National Gallery Of Art | Audio

October 2014 - Karen Thorsen and Douglas Dempsey. Karen Thorsen, director of James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, and cowriter Douglas Dempsey discuss the making of their award-winning documentary, the challenges of restoring the original 16 mm film elements, and the necessity of ensuring access to this powerful film during the digital age. Produced in association with Maysles Films and PBS/American Masters, The Price of the Ticket premiered in 1990 at Sundance and went on to win numerous awards at home and abroad. An emotional portrait, a social critique, and a passionate plea for human equality, its extensive vérité footage allows Baldwin to tell his own story: exploring what it means to be born black, impoverished, gay, and gifted in a world that has yet to understand that "all men are brothers." "On-camera witnesses" include the late Maya Angelou (she reads passages from the author's writings), Amiri Baraka, David Leeming, Bobby Short, and William Styron. Now considered a documentary film classic, The

October 2014 - Sandra Ramos, artist, and Michelle Bird, curatorial assistant, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. In this conversation, which took place on June 21, 2011 as part of the works-in-progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Havana-based artist Sandra Ramos describes her use of various media to explore issues related to the recovery of both individual and collective memory. Blending memorabilia from past events—real and imagined, personal and historical—the artist creates a phantasmagorical new world from the "ruins of a utopia." In this world, forbidden topics such as migration, racism, and the political manipulation of history become the quotidian subjects of her art. The main protagonist is a character who fuses her own self-image with that of a print of a 19th-century Dutch princess. Evoking a postmodern Alice in Wonderland, she navigates through the complexities of life on the island. Floating somewhere between the foreground and background, her figure is not fully i

October 2014 - Carolyn Forché, poet and professor of English and director of the Lannan Center, Georgetown University; E. Ethelbert Miller, poet, literary activist, and director, African American Resource Center, Howard University. On September 11, 2014, for the first lecture program in National Gallery of Art history to be held in the East Building Atrium, celebrated poets Carolyn Forché and E. Ethelbert Miller shared their personal reflections on the legacy of James Baldwin (1924–1987). This program was supported by Dr. Darryl Atwell and Dr. Renicha McCree to honor what would have been the 90th birthday of Baldwin—American essayist, novelist, playwright, poet, and activist. Archival video footage of Baldwin discussing "The Negro and the American Promise" and "The Artist's Struggle for Integrity" provided the starting point for Miller's and Forché's presentations, respectively. For these poets, Baldwin's words serve as a guide for understanding one's world in a larger social context: "You can only take if yo

October 2014 - Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art.Captain Linnaeus Tripe was a British photographer best known for the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma (now Myanmar) in the 1850s. Under the auspices of the East India Company, he took many photographs of archaeological sites and monuments, ancient and contemporary religious and secular buildings, as well as geological formations and landscape vistas that had not been seen before in the West. His military training gave his work a striking aesthetic and formal rigor and helped him achieve remarkably consistent results, despite the challenges that India's heat and humidity posed to photographic chemistry. In this lecture recorded on September 28, 2014, curator Sarah Greenough discusses the 60 works that comprise the first major exhibition of his photographs, Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860, on view from September 21, 2014 to January 2, 2015 at the N

August 2014 - Ursula von Rydingsvard, artist. The artist, née Ursula Karoliszyn, was born in 1942 in Deensen, a small German town where her Polish-speaking Ukrainian father was conscripted by the Nazis to work the land during World War II. The family remained there until the end of the war, and then moved through nine camps for displaced persons in five years. After immigrating to the United States at age eight, von Rydingsvard and her family carved out a new life for themselves. She earned an MFA from Columbia University in 1975, and emerged from her studies focused on the cedar 4 × 4 beams that would define her sculptural practice. Although her work is abstract, the artist has acknowledged a strong correlation to the human figure. This link is most visible in her vertically oriented conical works, exemplified by Five Cones (1990–1992), which was donated to the National Gallery of Art by Sherry and Joel Mallin in 2011. The gridlike format and the organic flow of von Rydingsvard's materials give Five Cones it

September 2014 - Ed Grazda, photographer. Panel discussion follows with co-curators of the exhibition Sarah Greenough, curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Philip Brookman, curator of photography and media arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank's early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994.

