National Gallery of Art - PROGRAM AND EVENTS
Lectures
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Events will be added as they are scheduled. Please check back regularly for the most up-to-date calendar of events information.

Events By Type
Image: George de Forest Brush, An Aztec Sculptor, 1887, Gift (Partial and Promised) of the Ann and Tom Barwick Family Collection, 2005.107.1Image: One of a pair of pendants showing the Dragon Master, Tillya Tepe, Tomb II, Second quarter of the 1st century AD, National Museum of Afghanistan, Photo © Thierry Ollivier/Musée GuimetImage: Martin Puryear, Lever No. 3, 1989, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 1989.71.1Image: Jean Poyet, The Coronation of Solomon by the Spring of Gihon, c. 1500, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2006.111.3

Lecture-related events are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-seated basis. Registration is not required.

Lecture Abstracts Archive

Special Lecture Series
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

David Gariff, lecturer, National Gallery of Art

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
March 6 from 1:00PM to 2:00PM
Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Dream
March 7 from 1:00PM to 2:00PM
Aesthetic Pre-Raphaelitism
March 14 from 1:00PM to 2:00PM
Public Symposia
Pre-Raphaelitism and International Modernisms
March 8 from 12:00PM to 5:00PM

March 9 from 1:00PM to 5:00PM

Illustrated lectures by noted scholars

Engaging with American Furniture: Looking Back, Moving Forward
March 22 from 1:00PM to 4:00PM

March 23 from 12:00PM to 1:00PM

Illustrated lectures by noted scholars

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.

A Conversation with Glenn Ligon
March 14 at 3:30PM

Glenn Ligon, artist, with Molly Donovan and James Meyer, associate curators of modern art, National Gallery of Art

Glenn Ligon's intertextual works examine cultural and social identity—often through such sources as literature, Afrocentric coloring books, and photographs—to reveal the ways in which slavery, the civil rights movement, and politics inform our understanding of American society. Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1960, Ligon received a BA from Wesleyan University in 1982 and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in 1985. He lives and works in New York City.

The Gallery owns 16 prints by Ligon, including a suite of four etchings (1992), Runaways (1993), and Condition Report (2000). Last year the Gallery acquired its first painting by the artist. Untitled (I Am a Man) (1988) is a reinterpretation of the signs carried by 1,300 striking African American sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968 and made famous in Ernest Withers' photographs of the march. Proclaiming "I Am a Man," the signs evoke Ralph Ellison's famous line—"I am an invisible man." Approximating the size of these signs, Ligon's roughly made painting combines layers of history, meaning, and physical material in a dense, resonant object. As the first painting in which the artist appropriated text, it is a breakthrough. In subsequent works he would transform texts into fields that fluctuate between abstraction and legibility.

Ligon has received numerous awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2003) and the Skowhegan Medal for Painting (2006). The midcareer retrospective Glenn Ligon: America, organized by the Whitney, received the International Association of Art Critics Award (2012).

The Sixty-Second A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts

The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts were established in 1949 to bring to the people of the United States the results of the best contemporary thought and scholarship bearing upon the subject of the fine arts.

In anticipation of high attendance, the six lectures in this series will be video recorded. A screening of the recording will be shown the week after each lecture in the East Building Auditorium at 12:00 p.m.
 

Out of Site in Plain View: A History of Exhibiting Architecture since 1750
Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, and professor, Columbia University
 

Framed and Hung: Architecture in Public from the Salon to the French Revolution
April 7 at 2:00PM
Framed and Hung: Architecture in Public from the Salon to the French Revolution (Screening of the Mellon Lecture of April 7)
April 10 at 12:00PM
In and Out of Time: Curating Architecture's History
April 14 at 2:00PM
In and Out of Time: Curating Architecture's History (Screening of the Mellon Lecture of April 14)
April 17 at 12:00PM
Not at Home: Architecture on Display from World's Fairs to Williamsburg
April 21 at 2:00PM
Not at Home: Architecture on Display from World’s Fairs to Williamsburg (Screening of the Mellon Lecture of April 21)
April 24 at 12:00PM
Better Futures: Exhibitions between Reform and Avant-Garde
April 28 at 2:00PM
Better Futures: Exhibitions between Reform and Avant-Garde (Screening of the Mellon Lecture of April 28)
May 1 at 12:00PM
Conflicting Visions: Commerce, Diplomacy, and Persuasion
May 5 at 2:00PM
Conflicting Visions: Commerce, Diplomacy, and Persuasion (Screening of the Mellon Lecture of May 5)
May 8 at 12:00PM
Architecture and the Rise of the Event Economy
May 12 at 2:00PM
Architecture and the Rise of the Event Economy (Screening of the Mellon Lecture of May 12)
May 15 at 12:00PM
Lectures

