National Gallery Of Art | Audio

Eric Denker, Senior Lecturer and Manager of Gallery Talks and Lectures for Adults, Department of Education. Dutch 17th-century homes typically would have included a variety of wall decorations, including curtains, mirrors, and pictures. Many specialists in genre painting represented interiors with paintings and prints of recognizable subjects. These pictures within pictures are sometimes, though not always, a significant clue as to the interpretation of a painting. This lecture, given by Eric Denker on December 19, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, explores the added or reinforced symbolism of these depictions in the context of the genre painting of Vermeer and his contemporaries. The symbolic use of mirrors is also considered. This lecture is in conjunction with the landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry—on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018—which examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-16

Melanie Gifford, research conservator, National Gallery of Art, and Lisha Glinsman, conservation scientist, National Gallery of Art. Recent technical research at the National Gallery of Art explores artistic exchange among the painters featured in the exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018. In this lecture held on October 30, 2017, as part of the Works in Progress series, Melanie Gifford and Lisha Glinsman share discoveries from their research. Study reveals that these elegant scenes, painted for an elite Dutch art market, shared physical characteristics that defined a collective “high-life” style. At the same time, the research shows that painters each marketed their works by cultivating a distinctive personal manner and that, through subtle variations of technique and materials, they could sell at somewhat different price levels. Finally, technical study offers direct evidence for 17th century artists’ evaluation

Judith Brodie, curator and head, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. In this lecture held on January 14, 2018, Judith Brodie presents the special installation of 18 drawings, two photographs, and an assortment of small sculptures by Saul Steinberg (1914-1999). This installation is part of an initiative-dating from the reopening of the East Building galleries in 2016-to include selected modern drawings, prints, and photographs as part of the permanent collection display. Revered by millions for his outstanding covers for the New Yorker magazine, Steinberg was an extraordinary draftsman whose line, according to the art critic Harold Rosenberg, was "delectable in itself." Whether making independent works or ones for publication, Steinberg brought a mordant wit and a sharp eye to all his art, creating works that disarm, enchant, and electrify. On view from September 12, 2017, through May 18, 2018, Saul Steinberg spans the years 1945 to 1984 and includes a wide range of subjects and

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. Exhibitions always provide opportunities for seeing works of art with fresh eyes. Rarely, however, have the comparisons of much-beloved paintings, such as those brought together in Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, yielded so many insights about artistic achievement and the creative process. The landmark exhibition examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting, or depictions of daily life. In this lecture held on January 7, 2018, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. discusses some of these revelations and how they help explain the enduring impact of Vermeer's paintings. Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting is on view at the National Gallery of Art through January 21, 2018.

Sarah Cash, associate curator, department of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Ka’mal McClarin, museum curator, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Collection, National Park Service. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) is revered as an abolitionist, statesman, orator, reformer, essayist, and autobiographer. But it is less commonly known that he was also a steward of the arts. In this presentation held on October 2, 2017, as part of the Works in Progress lecture series at the National Gallery of Art, Ka’mal McClarin traces Douglass’s love of art through his personal collection preserved at Cedar Hill, his Anacostia home from 1877 until his death in 1895. The house is furnished much as it was during Douglass's lifetime, with paintings and photographs depicting people and places significant to the family and to African American history. Sarah Cash discusses Douglass’s interest in the Corcoran Gallery of Art collection using contemporary diary entries and newspaper articles, as well as

Lorena Bradford, head of accessible programs, education division, National Gallery of Art. Just Us at the National Gallery of Art is a new education program designed for people with memory loss and their care partners. The program seeks to create positive experiences for all participants and to create space where people with dementia and other forms of memory loss can connect with the Gallery’s collection and with their loved ones. In 2017, the pilot phase concluded in August and the program resumes in September. In this presentation held on September 18, 2017, as part of the Works in Progress series, Lorena Bradford shares insights and lessons learned during the pilot phase of this inspiring program.

Rosamond Mack, independent scholar. Giovanni Bellini (1430/1435–1516) and Titian’s (1488/1490–1576) The Feast of the Gods is one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in the United States by two fathers of Venetian art. The Feast was the first in a series of mythologies, or bacchanals, commissioned by Duke Alfonso d'Este to decorate the camerino d'alabastro (alabaster study) of his castle in Ferrara. Bellini lavished unprecedented attention on vessels and containers in the painting, which range from common Venetian wares to rare exotic imports. In this lecture recorded on September 25, 2017, as part of the Works in Progress series, Rosamond Mack describes how Bellini and Titian’s representation varies from painstaking accuracy to learned invention, imbued with wit and sophistication, which would have enhanced the painting’s value as a conversation piece for the patron and his friends.

