Art Institute Of Chicago Lectures

Janice Katz, exhibition curator of the special exhibition Beyond Golden Clouds, introduces Kyoto-based artist Jiro Okura. Influenced by John Cage's ideas of chance, Okura's work pays homage to the natural materials that he uses and the natural environment from which they come. In this lecture Okura shares his philosophy and inspiration behind his 1990 screen installation, Mountain Lake Screen Tachi. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Nicholas Cullinan, Curator of International Modern Art, Tate Modern, presents a lecture to accompany the inaugural installation in the new Modern Wing. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

The authorship of the magnificent Spanish-school Saint John in the Wilderness has long been a subject of debate. The painting entered the Art Institute of Chicago collection in 1957 as a work by Diego Velázquez, but some scholars are questioning its attribution to the Spanish master. A recent technical study of the painting?involving X-ray, infrared reflectography (IRR), and pigment and cross-sectional analysis?sheds new light on this question. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

The astonishing legacy of Alexander the Great in Asia is explored in this lecture, which discusses the unique art that developed in the Greek kingdom of Bactria in present day northern Afghanistan and southern Uzbekistan. Through a study of its impact on the region of Gandhara (Afghanistan and northern Pakistan) in South Asia, further light is thrown upon the Gandharan collections that have recently been displayed in the newly installed Alsdorf Galleries of the Art Institute. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

John Arndt discusses images by photographer Robert Adams, whose severe landscapes inform Arndt's own sculpture and works on paper. Arndt, who teaches at College of DuPage, was awarded a residency at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Utah in 2007 and an Artadia Individual Art Grant in 2002. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Roman commentaries on triumphal processions suggest that the gaze of the audience was perilously hard to control. Dr. Mary Beard, University of Cambridge, England, offers a new perspective by concentrating on the defeated, from the not so simple facts of their number, identity, and ultimate fate to the moral complexities of their role in the culture of Roman triumph. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Scholar Mary Beard from the University of Cambridge, professor and author of The Roman Triumph, reflects on the global character of the Roman Empire. Karen Manchester, chair of the Department of Ancient and Asian Art, introduces the speaker. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Born in Harlem in 1962, and educated at Yale, Boston University, and the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Alexander has been on the faculties at Haverford College, the University of Chicago, Smith, and now teaches English and African-American Studies at Yale. This reading features poems from her first book, The Venus Hottentot, which address racial, gender, and cultural divisions; including the poem Alexander read at President Obama's inauguration. John Barr, director of the Poetry Foundation, introduces poet Elizabeth Alexander. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Jerry Fielder, Director and Curator of the Estate of Yousuf Karsh, discusses his personal, twenty-five year association with Karsh, reviewing his history, his family, the influence of his mentors, the development of his style, and Fielder's 30 years of working with him and his photographs. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Michael Dinges, inspired by the scrimshaw tradition, inscribes pithy commentary and figured imagery on pure white surfaces. Dead laptops, PVC, plastic buckets, and lawn chairs take on new meaning through his social commentary and satirical critique. In this lecture, Dinges discusses the impact of Cornell's assemblages on his own work. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Colin Westerbeck, director of the California Museum of Photography at the University of California, Riverside presents a lecture in which he discusses how the portraiture of Penn and Avedon, dialectically different as it is, right down to the lighting, is, nevertheless, a shared reflection of the times in which they were working. Presented as a part of the symposium "Yousuf Karsh and the Art of Photographic Portraiture." This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Dawoud Bey, photographer and professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago discusses his own work as a portrait photographer and documentarian. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

David Travis, former Chair and Curator of the Department of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, discusses why Yousuf Karsh may be the last of his kind. Travis examines the unique factors in Karsh's own personal background, traditional training, inventive techniques, and attitude toward heroes and hero-worship. Presented as a part of the symposium "Yousuf Karsh and the Art of Photographic Portraiture." This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Arturo Vittori, co-founder of Architecture and Vision with Swiss architect Andreas Vogler, discusses several of their recent projects which focus on human well-being, mobility, and eco-sustainability all realized through their unique aesthetic approach. Part of a lecture series brings to Chicago European architects/designers who draw on the Bauhaus tradition and address today's sustainability challenges. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, London, and the chair of World Collections, discusses "Global Collections for Global Cities," tracing the leadership role that the British Museum has taken in such efforts since its origin over 100 years ago. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Internationally renowned archaeologist and MacArthur fellow, Susan E. Alcock, Professor of Classics and the Director for the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University, discusses pre-modern peoples control and supervision of others. This lecture series presents art historical and archaeological examples drawn particularly from the Mediterranean and the Near East as part of the University of Chicago's Louise Smith Bross Lecture Series. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Lou Mallozzi has been at the forefront of the experimental sound scene in Chicago for decades. For this Artists Connect talk, Mallozzi took van der Spelt and van Mieris's Trompe l'Oeil Still Life with Flower Garland and Curtain as a point of departure in a discussion of his own audio installations. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Presented by Madhuvanti Ghose, Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian Crossroads of the Art Institute to the Crossroads of Asia, this illustrated lecture of Southeast Asian, Himalayan and Islamic Art, features highlights from the new installation of Asian galleries at the Art Institute. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

Recent research on The Scream and Madonna are reviewed by Ingebjorg Ydstie, director of the Munch Museum in Oslo. This lecture event marks the opening of Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.

David Nirenberg, professor of medieval history and social thought at the University of Chicago, discusses the historical interactions and tensions among the three major monotheistic religions. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.