National Gallery Of Art | Audio

Melanee C. Harvey, assistant professor, department of art, Howard University. In a talk focusing on photographic examples of black church iconography from the 1920s through the 1940s, Melanee Harvey compares images of Washington, DC churches by Scurlock Studio photographers with Office of War Information photographs by Gordon Parks. Delivered as part of the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now,” held on February 8, 2019, Harvey’s talk describes the context and social function of these photographs, considering the repetition of visual themes used to represent African American religious spaces and practices. By deconstructing reductive visual tropes of the black church, Harvey finds diverse experiences within church experience and explores the diverse aesthetic traditions of black religious expression across denominations, regions and historical periods.

Kellie Jones, professor, department of art history and archaeology, and faculty fellow, Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS), Columbia University. The African American women in Charles White’s artworks possess tremendous physical capability and rich interior lives. These depictions of women contributed to an artistic conversation around feminism between White, Elizabeth Catlett, Gordon Parks, and others from the 1930s through the 1950s. Even writers and activists engaged with White’s work; activist Esther Cooper Jackson published White’s drawings in her journal, Freedom Ways, as if to illustrate her central idea that the state of American democracy could be seen in the living conditions of the black women. In her talk from the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now,” held on February 8, 2019, Kellie Jones describes how White’s contemporaries helped to shape his work and to provide feminist images of black women in the mid-20th century.

Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History, Duke University, and Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. Archibald Motley’s painting Black Belt (1934) managed to do more than simply capture the ambience and tempo of Bronzeville, a predominantly African American neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Black Belt also made Bronzeville’s performative and transactional nature palpable, especially in the years of the Great Depression and in response to the mass migration of black Americans from the rural south to the urban north. Richard Powell’s talk, given as part of the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now,” held on February 8, 2019, recognizes Motley’s place in the history of African Americans describing their lives and communities in art.

Laura Wexler, professor of American studies, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and film and media studies, affiliate faculty in ethnicity, race, and migration, cochair, Women’s Faculty Forum, director, The Photographic Memory Workshop, and primary investigator, The Photogrammar Project, Yale University. In 1942, Gordon Parks began working for Roy Stryker, head of the photographic division of Farm Security Administration, or FSA, during which time Parks traveled to Washington, DC, on assignment, documenting life under segregation in the nation’s capital. The next year, the FSA was absorbed into the Office of War Information, which sent Parks to photograph the Tuskegee Airmen. This assignment signaled for Parks a shift from making projects about internal national politics to documenting the war effort, and it had a profound effect on him. In her talk from the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now,” held on February 8, 2019, Laura Wexler describes Parks’s experience

Melanee C. Harvey, assistant professor, department of art, Howard University; Kellie Jones, professor, department of art history and archaeology, and faculty fellow, Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS), Columbia University; Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History, Duke University, and Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art; Laura Wexler, professor of American studies, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and film and media studies, affiliate faculty in ethnicity, race, and migration, co-chair, Women’s Faculty Forum, director, The Photographic Memory Workshop, and primary investigator, The Photogrammar Project, Yale University; moderated by Anjuli Lebowitz, exhibition research associate, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art Throughout his career, Gordon Parks explored many issues, including segregation, feminism, and nationhood, through writing, photography, and film. Much

Devin Allen, artist and 2017 fellow, The Gordon Parks Foundation. In April 2015, widespread protests in Baltimore, Maryland—locally termed the Baltimore Uprising—erupted after an African American man named Freddie Gray died from injuries he suffered while in police custody. Photographer Devin Allen, a native of Baltimore, immersed himself in the protests and made images of both civil unrest and community solidarity in his home city. The events in Baltimore corresponded to a larger national frustration around civilians being killed by police; soon, a mere two years after taking to photography, Allen became the third amateur photographer ever to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. At the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now” held on February 8, 2019, Allen, a 2018 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellow, discussed the ethics of photographing his community and the influence of Parks’s work on his own.

Eric Gottesman, artist and cofounder, For Freedoms, and assistant professor of art, Purchase College, State University of New York. Eric Gottesman photographs, writes, makes videos, and teaches, using art to explore aesthetic, social and political culture; his work has taken him to countries like Ethiopia and Jordan and to indigenous communities in Canada with projects that have questioned nationhood and investigated local histories. With For Freedoms, “a platform for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action” founded in 2016 in collaboration with artist Hank Willis Thomas, Gottesman partners with institutions and communities all over the United States to facilitate meaningful political discourse and engaged citizenship through art. Gottesman spoke about his use of art for community-building at the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now,” held on February 8, 2019.

