JMU professor receives Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery award 

James Madison University art history professor, Laura Katzman, has been awarded the 2024 Director’s Essay Prize for Scholars by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. 

The biennial award recognizes leading research that expands both the notion of portraiture itself and the parameters of what is considered portraiture in the United States. 

Katzman’s essay, “Lorenzo Homar’s Cine Alba: An Intimate Portrait of North American Artists in Nineteen-Fifties Puerto Rico,” examines the artistic collaborators of Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar, their collective work on the island, and their complex relationships to the painter. This research reflects Katzman’s broader research on U.S. photographers in 1940s Puerto Rico and their efforts to affirm Puerto Rican culture and national identity. The essay was published in the book “La mirada en construcción: Ensayos sobre cultura visual (2022)," an anthology of texts on 20th century Puerto Rican culture.

The essay was chosen for its interdisciplinary contributions to the fields of American art, biography, history and cultural identity, according to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

“It is especially rewarding for my scholarship to be recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, in the nation’s capital, one of the most important, well-respected and influential cultural institutions in the world,” Katzman said. 

“The Director’s Essay Prize offers the exciting opportunity to bring wider attention to the extraordinary work of Lorenzo Homar and his collaborations with North American artists at a critical period in Cold War history,” added Katzman. 

Katzman, who also received $3,000 as part of the award, is scheduled to present a lecture on her work Oct. 15 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.