary art. His books have charted modern sculpture’s relationship to the human body: Body Doubles: Sculpture in Britain, 1877–1905 (Yale University Press, 2004); Rodin: Sex and the Making of Modern Sculpture (Yale University Press, 2010); Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in […]
David J. Getsy Awarded 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship
David J. Getsy Awarded 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship
A UVA professor’s visionary work on the role marginalized communities have played in shaping the history of art has earned him recognition as a leading scholar of American intellectual and cultural life.
Recorded lectures and dialogues
YouTube playlist: David Getsy Talks
YouTube playlist: David Getsy Talks
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Lecture recording: Unnatural Relations and Queer Abstraction, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Lecture recording: Unnatural Relations and Queer Abstraction, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
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