Kerry James Marshall in conversation with James Meyer, associate curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art. Kerry James Marshall has exhibited widely in both the United States and abroad and is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, among other honors. His work often explores the experiences of African Americans and narratives of American history that have historically excluded black people. Drawing upon the artist’s prodigious knowledge of art history and African diasporic culture, his paintings combine figurative and abstract styles and multiple allusions. In Marshall’s art, the past is never truly past: history exerts a constant, often unconscious pressure on the living. In this program recorded on June 26, 2013, Marshall discusses the works and themes of his exhibition In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall, on view at the Gallery from June 28 to December 7, 2013.
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Sarah McPhee, Winship Distinguished Research Professor, Emory University. Costanza Piccolomini was Gianlorenzo Bernini’s beloved. His passion for this woman was so strong it inspired the sculptor to preserve her beauty in one of his most captivating portrait busts and to commission a violent crime against her. But until now, little has been known about the woman herself. In this lecture recorded at the National Gallery of Art on March 10, 2013, Sarah McPhee draws from the revelations of her new book, Bernini's Beloved: A Portrait of Costanza Piccolomini, to discuss the nature of Bernini’s artistry and the surprising life of this remarkable woman who forged a career as an art collector and dealer in the wake of their tempestuous affair.
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Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, collectors, in conversation with Ruth Fine, curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art; and Mark Rosenthal, curator of twentieth-century art, National Gallery of Art. New York collectors Herbert and Dorothy Vogel trace the development of their vast art collection in this podcast recorded on June 12, 1994 at the National Gallery of Art in honor of the exhibition From Minimal to Conceptual: Works from The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection. The Vogels began collecting art in the 1960s, a time that saw a new generation of artists respond to the abstract expressionist movement. These artists questioned the entire practice of art making, the nature of the art object, and how art functioned within society. By forming close personal relationships with the artists, a process that the Vogels describe as invaluable, they assembled one of the country's greatest and most extensive collections of conceptual, minimal, and post-minimal art with limited financial means. From Minimal to Conceptual was the first major showing of their collection at the National Gallery of Art and was on view from May 29 through November 27, 1994.
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Andrew Robison, A.W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art. To celebrate the exhibition opening of Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina on March 24, 2013, Andrew Robison shares that, while the artist's paintings were prized, his most influential works were executed on paper. Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) has long been considered the greatest German artist, uniquely combining the status held in Italian art by Michelangelo in the 16th century, by Raphael in the 18th and 19th centuries, and by Leonardo da Vinci in our own day. The finest collection of Dürer's drawings and watercolors is that of the Albertina in Vienna, Austria. One of the largest in the world, it is distinguished by many of the artist's most stunning masterpieces: watercolors such as The Great Piece of Turf, a sublime nature study of the Renaissance; chiaroscuro drawings such as The Praying Hands, surely the most famous drawing in the world; and the amazingly precocious silverpoint Self-Portrait at Thirteen, perhaps the earliest self-portrait drawing by any artist. On view through June 9, 2013, this groundbreaking exhibition presents 91 of the superb Dürer watercolors and drawings from the Albertina and 27 of the museum’s best related engravings and woodcuts. It also includes 19 closely related drawings and prints from the Gallery’s own collection.
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Diane Waggoner, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Jason Rosenfeld, distinguished chair and professor of art history, Marymount Manhattan College. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Scott Allan, associate curator of paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Linda S. Ferber, vice president and senior art historian, New-York Historical Society. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Cordula Grewe, associate professor of art history, Columbia University. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Diane Waggoner, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Jason Rosenfeld, distinguished chair and professor of art history, Marymount Manhattan College, Scott Allan, associate curator of paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum, Linda S. Ferber, vice president and senior art historian, New-York Historical Society, Cordula Grewe, associate professor of art history, Columbia University. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art and director of graduate studies, Yale University, Michael Hatt, professor of the history of art, University of Warwick. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Elizabeth Helsinger, John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor, departments of English, art history, and visual arts, University of Chicago. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Morna O’Neill, assistant professor of 18th- and 19th-century European art, Wake Forest University. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Andrea Wolk Rager, assistant professor of art history, Case Western Reserve University. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, this symposium explored Britain's first avant-garde art movement in the context of other international modernisms. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (formed in 1848) shook the art world of mid-19th-century Britain by rejecting traditional approaches to painting. Academics and curators consider modern art and craft movements in these lectures recorded on March 8 and 9, 2013. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
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Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art and director of graduate studies, Yale University; Jason Rosenfeld, distinguished chair and professor of art history, Marymount Manhattan College; and Diane Waggoner, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. In this podcast recorded on February 17, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art, Tim Barringer, Jason Rosenfeld, and Diane Waggoner celebrate the opening of the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, the first major survey of Pre-Raphaelite art to be shown in the United States. The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of young artists who sought to overturn established traditions of painting and made art that looked to the past for inspiration, but also engaged directly with the bustling modern world of Victorian Britain. The exhibition features some 130 paintings, sculptures, photography, works on paper, and decorative art objects that reflect the ideals of Britain's first modern art movement. Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900 is on display through May 19, 2013.
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Mia Fineman, assistant curator, department of photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The urge to modify camera images is as old as photography itself—only the methods have changed. Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop is the first major exhibition devoted to the history of manipulated photographs before the digital age. The exhibition, on view at the National Gallery of Art from February 17 to May 5, 2013, offers a provocative new perspective on the history of photography. In this lecture recorded on February 24, 2013, exhibition curator Mia Fineman traces photographic manipulation from the 1840s through the 1980s and shows that photography is—and always has been—a medium of fabricated truths and artful lies.
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Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, collectors, in conversation with Irving Blum, collector and co-founder of the Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles. To celebrate the exhibition opening of The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: 1945-1995 at the National Gallery of Art on March 31, 1996, the Meyerhoffs joined Irving Blum to discuss the history and practice of their collecting. On view through July 21, 1996, the exhibition presented 194 works, almost their entire collection of post-World War II art. The Meyerhoffs' acquisitions have been based wholly on their belief in the quality of individual works and not on any preconceived theory or plan. If they were passionate about an artist, they collected his or her work in depth. Their private residence has a room dedicated to each of the following artists: Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. The collection is both a tribute to the extraordinarily high level of accomplishment by these artists and to the Meyerhoffs' intuition.
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Charles Ritchie, associate curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. While Ellsworth Kelly is best known for crafting pristine, monochrome shapes, he has periodically employed chance as a strategy in composing works. The series of 23 paper-pulp works featured in the exhibition Ellsworth Kelly: Colored Paper Images, on view at the National Gallery of Art from December 16, 2012, through December 1, 2013, is a dramatic example of this approach. Wet colored paper pulps were pressed into freshly made sheets of paper, resulting in color bleeds that eroded the precision of his designs. In this lecture recorded on February 10, 2013, Charles Ritchie investigates factors contributing to the success of this project—from Kelly’s improvisation on earlier motifs to print publisher Ken Tyler’s study of pigmentation in order to create strongly colored, lightfast paper pulps. Ritchie also discusses the expertise of veteran papermakers John and Kathleen Koller, who developed the paper for this project.
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Richard Shiff, Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art and professor of history of art, University of Texas at Austin. The exhibition Willem de Kooning: Paintings, on view at the National Gallery of Art from May 8 to September 5, 1994, was presented in honor of the artist’s 90th birthday. The exhibition included 76 paintings that spanned de Kooning’s career from the 1930s to the mid-1980s. In this lecture recorded on May 29, 1994, catalogue author Richard Shiff highlights four aspects of the artist’s career. First, Shiff explores de Kooning’s involvement with change: he thought of himself as always evolving, and his work could not be classified under a single style. Second, Shiff describes the physicality of de Kooning’s work: the artist became involved with materials of real substance and engaged his body with these materials by pushing, pulling, and physically manipulating them. Third, Shiff shares how to look at and think about de Kooning’s figures and representations, which initially might not be recognizable. Fourth, de Kooning resisted any description of himself more elaborate than painter: here Shiff addresses de Kooning’s objections to abstract art—even though he made abstract work, he did not consider himself an abstractionist.
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Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture, National Gallery of Art. Michelangelo created the statue now known as David-Apollo around 1530 to please the tyrannical governor of Florence, Baccio Valori. The double name of this unfinished work, which is on loan to the National Gallery of Art from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, reflects contradictory evidence—both visual and documentary—concerning the subject. The graceful figure, its surface still veiled in chisel marks, embodies ambiguities and conflicts in Michelangelo’s own life. This lecture, recorded on January 27, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art, explores the mysteries surrounding the statue, the significance of its unfinished condition, and responses to it from later artists. The loan of David-Apollo opened the nationwide celebration 2013―The Year of Italian Culture.The sculpture is on view from December 13, 2012, to March 2, 2013.
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Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art, with original slides courtesy of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. On November 11, 1995, Roy Lichtenstein was in Japan to receive the Kyoto Prize from the Inamori Foundation. In accepting the award, he delivered a lecture on the evolution of his work since his Pop breakthrough of 1961. Thanks to the generosity of the artist's estate and foundation, Harry Cooper, the National Gallery of Art's curator of modern art, presented this lecture at the Gallery, with the original slides, on January 9, 2013—in honor of Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, the first major exhibition of the artist's work since his death in 1997. The exhibition was on view at the Gallery from October 14, 2012, to January 13, 2013.
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Sidney Geist, sculptor, and professor of sculpture, New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture. In conjunction with the exhibition Rodin Rediscovered, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 28, 1981, to May 2, 1982, Sidney Geist highlights some of the 366 catalogued works by Auguste Rodin that filled spaces on each of the East Building's four levels. With works from about 40 American and European collections, the exhibition recreated a typical Paris Salon of the 1870s. Twenty-nine sculptures filled the Upper Level Galleries, continued downward through the building with nine sections devoted to different themes of Rodin's work, and ended on the Concourse with a new eight-ton bronze cast of The Gates of Hell with its 186 figures. In this lecture recorded on September 27, 1981, Geist brings his unique perspective as a sculptor to the examination of Rodin's work, expressing how difficult it is to separate Rodin's technical ability from the mystical quality of his sculpture. This intertwining of the human and the divine, the mundane and the transcendent led Geist to remark of Rodin and his apprentice, Constantin Brancusi: "Sculpture is the place we read their spirits."
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Emmet Gowin, photographer and professor of visual arts, Princeton University. In the first of two lectures honoring the exhibition Stieglitz in the Darkroom, on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 4, 1992, to February 14, 1993, photographer Emmet Gowin shares the relevance of Alfred Stieglitz's (1864-1946) work to his own. The exhibition of 75 photographic prints, chosen from the "key set" of 1,600 photographs given to the Gallery by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1949 and 1980, spanned Stieglitz's career. It demonstrated how a photographer can alter the aesthetics of his art and meaning through cropping, scale, tone, paper selection, and printing process- and also the extraordinary commitment a photographer has to his work. One of the most important photographers of his generation, Gowin (born 1941) is the son of a Methodist minister and considered America and Alfred Stieglitz (1934) to be his second bible. For this lecture recorded on November 29, 1992, Gowin used the title of his undergraduate senior thesis, demonstrating his strong connection with Stieglitz and Robert Frank's The Americans (1958). Tracing the influence of Stieglitz throughout his career, Gowin shares how his work transitioned from photographing primarily human beings to making aerial photographs of toxic waste sites and nuclear reservations.
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Sydney J. Freedberg, chief curator, National Gallery of Art. In honor of The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries exhibition, on view from December 19, 1986, to February 16, 1987, at the National Gallery of Art, Sydney J. Freedberg explains the genesis of the exhibition and introduces many of its masterpieces, including 79 paintings created in the northern Italian province of Emilia between 1500 and 1700. Sir John Pope-Hennessy (then of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) chose the 16th-century works and Freedberg selected those painted in the 17th century. In this lecture recorded on December 26, 1986, Freedberg leads the audience through the exhibition, promising that even though his tour begins with the grandeur of Correggio, there are marvelous surprises of equal mastery to come.
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Wendy A. Cooper, director, The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Colonial Williamsburg. In honor of the exhibition opening for American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection on October 12, 1986, curator Wendy A. Cooper presented this lecture highlighting works collected by Mr. and Mrs. George M. Kaufman over a period of 25 years. The exhibition, on view through April 19, 1987, at the National Gallery of Art, showed 101 examples of American furniture made between 1690 and 1840. The collection, one of the largest and most refined in private hands, includes chairs, desks, tables, high chests, mirrors, clocks, and sconces from the major style centers of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, and Charleston. The Kaufmans recognized this furniture as one of the earliest American art forms, as well as an expression of their love for and strong pride in our nation's creative and artistic heritage. Each and every object that they desired to acquire and live with is an extraordinary example of high quality craftsmanship, aesthetics, and design.
