Release Date: January 9, 2012
Lecture Program Celebrates Morse and Jakuchū Exhibitions, French Galleries Reinstallation, New Books by Noted Authors, 61st Mellon Lectures, and More, at the National Gallery of Art
Michael Fried will sign copies of his book Four Honest Outlaws following his lecture titled About Four Honest Outlaws, presented on Sunday, January 22, at the National Gallery of Art.
As 2012 opens, the National Gallery of Art welcomes an impressive group of noted authors and scholars to the podium. Four book signings, two symposia, a public conference, the annual Elson Lecture, and the 61st A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts round out the season.
Author lectures and book signings include the January 15 program Woodcarving and Woodcarvers in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Venice, featuring author Anne Markham Schulz. On January 22, Michael Fried, J. R. Herbert Boone Professor of Humanities and the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University, visits the Gallery to discuss and sign copies of his recently published book on contemporary art, Four Honest Outlaws: Sala, Ray, Marioni, Gordon.
On January 29, Mary Morton discusses the reinstallation of the Gallery’s renowned collection of 19th-century French paintings after a two-year renovation of the impressionist and post impressionist galleries. A Meet the Curators question-and-answer session will take place in the French paintings galleries following the lecture.
In honor of the exhibition Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) (March 30–April 29), guest curator Yukio Lippit will sign copies of the sumptuously illustrated exhibition catalogue after his presentation on the closing day of the exhibition.
The Gallery celebrates African American History Month in February with two lectures on the collecting of African American art. On February 12, David C. Driskell participates in a discussion with Ruth Fine, addressing for the first time his role as a collector, and on February 26, collectors and former National Basketball Association players Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker will appear in conversation with Michael D. Harris, Atlanta-based artist, professor, scholar, and curator. The following week, on March 4, the Gallery will host a lecture by Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of art history and African American Studies, University of California, Irvine, and a book signing of her new publication Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum.
Beginning on March 11, the Gallery’s acclaimed A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts returns for the 61st year with Craig Clunas, professor of history of art, University of Oxford, who will deliver the six-part lecture series Chinese Painting and Its Audiences. The Gallery also celebrates Chinese art with the February 19 program Solving the East/West Conundrum in Modern Chinese Art by Martin J. Powers, which will be offered in both English and Mandarin.
On March 22, artist Kerry James Marshall delivers the annual Elson lecture. Marshall’s Great America (1994), acquired by the Gallery in April 2011, is now on view in the East Building Concourse galleries. It is the Gallery's first painting by this major artist now in his midcareer. Marshall, a devoted student of the human figure and the history of art, draws upon the experience of African Americans to create imposing, contemporary history paintings.
All lecture programs are presented free of charge and take place on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. in the East Building Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis.
Public Conference
The Art of Itō Jakuchū
Friday, March 30, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Illustrated lectures by noted scholars and conservators of Japanese art on the occasion of the exhibition Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800), co-organized by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, and the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Public Symposia
Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre in Focus
Friday, April 20, 3:00–5:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 21, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Celebrating the Reopening of the Nineteenth-Century French Galleries
Friday, April 27, 12:00–5:00 p.m., East Building Auditorium
Saturday, April 28, 12:00–5:00 p.m., West Building Lecture Hall
The Sixty-First A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
Chinese Painting and Its Audiences
Craig Clunas, professor of history of art, University of Oxford
Beginning and Ending in Chinese Painting
Sunday, March 11, 2:00 p.m.
The Gentleman
Sunday, March 18, 2:00 p.m.
The Emperor
Sunday, March 25, 2:00 p.m.
The Merchant
Sunday, April 1, 2:00 p.m.
The Nation
Sunday, April 15, 2:00 p.m.
The People
Sunday, April 22, 2:00 p.m.
Elson Lecture
The Elson Lecture Series features distinguished contemporary artists whose work is represented in the Gallery's permanent collection. The Honorable and Mrs. Edward E. Elson generously endowed this series in 1992.
Thursday, March 22, 3:30 p.m.