Roy Lichtenstein's Kyoto Prize Lecture of 1995
January 9 at 3:30PM

A reading by Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art, with original slides courtesy of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Of Times and Spaces: On Looking at Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer
January 13 at 2:00PM

Charles W. Haxthausen, Robert Sterling Clark Professor of Art History, Williams College

Michelangelo's David-Apollo: An Offer He Couldn't Refuse
January 27 at 2:00PM

Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture, National Gallery of Art

Social Art, Social Cooperation: A Conversation with Tania Bruguera, Tom Finkelpearl, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles
February 3 at 2:00PM

Tania Bruguera, artist; Tom Finkelpearl, executive director, Queens Museum of Art; and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, artist
Book signing of What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation follows.

Colorforms: Ellsworth Kelly and the Colored Paper Images
February 10 at 2:00PM

Charles Ritchie, associate curator, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art

Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
February 17 at 2:00PM

Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art and director of graduate studies, Yale University; Jason Rosenfeld, distinguished chair and professor of art history, Marymount Manhattan College; and Diane Waggoner, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art
Book signing of Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design follows and the curators of the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900 will be in the galleries for a question-and-answer session.

Truth, Lies, and Photographs
February 24 at 2:00PM

Mia Fineman, assistant curator, department of photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Book signing of Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop follows.

Ideal Images of Father-Son Relationships in Renaissance Florence
March 6 at 12:00PM

Dale Kent, professor emerita of history, University of California, Riverside, and professorial fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne

Bernini's Beloved
March 10 at 2:00PM

Sarah McPhee, Winship Distinguished Research Professor, Emory University
A book signing of Bernini's Beloved: A Portrait of Costanza Piccolomini follows.

Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and the Revolution of the European Art System
March 17 at 2:00PM

Oskar Bätschmann, Samuel H. Kress Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art

Introduction to the Exhibition: "Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina"
March 24 at 2:00PM

Andrew Robison, A.W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art

Works in Progress

This lunchtime series highlights new research by Gallery staff, interns, fellows, and special guests. The 30-minute talks are followed by question-and-answer periods.
 

Presenting the Presentation of Christ: Tintoretto's Early Work, Iconography, and Interpretation
January 7 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Joseph Hammond, research associate, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art

On the Wall: Thoughts on Sol LeWitt
January 14 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Charles W. Haxthausen, Robert Sterling Clark Professor of Art History, Williams College

A Flourish of Ornament: Exemplary Painted Furniture from the Kaufman Collection
January 28 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Jon Frederick, design assistant, department of design, National Gallery of Art

Heroes and Heroines from a Sienese Renaissance Palazzo
February 4 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Carol Christensen, senior conservator of paintings, and Gretchen Hirschauer, associate curator, department of Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art

Shape and Shadow: Photographs by Wil Scott
February 11 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Wilford W. Scott, head of adult programs, National Gallery of Art

Multiple Voices
February 19 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Jeffrey Mumford, composer-in-residence, National Gallery of Art, and distinguished professor of music, Lorain County Community College

Looking Inside: Ancient Carved Amber in the J. Paul Getty Museum
February 25 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art

Color in Early Modern Paintings: The Material Depiction of Light and Meaning
March 11 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Barbara Berrie, senior conservation scientist, scientific research department, National Gallery of Art

Liminal Spaces: The Theater of the Landscape
March 18 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Adam Davies, lecturer and media specialist, National Gallery of Art

A Reexamination of the National Gallery's Bronze Bust of Louis XIV
April 15 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Carolyn Miner, Robert H. Smith Research Curator, department of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art

Reformers Abroad: The Legacy of American Documentary Photography in Postwar Italy
April 22 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Lindsay Harris, exhibition research assistant, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art

The Art of Wealth: The Huntingtons in the Gilded Age
April 29 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Shelley M. Bennett, former curator of European art and senior research associate, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

Notable Lectures Podcasts

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