James Meyer, curator of art, 1945–1974, National Gallery of Art, and Alexandra Truitt, independent photo editor and picture researcher, and manager, Estate of Anne Truitt The studio life of Anne Truitt (1921–2004) is explored in the focus exhibition In the Tower: Anne Truitt, on view from November 19, 2017, through April 1, 2018. The first major presentation of Truitt's work at the National Gallery of Art, the exhibition celebrates the museum's acquisition of several major artworks by Truitt in recent years, including seminal works from the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, as well as several outstanding loans. Bringing together nine sculptures, two paintings, and 12 works on paper representing the different media in which the artist worked, the exhibition traces Truitt's artistic development from 1961 to 2002. One of the most original and important sculptors to emerge in the United States during the 1960s, Truitt is unique in the field of minimalist art. She hand-painted her sculptures in multiple l

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, fashion historian. The 2012 discovery of a drawing by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) depicting his so-called fantasy figures is the inspiration for a revelatory exhibition of the corresponding paintings—rapidly executed, brightly colored portraits of lavishly costumed individuals, including the National Gallery of Art’s Young Girl Reading (c. 1769). Fragonard’s Fantasy Figures, on view from October 8 through December 3, 2017, examines the 18th-century Parisian world of new money, unexpected social alliances, and extravagant fashions from which these paintings emerged. In this lecture held on November 26, 2017, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell explores the profound effects that Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s Figaro trilogy had on French fashion—though less familiar than the work's well-documented impact on society and politics, these influences were nonetheless transformative. Among his many careers, Beaumarchais had spied for Louis XV in Spain, and his Figaro trilogy drew upo

Kristen H. Gonzalez, curatorial assistant, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. The newly independent Dutch Republic established a vast and profitable trade network in the 17th century. Among the most coveted of the impressive luxury imports was the parrot. Beautiful, exotic and rare, parrots become a mainstay in Dutch genre paintings. Their presence in these works is, however, more than ostentatious display. These very social and intelligent creatures were highly valued companions. The interaction between parrots and people gave Dutch genre painters an unprecedented opportunity for creativity and candor, upon which they skillfully capitalized. In this lecture held on November 20, 2017, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Kristen Gonzalez traces the iconography of these birds in the history of art and highlights the departure from tradition evident in their depiction in the Dutch Golden Age. This lecture accompanies the landmark exhibition Verm

Alexandra Libby, assistant curator, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art Part of the enduring appeal of Dutch paintings is their extraordinary naturalism, their ability to “create semblance without being,” as one 17th-century art theorist wrote. Genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age have long been admired for just this ability, producing exquisite images of everyday life that, no matter how remote, feel like candid moments captured in time. The landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, on view from October 22, 2017 through January 21, 2018, examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from 1650 to 1675, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of depictions of domestic life. These artists each relied on naturalism and notions of temporality in their work, but to very different ends. While many genre painters, including Frans van Mieris or Jan Steen, sought to suggest temporal

David M. Lubin, Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art, Wake Forest University, and Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor 2016-2017, Oxford University. Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War takes readers on a compelling journey through the major historical events leading up to and beyond US involvement in World War I to discover the vast and pervasive influence of the conflict on American visual culture. In this lecture held on December 10, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, David M. Lubin presents an examination of the era's fine arts and entertainment to show how they ranged from patriotic idealism to profound disillusionment. Grand Illusions assesses the war's impact on two dozen painters, designers, photographers, and filmmakers from 1914 to 1933. Lubin considers well-known figures such as Marcel Duchamp, John Singer Sargent, D. W. Griffith, and the self-trained African American artist Horace Pippin while resurrecting forgotten artists such as the mask-maker Anna Coleman Lad

Shelley Sturman, senior conservator and head of object conservation, National Gallery of Art, and Daphne Barbour, senior conservator of objects, National Gallery of Art. Dedicated to Edgar Degas (1834–1917) in the centennial year of his death, Volume 3 of the conservation division's biennial journal Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History focuses on the tremendous wealth of works by Degas in the National Gallery of Art collection. The first to feature the work of a single artist, this issue includes essays by conservators, scientists, and curators. It presents insights into Degas's working methods in painting, sculpture in wax and bronze, and works on paper, as well as a sonnet he wrote to his "little dancer." The Gallery has the third largest collection in the world of work by Degas, comprising 21 paintings, 65 sculptures, 34 drawings, 40 prints, 2 copper plates, and 1 volume of soft-ground etchings. Its extensive Degas holdings and conservation resources have inspired not only groundbreaking Gallery exh

Richard I. Suchenski, associate professor of film and electronic arts and director of the Center for Moving Image Arts, Bard College; and editor, Hou Hsiao-hsien. In this lecture recorded on September 3, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Richard I. Suchenski discusses his book, Projections of Memory: Romanticism, Modernism, and the Aesthetics of Film—an exploration of innovative cinematic works that use their extraordinary scope to construct monuments to the imagination through which currents from the other arts can flow. By examining these works, Projections of Memory remaps film history around some of its most ambitious achievements and helps to clarify cinema as a twentieth-century art form. Suchenski addresses some of the core concerns of the book through a discussion of films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr, and Jean-Luc Godard alongside paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Jacopo Tintoretto, and Matthias Grünewald.

