National Gallery Of Art | Audio

Cecily Brown, artist, in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art. Born in London in 1969, Cecily Brown attended the Slade School of Fine Art in the early 1990s, just when such "Young British Artists" as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin were dominating the scene with provocative work. While Brown shared interests with some of them in feminism, sexuality, and mass media, her commitment to the history and practice of painting was distinctive. She moved to New York City in 1994 and has lived and worked there ever since. Brown paints with a fine balance of control and abandon, mining art history and the suggestions of the paint itself. For her inspiration, Brown relies on a variety of two-dimensional sources—from magazines and record album covers to children's books, movies, and a library of exhibition catalogs and monographs including studies of El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Delacroix, Manet, and, present in her most recent work, Degas. Brown's ability

Ruth Fine, curator (1972-2012), National Gallery of Art, and curator and catalog editor, Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis is the first comprehensive museum overview of the work of this influential artist. Norman Lewis (1909-1979) became committed to issues of abstraction at the start of his career and continued to explore them over its entire trajectory. His art derived inspiration from music (jazz and classical) and nature (seasonal changes, plant forms, and the sea). Also central to his work were the dramatic confrontations of the civil rights movement, in which he was an active participant alongside fellow members of the New York art scene. Bridging the Harlem Renaissance, abstract expressionism, and other movements, Lewis is a crucial figure in American art whose reinsertion into the discourse further opens the field for recognition of the contributions of artists of color. Procession was organized by the Pennsylv

Carol Mattusch, Mathy Professor of Art History, George Mason University. On view from December 13, 2015, through March 20, 2016, the exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World features 50 works that survey the development of Hellenistic art as it spread from Greece throughout the Mediterranean between the fourth and first centuries BC. Through the medium of bronze, artists were able to capture the dynamic realism, expression, and detail that characterized the new artistic goals of the period. Power and Pathos brings together works from world-renowned archaeological museums in Austria, Denmark, France, Georgia, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Spain, Tunisia, the United States, and the Vatican. The exhibition presents a unique opportunity to witness the importance of bronze in the ancient world, when it became the preferred medium for portrait sculpture. In this lecture recorded on February 7, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, Carol Mattusch explains that many of the bronzes in Pow

Susan Tallman, adjunct associate professor of art history, theory, and criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and editor in chief, Art in Print. For centuries, Western artists strove to depict perfection and order—a created world that made more sense than the found one. Much contemporary art has chosen instead to articulate profusion, fragmentation, and the squiggly line between explanation and digression. In this lecture, held on January 24, 2016 to coincide with the exhibition The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L. at the National Gallery of Art, Susan Tallman looks at the essential role of prints and printmaking in the rise of conceptual and physical complexity. Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited), the renowned Los Angeles artists’ workshop and publisher of fine art limited edition prints and sculptures, has collaborated with some of the most influential artists of the past five decades. On view from October 4, 2015 to February 7, 2016, The Serial Impulse features 17 multipart series by 17 di

George Koutsouflakis, director, department of archaeological sites, monuments and research, Hellenic Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. The exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, on view from December 13, 2015, through March 20, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, features 50 works that survey the development of Hellenistic art as it spread from Greece throughout the Mediterranean between the fourth and first centuries BC. On land sites, bronze artworks have seldom survived the vicissitudes of history. The sea remains the richest reservoir of ancient bronzes lost during transit. While the Aegean Sea has yielded some of the most spectacular and well-known masterpieces over the last century, only a handful of them have been retrieved from excavated shipwrecks. These limited discoveries are by far outnumbered by isolated, chance finds, raised by fishing nets, which present no direct evidence of a context. No matter how exceptional, isolated bronzes offer little information on

John A. Tyson, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, National Gallery of Art. Hans Haacke (b. 1936, Cologne) is one of the leading figures of conceptual art and one of the most important political artists working today. In 2013, the Collectors Committee of the National Gallery of Art made possible the acquisition of Haacke’s Condensation Wall (1963–1966/2013), a breakthrough kinetic work from the artist's early career. Reflecting Haacke's involvement with the West German-based group Zero, Condensation Wall is part of a set of sculptures, including Condensation Cube and Condensation Floor, that combine geometric shapes and organic materials to reveal physico-dynamical processes. Contemporaneous with minimal sculpture, Haacke's work transforms the industrially fabricated containers of artists like Donald Judd and Larry Bell into barometers: depending on the conditions of the environment, the water inside condenses and evaporates into fog or “rain.” The transparent boxes frame this natural process, th