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Sydney J. Freedberg, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts, and acting director, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. At the time of the exhibition Prints and Related Drawings by the Carracci Family, on view from March 18 to May 20, 1979, at the National Gallery of Art, Sydney J. Freedberg presented his observations on Lodovico Carracci (1555-1619), the oldest of the family of Bolognese artists that included cousins Agostino (1557-1602) and Annibale (1560-1609). Together the Carracci profoundly altered the course of Italian art in the later years of the 16th century and laid the basis for the baroque style that would dominate the century to come. In this lecture recorded on April 8, 1979, Freedberg opposes the perception of Lodovico as a flawed artist outdistanced by his younger cousins. Providing a more comprehensive account, Freedberg argues that the artist's expressive capacity- seen in his sensuous handling of paint, powerful evocations of form, and innovative chiaroscuro- was both his strength and defect.
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Sydney J. Freedberg, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts emeritus, Harvard University, and chief curator, National Gallery of Art. In honor of the exhibition Titian: The Flaying of Marsyas on view at the National Gallery of Art from January 17 to April 20, 1986, chief curator Sydney J. Freedberg revealed how he arranged this special showing of Titian's last painting in the United States. In 1983 the work had been lent by the State Museum in Kromeriz, Czechoslovakia, for the first time in 300 years to the Genius of Venice exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts. Freedberg persuaded authorities to permit the painting to travel to the National Gallery of Art, in what he described as its second emergence from exile. In this lecture recorded on January 26, 1986, Freedberg provides the context for The Flaying of Marsyas (c. 1550-1576) and the later years of Titian's career.
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Mark A. White, Eugene B. Adkins Curator and Chief Curator, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma. When George Bellows died at the age of forty-two in 1925, he was hailed as one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. The exhibition George Bellows, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 10 to October 8, 2012, provides the most complete account of his achievements to date. Bellows was a leading figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the early modern era in American culture. In this public symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 5-6, 2012, and coordinated with the Columbus Museum of Art, curators and scholars examine the remarkable scope of Bellows' career and assess his contributions to the first wave of twentieth-century American modernism.
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David Lubin, Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art, Wake Forest University. When George Bellows died at the age of forty-two in 1925, he was hailed as one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. The exhibition George Bellows, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 10 to October 8, 2012, provides the most complete account of his achievements to date. Bellows was a leading figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the early modern era in American culture. In this public symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 5-6, 2012, and coordinated with the Columbus Museum of Art, curators and scholars examine the remarkable scope of Bellows' career and assess his contributions to the first wave of twentieth-century American modernism.
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Carol Troyen, Kristin and Roger Servison Curator Emerita of American Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. When George Bellows died at the age of forty-two in 1925, he was hailed as one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. The exhibition George Bellows, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 10 to October 8, 2012, provides the most complete account of his achievements to date. Bellows was a leading figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the early modern era in American culture. In this public symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 5-6, 2012, and coordinated with the Columbus Museum of Art, curators and scholars examine the remarkable scope of Bellows' career and assess his contributions to the first wave of twentieth-century American modernism.
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David Park Curry, senior curator of decorative arts and American painting and sculpture, The Baltimore Museum of Art. When George Bellows died at the age of forty-two in 1925, he was hailed as one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. The exhibition George Bellows, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 10 to October 8, 2012, provides the most complete account of his achievements to date. Bellows was a leading figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the early modern era in American culture. In this public symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 5-6, 2012, and coordinated with the Columbus Museum of Art, curators and scholars examine the remarkable scope of Bellows' career and assess his contributions to the first wave of twentieth-century American modernism.
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Gregory Jecmen, associate curator of old master prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art
With a storied past and a strong imperial presence, Augsburg enjoyed a golden age in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, fostering artists such as Hans Burgkmair, Erhard Ratdolt, Daniel Hopfer, Jörg Breu, and Hans Weiditz. The artists flourished from about 1475 as the effects of the Italian Renaissance were first being felt, through the social, political, and religious upheavals of the Reformation, which took hold in 1537 following 20 years of struggle. In this paired lecture recorded on October 21, 2012, Gregory Jecmen explains this rich and varied history through more than 100 works featured in Imperial Augsburg: Renaissance Prints and Drawings, 1475-1540. Focusing on drawings, prints, and illustrated books mostly from the Gallery's own extensive collection, the exhibition- first of its kind in America- serves as an introduction to Augsburg, its artists, and its cultural history, during this period.
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David C. Ward, historian and deputy editor of the Charles Willson Peale Family Papers, National Portrait Gallery. When George Bellows died at the age of forty-two in 1925, he was hailed as one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. The exhibition George Bellows, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 10 to October 8, 2012, provides the most complete account of his achievements to date. Bellows was a leading figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the early modern era in American culture. In this public symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 5-6, 2012, and coordinated with the Columbus Museum of Art, curators and scholars examine the remarkable scope of Bellows' career and assess his contributions to the first wave of twentieth-century American modernism.
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Triumphs in Craftsmanship: Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700-1830
Wendy A. Cooper, Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Senior Curator of Furniture, Winterthur Museum, University of Delaware. Curator Wendy A. Cooper celebrated the landmark installation of early American furniture and related decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art in this lecture recorded on October 28, 2012. The Kaufman Collection is one of the largest and most refined collections of early American furniture in private hands, acquired with great connoisseurship over five decades by George M. (1932-2001) and Linda H. Kaufman (born 1938). The collection, a gift promised to the Gallery in October 2010, comprises more than 200 works of art including American furniture, paintings, and works on paper. These fine examples of American decorative arts in the Kaufman Collection will be complemented by outstanding American paintings from the Gallery's own collection, including portraits by artists such as John Wollaston (active 1742/1775), Ralph Earl (1751-1801), and Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Located on the Ground Floor of the West Building, Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700-1830 is the first major presentation of such objects to be on continuous public view in the nation's capital.
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Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. Harry Cooper, the Gallery's consulting curator for Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective- on view from October 14, 2012 to January 13, 2013- presents an overview of the first major exhibition of the artist's work since his death in 1997. In this opening-day lecture recorded on October 14, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, Cooper reviews some of the 136 works in the exhibition, including Lichtenstein's greatest paintings from all periods of his career, as well as drawings and sculptures. The retrospective presents Lichtenstein's expansive legacy- the classic early pop paintings based on advertisements, comic-book treatments of war and romance, versions of paintings by the modern masters, and series including Brushstrokes, Mirrors, Artist's Studios, Nudes, and Chinese Landscapes.
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Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History, Princeton University. When George Bellows died at the age of forty-two in 1925, he was hailed as one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. The exhibition George Bellows, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 10 to October 8, 2012, provides the most complete account of his achievements to date. Bellows was a leading figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the early modern era in American culture. In this public symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 5-6, 2012, and coordinated with the Columbus Museum of Art, curators and scholars examine the remarkable scope of Bellows' career and assess his contributions to the first wave of twentieth-century American modernism.
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Rebecca Zurier, associate professor of the history of art, University of Michigan. When George Bellows died at the age of forty-two in 1925, he was hailed as one of the greatest artists America had yet produced. The exhibition George Bellows, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 10 to October 8, 2012, provides the most complete account of his achievements to date. Bellows was a leading figure in the generation of artists who negotiated the transition from the Victorian to the early modern era in American culture. In this public symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 5-6, 2012, and coordinated with the Columbus Museum of Art, curators and scholars examine the remarkable scope of Bellows' career and assess his contributions to the first wave of twentieth-century American modernism.
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Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. Prior to the exhibition opening of In the Tower: Barnett Newman on June 10, 2012, Harry Cooper discussed the 26-work installation by Barnett Newman (1905-970) in this lecture recorded on June 4, 2012, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art. Cooper describes Newman's childhood, artistic techniques, and evolution as an artist that ultimately led him to paint the 14 canvases of The Stations of the Cross, considered by many to be Newman's greatest achievement. This is the fifth show in a series installed in the Tower Gallery that focuses on developments in art since the mid-20th century. The centerpiece of the exhibition, Newman's famed Stations of the Cross, is brought to new light in the vaulting, self-contained space of the I. M. Pei-designed tower.
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Sarah Kennel, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Ksenya Gurshtein, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, National Gallery of Art. To celebrate the opening of The Serial Portrait: Photography and Identity in the Last One Hundred Years at the National Gallery of Art on September 30, 2012, Sarah Kennel and Ksenya Gurshtein explored the role of seriality in 20th-century and contemporary photographic portraiture. On view through December 31, 2012, the exhibition features some 150 works by 20 photographers who transcend the limits of the single image by photographing the same subjects- "primarily friends, family, and themselves"- over the course of days, months, years, and even decades.
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Judith Brodie, curator and head, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. In 1909 F. T. Marinetti's futurist manifesto appeared on the front page of Le Figaro; less than four years, later Pablo Picasso incorporated a fragment of real newspaper into a work of art. The modern mass-media newspaper had colonized fine art. The exhibition Shock of the News examines the many manifestations of the "newspaper phenomenon" from 1909 to 2009, a century during which major artists engaged in a vibrant and multifaceted relationship with the printed news by co-opting, mimicking, defusing, memorializing, and rewriting newspapers. In this podcast recorded on September 23, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art for the exhibition opening, Judith Brodie presents work by more than 60 European and American artists from Marinetti, Picasso, and Man Ray to Adrian Piper, Robert Gober, and Mario Merz.
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Wendy A. Cooper, Lois D. and Henry S. McNeil Senior Curator of Furniture, Winterthur Museum, University of Delaware. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, 296 objects from the museum collection- including furniture, textiles, paintings, watercolors, ceramics, glass, needlework, and metalwork, all made or used in America between 1640 and 1860- were presented in the exhibition An American Vision: Henry Francis du Pont's Winterthur Museum, which was on view at the National Gallery of Art from May 5- to October 6, 2002. In this lecture recorded on June 9, 2002, exhibition curator Wendy A. Cooper gives an overview of the Winterthur estate, surrounding lands, and the evolution of Francis du Pont's collection before highlighting some of the standout pieces in the exhibition. This lecture touched on five thematic elements: Early Settlement and Sophistication; Passion for Rococo; East Meets West; Arts of the Pennsylvania Germans; and American Classicism.
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Ellen G. Miles, curator of painting and sculpture, National Portrait Gallery. Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) was the most successful portraitist of early America. Known for his renderings of the most famous American men and women of the era, including George Washington and John Adams, Stuart painted nearly 1,000 portraits over the course of his 50-year career. In this lecture recorded on April 3, 2005, Ellen G. Miles, cocurator of the exhibition Gilbert Stuart, illustrates the artist's career through documents of his sitters and business partners. The exhibition, which was on view from March 27 to July 31, 2005, presented 91 exceptional works that showcase Stuart's mastery of 18th-century English portraiture, revealing the paintings' elegant, refined beauty and historical importance. Of the Gallery's unequaled collection of 43 paintings by Stuart, 16 were conserved in 2012 through a Bank of America Art Conservation Project Grant.
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Jaume Reus, art historian and curator . Catalan painter Joan Miró (1893-1983), celebrated as one of the greatest modern artists, combined abstract art with surrealist fantasy to create his lithographs, murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces. Held on June 1 and 2, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, this public symposium explored Joan Miró- his personal life, politics, art, and the impact that he had on other artists. This program was held in conjunction with the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape on view at the Gallery from May 6 to August 12, 2012, and was coordinated with and supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.
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Maria Luisa Lax, curator and head of collections, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca. Catalan painter Joan Miró (1893-1983), celebrated as one of the greatest modern artists, combined abstract art with surrealist fantasy to create his lithographs, murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces. Held on June 1 and 2, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, this public symposium explored Joan Miró- his personal life, politics, art, and the impact that he had on other artists. This program was held in conjunction with the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape on view at the Gallery from May 6 to August 12, 2012, and was coordinated with and supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.
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Maria-Josep Balsach, professor of contemporary art, University of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Catalan painter Joan Miró (1893-1983), celebrated as one of the greatest modern artists, combined abstract art with surrealist fantasy to create his lithographs, murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces. Held on June 1 and 2, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, this public symposium explored Joan Miró- his personal life, politics, art, and the impact that he had on other artists. This program was held in conjunction with the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape on view at the Gallery from May 6 to August 12, 2012, and was coordinated with and supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.
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Charles Palermo, Alumni Memorial Term Distinguished Associate Professor of Art History, The College of William and Mary. Catalan painter Joan Miró (1893-1983), celebrated as one of the greatest modern artists, combined abstract art with surrealist fantasy to create his lithographs, murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces. Held on June 1 and 2, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, this public symposium explored Joan Miró- his personal life, politics, art, and the impact that he had on other artists. This program was held in conjunction with the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape on view at the Gallery from May 6 to August 12, 2012, and was coordinated with and supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.