September 2014 - Jonas Mekas, filmmaker and founder, Anthology Film Archives. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank's early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994.

September 2014 - Robert Delpire, publisher and director, Centre Nationale de la Photographie, Paris. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank's early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994.

September 2014 - Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), poet. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank's early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994.

August 2014 - Photographers Ray Metzker, Emmet Gowin, and Jim Dow with Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Photography was not invented until the mid-19th century, and the process was not widely taught as an art form until World War II. In 1946 famed Bauhaus photographer and painter László Moholy-Nagy recruited Harry Callahan to teach at the Institute of Design he had established in Chicago. One of the most important schools of photography in 20th-century America, the institute championed such qualities as serendipity and experimentation, setting new standards for the medium and attracting students who would become some of the nation's finest photographers. While reflecting on his time as a professor, Callahan said, "teaching taught me how little I knew and it forced me to think; I had to teach to get an education." In this program recorded on March 23, 1996, at the National Gallery of Art, Callahan's students Ray Metzker, Emmet Gowin, and Jim Dow—all

August 2014 - Elizabeth Cropper, dean, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. Ten years after completing his work The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, Bolognese painter Domenichino Zampieri was accused by his rival Giovanni Lanfranco of stealing the idea for the painting from an altarpiece crafted by Lanfranco's teacher, Agostino Carracci. The resulting scandal reverberated through the centuries, drawing responses by artists and critics from Poussin and Malvasia to Fuseli and Delacroix. Why was Domenichino attacked in this way when other related paintings—including Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin and Perugino's painting of the same subject—aroused no such negative response? In this lecture recorded on December 11, 2005 at the National Gallery of Art, Elizabeth Cropper presents her latest book, which investigates the Domenichino affair and addresses the perennial debate regarding the precise nature of originality and imitation. Cropper offers a detailed analysis of attitudes tow

August 2014 - Franklin Kelly, senior curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art. On view from July 3, 2005 through February 26, 2006, Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art presented a survey of 53 paintings, watercolors, drawings, etchings, and wood engravings by American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) in the Gallery's collection. The exhibition spanned Homer's entire career, from his early Civil War painting Home Sweet Home (c. 1863) to late watercolors of tropical landscapes and his hunting scene Right and Left (1909), completed less than 2 years before his death. In this lecture recorded on January 8, 2006, Franklin Kelly describes the importance of the Maine coast in Homer's life and art. Homer spent his last 27 years living and working in a small, rugged spot called Prouts Neck, located on the Atlantic coast in southern Maine. Through works featured in the exhibition and archival photographs, Kelly illustrates how the Maine coast was an inspiring source of material to Hom

August 2014 - Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic, The New York Times, in conversation with Deborah Ziska, chief of press and public information, National Gallery of Art To honor the publication of The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa, Michael Kimmelman joined Deborah Ziska to discuss the inspiration for and purpose of his latest book. In this conversation recorded on September 24, 2005 at the National Gallery of Art, Kimmelman explains the desire to write about art that had changed his life. The Accidental Masterpiece explores art as life's great passion, revealing what can be learned from works of fine art and their creators. Kimmelman assures the reader that, even though art may seem inaccessible, beauty can be found almost anywhere and everywhere that one is open to the experience of it. The Accidental Masterpiece serves as a kind of adventure or journey, leading to a larger view of life through art.

July 2014 - Christopher Rothko, son of the artist and editor of his father's book, The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art. "One of the most important artists of the 20th century, Mark Rothko (1903–1970) created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting over the course of his career. Rothko also wrote a number of essays and critical reviews during his lifetime, adding his thoughtful, intelligent, and opinionated voice to the debates of the contemporary art world. Although the artist never published a book of his varied and complex views, his heirs indicate that he occasionally spoke of the existence of such a manuscript to friends and colleagues. Stored in a New York City warehouse since the artist's death, this extraordinary manuscript," probably written around 1940–1941, was finally published in 2005. Titled The Artist's Reality, "this revelatory book discusses Rothko's ideas on the modern art world, art history, myth, beauty, the challenges of being an artist in society, the true nature of 'America