Jens M. Daehner and Kenneth S. Lapatin, associate curators of antiquities, The J. Paul Getty Museum. To celebrate the opening of Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World on December 13, 2015, exhibition curators Jens M. Daehner and Kenneth S. Lapatin present some 50 bronze sculptures and related works, dating from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD. They span the Hellenistic period when the art and culture of Greece spread throughout the Mediterranean and lands once conquered by Alexander the Great. Through the medium of bronze, artists were able to capture the dynamic realism, expression, and detail that characterized the new artistic goals of the period. Power and Pathos brings together works from world-renowned archaeological museums in Austria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Georgia, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Spain, and the United States. On view through March 20, 2016, the exhibition presents a unique opportunity to witness the importance of bronze in the ancient world, when it be

Leo G. Mazow, associate professor of art history, University of Arkansas, and guitarist, The Coverlets; Brittany Stephenson, singer, The Coverlets. American artist Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) used folk and popular song as source material for several of his best-known murals, easel paintings, and prints. Borrowing from such classic tunes as “Jesse James,” “John Henry,” “Wreck of the Old ’97,” and “Frankie and Johnnie,” Benton found in music and lyrics artistic material that could help preserve a quickly vanishing past. In this lecture and music performance presented on November 22, 2015, at the National Gallery of Art, Leo G. Mazow and Brittany Stephenson offer a survey of Benton’s sonic subjects—including train whistles, gunshots, and musical instruments—that figure prominently in his work.

Scott MacDonald, visiting professor of art history, Hamilton College. From the fall of 1947 until the spring of 1963, New York City was invigorated by Cinema 16, the most successful and influential film society in American history. Established by Amos and Marcia Vogel, and directed by Vogel, Cinema 16 offered its audiences monthly film programs of great diversity and considerable intellectual and emotional challenge. At its height, Cinema 16 boasted 8,000 members, including many of the movers and shakers of the New York cultural scene, who came to see films that were unavailable or illegal to show outside the parameters of a membership film society. In this Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture recorded on December 7, 2014, Scott MacDonald, film historian and author of Cinema 16: Documents toward a History of the Film Society, presents a program of films that were crucial for Cinema 16 audiences—organized so as to evoke the unusually challenging programming strategy Amos Vogel developed. The following films were scre

Thomas Elsaesser, senior fellow, International College of Cultural Technologies and Media Theory, Weimar, Germany. In this Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture recorded on December 2, 2012, cultural historian Thomas Elsaesser, one of our most creative and unconventional thinkers on cinematic culture, film history, and digital media, speaks on the interconnections between the cinematic avant-gardes of the 1920s and modernist architecture, the nonfiction film, and advertising. Among Elsaesser’s twenty 20 authored and edited books is an in-depth study of German cinema in the 1920s, Weimar Cinema and After: Germany’s Historical Imaginary,; a monograph on Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis,; and European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood, covering a broad range of topics from film festivals to national cinemas, and from the high-/low culture debate to the cinematic auteurs of France, Britain, and Germany. Elsaesser’s illustrated lecture included advertisements and industrial films from the interwar period that were in

John G. Hanhardt, senior curator for media arts, Nam June Paik Media Arts Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Andy Warhol created a large and distinctive body of work in both film and video. In this Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture recorded on December 4, 2011, John G. Hanhardt, historian of experimental media, examines the various ways Warhol reshaped time and narrative in both media, illustrated with excerpts from Warhol’s films and videotapes. This program was scheduled to coincide with Warhol on the Mall, a joint celebration on the occasion of two exhibitions: Warhol: Headlines, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (September 25, 2011–January 2, 2012), and Andy Warhol: Shadows at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (September 25, 2011–January 15, 2012).

David Bindman, emeritus professor of the history of art, University College London. Antonio Canova’s (1757-1822) sculptures, as they have come down to us, are notable for their pure use of marble. However, the sculptor was the subject of controversy in his own time because he often toned down the whiteness of the marble and in some cases tinted the stone in flesh colors. Why did this cause such an adverse reaction, and in which quarters? In this 19th annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art recorded on November 8, 2015, at the National Gallery of Art, David Bindman discusses the heart of the immense prestige of marble sculpture over every other kind of art in the 19th century and the attitudes we have toward it now.