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J. Carter Brown, director emeritus, National Gallery of Art
To commemorate the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games, J. Carter Brown (1934-2002), former director of the National Gallery of Art, curated Rings: Five Passions in World Art, on view from July 4 to September 29, 1996, at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. The works in this exhibition celebrated the Olympic spirit by highlighting the universal human emotions of love, anguish, awe, triumph, and joy. In this lecture recorded on June 9, 1996, Brown described bringing together 129 objects- including Rodin's The Kiss (1889) and Munch's The Scream (1893)- spanning seven centuries, loaned from prestigious museums and private collections around the world. Brown experimented with the exhibition installation, grouping artworks by the primary emotion that each evoked rather than by artist, chronology, movement, or locale.
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Benet Rossell, artist. Catalan painter Joan Miró (1893-1983), celebrated as one of the greatest modern artists, combined abstract art with surrealist fantasy to create his lithographs, murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces. Held on June 1 and 2, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, this public symposium explored Joan Miró- his personal life, politics, art, and the impact that he had on other artists. This program was held in conjunction with the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape on view at the Gallery from May 6 to August 12, 2012, and was coordinated with and supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.
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Robert T. Singer, curator of Japanese art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition Edo: Art in Japan, 1615-1868- on view from November 15, 1998, to February 15, 1999, at the National Gallery of Art- was the first comprehensive survey of Japanese art of the Edo period in the United States. In this podcast recorded on November 15, 1998, exhibition curator Robert T. Singer highlights some of the 281 objects presented in the exhibition, including painted scrolls and screens, costumes, armor, sculpture, ceramics, and woodblock prints. Forty-seven of the works were designated National Treasures of Japan, and many had never before left the country. The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, in collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Government of Japan, and The Japan Foundation.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Melanie Gifford, research conservator, National Gallery of Art. Few artists were more skilled than Willem van Aelst (1627-1683) at depicting luscious fruits, luxurious fabrics, and spoils of the hunt. His renowned still lifes are remarkable for their fine finish, carefully balanced composition, jewel-toned palette, and elegant subject matter. Bringing together 28 of these sumptuous paintings and his only known drawing, this exhibition- the first devoted solely to this artist- celebrates the most technically brilliant Dutch still-life painter of his time. It is also accompanied by the first comprehensive publication on his work. In this opening day lecture, curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. discusses van Aelst's life and talent, including his impact on late-17th-century still-life painting. Conservator Melanie Gifford discusses the technical research that revealed how van Aelst created his luxurious illusions. Elegance and Refinement: The Still-Life Paintings of Willem van Aelst is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 24 to October 14, 2012.
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Charles Brock, associate curator, department of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art
Curator Charles Brock discusses the National Gallery of Art's landmark exhibition George Bellows, the first comprehensive presentation of the artist's career in more than 3 decades. In this opening-day lecture recorded on June 10, 2012, Brock explores Bellows' paintings, drawings, and lithographs depicting tenement children, boxers, sporting events, family portraits, World War I subjects, Maine seascapes, scenes of Woodstock, NY, and the urban landscape of New York City. This exhibition, on view through October 8, 2012, charts the full range of Bellows' artistic achievement, represented by some 130 works arranged thematically and chronologically throughout 9 galleries.
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Jonathan Bober, curator and head of the department of old master prints, National Gallery of Art. The genius of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1664) is characterized by his thoroughgoing synthesis of other artists' styles, his incessant variations upon a relatively narrow range of subjects, and his profound influence upon later artists. In the National Gallery of Art exhibition The Baroque Genius of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, on view from January 29 to July 8, 2012, Castiglione's works and comparative examples are presented side by side, underscoring the serial aspect of his creativity. In this lecture recorded on June 3, 2012, exhibition curator Jonathan Bober suggests that this creativity contradicts the division of Baroque style into "naturalistic" and "classical," and predicts critical aspects of contemporary art, including appropriation, crossing of boundaries, and variations on a theme.
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David Bjelajac, professor of art and American studies, The George Washington University. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Olivier Meslay, associate director of curatorial affairs, Dallas Museum of Art. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Nancy Anderson, curator and head of the department of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, Andrew McClellan, professor and dean of academic affairs for arts and sciences, Tufts University. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Peter J. Brownlee, associate curator, Terra Foundation for American Art. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Franklin Kelly, chief curator and deputy director, National Gallery of Art, Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, independent conservators. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Richard Read, Winthrop Professor, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, The University of Western Australia. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Alexander Nemerov, Vincent Scully Professor of the History of Art, Yale University. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Catherine Roach, assistant professor, department of art history, Virginia Commonwealth University. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Jean-Philippe Antoine, professor, department of visual arts, Université Paris 8. Scholars from around the world gathered at the National Gallery of Art to discuss Samuel F. B. Morse's newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, which is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012. In a 2-day public symposium, held and recorded on April 20 and 21, 2012, academics, conservators, and curators examined the historical context of the work, its conservation treatment, and the techniques used. This program was coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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Harry Cooper, curator and head of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art, and Matthew Gale, head of displays, Tate Modern. Celebrated as one of the greatest modern artists, Joan Miró (1893-1983) developed a visual language that reflected his vision and energy in a variety of styles across many media. On view at the National Gallery of Art from May 6 through August 12, 2012, the retrospective exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape reveals the artist's politically engaged side. Harry Cooper, the Gallery's consulting curator for The Ladder of Escape, presented an overview of the exhibition's 120 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints in his opening day lecture, which is recorded in this podcast. Following the lecture, Cooper sat down with Matthew Gale, one of the exhibition's two organizing curators from Tate Modern, and discussed the creation and production of this landmark retrospective. The exhibition was organized by Tate Modern, London, in collaboration with Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, and in association with the National Gallery of Art.
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Helen I. Jessup, guest curator of Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory. To celebrate the opening of Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory at the National Gallery of Art on June 29, 1997, exhibition curator Helen I. Jessup provided an overview of the first comprehensive exhibition of Cambodian sculpture to be shown in the United States. The exhibition- on view through September 28, 1997- presented 99 works spanning more than 1,000 years, from the 6th to the 16th century, many from the collections of the National Museum of Phnom Penh and the Musée Guimet in Paris. Included were statuary, monumental works in sandstone, and sculpted architectural elements. The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, the Royal Government of Cambodia, and the Réunion des musées nationaux/Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet, Paris.
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Yukio Lippit, professor of Japanese art, Harvard University. Exhibition curator Yukio Lippit discusses one of Japan's most renowned cultural treasures, the 30-scroll set of bird-and-flower paintings by Itō Jakuchū, in this lecture recorded on April 29, 2012. To mark the closing of the month-long exhibition Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū (1716-1800), Lippit provides an overview of the 30 scrolls and the Buddhist triptych that served as their centerpiece. In addition to celebrating the centennial of Japan's gift of cherry trees to the nation's capital, the exhibition represents the first time these works were shown together in the United States- being lent to the National Gallery of Art by the Imperial Household Agency and the Zen monastery Shōkokuji in Kyoto. Lippit also offers a multifaceted understanding of Jakuchū's virtuosity and experimentalism as a painter- one who not only applied sophisticated chromatic effects but also masterfully rendered the richly symbolic world in which he moved.
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Kimberly A. Jones, assistant curator of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. To celebrate the opening of Édouard Vuillard at the National Gallery of Art on January 19, 2003, coordinating curator Kimberly A. Jones introduced the career of Parisian artist Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940). The exhibition- on view through April 20, 2003- presented 233 objects, some of which had never before been on public display, and included paintings, folding screens, theater programs, prints, drawings, photographs, and ceramics. A series of decorative panels, The Public Gardens (1894), were shown together for the first time since 1906. The exhibition was co-organized by the National Gallery of Art with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Réunion des musées nationaux/Musée d'Orsay, Paris; and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
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Philip Conisbee, senior curator of European paintings, National Gallery of Art. The exhibition Cézanne in Provence- on view from January 29 to May 7, 2006, at the National Gallery of Art- marked the centenary of the artist's death and showcased more than 115 paintings, watercolors, and lithographs by Paul Cézanne of the landscape and people of Provence. In this podcast recorded on January 29, 2006, curator Philip Conisbee highlights the Provençal sites that Cézanne depicted, including the Cézanne family estate, the fishing village of L'Estaque, the countryside hamlets of Gardanne and Bellevue, the isolated landscape of Bibémus, the Château Noir near Aix-en-Provence, and Montagne Sainte-Victoire. He also discusses a group of late landscapes and the monumental painting Large Bathers, on loan from the National Gallery, London. The exhibition was co-organized by the National Gallery of Art; Musée Granet, Communauté du Pays d'Aix, Aix-en-Provence; and the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris.
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Barbara von Barghahn, professor of art history, The George Washington University
The Pastrana Tapestries are among the finest surviving Gothic tapestries in the world and are on view for the first time in the United States in the exhibition The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries at the National Gallery of Art from September 18, 2011, through January 8, 2012. From Jan van Eyck's commemoration in Ghent of the 1415 conquest of Ceuta to Passquier Grenier's documentation in Tournai of the 1471 taking of Tangiers, Portuguese and Spanish art specialist Barbara von Barghahn considers "portraits of power" in the context of chivalric ideals; the imaging of triumph in the clash of arms; the palatine display of tapestries as a visual chronicle of a contemporary epic; and the fame accrued from the North African campaigns that initiated an age of navigation and a transformation of the medieval world picture in this lecture recorded on December 18, 2011.
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Program: Music by Gershwin, Milhaud, Porter, Stravinsky, and other composers. To honor From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, violinist Bruno Nasta and pianist Danielle Hahn called upon clarinetist David Neithamer, bassist Jonathan Nazdin, and pianist Ronald Chiles to join them for performances of works that music historians now recognize as belonging to the "modern" period in music. The ensemble played a suite for violin, clarinet, and piano by Darius Milhaud; Stravinsky's famous Soldier's Tale; and a medley of songs by Gershwin and other Broadway composers, noting that Gershwin and Chester Dale knew each other personally.
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Eleonora Luciano, associate curator of sculpture; Dylan Smith, Robert H. Smith Research Conservator; Naomi Remes, exhibition officer; Donna Kirk, senior architect and designer; Brad Ireland, publishing designer, National Gallery of Art. Gallery staff reveal behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes, a special exhibition organized in association with the Frick Collection on view at the National Gallery of Art from November 6, 2011, through April 8, 2012. This exhibition is the first in the United States devoted to the Mantuan sculptor and goldsmith Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455-1528) for his expertise in classical antiquity. Antico also developed and refined the technology for producing bronzes in multiples. Antico's bronzes are so rare that the nearly 40 works--including medals, reliefs, busts, and the renowned statuettes--constitute more than three quarters of the sculptor's extant oeuvre. In this program recorded on November 20, 2011, Gallery staff explain the exhibition from the perspective of a conservator, curator, exhibition designer, exhibition officer, and publishing designer.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. In celebration of the exhibition opening, curator Sarah Greenough introduces Harry Callahan at 100 on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2, 2011, through March 4, 2012. As Greenough notes, this exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of Callahan's birth in 1912. The exhibition explores all facets of Callahan's rich contribution to 20th-century American art from his earliest work made in Detroit during World War II, to photographs made in Chicago in the late 1940s and 1950s, to works made in Providence in the 1960s and 1970s, to his final pieces made during travels around the world in the later 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
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Mel Bochner, artist, in conversation with James Meyer, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. Mel Bochner is one of the leading figures of conceptual and post-conceptual art. Between 1966 and 1968, he developed a series of portrait drawings based on the thesaurus. These works enlist a private language of synonyms and shapes to depict such contemporaries as Eva Hesse, Robert Smithson, and Sol LeWitt. In 2001, after a hiatus of more than three decades, Bochner again turned to the thesaurus to develop a series of paintings and drawings derived from everyday speech. Boldly colored and impressive in scale, these works are among the most ambitious of the artist's career. To mark the opening of the exhibition In the Tower: Mel Bochner, Bochner appears in conversation with exhibition curator James Meyer in this podcast recorded on November 9, 2011.
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James Meyer, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. In the Tower is a series of presentations of works by significant artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Held in the Tower Gallery of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, the series has included installations of works by Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, and most recently, Nam June Paik. The newest presentation, by Mel Bochner, is the first by a living artist. Focusing on his famous Thesaurus portraits of the 1960s and his recent Thesaurus paintings and drawings, the exhibit explores Bochner's reexamination of his early conceptual practice during the last decade. Exhibition curator James Meyer discusses the show within the context of the In the Tower series and the broader arc of Bochner's career in this podcast recorded on November 6, 2011.
