Jessica Todd Smith will explore how 20th-century American artists responded to, and sometimes upended, long-held traditions in portraiture. Pushing at the boundaries of convention, they found new and exciting ways to explore identity and to commemorate individuals, keeping them live in memory.The talk will include paintings from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  

ABOUT Jessica Todd Smith, Unmasked Juror
Dr. Jessica Todd Smith is the Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art and Manager of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Recent projects include the exhibitions Painting Identity; Elegy: Lament in the 20th Century; and Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950, which was accompanied by the book American Modernism: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Art on the Edge & Over, and In the Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Art.

Prior to her arrival at the PMA in 2016, she was the Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. At The Huntington, Smith worked on three major expansions of the American galleries, in addition to exhibitions, publications, and collection development. She earned a B.A. summa cum laude from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Yale University.