Rick Lowe, artist, founder, Project Row Houses, and clinical professor of art, University of Houston. In its 25-year history, Project Row Houses has grown from 22 houses on a block and a half in Houston’s Third Ward to six blocks and 40 properties. Artist Rick Lowe and his team have, among other things, renovated shotgun houses to provide homes for single mothers, built new structures for affordable housing, reinvigorated a historically black ballroom, and opened spaces for creating and displaying art. On February 8, 2019, as part of the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now,” Lowe describes the past and future of Project Row Houses and the continuing importance of its founding principle: “That art—and the community it creates—can be the foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city neighborhoods.”

Maséqua Myers, executive director, South Side Community Art Center. The South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) is the last of 110 community art centers started by the Works Progress Administration. Founded in 1940 by a team of artists that included Margaret Burroughs and Eldzier Cortor, SSCAC offered early support and instruction to writers and artists, such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Gordon Parks, in fulfillment of its mission to support the work of African American artists and to educate South Side residents on the significance of arts and culture for life. In recognition of the center’s decades of relevance to its Bronzeville neighborhood, in 2017 the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it a National Treasure, ensuring SSCAC’s survival for the next generation of Chicago residents. At the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, “American Communities, Then and Now,” held on February 8, 2019, SSCAC director Maséqua Myers discusses the center’s legacy and its continued relevance for 21st-century ar

Devin Allen, artist and 2017 fellow, The Gordon Parks Foundation; Eric Gottesman, artist and co-founder, For Freedoms, and assistant professor of art, Purchase College, State University of New York; Rick Lowe, artist, founder, Project Row Houses, and clinical professor of art, University of Houston; Maséqua Myers, executive director, South Side Community Art Center; moderated by Philip Brookman, consulting curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art For artists Devin Allen, Eric Gottesman, and Rick Lowe, art is inextricable from community. As a photographer, Allen’s ethic considers what he owes his subjects; Gottesman’s For Freedoms project uses art to engage with citizenship; and Lowe’s Project Row Houses embrace the art of community development. As director of the South Side Community Art Center, Maséqua Myers orchestrates connections between residents of Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood and art. The four discuss the stakes of the relationship between artists and communities, as Philip Bro

Bruce I. Campbell, artist and copyist at the National Gallery of Art, in conversation with Alexandra Libby, assistant curator, department of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art. Bruce Campbell is one of the longest continuous copyists at the National Gallery of Art, with more than two decades and over two dozen completed works. Campbell's master replicas focus on the High Renaissance, the baroque, and the Hudson River School, to name a few. In this conversation program on March 11, 2019, as part of the Works in Progress Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art, Bruce Campbell and Alexandra Libby discuss this age-old exercise and study, and link his experience to others engaged in this longstanding practice.

I. M. Pei, architect of the National Gallery of Art East Building, describes his involvement with the building project and its early planning stages, including a trip with National Gallery of Art director J. Carter Brown to visit European museums. He explains the evolution of the building design and the challenges in meeting site and regulatory requirements and gaining the endorsement of government agencies for his design plan. Pei reflects on the relationship between the East Building and the West Building and describes important features of the materials and technology used during the construction of the former. He comments on his relationship with the National Gallery of Art building committee and describes the process of commissioning works of art for the new building. This TBD-minute interview is conducted by Gallery archivist Anne G. Ritchie and was recorded on February 22, 1993, for the National Gallery of Art oral history program under the auspices of the Gallery Archives.

Robert Echols, independent scholar, and Frederick Ilchman, chair of the art of Europe department and Mrs. Russell W. Baker Curator of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Jacopo Tintoretto (1518/1519–1594), three institutions—the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia; and the Gallerie dell’Accademia—organized a major exhibition on the Venetian master. Following its term at the Palazzo Ducale, Venice (its only other venue), Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice is on view at the Gallery from March 24 through July 7, 2019. As the first retrospective of the artist in North America, the exhibition features nearly 50 paintings and more than a dozen works on paper spanning the artist’s entire career, ranging from regal portraits of Venetian aristocracy to religious and mythological narrative scenes. Tintoretto has been considered one of the “Big Three” 16th-century Venetian painters, alongside Titian and Paolo Verones

Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, University of Chicago. In the six-part lecture series End as Beginning: Chinese Art and Dynastic Time, Wu Hung explores the narratives of Chinese art and their relationship to artistic production while reflecting on a series of questions: How did dynastic time emerge and permeate writings on traditional Chinese art? How did it enrich and redefine itself in specific historical contexts? How did it interact with temporalities in different historical, religious, and political systems? How did narratives based on dynastic time respond to and inspire artistic creation? In the sixth and final lecture, “End as Beginning: Dynastic Time and Revolution,” delivered on May 12, 2019, Wu Hung examines the end of China’s dynastic history in 1912 through an exploration of the concept of time at this interim moment, the transformation of a person’s body and image, and an emerging modern visual culture that exhibits its newness against the traditi

Nancy J. Troy (Victoria and Roger Sant Professor in Art at Stanford University and former Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor at the National Gallery of Art) discusses Piet Mondrian’s painting Tableau No. IV: Lozenge Composition with Red, Gray, Blue, Yellow, and Black (c. 1924/1925). Troy describes the history and previous iterations of this diamond composition and the work’s powerful influence within popular and artistic spheres.

Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, University of Chicago. In the six-part lecture series End as Beginning: Chinese Art and Dynastic Time, Wu Hung explores the narratives of Chinese art and their relationship to artistic production while reflecting on a series of questions: How did dynastic time emerge and permeate writings on traditional Chinese art? How did it enrich and redefine itself in specific historical contexts? How did it interact with temporalities in different historical, religious, and political systems? How did narratives based on dynastic time respond to and inspire artistic creation? In the fifth lecture, “Art of Absence: Voices of the Remnant Subject,” delivered on May 5, 2019, Wu Hung focuses on the moment after the fall of a dynasty and examines its relationship with artistic creation and the construction of art history.

Elizabeth Alexander, poet, essayist, playwright, scholar, and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Manthia Diawara, writer, cultural theorist, film director, scholar, and professor of comparative literature and cinema studies and director emeritus of the Institute of African American Affairs, New York University Painter Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962–2012) from Asmara, Eritrea, and filmmaker Manthia Diawara from Bamako, Mali, meet metaphorically in this program focusing on their work. Political refugees, activists, scholars, and storytellers, both men settled in the United States and found themselves working odd jobs, joining the African American community of poets and each digging into his own artistic practice. Ghebreyesus’s epic painting The Sardine Fisherman’s Funeral combines symbols, historical references, and iconography from different cultures to express a depth of feeling for the power of the sea. Diawara’s film An Opera of the World (2017), based on the African opera Bintou Were, mines the Mal

Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, University of Chicago. In the six-part lecture series End as Beginning: Chinese Art and Dynastic Time, Wu Hung explores the narratives of Chinese art and their relationship to artistic production while reflecting on a series of questions: How did dynastic time emerge and permeate writings on traditional Chinese art? How did it enrich and redefine itself in specific historical contexts? How did it interact with temporalities in different historical, religious, and political systems? How did narratives based on dynastic time respond to and inspire artistic creation? In the fourth lecture, “Miraculous Icons and Dynastic Time: Narrating Buddhist Images in Medieval China,” delivered on April 28, 2019, Wu Hung examines the introduction of Buddhist art during the Period of Division and the reunification of the Sui and the Tang, when “miraculous icons” became a central subject in both historical narrative and art making, and the concept

Harry Allen, “The Media Assassin” and journalist; Nelson George, filmmaker; Adrian Loving; artist and educator; Miles Marshall Lewis, author of There’s a Riot Goin’ On; Vikki Tobak, author of Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop On February 17, 2019, the National Gallery of Art hosted a discussion celebrating the ingenuity, dedication, and power of Gordon parks. Local artist and educator Adrian Loving and scholar Vikki Tobak explored the visual influences and legacy of Gordon Parks in photography and film. Parks’s famous photograph A Great Day In Hip Hop (published in XXL Magazine, September 1998)—itself a tribute to Art Kane’s 1958 photograph A Great Day in Harlem—was the touchstone of this discussion, held in association with Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950.

Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, University of Chicago. In the six-part lecture series End as Beginning: Chinese Art and Dynastic Time, Wu Hung explores the narratives of Chinese art and their relationship to artistic production while reflecting on a series of questions: How did dynastic time emerge and permeate writings on traditional Chinese art? How did it enrich and redefine itself in specific historical contexts? How did it interact with temporalities in different historical, religious, and political systems? How did narratives based on dynastic time respond to and inspire artistic creation? In the third lecture, “Conflicting Temporalities: Heaven’s Mandate and Its Antitheses,” delivered on April 14, 2019, Wu Hung discusses the art of the Han dynasty, which evolved through complex interactions with a new political ideology and historiography rooted in the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, either by legitimating dynastic power or by challenging it with antit