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A two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and recipient of the National Book Award, David McCullough discusses his new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. In this podcast recorded on September 26, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, McCullough tells the story of America's longstanding love affair with Paris through vivid portraits of dozens of significant characters. Notably, artist Samuel F. B. Morse is depicted as he worked on his masterpiece The Gallery of the Louvre. McCullough spoke at the Gallery in honor of the exhibition A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre," on view from June 25, 2011, to July 8, 2012. The exhibition and program were coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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The Warhol: Headlines exhibition, on view at the National Gallery of Art from September 25, 2011, through January 2, 2012, defines and brings together works that Andy Warhol based largely on headlines from the tabloid news. Held in conjunction with the exhibition, this symposium features four lectures, each offering new perspectives from which to consider Warhol's multifaceted treatment of the media.
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Peter J. Brownlee, associate curator, Terra Foundation for American Art
Samuel F. B. Morse, best known for his role in the development of the electronic telegraph, began his career as a painter. One of his most important works, the newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre, is on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012, in the exhibition A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre." In honor of the exhibition, curator Peter J. Brownlee utilizes facets of the painting's recent conservation as a jumping off point for a discussion of Morse's artistic training, his technique and experimental use of materials, and the theoretical underpinnings of and pictorial sources for his monumental painting.
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Molly Donovan, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. In 1975 Andy Warhol wrote: "I'm confused about who the news belongs to. I always have it in my head that if your name's in the news, then the news should be paying you." True to form, this quote exemplified the many questions Warhol posed during his celebrated career. The exhibition Warhol: Headlines examines the media, methods, and messages of the news headlines. To mark the exhibition's opening day at the National Gallery of Art, curator Molly Donovan discusses some of Warhol's artistic practices in relation to the headline theme in this podcast recorded on September 25, 2011.
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Christine Mehring, associate professor of art history and director of graduate studies, University of Chicago, and Stephen Vitiello, associate professor of kinetic imaging, Virginia Commonwealth University. Following the lectures is a conversation with Ken Hakuta, executor of the Nam June Paik estate, and Jon Huffman, curator of the Nam June Paik estate. Moderated by Harry Cooper, curator and head of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. Recorded on September 23, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, as the exhibition In the Tower: Nam June Paik drew to a close, this symposium considers the work of this pioneer of new media from his earliest explorations of television to his later experiments with sound and video. This exhibition is the third installation for the In the Tower series, which presents work by significant artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The symposium was coordinated with and supported by the Embassy of Korea.
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Program: St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Stanford University Chamber Chorale and Chatham Baroque. Picking up on a theme of the National Gallery exhibition The Sacred Made Real, which featured sculptures depicting the crucifixion of Jesus and the sufferings of Mary and the saints, the conductor of the Stanford University Chamber Chorale, Stephen Sano, led his group in singing selections from J. S. Bach's Saint John Passion for a concert at the Gallery in March 2010, while the exhibition was on view. Visitors reported being similarly moved by both the music and the art, though the art reflected religious life in 16th-century Spain and the music reflected religious life in 18th-century Germany.
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Nancy Graves and Donald Saff, artists, in conversation with Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. Artists Nancy Graves and Donald Saff, artist and founding director of Graphicstudio, discuss the formation of the Graphicstudio archive at the National Gallery of Art with Ruth Fine in this podcast recorded on October 6, 1991. This program was held in honor of the exhibition Graphicstudio: Contemporary Art from the Collaborative Workshop at the University of South Florida, which was on view from September 15, 1991, to January 5, 1992, and for which Graves completed her most recent work, Canoptic Legerdemain. The archive consists of 140 paintings, photographs, sculptures, and works in other media created by 24 artists who worked in collaboration with Graphicstudio's printers and artisans.
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Michael Kahn, artistic director, Shakespeare Theatre Company, in conversation with Eric Denker, lecturer, National Gallery of Art, and Faya Causey, head of the department of academic programs, National Gallery of Art. Although he never traveled to Italy, William Shakespeare set many of his plays there. In this lecture Michael Kahn discusses many of Shakespeare's plays set in Italy, concentrating on The Merchant of Venice, which opened at the Harman Center for the Arts on June 21, 2011. This program, recorded on May 22, 2011, was organized in conjunction with the Gallery's exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals, on view from February 20, 2011, to May 30, 2011.
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Scott Burton and George Segal, artists, in conversation with Nan Rosenthal, curator of 20th-century art, National Gallery of Art. In honor of A Century of Modern Sculpture: The Patsy and Raymond Nasher Collection, an exhibition on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 28, 1987, to February 15, 1988, Scott Burton and George Segal discussed their work with Nan Rosenthal. The exhibition featured a selection of 70 works of 20th-century sculpture, collected for the Nashers' home in Dallas, Texas, and for installation at a Dallas shopping center and office complex. Held on December 6, 1987, this conversation was the one of the first programs at the Gallery to feature two living artists. Both artists focused on making sculpture for public spaces in the late 1980s—spaces whose users represent a heterogeneous group in respect to their knowledge of art and their taste.
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Richard Misrach, photographer
To coincide with the exhibition Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception, on view from February 20 to May 7, 2000, Richard Misrach discussed his photographs of desert cantos and other landscapes as following in Watkins' legacy. The lecture took place on March 26, 2000. Misrach distinguished himself in his 30-year career as one of the most accomplished photographers of our time. His passionate and intelligent records of the American West present the chilling details of assaults on the landscape by contemporary civilization, while also eloquently revealing its enduring beauty. Misrach explains that although he was not conscious of Watkins' photographs, which evidence the man-made in Pacific Northwest landscapes and were taken more than a hundred years ago, the profound influence of his work is unmistakable.
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Ed Ruscha, artist. Ed Ruscha discusses his artistic processes and influences, and their relationship to photography, drawing, and pop culture in this podcast recorded on February 13, 2005, at the National Gallery of Art. This lecture marked the opening of Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips®, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha, the first museum retrospective of the artist's drawings. The title of the exhibition refers to a quote from Ruscha about some of his drawing tools (cotton puffs and Q-tips®) and illusionary effects (smoke and mirrors). Featuring 89 works and 6 studio notebooks dated from 1959 to 2002, the retrospective traces Ruscha's career from early pop images of American commercial logos and gas stations to later images depicting words and phrases as subject matter.
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Pat Steir, artist, and Kathan Brown, founder and director of Crown Point Press, in conversation with Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. In this podcast recorded on March 25, 1990, at the National Gallery of Art, Pat Steir appears in conversation with Kathan Brown to celebrate the exhibition The 1980s: Prints from the Collection of Joshua P. Smith. Moderated by exhibition curator Ruth Fine, the conversation explores the role that printmaking and the artist's involvement with Crown Point Press have played in her career. Also examined is Steir's use of paintings and drawings to address many of the important visual and conceptual issues of her generation.
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Jim Dine, artist, in conversation with Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. Shortly after the opening of the exhibition Graphicstudio: Contemporary Art from the Collaborative Workshop at the University of South Florida, Jim Dine discussed his works in the Graphicstudio archive at the National Gallery of Art with Ruth Fine on September 29, 1991. On view from September 15, 1991, to January 5, 1992, the exhibition featured 140 works by 24 artists, including two sculptures given by Dine from his own collection to complete the archive formed in 1986. Instead of looking back on his well-documented career, the conversation also focused on his recent work in printmaking and on a drawings series completed in the dead of night at a European museum.
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Program: Music by Caldara, Gabrielli, Legrenzi, Vivaldi, and other Venetian composers. During the run of the exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals, the National Gallery presented four concerts of Italian music from the time of Canaletto (1697–1768), coinciding with the end of the baroque era in music. Venice was abounding with musical as well as artistic talent at this time, as attested by the large number of composers and the high quality of the music featured in these concerts.
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Roy Lichtenstein, artist, in conversation with Jack Cowart, curator of 20th-century art, National Gallery of Art; introduction by Ruth Fine, curator of the department of graphic arts, National Gallery of Art. American artist Roy Lichtenstein appears in conversation with curator Jack Cowart to celebrate the exhibition Gemini G.E.L.: Art and Collaboration, on view at the National Gallery of Art from November 18, 1984, to February 24, 1985. In this recording from January 27, 1985, Lichtenstein discusses some of his 134 prints in the Gemini G.E.L. collection. Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Edition Limited) is an artists' workshop and publisher of hand-printed limited-edition lithographs. Gemini G.E.L. played a pivotal role in the formation of the Gallery's contemporary collection when Sidney B. Felsen and Stanley Grinstein, owners of Gemini, donated 256 prints and sculpture editions by 22 contemporary American artists working at Gemini G.E.L. of Los Angeles. The archive collection now has more than 1,200 works, establishing the Gallery as a primary research center in the field of contemporary graphic art and edition sculpture.
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Britt Salvesen, curator and head, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department and prints and drawings department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In his Prototypes series of photographs, Lewis Baltz represented the built environment of the 1960s and 1970s. He critiqued modernist aspirations while examining commercial realities. In this lecture recorded on June 5, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, Britt Salvesen examines Baltz's work and several different visual sources available to him, from the Case Study houses as photographed by Julius Shulman to minimalist painting and sculpture, to Ed Ruscha and New Topographics. This lecture was presented in conjunction with the Gallery's exhibition Lewis Baltz: Prototypes/Ronde de Nuit, on view until July 31, 2011.
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Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, artists, in conversation with Germano Celant, senior curator of contemporary art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; introduction by Marla Prather, associate curator of 20th-century art, National Gallery of Art. Claes Oldenberg (born 1929) and Coosje van Bruggen (1942-2009) transform familiar objects through their sculptures and give them a new reality filled with mystery, humor, and sensuality. Gemano Celant, organizing curator of the travelling exhibition Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology, on view at the Gallery from February 12 to May 7, 1995, joins the artists in this lecture. In this recording from March 5, 1995, the trio discuss the art in the exhibition—the first survey of their art since 1969—and how it offers a sense of interaction unlike anything else in a museum.
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Christo and Jeanne-Claude, artists
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the Vogel Collection on February 3, 2002, at the National Gallery of Art, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude discussed their realized and non-realized projects. Featuring 72 works representing four decades of the artists' careers, the exhibition included preparatory drawings, collages, scale models for proposed large-scale works, and photographs of completed projects. In this podcast, the artists share their thoughts on The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City; Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin; and Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback, Rifle, Colorado.
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Richard Brettell, Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetics, Interdisciplinary Program in Arts and Humanities, University of Texas at Dallas. Professor Richard Brettell examines the self-exploration that is present in the many portraits artist Paul Gauguin painted of himself. Brettell offers a new and introspective insight into the artist's life, showing him not only as a painter, but also as a man. This podcast was recorded on June 4, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, during the last weekend of the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth.
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Jim Dine, artist, in conversation with Judith Brodie, curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. In the first of two appearances at the National Gallery of Art to celebrate the Drawings of Jim Dine exhibition, Jim Dine participated in the annual Elson Lecture Series with Judith Brodie on March 16, 2004. Dine begins by discussing his life as an artist, the formative events in his career, and the emotional and romantic qualities entailed in the act of drawing. A consummate draftsman, Dine explains that "drawing is not an exercise. Exercise is sitting on a stationary bicycle and going nowhere. Drawing is being on a bicycle and taking a journey. For me to succeed in drawing, I must go fast and arrive somewhere. The quest is to keep the thing alive..."
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Andy Goldsworthy, artist. Two weeks after finishing his site-specific installation, Roof, on the Ground Level of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, British artist Andy Goldsworthy returned to the Gallery to present the Elson Lecture on March 17, 2005. His lecture describes the working process involved for his concurrent exhibitions The Andy Goldsworthy Project and Andy Goldsworthy: Roof, which first showed the permanent sculpture of nine stacked slate domes, completed over the course of nine weeks in the winter of 2004-2005. Goldsworthy notes that the installation required him to stay in one place longer than he had in nearly 20 years. As an artist who uses natural materials to create both ephemeral work in landscapes and permanent sculptures, Goldsworthy explains his interest in change and the value of returning to the same place to get deeper and deeper into it.
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Christo and Jeanne-Claude, artists. Artists Christo (b. 1935) and Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009) redefined the artistic practice by taking their art out of a museum setting and into urban and natural environments. In this podcast recorded on March 13, 2002, the pair makes their second appearance at the Gallery while the exhibition Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the Vogel Collection was on view. By examining their past and future projects, Christo and Jeanne-Claude explain how the communal construction efforts and the temporary status of their installations have contributed to their impressive qualities.
