National Gallery Of Art | Audio

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture series takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by Italian, French, Dutch, and American artists are featured in this visual tour. New insights and surprising discoveries await, featuring Gallery favorites and recently acquired works. In this seventh lecture in the series, presented on August 18, David Gariff, senior lecturer, discusses the Gallery’s collection of Italian paintings, considered the most important in America and among the finest and most comprehensive in the world. The collection contains works by some of the greatest Italian painters in art history, including Duccio, Giotto, Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Correggio, and Bernardino Luini. All the important regional schools are represented, including Florence, Siena, Venice, and the Lombard tradition in the north. Most important, the

Dianne Stephens, senior educator, National Gallery of Art The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series, Celebrating the Old Master Collections of the National Gallery of Art, takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. On August 11, Dianne Stephens, a senior educator at the National Gallery of Art, discusses masterpieces of American furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700–1830. These magnificent objects were permanently installed at the National Gallery of Art in October 2012 as a promised gift of the collection formed over five decades by Linda H. Kaufman and the late George M. Kaufman, which includes some of the finest and most elegant examples of American furniture produced in colonial and post-revolutionary America. The Kaufman Collection a significant addition to the decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art and in Washington, and these important pieces of furniture complement and enrich the great American achievements in painting and sculpture in the Gallery

Heidi Applegate, guest lecturer The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by Italian, French, Dutch, and American artists are featured in this visual tour. New insights and surprising discoveries await, featuring Gallery favorites and recently acquired works. In this fourth lecture in the series, presented on August 4, 2019 guest lecturer Heidi Applegate discusses the Gallery’s collection of American paintings. The American collection has grown from 10 paintings when the West Building opened in 1941 to become the largest of the paintings departments in the museum. Dr. Heidi Applegate gives an overview of how the collection has been assembled over the past seven decades, underscoring the transformative addition in 2014 of paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Heidi Applegate, guest lecturer The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by Italian, French, Dutch, and American artists are featured in this visual tour. New insights and surprising discoveries await, featuring Gallery favorites and recently acquired works. In this third lecture in the series, presented on July 28, guest lecturer Heidi Applegate discusses the Gallery’s collection of British paintings, known for its “Grand Manner” portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, landscapes by John Constable, and seascapes by J. M. W. Turner. Applegate discusses the history of the collection, paintings that have changed over time, and recent acquisitions by John Martin, Richard Parkes Bonington, and John Ward of Hull.

James Meyer, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art In his book The Art of Return: The Sixties and Contemporary Culture, introduced at the National Gallery of Art on September 8, 2019, James Meyer turns to art criticism, theory, memoir, and fiction to examine the fascination with this period and expressions of cultural memories across the globe. He draws on a diverse range of cultural objects that reimagine the “long” 1960s―a revolutionary era stretching from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s―including reenactments of civil rights, antiwar, and feminist marches; paintings; sculptures; photographs; novels; and films. Many of these works are by artists and writers born during this period who are driven to understand a monumental era that they missed. These cases show us that the past becomes significant only in relation to our present, and our remembered history never perfectly replicates time past. This, Meyer argues, is precisely what makes our contemporary attachment to the past so important: it provide

Oliver Lee Jackson, artist, in conversation with Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern art, National Gallery of Art American painter, printmaker, and sculptor Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935) has created a complex body of work which masterfully weaves together visual influences ranging from the Renaissance to modernism with principles of rhythm and improvisation drawn from his study of African cultures and American jazz. Held on September 15, 2019, this conversation between the artist and Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern art, marked the last day of the exhibition Oliver Lee Jackson: Recent Paintings. The exhibition presented some 25 paintings created over the past 15 years, many of which were seen publicly for the first time. Jackson’s often large-scale paintings blend figural elements of bodies pointing, kneeling, drawing, and playing instruments with colorful abstract compositions and vigorously worked surfaces. Each painting creates a space and world of its own, captivating viewers and