July 2014 - Anthony Alofsin, Roland Roessner Centennial Professor, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin. Anthony Alofsin is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) and as an expert on modern architecture. His research and writing on Wright's first travels to Europe have defined the life and work of the architect in the 1910s. Following his Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellowship (2003-2004) at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Alofsin returned to present an overview of Wright's contributions to American culture. In this lecture recorded on October 16, 2005, Alofsin describes Wright's architecture as transcendent works of creativity often associated with fine art. America's most well-known architect, Wright produced 450 built projects, thousands of drawings, and numerous ideas for other works; his range extended from household objects to entire communities, modest homes to industria

July 2014 - John Hollander, Sterling Professor of English, Yale University. Works of art are silent; poetry speaks its mind. Painting is mute poetry, poetry a speaking picture. Beginning with classical writers, poet and literary critic John Hollander explains that art and literature have developed a wide variety of relationships over the course of 2,000 years. In this lecture recorded on November 4, 2001 at the National Gallery of Art, Hollander specifically explores the ekphrastic relationship between a particular work of visual art or architecture and a particular poem. The word ekphrastic comes from the Greek ek and phrasis, meaning "out" and "speak," respectively—to give voice to the silent work of art by speaking for it, out of it, or, in so many ways, to it. Hollander distinguishes between actual and notional ekphrasis, invocations of actual works of art versus speaking of fictional works that exist only in description. He then reads from works by very different contemporary poets and connects them with

July 2014 - Henry Adams, professor of American art, Case Western Reserve University. Andrew Wyeth first saw King Vidor's anti-war film The Big Parade when he was eight years old, and its emotional impact was overwhelming. Eventually, this experience inspired his first connected series of works. It became still more important to him in the traumatic aftermath of his father's death. During the course of his life he viewed the film some two hundred times, and many of his most famous paintings, including Christina's World, reenact key moments in the movie. In this lecture recorded on June 15, 2014 at the National Gallery of Art, Henry Adams explores Wyeth's fascination with World War I and The Big Parade, and the ways in which Vidor's path-breaking narrative approach and innovations in film technique encouraged Wyeth to rethink the expressive and philosophical possibilities of painting. This program has been scheduled to coincide with the exhibition Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In, organized by the National

July 2014 - Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. At the end of the 19th century, Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring sold for a pittance, an unknown work by an artist who was only beginning to achieve recognition. Today it is revered as a great masterpiece, so famous that it is recognizable by its title alone, with the name of its maker being almost superfluous. In this lecture recorded on June 1, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art, curator Arthur Wheelock examines the reasons why this image resonates so profoundly with contemporary audiences.

June 2014 - Henry Adams, professor of American art, Case Western Reserve University. Although one of the grayest of American cities, Cleveland was one of the earliest places in the country to embrace the colorful, ultra-modernist art of the Fauves and the Blue Rider group—doing so even before the Armory Show in 1913. Much of this activity came about through the activities of the Kokoon Club, whose members formed the city's first radically modern art group, the Cleveland Secession, and also staged an annual masked ball, whose outrageous posters and costumes—or lack thereof—that not only ran afoul of the vice squad but also introduced the entire city to modern art. In this lecture, recorded on June 16, 2014, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Henry Adams explores the emergence of ultra-modern artists in Cleveland, their surprising links with movie posters and commercial art, the ways in which they challenged the artistic and social mores of their time, the demise of this gro

June 2014 - George T. M. Shackelford, deputy director, Kimbell Art Museum. In this lecture recorded on February 2, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art, George Shackelford discusses Vincent van Gogh's remarkable portraits of himself and others—beginning with his earliest drawings from 1880 after his move to Brussels to his last paintings, completed in 1889. Using Van Gogh's letters in context, Shackelford describes the artist's desire to analyze and fix his own image. He argues that Van Gogh put more of himself, his feelings, and his thoughts into his work than any other artist of the 19th century. Ultimately, Shackelford concludes that Van Gogh's "whole art is that mirror on himself."