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Wayne Thiebaud, artist. American artist and teacher Wayne Thiebaud discusses the important differences between "painting" and "art" in this podcast recorded on March 1, 2000, at the National Gallery of Art. This lecture was held in conjunction with the exhibition Twentieth-Century American Art: The Ebsworth Collection, on view at the Gallery from March 5 through June 11, 2000, which featured Thiebaud's Bakery Counter (1962). Emblematic of his signature commentary on mass culture, Bakery Counter compliments the Gallery's own Cakes (1963), purchased as a gift to commemorate the Gallery's 50th anniversary in 1991.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art; Pieter Roelofs, curator of 17th-century paintings, Rijksmuseum; and Adriaan E. Waiboer, curator of northern European art, National Gallery of Ireland. Curators Arthur Wheelock, Pieter Roelofs, and Adriaan E. Waiboer discuss the paintings of Dutch artist Gabriel Metsu. A contemporary of Johannes Vermeer, Metsu had the ability to capture ordinary moments in 17th-century Dutch life with sensitivity and realism. Recorded on April 22, 2011, this lecture was held in conjunction with the exhibition Gabriel Metsu, 1629-1667, on view at the National Gallery of Art from April 10 to July 24, 2011
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June Hargrove, professor of 19th-century European painting and sculpture, University of Maryland at College Park. Professor June Hargrove discusses artist Paul Gauguin's struggle in the final months of his life, after moving to the Marquesas Islands, to show the world his contributions to the creative process. Recorded on May 15, 2011, and held in conjunction with the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth, this lecture examines the paintings from 1902 and attests that, for all his talk of savagery and cannibalism, Gauguin created some of his most serene masterpieces during this time.
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Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Belinda Thomson, guest curator. Exhibition curators Mary Morton and Belinda Thomson mark the opening of the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth in this lecture recorded February 27, 2011. On view at the National Gallery of Art from February 27 to June 5, 2011, the exhibition features nearly 120 works by Gauguin. Organized by Tate Modern, London, in association with the Gallery, the exhibition is the first major look at the artist's oeuvre at the Gallery since the blockbuster retrospective The Art of Paul Gauguin in 1988.
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Program: Music by Arcadelt, Cara, Donato, Tromboncino, and others. The National Gallery of Art Chamber Players searched its repertoire for Italian 16th-century compositions that represent in music the mannerism that manifests itself in the art of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, which was showcased at the Gallery in the exhibition Arcimboldo, 1526–1593: Nature and Fantasy. The podcast includes music by Arcadelt, Cara, Donato, Tromboncino, and other composers. Their work, like that of Arcimboldo, is marked by ambiguity, virtuosity, and elegance.
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Jim Dine, artist, in conversation with Judith Brodie, curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. Marking the opening of the Drawings of Jim Dine exhibition on March 21, 2004, Dine discussed his career and work with exhibition curator Judith Brodie at the National Gallery of Art. The artist has embraced drawing since the 1970s and is considered one of America's greatest living draftsmen. His images of tools, self-portraits, and studies from nature and after antiquity are among the most accomplished and beautiful drawings of our time.
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Venice during the time of Canaletto was examined in this public symposium held in conjunction with the Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals exhibition, on view at the National Gallery of Art from February 20 through May 30, 2011. Recorded on April 2, 2011, this podcast includes lectures by exhibition curators David Alan Brown, Dawson Carr, and Charles Beddington. Scholars William Barcham, Emanuela Pagan, and Oliver Tostmann are also featured.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator, northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Pieter Roelofs, curator of 17th-century paintings, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. One of the leading painters of 17th-century Holland and a contemporary of Johannes Vermeer, Gabriel Metsu was a gifted visual storyteller who infused his narrative paintings with suspense, drama, and emotion. On the occasion of the first monographic exhibition of Metsu's work in the United States, Wheelock talks with Roelofs about the artist's ability to capture ordinary moments with spontaneity and unerring realism.
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Wayne Thiebaud, artist, in conversation with Kathan Brown, president, Crown Point Press, and Ruth Fine, curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. In this podcast recorded on June 8, 1997, to celebrate the opening of the Gallery's Thirty-Five Years at Crown Point Press exhibition, artist Wayne Thiebaud discusses his career with Kathan Brown, president of Crown Point Press, and curator Ruth Fine of the National Gallery of Art. The conversation focuses on Theibaud's prints, which feature themes that also appear in his paintings and drawings. These works depict a wide variety of sumptuous foodstuffs as well as the colorful California landscape.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Matthew S. Witkovsky, exhibition guest curator. Featured are some 50 Prototypes—on view together for the first time—and the mural-sized 12-panel color work Ronde de Nuit. Greenough and Witkovsky discuss the artist's interest in the postwar American landscape, as revealed in Prototypes, and his continuing preoccupation with industrially manufactured environments and how they are used to control contemporary society, as shown in Ronde de Nuit.
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Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, artists. Working in collaboration since 1976, husband and wife artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (1942-2009) redefined the nature of outdoor sculpture in public spaces. In this podcast recorded on October 12, 1995, at the National Gallery of Art, Oldenburg and Van Bruggen discuss the design and installation of their larger-than-life sculptures. These works have been installed all over the world and have become iconic images of large-scale public art. This program was presented in conjunction with the traveling exhibition Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology, which was on view at the Gallery from February 12 to May 7, 1995.
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Roy Lichtenstein, artist, in conversation with Robert Rosenblum, professor of art history, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and the Stephen and Nan Swid Curator of 20th-Century Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
American artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) appears in conversation with art historian and curator Robert Rosenblum in this podcast recorded on October 26, 1994, at the National Gallery of Art. Lichtenstein discusses his career and life as an artist, and the impact that his art has had on popular culture. Rosenblum notes that Lichtenstein turned the popular into the elite and that the popular, in turn, turned Lichtenstein into the popular. This program coincided with the traveling exhibition The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein, the first comprehensive survey of the artist's prints in more than two decades, which was on view at the Gallery from October 30, 1994, to January 8, 1995.
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Charles Beddington, guest curator. Canaletto expert Charles Beddington marks the opening day of the exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals in this lecture recorded February 20, 2011. On view at the National Gallery of Art from February 20 to May 30, 2011, the exhibition features 20 of Canaletto's finest paintings of Venice alongside 33 paintings by his most important contemporaries, including Michele Marieschi, Francesco Guardi, and Bernardo Bellotto. Beddington explains that the exhibition is unique for revealing the rivalry between the artists by these side-by-side comparisons.
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Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Recorded on November 13, 2005, as part of the Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art series, this talk by Professor Jonathan Alexander explores the manuscript choir books, known as corali, used by Christian churches on the Italian peninsula during the 15th and 16th centuries. This lecture coincided with the Masterpieces in Miniature: Italian Manuscript Illumination from the J. Paul Getty Museum exhibition on view at the National Gallery of Art from September 25, 2005, to March 26, 2006.
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Mary Morton, curator of French paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Belinda Thomson, exhibition guest curator. On the occasion of the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth, Morton and Thomson discuss Gauguin's talent for storytelling across media through his remarkable works of Brittany and the islands of the South Seas.
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Mark Leithauser, senior curator and head of design and installation, and Eric Denker, lecturer, National Gallery of Art. On the occasion of the exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals, the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, has loaned the National Gallery of Art one of the world's oldest gondolas, once owned by American artist Thomas Moran. Leithauser and Denker discuss the legacy of gondolas.
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Andy Goldsworthy, artist. Held in conjunction with the exhibitions The Andy Goldsworthy Project and Andy Goldsworthy: Roof, Andy Goldsworthy spoke about his career and current projects in this podcast recorded on January 23, 2005, at the National Gallery of Art. Goldsworthy has gained worldwide renown for works both ephemeral and permanent that draw out the endemic character of a place. The artist employs natural materials such as leaves, sand, ice, and stone that often originate from the site of the project. Roof, a site-specific sculpture, consists of nine hollow, low-profile domes of stacked slate, each with a centered oculus, that run the length of the ground-level garden area on the north side of the Gallery's East Building. Goldsworthy selected the dome form as a counterpoint to the many architectural domes in Washington, DC. The Andy Goldsworthy Project catalogue is available for purchase in the Gallery Shop.
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=Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Stephanie S. Dickey, Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art, Queen's University. Recorded on October 26, 2008, this podcast celebrates the major international loan exhibition Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered, which was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 26, 2008, to January 11, 2009. In the first of two lectures, Arthur Wheelock places Lievens in historical context—particularly in relationship to his friend and colleague from Leiden, Rembrandt van Rijn—and focuses on the evolution and character of Lievens' paintings. In the second lecture, Stephanie Dickey examines Lievens' remarkable achievements as a printmaker.
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Held in conjunction with the exhibition American Modernism: The Shein Collection, on view at the National Gallery of Art from May 16, 2010, to January 2, 2011, this public symposium provides an analysis of the paintings, sculptures, and drawings created by the first generation of American avant-garde artists. In this podcast recorded on November 6, 2010, noted scholars Michael C. FitzGerald, Didier Ottinger, Debra Bricker Balken, Carol Troyen, and Jay Bochner present illustrated lectures that chronicle the advent of the modernist movement.
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Noted scholars Stephen Brooke, Martin Gasser, Olivier Lugon, and Alan Trachtenberg present illustrated lectures in this podcast, recorded on January 24, 2009, at the National Gallery of Art. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans," on view at the Gallery from January 18 to April 26, 2009, this symposium considered other artists who created photographic books and played a role in the dissemination of photography in the 20th century.
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Program: Music by Laszlo Weiner and Ernst von Dohnányi. The National Gallery of Art Piano Trio joins forces with Hungarian violinist Vilmos Szabadi and violist Szilvia Kovács to perform music by Laszlo Weiner and Ernst von Dohnányi. The concert was a part of Extremely Hungary, a festival of art exhibitions, films, and concerts staged in New York City and Washington in 2009.
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David Brown, curator, Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, curator, Italian Renaissance painting, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Sixteen examples of the composite heads painted by the Italian Renaissance master Giuseppe Arcimboldo, bizarre but with scientifically accurate components, are on view together for the first time in the United States at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. On the occasion of the exhibition Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy, David Brown and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden unravel the mysteries behind his work.
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Elizabeth Prelinger, Keyser Family Professor of Art History, Georgetown University, and Andrew Robison, senior curator of prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. Elizabeth Prelinger and Andrew Robison, curators of the exhibition Edvard Munch: Master Prints, discuss how Munch ignored the artistic establishment to create his own vanguard of color printmaking. In this podcast recorded on September 26, 2010, at the National Gallery of Art, Prelinger and Robison consider the nearly 60 works in the exhibition and examine the evolution of printmaking throughout Munch's career, as he repeatedly revised his prints to reflect the broader and ever-changing world of art.
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John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Museum of Museum of Modern Art curator John Elderfield, the organizing curator of the Martin Puryear retrospective exhibition, discusses the work of his friend Martin Puryear in this podcast recorded on September 28, 2008, at the National Gallery of Art. Puryear's oeuvre draws on forms inspired by a wide range of interests—including ornithology, falconry, archery, and objects of shelter—and incorporates not only traditional sculpture techniques but also processes associated with furniture making, boat building, and basketry, such as joinery and weaving. The artist's materials include a variety of woods, tar, wire, mesh, rawhide, and found objects.
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Mark Leithauser, senior curator and head of design and installation, National Gallery of Art, and Philip Haas, artist and filmmaker. American artist and filmmaker Philip Haas (b. 1954) has created a colossal fiberglass sculpture inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo's painting Winter (1563), on display at the National Gallery of Art as part of the exhibition Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy. Leithauser discusses with the artist what prompted him to make this fascinating work of art.
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. In this podcast recorded on June 22, 2008, for the Martin Puryear retrospective exhibition opening at the National Gallery of Art, curator Ruth Fine discusses the work of District of Columbia native Martin Puryear. The retrospective included 46 sculptures made between 1975 and 2007. The first exhibition in the Gallery's history to be installed in both the East and West Buildings, it provided a unique opportunity to view Puryear's sculpture in modern and classical settings. Fine discusses the installation process for Puryear's work at the Gallery, designed in collaboration with the artist, as well as the intentions behind the placement of sculptures.
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Program: Music by Glass and Szymanski. The Del Sol String quartet plays music by Philip Glass and Pawel Szymanski in honor of the exhibition The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works. Two-time winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP First Prize for Adventurous Programming, the San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet has received enthusiastic response from critics and audiences for its lively interpretation of new music. Their concert at the National Gallery was presented in celebration of the Meyerhoff Collection and late twentieth-century American masters.