Heidi Applegate, guest lecturer The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by Italian, French, Dutch, and American artists are featured in this visual tour. New insights and surprising discoveries await, featuring Gallery favorites and recently acquired works. In this third lecture in the series, presented on July 28, guest lecturer Heidi Applegate discusses the Gallery’s collection of British paintings, known for its “Grand Manner” portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, landscapes by John Constable, and seascapes by J. M. W. Turner. Applegate discusses the history of the collection, paintings that have changed over time, and recent acquisitions by John Martin, Richard Parkes Bonington, and John Ward of Hull.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series focuses on the outstanding collections of old master paintings in the National Gallery of Art, and also includes a discussion of the extraordinary American furniture from the Kaufman Collection, currently on view on the ground floor of the West Building. Over the decades, appreciation of French eighteenth-century art has fluctuated between preference for the alluring decorative canvases of rococo artists such as François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard to admiration for the sober neoclassicism championed by Jacques-Louis David and his pupils. In this final lecture in the series, presented on August 25, David Gariff, senior lecturer, surveys the history of French art in the eighteenth century from the time of Louis XIV to the French Revolution. In addition to works by Boucher, Fragonard, and David, scenes of daily life by Antoine Watteau, Jean-Siméon Chardin, and Jean-Baptiste Greuze are discussed.

Sophie Lynford, doctoral candidate in the history of art, Yale University; Diane Waggoner, curator of 19th-century photographs, National Gallery of Art In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Ruskin (1819–1900), the most influential art critic of the Victorian era, the Gallery presents The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists, an exhibition of some 90 artworks created by American artists who were profoundly influenced by Ruskin’s call for a revolutionary change in the practice of art. A group of artists, architects, scientists, critics, and collectors sympathetic to Ruskin’s ideas formed the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, which sought reform not only in artistic practices, but also in the broader political arena. In a paired lecture delivered at the National Gallery of Art on June 16, 2019, Sophie Lynford and Diane Waggoner described further what Lynford has called the American Pre-Raphaelites’ “comprehensive, multipronged agenda.” By looking beyond painting to the

Ken Burns, filmmaker, in conversation with David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, trustee of the National Gallery of Art, and chairman of the Smithsonian Institution In documentaries such as The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, and The West, filmmaker Ken Burns has spent 40 years investigating American history and culture. His films tell the American story not only in terms of victories and major historical flashpoints, but also through the lives of individuals and relationships. Burns’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including 16 Emmy Awards, 2 Grammy Awards, and 2 Oscar nominations; in September 2008, he was honored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The National Gallery of Art, in collaboration with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), hosted Burns for a conversation with David Rubenstein on April 28, 2019.

Paul Carter Harrison, playwright and expert in African American theatre, and Quincy Troupe, poet, in conversation with Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern art, National Gallery of Art American painter, printmaker, and sculptor Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935) has created a complex body of work which masterfully weaves together visual influences ranging from the Renaissance to modernism with principles of rhythm and improvisation drawn from his study of African cultures and American jazz. In a paired talk on May 19, 2019 at the National Gallery of Art, Paul Carter Harrison and Quincy Troupe, both writers and friends of Jackson, discussed their parallel pursuits of new avenues for creative thought and action. Harrison shared anecdotes from late-night studio discussions with Jackson, along with explanations of Jackson’s understanding of how his heritage factors into his work. Troupe read from his poetry and talked about the social and artistic environment in St. Louis, Missouri, that produced jazz musici

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. The First World War, known as the Great War, was also the first modern war, claiming millions of lives, in part, by newly invented weapons such as the machine gun, tank, aircraft, and poison gas. The arts of the period present a portrait of the terrible price paid by humanity—the carnage and suffering caused by the war were documented in paintings, sculptures, novels, memoirs, and poems produced both during, and immediately after, the struggle. In this presentation on March 27, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores the responses of artists and writers to the trauma of the First World War, which transcended national boundaries. Paintings, sculptures, and prints by Otto Dix, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Käthe Kollwitz, Fernand Léger, John Singer Sargent, and Natalija Goncharova; poems by Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Anna Akhmatova; and memoirs and novels by Ernest Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque, and Robert Graves are discussed against the backdrop of

John Hobson, staff assistant, department of special projects, National Gallery of Art The study of Slovene photography has remained intertwined with the medium’s specific relation to pan-Yugoslavian artistic development, generally focusing on the period between 1945 and 1991. In celebration of the National Day of Slovenia, John Hobson expands the current understanding of the development of photography in the Slovene region, breaking from the Yugocentric narrative to present his research on the breadth and complexity of twentieth-century photography created by Slovenians. In this lecture at the National Gallery of Art on June 3, 2019, Hobson discusses the creation of photographic conventions and traditions, as well as transgressions against them, across the twentieth century.