Kerry James Marshall, artist
www.nga.gov/podcasts/elson/
Lecture Programs
Pythagoras and Art History from Antiquity to the Renaissance
Sunday, January 8, 2:00 p.m.
Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, professor emerita of art history, The University of New Mexico; scholar in residence, American University; and visiting scholar, The George Washington University
Woodcarving and Woodcarvers in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Venice
Sunday, January 15, 2:00 p.m.
Anne Markham Schulz, professor of art history and architecture, Brown University. Book signing of Woodcarving and Woodcarvers in Venice, 1350–1550 follows.
About Four Honest Outlaws
Sunday, January 22, 2:00 p.m.
Michael Fried, J. R. Herbert Boone Professor of Humanities and the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University
Book signing of Four Honest Outlaws: Sala, Ray, Marioni, Gordon follows.
Ninteenth-Century Redux: A New Look at a Great Collection of French Paintings
Sunday, January 29, 2:00 p.m.
Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art
Side by Side: Cimabue and Giotto at Pisa
Sunday, February 5, 2:00 p.m.
Julian Gardner, Samuel H. Kress Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art
The Collecting of African-American Art VII: David C. Driskell in conversation with Ruth Fine
Sunday, February 12, 2:00 p.m.
David C. Driskell, artist, collector, and emeritus professor of art history, University of Maryland at College Park, in conversation with Ruth Fine, consulting curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
Solving the East / West Conundrum in Modern Chinese Art
Sunday, February 19, 1:00 p.m. (in Mandarin), 2:00 p.m. (in English)
Martin J. Powers, Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures and Director, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
The Collecting of African-American Art VIII: Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker in conversation with Michael D. Harris
Sunday, February 26, 2:00 p.m.
Collectors of African-American art and art of the African diaspora and former National Basketball Association players Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker, in conversation with Michael D. Harris, associate professor of art history and African American Studies, Emory University
Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum
Sunday, March 4, 2:00 p.m.
Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of art history and African American studies, University of California, Irvine
Book signing of Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum follows.
Itō Jakuchū’s Colorful Realm: Juxtaposition, Naturalism, and Ritual
Sunday, April 29, 2:00 p.m.
Yukio Lippit, professor of Japanese art, Harvard University
Book signing of Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū follows.
Works in Progress
All lectures take place on Mondays and selected Tuesdays in the East Building Small Auditorium at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
Reflections and Undercurrents: Printmaking in Venice, 1900 – 1940
Monday, January 30
Eric Denker, lecturer, National Gallery of Art
More than Ninety Miles Away: A Dialogue with Cuban Artist Rodolfo Peraza
Monday, February 6 (12:10 p.m. only)
Rodolfo Peraza, artist, in conversation with Michelle Bird, curatorial assistant, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art
Use of Multi- and Hyper-Spectral Infrared Imaging Spectroscopy to Improve Infrared Reflectography of Paintings, Drawings, and Illuminated Manuscripts
Monday, February 13
John Delaney, senior imaging scientist, scientific research department, National Gallery of Art
Changing the Face of Research: The Dutch Online Systematic Catalogue Project of the National Gallery of Art
Monday, February 27
Neal Johnson, information technology specialist; G. Memo Saenz, web designer; Karen Sagstetter, senior editor, publishing office; and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art
Mannequins in Museums: Humankind on Display
Monday, March 5
Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of art history and African American studies, University of California, Irvine, and Jennifer Wagelie, senior academic officer, Indiana University Art Museum
Six Generations of Movers and Shakers in the Dutch Golden Age
Monday, March 19
Henriette S. de Bruyn Kops, exhibitions research assistant, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art
The Reticular Landscape: An Allusion to Musical Rhythms
Monday, April 2
Glenn Perry, exhibition specialist, department of silkscreen, National Gallery of Art
Painting Conservation: Continuing Discoveries
Monday, April 23
Sarah Fisher, senior conservator and head of painting conservation, National Gallery of Art
(View other lectures from the More than Ninety Miles Away series at http://www.nga.gov/programs/abstracts/cuban.htm.)
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