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Richard Misrach, photographer. American photographer Richard Misrach's monumental color photographs explore the sublime beauty and inherent danger of the sea and its surroundings. In this podcast recorded at the National Gallery of Art on June 8, 2008, Misrach discusses the camera techniques he employed and the personal inspirations he drew upon to create the 19 color photographs, made between 2002 and 2005, featured in the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, on view at the Gallery from May 25 to September 1, 2008.
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Bill Morgan, writer and archivist
Bill Morgan, the preeminent authority on the Beat Generation, discusses his work as the archivist and bibliographer for his personal friend, American poet Allen Ginsberg, on the occasion of the Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. In this podcast recorded on Sunday, July 11, 2010, Morgan explains that Ginsberg was either an archivist's dream come true or worst nightmare, since the poet saved everything from his childhood in New Jersey and took pictures of his friends, knowing that they were destined for fame. Through rarely seen archival material and photographs, Morgan chronicles Ginsberg's relationships, which began the Beat Generation.
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Andrew Robison, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art, and Elizabeth Prelinger, Keyser Family Professor of Art History at Georgetown University. Haunting images of love, attraction, alienation, death, and other universal human experiences permeate the work of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. On the occasion of the exhibition Edvard Munch: Master Prints, Gallery curator Andrew Robison and guest curator Elizabeth Prelinger discuss the artist's stylistic approach to each of these themes.
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Program: Music by Flagello and Ruggles. Pianist Peter Vinograde plays American music from the 1950s and 1960s in honor of the exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans."
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel
Dorothy and Herbert Vogel have amassed one of the greatest collections of minimal, conceptual, and post-minimal art in the world, acquiring works by some of the most important contemporary artists of our time. Curator Ruth Fine spoke with the Vogels two years after they announced The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States project, which distributed their vast collection across the country for all to enjoy. In this podcast, the Vogels relate stories from the recipient museums and their special exhibitions celebrating the gifts.
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Nancy Anderson, curator, American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Charles Brock, associate curator, American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art. Distinguished by a rigorous focus on leading artists from the first generation of American modernists, the Shein Collection is one of the nation's foremost private collections of works from this movement. Curators Nancy Anderson and Charlie Brock discuss the importance of these artists in the development of modernism in the United States and Europe during the 20th century, on the occasion of the exhibition American Modernism: The Shein Collection.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Bill Morgan, author and Ginsberg archivist. In the early 1980s American poet Allen Ginsberg rediscovered his early photographs and negatives taken throughout the Beat movement. With encouragement from photographers Berenice Abbott and Robert Frank, he reprinted many of these works and made new portraits of longtime friends and new acquaintances, such as Francesco Clemente and Bob Dylan, adding extensive inscriptions by hand. In the second of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, Greenough talks with Bill Morgan about cataloguing the poet's archives and his photographic contributions in the last 15 years of his life.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Bill Morgan, author and Ginsberg archivist. American poet Allen Ginsberg took occasional snapshots in the 1940s, but in 1953 he purchased a small, secondhand Kodak camera that he took with him everywhere. For the next decade, he made numerous portraits of himself and his friends, including the writers Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, while also formulating and refining his poetic voice. In the first of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, Greenough talks with Bill Morgan about the poet's role in documenting the Beat movement.
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Program: Music by de Wert, Hacquart, Sweelinck, and other 17th-century composers performed by the National Gallery of Art Vocal Arts Ensemble and Chamber Players. The National Gallery of Art Vocal Arts Ensemble and Chamber Players perform 17th-century Dutch music in honor of the exhibition Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator, northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Bianca du Mortier, curator of costume, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. In the second of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the first exhibition dedicated to Avercamp, Arthur Wheelock talks with curator Bianca du Mortier about Avercamp's 17th-century theatrical settings on ice, which not only depict a tremendous diversity of subjects but also record daily life during the Dutch Golden Age.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator, northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Pieter Roelofs, curator of 17th-century paintings, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The vibrant and colorful paintings of Hendrick Avercamp transport us back to a time when Dutch rivers and waterways regularly froze in the cold of winter. In the first of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the first exhibition dedicated to Avercamp, Arthur Wheelock talks with curator Pieter Roelofs about Avercamp's winter landscapes, which bring to life the lively pastimes and day-to-day bustle of the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic.
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Nicholas Penny, director, The National Gallery, London. On March 7, 2010, the National Gallery of Art welcomed back former senior curator of sculpture Nicholas Penny, now director of the National Gallery, London. In this podcast, Penny discusses the sculptural masterpieces in the exhibition The Sacred Made Real-in particular, Francisco Antonio Gijón's magnificent Saint John of the Cross, which the Gallery purchased during Penny's tenure in Washington.
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Xavier Bray, assistant curator, European paintings, National Gallery, London. The groundbreaking exhibition The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600-1700, a landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age, contains masterpieces created to shock the senses and stir the soul. In this podcast recorded at the National Gallery of Art on February 28, 2010, curator Xavier Bray discusses the conception and realization of The Sacred Made Real, which includes 11 paintings by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and others, displayed for the very first time alongside 11 of Spain's remarkable polychromed (painted) sculptures. Many of the sculptures have never before left Spain and are still passionately venerated across the Iberian Peninsula in monasteries, churches, and processions.
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Xavier Bray, assistant curator, European paintings, National Gallery, London, and David Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington. In the second of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition, David Brown talks with curator Xavier Bray about the painters of 17th-century Spain and their quest for realism.
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Xavier Bray, assistant curator, European paintings, National Gallery, London, and Mary Levkoff, curator of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington. In 17th-century Spain, a new kind of realism in art emerged. In order to revitalize the Catholic Church, painters and sculptors worked together in an attempt to make the sacred as realistic and accessible as possible. In the first of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Mary Levkoff talks with curator Xavier Bray about the history, uses, and techniques of polychromed sculpture.
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Program: Music by Stephen Hough. This piece of music, composed by Stephen Hough for the exhibition The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700, is based on the 1605 Requiem by the great Spanish composer Tomás Luís de Victoria. Stephen Hough recast and reworked this requiem, reimagining its six voices for a string sextet. He selected five sections to make five movements: the fourth movement (Versa est) is a simple transcription with nothing altered; the first movement (Tadeat animum) takes the four-part original and floats it around the six instruments in antiphonal waves; the second movement (Kyrie eleison) keeps all the notes the same but changes their register–removing the linear mosaic of the vocal lines and making them soar and plunge in jagged, overlapping intervals. The third (Graduale) movement is more radically altered. The final, longest movement (Libera me) reproduces the polyphonic sections fairly faithfully, but takes the original plainsong interludes as if themes for variations in various modern styles.
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Kimberly A. Jones, associate curator, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and chef Michel Richard of Citronelle and Central in Washington, DC. Inspired by the exhibition From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, renowned chef Michel Richard created a special menu of classic French dishes for the National Gallery's Garden Café. In this podcast, produced to celebrate the Garden Café Français, Richard talks to Jones about the paintings that inspired this menu and his lifelong love of art.
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Kimberly A. Jones, conservateur, département des peintures françaises, National Gallery of Art, Washington, et Chef Michel Richard de Citronelle et Central, à Washington, DC. Inspiré par l'exposition « De l'impressionnisme à Modernisme : La Collection Chester Dale », le chef célèbre Michel Richard a créé un menu spéciale des plats classiques de la cuisine française pour le Garden Café de la National Gallery. Dans ce podcast, produit pour célèbrer le Garden Café Français, Richard parle à Jones au sujet des peintures qui ont inspirées ce menu et son amour endurant de l'art.
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Program: Music from the 19th century that explores "The Darker Side of Light." The National Gallery of Art Wind Quintet performs a concert in honor of The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850–1900. The ensemble consists of flutist Sara Nichols, oboist Ronald Sipes, clarinetist Christopher Hite, bassoonist Danny Phipps, and French horn player Theodore Peters.
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Maygene Daniels, chief of Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art, and Franklin Kelly, deputy director, National Gallery of Art. The 1962 bequest of Wall Street investor Chester Dale made the National Gallery of Art one of the leading repositories in North America of French art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition features some 80 of the finest European and American paintings that Dale and his wife Maud, an artist and critic, avidly assembled from the 1920s through the 1950s. In the second of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Franklin Kelly talks with archivist Maygene Daniels about the personalities behind this important collection.
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Wall Street investor Chester Dale's 1962 bequest made the National Gallery of Art one of the leading repositories in North America of French art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition features 81 of the finest European and American paintings that Dale and his wife Maud, an artist and critic, avidly assembled from the 1920s through the 1950s. In the first of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Franklin Kelly talks to curator Kimberly Jones about how these masterpieces come together as an extraordinary collection.
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Using a handheld 35 mm camera and available light, American photographer Robert Bergman spent nearly a decade making a series of large color portraits that address not only his subjects' physical presence but also their psychic states. On the occasion of the November 1 opening of Bergman's first solo exhibition, Toni Morrison read her essay "The Fisherwoman," which was originally written for Bergman's book A Kind of Rapture.
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Sarah Kennel, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The extraordinary range and complexity of the photographic process-from the origins of the medium in the 1840s to the advent of digital photography at the end of the 20th century-are explored in a comprehensive exhibition and accompanying guidebook. On the occasion of In the Darkroom: Photographic Processes before the Digital Age, Kennel talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the major technological developments in the 170-year history of photography.
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The prints of Jasper Johns are heralded for their beauty as well as their conceptual and psychological complexity. A group of the artist's working proofs-prints pulled during the working process on which Johns made drawn and painted additions, recently acquired from the artist by the National Gallery of Art-are showcased here as independent works of art for the first time. On the occasion of the exhibition, curator Fine talks to host Barbara Tempchin about this extraordinary body of work.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and photographer Robert Bergman. Using a handheld 35mm camera and available light, American photographer Robert Bergman spent nearly a decade making a series of large color portraits that address not only his subjects' physical presence but also their psychic state. On the occasion of Bergman's first solo exhibition, Greenough talks to the artist about his exceptional ability to reveal the common humanity of each of his subjects.
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Peter Parshall, curator, old master prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington. In the private worlds of late nineteenth-century Paris, London, and Berlin, prints depicting mysterious and beautiful subjects were created for those collectors who kept their treasures compiled in albums, locked in cabinets, or displayed in quiet rooms. In this podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900, Parshall talks to host Barbara Tempchin about these highly engaging, beguiling works.
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Margaret Morgan Grasselli, curator, old master drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The National Gallery of Art's collection of French old master drawings is remarkable for its breadth, depth, and individual masterpieces. In the third Behind the Scenes podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800, Grasselli talks to host Barbara Tempchin about how this collection has grown since 1942.
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Margaret Morgan Grasselli, curator, old master drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The National Gallery of Art's collection of French old master drawings is remarkable for its breadth, depth, and individual masterpieces. In the second Behind the Scenes podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800, Grasselli talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the Gallery's exceptionally rich collection of 18th-century drawings by the major artists-Boucher, Fragonard, Greuze, and Watteau, among many others-each represented by several works of outstanding quality.
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Program: Music from the 16th and 17th centuries that explores the theme of travel. National Gallery of Art Chamber Players perform a concert in honor of Fabulous Journeys and Faraway Places: Travels on Paper, 1450–1700. On this occasion, the ensemble includes tenor Wolodymyr Smishkewych, recorder virtuoso Kathryn Montoya, harpist Keith Collins, dulcian player Anna Marsh, viola da gambist Loren Ludwig, and harpsichordist Stephen Ackert.
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Margaret Morgan Grasselli, curator, old master drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The National Gallery of Art's collection of French old master drawings is remarkable for its breadth, depth, and individual masterpieces. In the first podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800, Grasselli talks to host Barbara Tempchin about delicate, rare works from the 16th century and extraordinary images of French classicism from the 17th century.
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Alvaro Soler del Campo, Director de la Real Armería en Madrid y Conservador jefe, Patrimonio Nacional y el Chef José Andrés, propietario del Jaleo y THINKfoodGROUP. Inspirado por dos exposiciones en la Galería, Luis Meléndez: Maestro de los Bodegones y el Arte del Poder, Armadura Real y Retratos de la España Imperial, el galardonado chef José Andrés, creó un menu muy especial de platos españoles para el Garden Café España. En este podcast producido para inaugurar el Garden Café España, Alvaro Soler y el Chef Andrés discuten los pasados cinco siglos de tradiciones culinarias españolas que van desde el libro único de recetas del cocinero del rey Felipe II, a la variedad de deliciosos manjares en las pinturas de Luis Meléndez, que todavía gozamos hoy en dia.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator, northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Kenneth Slowik, artistic director, Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, and curator of musical instruments, Smithsonian Institution. Dutch artist Judith Leyster's 400th birthday is celebrated at the Gallery with an exhibition of 10 of her most engaging paintings, joined by some 20 paintings, works on paper, and musical instruments of the period. In the fourth podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Wheelock talks to Ken Slowik about Leyster's love of music, the instruments she depicted, and various musical compositions of the age.