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland at College Park; Ellington Robinson, artist, professorial lecturer of painting at American University, and professorial lecturer of drawing at Montgomery College, Takoma Park. David C. Driskell is the only speaker in National Gallery of Art history to participate in programming as an artist, collector, and scholar. In this conversation recorded on November 1, 2015, Driskell returns to discuss the role of the mentor with artist Ellington Robinson. Both artists present the genesis and evolution of their work, sharing their experience with important mentors and their training together at the University of Maryland, College Park. This program is held in collaboration with the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. The discussion coincides with New Arrivals 2015: Collecting Contem

David Getsy, Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor of Art History and chair, department of art history, theory, and criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. To celebrate the publication of Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender, David Getsy presented a lecture at the National Gallery of Art on October 25, 2015. The book examines abstract sculpture in the 1960s that came to propose unconventional and open accounts of bodies, persons, and genders. Drawing on transgender and queer theory, Getsy offers innovative and archivally rich new interpretations of artworks by, and critical writing about, four major artists—Dan Flavin (1933–1996), Nancy Grossman (b. 1940), John Chamberlain (1927–2011), and David Smith (1906–1965). Abstract Bodies makes a case for abstraction as a resource in reconsidering gender’s multiple capacities and offers an ambitious contribution to this burgeoning interdisciplinary field.

Adam Greenhalgh, exhibition curator and lead author on the team producing the catalogue raisonné Mark Rothko: The Works on Paper, National Gallery of Art. For centuries artists have made multipart series, undertaking subjects on a scale not possible in a single work. This engagement was especially prevalent in the 1960s, as artists dedicated to conceptual, minimalist, and pop approaches explored the potential of serial procedures and structures. Many prominent artists since then have produced serial projects at the renowned Los Angeles print workshop and publisher Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited). In honor of The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L., an exhibition opening at the National Gallery of Art on October 4, 2015, Adam Greenhalgh provides an overview of 17 series created at Gemini by 17 artists over the past five decades. On view through February 7, 2016, the exhibition includes seminal early works by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella as well as more recent ser

Don Perry, producer. Thomas Allen Harris’s 2014 documentary film Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People investigates black portrait photographers and artists who have profoundly reshaped the image of contemporary and historic African Americans, and continue to do so. Don Perry, who coproduced and cowrote the film with Harris, visited the National Gallery of Art on May 31, 2015 to introduce and speak about Through a Lens Darkly.

Sidney B. Felsen, cofounder and codirector, Gemini G.E.L., in conversation with Lauren Schell Dickens, curatorial consultant, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, and former assistant curator of contemporary art, Corcoran Gallery of Art. Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited), the renowned Los Angeles artists’ workshop and publisher of fine art limited edition prints and sculptures, has collaborated with some of the most influential artists of the last half century, including Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Vija Celmins, Ellsworth Kelly, Ann Hamilton, Julie Mehretu, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, and many more. On October 1, 2015, in advance of the opening of the exhibition The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L. at the National Gallery of Art, Gemini G.E.L. cofounder and codirector Sidney B. Felsen joins Lauren Schell Dickens to discuss the genesis and growth of the workshop since its establishment in 1966. Felsen also shares behind-the-scenes stories about artis

Michelle Facini, paper conservator, National Gallery of Art. The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L. showcases 17 serial projects created over the past five decades by many prominent artists in collaboration with the renowned Los Angeles print workshop and publisher Gemini G.E.L. The exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Gemini, and is on view from October 4, 2015 to February 7, 2016. In this talk recorded on September 22, 2015, the conservation division invites you behind the scenes with paper conservator Michelle Facini for a glimpse into the fascinating world of art conservation and its role in this exhibition. Technically challenging and bold in scale, the majority of artworks selected for this exhibition are oversized, requiring many hours of coordination among staff members specializing in this type of collections care. Facini discusses the treatment of Michael Heizer’s Scrap Metal Drypoint #6 and the technical challenges of bathing a work of art on paper that is 7 feet long!

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. In this lecture recorded on September 20, 2015, to honor the exhibition Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638), Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. presents the artist as a master storyteller, virtuoso draftsman, and brilliant colorist. Born and raised in Utrecht, one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, Wtewael embraced the popular international style known as mannerism, characterized by extreme refinement, artifice, and elegant distortion. He remained one of the leading proponents of this style, even as most early seventeenth-century Dutch artists shifted to a more naturalistic manner of painting. Wtewael’s inventive compositions, teeming with twisting, choreographed figures and saturated with pastels and acidic colors, retained their appeal for his patrons. Wtewael depicted risqué mythological scenes and moralizing biblical stories with equal ease. Yet his strong adherence to a mannerist style would also lead

Mary Morton, curator and head, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art; Joseph J. Rishel, The Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900 and Senior Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum; Jennifer A. Thompson, The Gloria and Jack Drosdick Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture before 1900, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum. Two concurrent impressionist exhibitions, Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting (Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 24-September 13, 2015) and Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye (National Gallery of Art, June 28-October 4, 2015), raise a provocative art-historical issue: what role do dealers and the art market play in formulating artistic values. The hard-won success of impressionist painters depended on the support and encouragement of Paul Durand-Ruel in the 1870s and 1880s. His efforts established a core group identified with the