Kristen Gonzalez, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art Jacobus Vrel is not exactly a household name. A painter of quiet Dutch genre scenes, he produced some fifty works and quickly fell into obscurity. Composing modest interiors and street scenes, Vrel’s mature paintings predate those of the most celebrated Dutch masters in the 17th century. In fact, many of his works were misattributed to Johannes Vermeer. In this lecture held on April 22, 2019, Kristen Gonzalez discusses the Gallery’s Young Woman in an Interior by Jacobus Vrel and the striking modernity of his genre paintings. In anticipation of a major retrospective exhibition in Munich, Paris, and the Hague next year, Kristen discusses the challenge of studying the enigmatic Vrel and establishing his artistic identity distinct from Vermeer and his contemporaries.

Jeffreen M. Hayes, executive director, Threewalls An outstanding sculptor associated with the intellectual and cultural awakening known as the Harlem Renaissance, Augusta Savage (1892-1962) overcame poverty, racism, and sexual discrimination in pursuit of her goals. Creating new visions of black identity in her work, she was also an activist, campaigning for equal rights for African Americans in the arts. The traveling exhibition Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman and its accompanying catalog is the first to reassess Savage’s contributions to art and cultural history in light of 21st-century attention to the concept of the artist-activist. The exhibition viewing dates are as follows: the Cummer Museum of Art, October 12, 2018-April 7, 2019; the New York Historical Society, May 3–July 28, 2019; the Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, August 24–December 8, 2019; and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, January 19–March 22, 2020. The groundbreaking catalog features illustrations of more than 40 works b

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. David Smith (1906–1965) is arguably America’s greatest sculptor of the 20th century. His art enlarged the vocabulary of sculpture by employing welding and industrial processes and materials, laying the groundwork for the directness of minimalism and the realization that sculpture could be anything the artist desired. Smith’s oeuvre is a logical outgrowth of earlier 20th-century sculptural trends in cubism, constructivism, and surrealism. However, his work also represents a new paradigm for the language of modern sculpture that reflects the dynamic growth and industrial prowess of the United States after the Second World War. Smith’s confrontation with the process of creation broke the rules and expanded the possibilities of his art form. In part one of this lecture, presented at the National Gallery of Art on March 7, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores Smith’s revolutionary art through a discussion of some of his most important and innovative wo

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. David Smith (1906–1965) is arguably America’s greatest sculptor of the 20th century. His art enlarged the vocabulary of sculpture by employing welding and industrial processes and materials, laying the groundwork for the directness of minimalism and the realization that sculpture could be anything the artist desired. Smith’s oeuvre is a logical outgrowth of earlier 20th-century sculptural trends in cubism, constructivism, and surrealism. However, his work also represents a new paradigm for the language of modern sculpture that reflects the dynamic growth and industrial prowess of the United States after the Second World War. Smith’s confrontation with the process of creation broke the rules and expanded the possibilities of his art form. In part two of this lecture, presented at the National Gallery of Art on March 7, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores Smith’s revolutionary art through a discussion of some of his most important and innovative wo

Lorena Bradford, accessible programs, department of education, National Gallery of Art Since it opened to the public in 1978, the East Building has been recognized as one of the National Gallery of Art’s most prized masterpieces. The passing of the building’s architect, I.M. Pei (1917–2019), invited a new look at his building projects around the globe. In a talk given on July 7, 2019, Lorena Bradford situates the commission of the East Building within the context of Pei’s blossoming career and shares some of the challenges Pei and his team faced in developing the final, inspired design. Bradford analyzes the responses of critics, fellow architects, and the public to the East Building both before the completed structure was unveiled and after it opened in 1978, concluding with reflections on Pei’s legacy.

Elizabeth Dent, exhibition associate, National Gallery of Art. In 2014 the National Gallery of Art acquired a thirteenth-century French stained glass window from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Originating in Soissons Cathedral in northern France, the window came into possession of Senator William A. Clark of Montana (1839–1925) around the turn of the century and was installed in the billiard room of his 121-room mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City, popularly referred to as “Clark’s Folly.” In this lecture, as part of the Works in Progress Lecture Series, on April 15, 2019 Elizabeth Dent discusses the iconography and history of the window, from its original devotional contexts at Soissons to its acquisition by Clark and its role within the decorative scheme of the mansion.

Mollie Berger Salah, curatorial assistant, department of prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. In this lecture on May 6, 2019, as part of the Works in Progress Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art, Mollie Salah examines the work of color painter Mary Pinchot Meyer who worked contemporaneously with, and in some cases alongside, artists such as Anne Truitt and Kenneth Noland. Meyer’s sole concern is color. Never garish, her balance of tone and hue creates even compositions where color dominates and appears to extend beyond the bounds of the canvas.