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Alvaro Soler del Campo, director, Royal Armory Madrid, and chief curator, Patrimonio Nacional; José Andrés, chef and owner, Jaleo and THINKfoodGROUP. Inspired by two Gallery exhibitions-Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life and The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain-renowned chef José Andrés created a special menu of signature Spanish dishes for the National Gallery's Garden Café. In this podcast, produced to celebrate the Garden Café España, Soler and Andrés discuss the past five centuries of Spanish culinary traditions, ranging from a rare book of recipes by the cook to King Philip II, still enjoyed today, to luscious food items in the paintings of Meléndez.
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Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Cool marble comes to life in the mesmerizing portraits of lovers, saints, and heroes by Venetian Renaissance sculptor Tullio Lombardo. In this podcast produced on the occasion of the first exhibition on the artist, Luchs talks to host Barbara Tempchin about Tullio's romantic approach to portraiture.
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David Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Alvaro Soler del Campo, director of the Royal Armory Madrid and chief curator at the Patrimonio Nacional. Rare suits of armor worn by Spanish kings and stunning portraits by masters such as Rubens and Velàsquez are considered on equal terms for the first time at the National Gallery of Art. In this podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Brown talks to Alvaro Soler about how armor, tapestries, and portraits were used to cultivate the image of royal power in late 15th- to 18th-century Spain.
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Gretchen Hirschauer, associate curator, Italian and Spanish paintings, and Catherine Metzger, senior conservator of paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Delights of the Spanish table are exquisitely depicted by Luis Meléndez-the greatest still-life painter of 18th-century Spain. In podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Hirschauer talks to paintings conservator Catherine Metzger about their recent technical examination of Meléndez's paintings, including some new discoveries.
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Gretchen Hirschauer, associate curator, Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Delights of the Spanish table are exquisitely depicted by Luis Meléndez-the greatest still-life painter of 18th-century Spain. In this podcast produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Hirschauer talks to host Barbara Tempchin about Meléndez's skill for rendering everyday objects with convincing detail, marvelous effects of color and light, and subtle variations in texture.
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David Alan Brown, curator, Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. In April 2009, a violent earthquake shook the region of Abruzzo in Italy. The United States was among the first to offer assistance to the region. In gratitude, the Italian government has loaned the Beffi Triptych, a stunning early 15th-century altarpiece, to the National Gallery of Art. This podcast is produced on the occasion of the special installation in the Gallery's Italianate Rotunda. David Brown talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the triptych as one of the most important works from the National Museum of Abruzzo in the city of L'Aquila and about its survival.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Frima Fox Hofrichter, professor of the history of art and design, Pratt Institute, New York. Dutch artist Judith Leyster's 400th birthday is celebrated at the Gallery with an exhibition of 10 of her most engaging paintings, joined by some 20 works by 17th-century contemporaries, as well as musical instruments of the period depicted in the art. In the last of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Wheelock talks to Leyster scholar Frima Fox Hofrichter about the important recurring theme of music in Leyster's work.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Frima Fox Hofrichter, professor of the history of art and design, Pratt Institute, New York. Dutch artist Judith Leyster's 400th birthday is celebrated at the Gallery with an exhibition of 10 of her most engaging paintings, joined by some 20 works by 17th-century contemporaries, as well as musical instruments of the period depicted in the art. In the second of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Wheelock talks to Leyster scholar Frima Fox Hofrichter about Leyster's innovative painting technique and highly engaging compositions.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Frima Fox Hofrichter, professor of the history of art and design, Pratt Institute, New York. Dutch artist Judith Leyster's 400th birthday is celebrated at the Gallery with an exhibition of 10 of her most engaging paintings, joined by some 20 works by 17th-century contemporaries, as well as musical instruments of the period depicted in the art. In the first of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition, Gallery curator Arthur Wheelock talks to Leyster scholar Frima Fox Hofrichter about the range of Leyster's work, beginning with her renowned Self-Portrait, c. 1632-1633, from the Gallery's permanent collection.
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Judith Brodie, curator and head of the department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. English artist Stanley William Hayter has been widely celebrated for his influence on creative printmaking in America and Europe. In this podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Stanley William Hayter: From Surrealism to Abstraction, Judith Brodie talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the range of Hayter's work in the exhibition, including his surrealist engravings, linear abstractions inspired by motion and mathematics, and fully worked copperplates and plaster casts.
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Matthew Witkovsky, chair and curator, department of photography, the Art Institute of Chicago. Jaromír Funke, a leading figure in Czech and Slovak photography between the world wars, blazed a path with his compatriots-a group of committed amateurs-toward photography as a modern form of art. In this podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Jaromír Funke and the Amateur Avant-Garde, Witkovsky talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the Czech photographer's influential role in this movement.
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Photographer Robert Frank and Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, is the most comprehensive and in-depth exploration of the single most important book of photographs published since World War II. In this podcast of the annual Elson Lecture, recorded on March 26, 2009, Greenough speaks with the renowned photographer about his career before, during, and after The Americans.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. The Dutch took enormous pride in their cities, which experienced unprecedented prosperity during the 17th century. A new genre of painting-the cityscape-emerged as images of towns and cities were captured in paintings, maps, atlases, illustrated books, and prints. In the third of this three-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age, Wheelock discusses daily life as depicted in cityscapes, from inside the domestic courtyard and bustling city-centers to urban life seen from beyond.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. The Dutch took enormous pride in their cities, which experienced unprecedented prosperity during the 17th century. A new genre of painting-the cityscape-emerged as images of towns and cities were captured in paintings, maps, atlases, illustrated books, and prints. In the second of this three-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age, Wheelock talks about the cities of the seventeen Dutch provinces and the artists who depicted them.
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Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art
The Dutch took enormous pride in their cities, which experienced unprecedented prosperity during the 17th century. A new genre of painting-the cityscape-emerged as images of towns and cities were captured in paintings, maps, atlases, illustrated books, and prints. In the first of this three-part Art Talk podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age, Wheelock discusses how Dutch politics and cartography influenced the cityscape.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, is the most comprehensive and in-depth exploration ever undertaken of the preeminent book of photographs published since World War II. In this Notable Lectures podcast, recorded on January 18, 2009, the opening day of the exhibition, Greenough discusses Frank's process in creating this powerful and provocative book as well as the publication's legacy 50 years later.
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Harry Cooper, curator, modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art
For more than five decades Guston explored ways to paint, from the mural art of the Depression through midcentury abstract expressionism to a raw new imagery beginning in 1968. His shocking return to figuration in that year, influenced by comics and politics, paved the way for numerous developments in contemporary art. In this Backstory podcast, produced as the Gallery opens the first in a new series of special focus exhibitions, "In the Tower," Cooper talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the paintings, prints, and drawings on view, which chart Guston's career from 1949 to 1980.
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Margaret Leslie Davis, author. In her book Mona Lisa in Camelot: How Jacqueline Kennedy and da Vinci's Masterpiece Charmed and Captivated a Nation, Davis weaves together the enchanting saga of America's first museum blockbuster show and how the first lady made it happen. In this Notable Lectures podcast, recorded on January 4, 2009, as part of the Gallery's winter lecture series, Davis discusses the details of the Mona Lisa's visit to the National Gallery of Art and the "Lisa Fever" that ensued.
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Paul Zanker, professor of art history, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. In this podcast, recorded on November 9, 2008, as part of the Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art series, Paul Zanker explains that for ancient Greeks, myths were stories of gods, heroes, and ordinary people who had religious authority. These stories and their artistic representations served as guides and models for living in varying circumstances. However, myths did not embody religious teaching or moral precepts for human behavior; these stories described fate-the highs and lows of being human-to which everyone could relate, and in which they could take comfort. Despite the cultural shifts of the Roman world, these ancient myths retained their purpose and impact in the art of Pompeii and other sites in Italy. This lecture coincided with the exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 19, 2008, to March 22, 2009.
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Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art. Jan Lievens was a child prodigy, whose later career was marked by important civic and private commissions. Nevertheless, his name today barely registers in the public consciousness. In the third of this three-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered, Wheelock talks about Lievens' success and legacy.
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Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art. Jan Lievens was a child prodigy, whose later career was marked by important civic and private commissions. Nevertheless, his name today barely registers in the public consciousness. In the second of this three-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered, Wheelock talks about changes in Lievens' style and the influence of Anthony Van Dyck.
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Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art. Jan Lievens was a child prodigy, whose later career was marked by important civic and private commissions. Nevertheless, his name today barely registers in the public consciousness. In the first of this three-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered, Wheelock talks about Lievens' early career and his relationship with Rembrandt.
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Carol Mattusch, guest curator and professor, George Mason University. In the second century BC, Roman aristocrats began to build lavish seaside villas on the picturesque Bay of Naples-in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius. In the fifth of this five-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples, Mattusch talks to Tempchin about the impact the excavations of these ancient sites have had on the modern world.
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Carol Mattusch, guest curator and professor, George Mason University. In the second century BC, Roman aristocrats began to build lavish seaside villas on the picturesque Bay of Naples-in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius. In the fourth of this five-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples, Mattusch talks to Tempchin about the Greek legacy in Roman culture.
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Carol Mattusch, guest curator and professor, George Mason University. In the second century BC, Roman aristocrats began to build lavish seaside villas on the picturesque Bay of Naples-in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius. In the third of this five-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples, Mattusch talks to Tempchin about the role of the dining room in a Roman villa.
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Carol Mattusch, guest curator and professor, George Mason University. In the second century BC, Roman aristocrats began to build lavish seaside villas on the picturesque Bay of Naples-in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius. In the second of this five-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples, Mattusch talks to Tempchin about the sculptures and designs of the villas' gardens.
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Carol Mattusch, guest curator and professor, George Mason University. In the second century BC, Roman aristocrats began to build lavish seaside villas on the picturesque Bay of Naples-in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius. In the first of this five-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples, Mattusch talks to Tempchin about the vacationing Roman elite who inhabited this region.
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Nancy Anderson, curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art. George de Forest Brush (1854/1855-1941) combined extraordinary technical skills acquired during several years of studio training in Paris with firsthand experience living among the Arapahoe, Shoshone, and Crow Indians in Wyoming and Montana. In the second of this two-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings, Anderson talks to Tempchin about the social and historical contexts of Brush's Indian paintings.
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Nancy Anderson, curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art. George de Forest Brush (1854/1855-1941) combined extraordinary technical skills acquired during several years of studio training in Paris with firsthand experience living among the Arapahoe, Shoshone, and Crow Indians in Wyoming and Montana. In the first of this two-part Backstory podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings, Anderson talks to Tempchin about Brush's life and his legacy.
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and John Elderfield, exhibition curator and chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art. Internationally acclaimed artist and native Washingtonian Martin Puryear creates monumental sculptures that recall architecture, craft traditions, and organic forms. In the second of this two-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Martin Puryear, the two curators converse about Elderfield's own interpretation of the artist's sculptures.
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and John Elderfield, exhibition curator and chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art. Internationally acclaimed artist and native Washingtonian Martin Puryear creates monumental sculptures that recall architecture, craft traditions, and organic forms. In the first of this two-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Martin Puryear, Elderfield talks to Fine about working with the artist to develop this landmark show.
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Photographer Richard Misrach and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Employing an aerial perspective, Richard Misrach instilled his monumental beach series with a sense of disquiet: with references to the horizon and sky eliminated, figures appear isolated and vulnerable.
In the third of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, Misrach and Greenough delve into the impact of new photographic technology on his art and the inspiration for his series.
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Photographer Richard Misrach and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Employing an aerial perspective, Richard Misrach instilled his monumental beach series with a sense of disquiet: with references to the horizon and sky eliminated, figures appear isolated and vulnerable. In the second of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, Misrach discusses the process by which he reached his current photographic style.
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Photographer Richard Misrach and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Employing an aerial perspective, Richard Misrach instilled his monumental beach series with a sense of disquiet: with references to the horizon and sky eliminated, figures appear isolated and vulnerable. In the first of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, he talks to Sarah Greenough about the influences and origins of his photographic career.
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Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic Archaeology Fellow and exhibition curator. In the last of this four-part podcast Fredrik Hiebert, exhibition curator and National Geographic Archaeology Fellow, talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the luxurious gold ornaments and jewelry found at Tillya Tepe on the eve of the Soviet invasion. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul.
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Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic Archaeology Fellow and exhibition curator. In the third of this four-part podcast Fredrik Hiebert, exhibition curator and National Geographic Archaeology Fellow, talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the incredible discovery from Begram, a Silk Road merchant's warehouse with the contents found completely intact. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul.