Wolf Burchard, furniture research curator, National Trust, England. Charles Le Brun, the creator of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, was Louis XIV’s most prolific and powerful artist. In this lecture, recorded on October 6, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Wolf Burchard shares his new book The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV. This monograph examines Le Brun’s wide artistic production, illustrating the magnificence of his paintings and focusing particularly on the interiors and decorative works of art produced according to his designs. Prior to Burchard’s position at the National Trust, from 2009 to 2014 he was curatorial assistant at the Royal Collection Trust, where he cocurated The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy, 1714-1760 at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, in 2014.

Patricia Failing, professor emerita of art history, University of Washington, Seattle. Dedicated to Edgar Degas (1834–1917) in the centennial year of his death, Volume 3 of the conservation division's biennial journal Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History focuses on the tremendous wealth of works by Degas in the National Gallery of Art collection. The first to feature the work of a single artist, this issue includes essays by conservators, scientists, and curators. It presents insights into Degas's working methods in painting, sculpture in wax and bronze, and works on paper, as well as a sonnet he wrote to his "little dancer." The Gallery has the third largest collection in the world of work by Degas, comprising 21 paintings, 65 sculptures, 34 drawings, 40 prints, 2 copper plates, and 1 volume of soft-ground etchings. Its extensive Degas holdings and conservation resources have inspired not only groundbreaking Gallery exhibitions—such as Degas, the Dancers (1984), Degas at the Races (1998), Degas's Litt

Noah Charney, author; adjunct professor of art history, American University of Rome and University of Ljubljana; and founder, Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) In this lecture, held on October 12, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Noah Charney examines how much of the way we conceive of art today—from which artists are generally considered the “greatest” and the preference for the Florentine Renaissance over other periods and eras to the very idea of collecting art and how it is arranged in museums—can be traced back to one man. Giorgio Vasari, a leading mid-16th-century painter and architect working in Florence and Rome, secured his legacy when he penned The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Often considered the first work of art history, The Lives established not only the field of study, but also how the popular imagination understands art.

Jed Perl, author of Calder: The Conquest of Time, and contributor, The New York Review of Books; and Alexander S. C. Rower, Calder's grandson and president, Calder Foundation. On November 5, 2017 at the National Gallery of Art Jed Perl joins Alexander S. C. Rower to discuss the newly published Calder: The Conquest of Time: The Early Years: 1898-1940. This first biography of Alexander Calder, one of the most beloved and widely admired artists of the 20th century, is based on unprecedented access to his letters and papers as well as scores of interviews. Born in 1898 into a family of artists, Calder forged important friendships in adulthood with artists including Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miró, and Piet Mondrian. Calder: The Conquest of Time moves from his early studies in engineering to his first artistic triumphs in Paris in the late 1920s, to his emergence as a leader in the international abstract avant-garde, and to his marriage in 1931 to the free-spirited Louisa James. The biography also sheds

Beverly Louise Brown, Fellow, The Warburg Institute In this lecture, presented on November 19, 2017, Beverly Louise Brown discusses Titian’s portrait of Clarice Strozzi. A popular nineteenth-century nursery rhyme tells us that little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails while little girls are filled with sugar and spice and all things nice. And who could be nicer than two-year-old Clarice Strozzi, who in Titian’s portrait so sweetly shares a ring-shaped biscuit with her toy spaniel? Today, Instagram abounds in similar snapshots eagerly sent by adoring parents to family and friends. Such images would seem to embody the essence of childhood by celebrating their subjects’ natural spontaneity. They are lasting reminders of the days of childhood innocence. It is in this spirit that we might assume Clarice Strozzi’s parents commissioned her portrait in 1542. But if we look more carefully at Titian’s charming portrayal of a little girl and her dog, we soon discover that it is unlikely to have been a

Michelangelo Pistoletto, artist, in conversation with James Meyer, curator of art, 1945–1974, National Gallery of Art. Commonly referred to as the Mirror Paintings and composed of photo-based images on steel, Michelangelo Pistoletto’s most celebrated works were developed in 1962 and represent his dual interest in conceptualism and figuration. The Mirror Paintings directly include the viewer and real time in the work, and open up perspective, reversing the trend of twentieth-century avant-garde movements that had closed the linear perspective of the Renaissance. In 1965–1966 Pistoletto created the Oggetti en meno (Minus Objects), a set of nonrepresentational sculptures constructed of commonplace, “poor” materials. These works are considered fundamental to the birth of the Arte Povera movement in Italy, of which Pistoletto was a leading figure. In the context of the disillusionment of postwar Europe, they sought to reconfigure the relationship between art and life. Comprised of 28 disparate objects—an oversize