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Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic Archaeology Fellow and exhibition curator. In the second of this four-part podcast Fredrik Hiebert, exhibition curator and National Geographic Archaeology Fellow, talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the Aï Khanum archaeological site and the impact of Alexander the Great on the region. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul.
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Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic Archaeology Fellow and exhibition curator. Afghanistan was in ancient times the heart of the Silk Road, linking cultures from Asia to the Mediterranean. Many thought the country's extraordinary archaeological treasures had been stolen or destroyed during recent decades of conflict in the region, but in 2003 they were recovered intact. Some 230 of these artifacts are now on view in the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. In the first of this four-part podcast Fredrik Hiebert, exhibition curator and National Geographic Archaeology Fellow, talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the heroism displayed by the Afghan people who kept these treasures hidden for decades. They also discuss one of the oldest archaeological sites, Tepe Fullol.
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. Dorothy and Herbert Vogel have amassed one of the greatest collections of minimal, conceptual, and post-minimal art in the world, acquiring works by some of the most important contemporary artists of our time, including Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Sol LeWitt, Richard Tuttle, and Pat Steir. Curator of special projects in modern art, Ruth Fine, spoke with the Vogels shortly after they announced The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States project, which will distribute their vast collection across the country for all to enjoy. In the final part of this three-part podcast, the Vogels discuss the impact they hope their project will have on the arts nationwide.
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. Dorothy and Herbert Vogel have amassed one of the greatest collections of minimal, conceptual, and post-minimal art in the world, acquiring works by some of the most important contemporary artists of our time, including Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Sol LeWitt, Richard Tuttle, and Pat Steir. Curator of special projects in modern art, Ruth Fine, spoke with the Vogels shortly after they announced The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States Project, which will distribute their vast collection across the country for all to enjoy. In the second part of this three-part podcast, the Vogels discuss their choice of the National Gallery of Art for their collection.
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Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. Dorothy and Herbert Vogel have amassed one of the greatest collections of minimal, conceptual, and post-minimal art in the world, acquiring works by some of the most important contemporary artists of our time, including Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Sol LeWitt, Richard Tuttle, and Pat Steir. Curator of special projects in modern art, Ruth Fine, spoke with the Vogels shortly after they announced The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States Project, which will distribute their vast collection across the country for all to enjoy. In part one of this three-part podcast, the Vogels discuss how they met, and how they started collecting art.
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Neal Turtell, executive librarian, National Gallery of Art. Artists in the 19th and early 20th century had access to more up-to-date information about art technique and technology than any generation before. Tools of the Trade-in the National Gallery of Art library-offers a fascinating look back in time. The display complements In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet, a showcase of 19th-century landscapes created in the famous forest south of Paris. Executive librarian Neal Turtell talks with NGA Backstory host, Barbara Tempchin, about Tools of the Trade. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Roger Taylor, professor of photographic history at De Montfort University, Leicester. Two methods of fixing an image dominated the early days of photography: the one-of-a-kind daguerreotype and the replicable calotype, which was made using paper negatives. In the second of this two-part episode, Gallery curator Sarah Greenough and Professor Roger Taylor of De Montfort University discuss some of the best calotypists, the subjects that fascinated them, and the slow death of the medium as it was supplanted by more popular photographic processes. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Roger Taylor, professor of photographic history at De Montfort University, Leicester. Two methods of fixing an image dominated the early days of photography: the one-of-a-kind daguerreotype and the replicable calotype, which was made using paper negatives. In the first of this two-part episode, Gallery curator Sarah Greenough, and Professor Roger Taylor of DeMontfort University discuss the emergence of the calotype and how it competed with the emergence of glass negatives. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860.
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Kimberly Jones, associate curator of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. At one time it was a royal hunting ground for kings and emperors, but in the 19th century, the Forest of Fontainebleau became a magnet for artists and tourists. It was the birthplace of impressionism, and its rugged features and old-growth forests provided artists with endless visually compelling scenes to paint and photograph. In this Backstory episode, curator Kimberly Jones and host Barbara Tempchin discuss the Forest of Fontainebleau and the important place it holds in the history of open-air painting. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet.
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Charles Ritchie, associate curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, and Mary Lynn Kotz, Rauschenberg biographer. Robert Rauschenberg has consistently created vital art for more than 50 years. Now working from a wheelchair after a series of strokes, Rauschenberg continues to produce new art. In the last episode of this four-part series, Gallery curator Charles Ritchie and Rauschenberg biographer Mary Lynn Kotz discuss his current work-the Lotus series-and reveal how his ROCI series got its name. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg from the National Gallery of Art and Related Collections.
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Charles Ritchie, associate curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, and Mary Lynn Kotz, Rauschenberg biographer. Robert Rauschenberg has consistently created vital art for more than 50 years and family relationships have been influential. In the third episode of this four-part series, Gallery curator Charles Ritchie and Rauschenberg biographer Mary Lynn Kotz discuss the role that the artist's parents played in his becoming an artist, and how his strained relationship with his father affected his art. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg from the National Gallery of Art and Related Collections.
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Charles Ritchie, associate curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, and Mary Lynn Kotz, Rauschenberg biographer. Robert Rauschenberg has consistently created vital art for more than 50 years. Everything from newspaper clippings to family images is crucial to his work. In the second episode of this four-part series, Gallery curator Charles Ritchie and Rauschenberg biographer May Lynn Kotz discuss how Rauschenberg's art has always incorporated both personal and global references. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg from the National Gallery of Art and Related Collections.
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Charles Ritchie, associate curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, and Mary Lynn Kotz, Rauschenberg biographer. Robert Rauschenberg has consistently created vital art for more than 50 years. In the first episode of this four-part series, Gallery curator Charles Ritchie and Rauschenberg biographer Mary Lynn Kotz discuss why the artist chose printmaking as a favorite medium and why collaboration has been central to his creative process. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg from the National Gallery of Art and Related Collections.
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Nicholas Penny, senior curator of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art, and Dylan Smith, Robert H. Smith Research Conservator, National Gallery of Art. Robert H. Smith has amassed one of the most important private collections of Renaissance sculptures in the world. The Smith collection includes bronzes by masters such as Antico, Giovanni Bologna, and Antonio Susini, as well as eye-catching works in ivory and boxwood. Nicholas Penny-in his last podcast as National Gallery of Art curator of sculpture and decorative arts before he assumes directorship of the National Gallery, London-talks to Robert H. Smith Research Conservator Dylan Smith about these beautiful works of art, their composition, and how they were made.
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Neal Turtell, executive librarian, National Gallery of Art. Most people think that rare books are stashed away in the corners of museums, untouched and collecting dust. At the National Gallery of Art, not only are they given a special climate-controlled environment, but they're often on public display. In this podcast, executive librarian Neal Turtell talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the Gallery's rare books collection, in particular about those featured in the exhibition British Picturesque Landscapes, on view in the Gallery's West Building through February 24, 2008.
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Charles Ritchie, associate curator of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, Host: Barbara Tempchin. Robert Rauschenberg has been at the forefront of American art for more than 50 years. His bold, innovative experiments in printmaking are the focus of an exhibition called Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg from the National Gallery of Art and Related Collections. In this Backstory, host Barbara Tempchin and Charles Ritchie, exhibition curator, discuss the impact Rauschenberg's prints have had on artists worldwide. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg from the National Gallery of Art and Related Collections.
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Ian Warrell, curator of 18th- and 19th-century British art, Tate Britain, London, and Franklin Kelly, senior curator, National Gallery of Art. In this two-part podcast, Franklin Kelly, National Gallery of Art senior curator, and Tate Museum curator Ian Warrell discuss the life and work of J. M. W. Turner. Here, focusing on Turner's inventiveness, they talk about how the artist positioned himself within the history of art, the range of his subjects, and his open-ended process of discovery. In part 1, they discuss Turner's process.
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Ian Warrell, curator of 18th- and 19th-century British art, Tate Britain, London, and Franklin Kelly, senior curator, National Gallery of Art. In this two-part podcast, Franklin Kelly, National Gallery of Art senior curator, and Tate Museum curator Ian Warrell discuss the life and work of J.M.W. Turner. Here, focusing on Turner's process, they talk about the artist's use of sketchbooks and observation, his dramatic series of works depicting the burning of the Houses of Parliament, and his modernist aesthetic. In part 2, they discuss Turner's inventiveness.
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Franklin Kelly, senior curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, Host: Barbara Tempchin. J. M. W. Turner's innovative paintings and watercolors have fascinated collectors and artists for almost two centuries. In the United States, the British master's works were received with a sense of amazement, and eventually, with widespread admiration. Curator Franklin Kelly chats with host Barbara Tempchin about the impact that Turner had on American art.
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Robert E. Jackson, collector, and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Robert E. Jackson has been collecting other people's snapshots for more than a decade. Some of the best works in his collection are on display in The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978. In this podcast Jackson and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, talk about why he collects snapshots and what makes an image capture his attention.
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Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Since the first Kodak camera was sold in 1888, American amateur photographers have taken billions of snapshots. In this Backstory episode, curator Sarah Greenough and host Barbara Tempchin discuss how anonymous photographers experimented with the medium, creating artfully crafted images. They also talk about the exhibition The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978: From the Collection of Robert E. Jackson.
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Carol Troyen, curator emerita at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Edward Hopper's depictions of 20th-century America continue to engage and fascinate the public. Shortly after the opening of the Edward Hopper exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Deputy Director Alan Shestack spoke with Carol Troyen, curator emerita at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, about Hopper's captivating paintings and etchings. They also discuss the theme of solitude prevalent in his works.
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Sarah Greenough, curator and head of the department of photographs. National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art has presented memorable exhibitions of photographs through the years, ranging from monographic shows on the work of such well-known photographers as Ansel Adams and Robert Frank to historically based exhibitions such as Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945. The Gallery's deputy director Alan Shestack speaks with curator Sarah Greenough about the history of the photography collection and the gallery space devoted to the medium.
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Michael Kahn, artistic director, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Franklin Kelly, senior curator, National Gallery of Art. Although separated in life by 150 years, the playwright William Shakespeare and artist Joseph William Mallord Turner share more than just a name, and possibly a birthday (April 23). Michael Kahn, artistic director of the world-renowned Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, and Gallery senior curator Franklin Kelly take time out from their busy schedules to discuss how the Bard influenced the one of Britain's most celebrated artists.
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Carroll Moore, film and video producer, National Gallery of Art. The iconic paintings and artistic impact of Edward Hopper are the subject of a new documentary film that accompanies the exhibition Edward Hopper on its Boston-Washington-Chicago tour. Award-winning producer Carroll Moore speaks with Tempchin about the making of this illuminating film.
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Leon Major, professor of music, University of Maryland. The world of music merges with the visual arts in Later the Same Evening: an opera inspired by five paintings of Edward Hopper. The performance is a joint project of the National Gallery of Art, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and the University of Maryland School of Music. Music professor Leon Major, talks about the opera and artist Edward Hopper with Tempchin.
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Nicholas Penny, senior curator of sculpture and decorative arts. The work of fifteenth-century sculptor Desiderio da Settignano inspired contemporaries to declare that he "brought cold marble to life." On the occasion of the exhibition Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence, Alan Shestack, deputy director of the National Gallery of Art, talks with senior curator Nicholas Penny about Desiderio-the sculptor and the exhibition.
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Margaret Parsons, head of the film programs and Sonja Simonyi, curator of the Modernity and Tradition film series. In Europe during the period between the two world wars, artistic motion pictures were as popular a medium of expression as photography. The National Gallery of Art film series Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe, which accompanies the Gallery's exhibition on tour, Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945, includes more than thirty documentaries, features, and experimental films.
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Matthew S. Witkovsky, assistant curator of photographs. Against a background of tremendous social and political upheaval, photography scaled new heights in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, and Poland. Between the two world wars. Host Barbara Tempchin and Matthew Witkovsky, curator of Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945, discuss the landmark exhibition, which had its world premiere here at the National Gallery of Art in June 2007 landmark exhibition.
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"Out my one window," an aria from Later the Same Evening: an opera inspired by five paintings of Edward Hopper,commissioned to coincide with the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Gallery. The opera was performed this fall at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. "Out my one window," music by John Musto and lyrics by Mark Campbell, is used by kind permission of Peermusic Classical, New York.
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Robert Leibowits, collector. For years Robert and June Leibowits have been collecting photographs and books. A portion of their impressive collection of eastern European photographs from between the two world wars is featured in the National Gallery of Art exhibition Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945. Exhibition curator Matthew S. Witkovsky chats with Robert Leibowits to find out what drives him to collect in this medium and subject area.
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