Release Date: February 17, 2016

Winter/Spring 2016 Lecture Program at National Gallery of Art Features the 65th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Elson Lecture, Panel Discussions, Public Symposia, and More Than 25 Local, National, and International Distinguished Artists and Scholars from Prestigious Museums, Universities, and Colleges

Unknown Artist (Hellenistic Bronze)

Portrait Head of a Man, 300-200 B.C.

bronze, copper, glass, and stone
Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education, and Religious Affairs, Archaeological Museum of Kalymnos, Greece

Washington, DC—The Winter/Spring Lecture Program at the National Gallery of Art brings together distinguished local, national, and international artists and scholars from prestigious museums, universities, and colleges. Highlights include the 65th Annual A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, a six-part lecture series titled The Thief Who Stole My Heart: The Material Life of Sacred Bronzes in Chola India, c. 850–1280, given by Vidya Dehejia, Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Columbia University. The Elson Lecture, one of a series that presents distinguished contemporary artists whose work is represented in the Gallery's permanent collection, features artist Cecily Brown in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator and head of the department of modern art, National Gallery of Art. The Works in Progress series will include presentations by artists Alexandre Arrechea, Iván Capote, and Yoan Capote on their recent and upcoming projects.

Lectures

Lectures are held in the East Building Auditorium unless noted otherwise and are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-seated basis. For a complete listing visit www.nga.gov/lectures.

The Bronze Sculpture of Hellenistic Macedonia
February 21 at 2:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
Polyxeni Adams-Veleni, archaeologist and director, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki
This program is coordinated with Eleftherios Ikonomou, ARTS etc. Intercultural Dialogues, Berlin, with generous funding from the Goelet Corporation, New York.

From Olympus to the Streets of Constantinople: The Byzantine Retirement of the Ancient Gods
March 3 at 3:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Anthony Kaldellis, professor of classics, Ohio State University
This program is coordinated with and supported by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

New Discoveries from the Robert H. Smith Collection
March 6 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium
Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture, National Gallery of Art; Eike Schmidt, director, The Uffizi Gallery, Florence; Dylan Smith, Robert H. Smith Research Conservator, National Gallery of Art; Shelley Sturman, senior conservator and head, department of object conservation, National Gallery of Art

A Closer Look at Artists' Practices and Techniques
March 13 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium
Daphne Barbour, senior conservator, department of objects conservation, National Gallery of Art; Molly Donovan, associate curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art; Jay Krueger, head of painting conservation, National Gallery of Art; Dylan Smith, Robert H. Smith Research Conservator, department of objects conservation, National Gallery of Art.

Zeus, Isis, and Dionysos in Dion at the Foot of Mount Olympus
March 17 at 3:30
East Building Auditorium

Dimitrios Pandermalis, president of the board of directors, Acropolis Museum, and professor of archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
This program is coordinated with Eleftherios Ikonomou, ARTS etc. Intercultural Dialogues, Berlin, with generous funding from the Goelet Corporation, New York.

Women in Hellenistic and Roman Athens: Visualizing Female Power and Wealth
March 20 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Anna Vasiliki Karapanagiotou, director, Ephorate of Antiquities of Arcadia, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports
This program is coordinated with and supported by the Embassy of Greece to the United States.

Panel Discussions

A Priestess or a Goddess: The Problem of Identity in Some Female Hellenistic Sculptures
February 18 at 3:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
This program is coordinated with and supported by the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University.

A Poet or a God: The Iconography of Certain Bearded Male Bronzes
February 25 at 3:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
This program is coordinated with and supported by the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University.

The Role of Art in Diplomacy
April 18 at 1:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
This program is coordinated with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies

Performances with Discussion

Performances of archaeological-musical tales will combine games, music, storytelling, and songs performed to a reconstructed ancient lyre. Discussions will center on the cultural heritage of Greece in relation to each performance.

Kymothoi's Journey
February 24 at 3:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Evy Papadopoulou, archaeologist; Nikos Xanthoulis, assistant researcher, Academy of Athens, and tutor, Greek Open University
This program is coordinated with Eleftherios Ikonomou, ARTS etc. Intercultural Dialogues, Berlin, with generous funding from the Goelet Corporation, New York

Nikias and Meliti's Dream
February 26 at 3:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Evy Papadopoulou, archaeologist; Nikos Xanthoulis, assistant researcher, Academy of Athens, and tutor, Greek Open University
This program is coordinated with Eleftherios Ikonomou, ARTS etc. Intercultural Dialogues, Berlin, with generous funding from the Goelet Corporation, New York.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
February 27 at 1:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
Evy Papadopoulou, archaeologist; Nikos Xanthoulis, assistant researcher, Academy of Athens, and tutor, Greek Open University. This program is coordinated with Eleftherios Ikonomou, ARTS etc. Intercultural Dialogues, Berlin, with generous funding from the Goelet Corporation, New York.

Elson Lecture

The Elson Lecture Series presents distinguished contemporary artists whose work is represented in the Gallery's permanent collection. This year's lecture features artist Cecily Brown in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art. 

The Honorable and Mrs. Edward E. Elson generously endowed this series in 1992.

Cecily Brown
March 10 at 3:30
East Building Auditorium

Public Symposia

Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art
March 5 at 10:30, 2:00
West Building Lecture Hall

Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World
March 18 at 2:30 p.m.
East Building Auditorium

Illustrated lectures by Gianfranco Adornato, professor of classical archaeology, Scuole Normale Superiore, Pisa; Andrew Stewart, professor of ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology and Nicholas C. Petris Professor of Greek Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and curator of Mediterranean archaeology, Hearst Museum of Anthropology

This program is coordinated with and supported by the Embassy of Italy to the United States and the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington, DC, held as part of "Protecting Our Heritage" activities of the European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC) in Washington, DC.

Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World
March 19 at noon
West Building Lecture Hall

Illustrated lectures by Christopher A. Gregg, assistant professor of art history, George Mason University; Despina Ignatiadou, head curator of the sculpture collection, National Archaeological Museum, Athens; Kenneth S. Lapatin, associate curator of antiquities, The J. Paul Getty Museum; Richard Mason, lecturer on Aegean archaeology and Egypt, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Carol Mattusch, Mathy Professor of Art History, George Mason University; David Sider, professor of classics, New York University. Symposium respondents include Jens M. Daehner, associate curator of antiquities, The J. Paul Getty Museum; and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, Rhys Carpenter Professor Emerita of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College. Moderated by Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art

Works in Progress

This lunchtime series highlights new research by Gallery staff, interns, fellows, and special guests. The 30-minute talks are followed by question-and-answer periods.

Alexandre Arrechea: Space Defeated
March 14
Screening at 12:10
Discussion at 1:10
West Building Lecture Hall
(Rescheduled from January 25)

Alexandre Arrechea, artist, in conversation with Michelle Bird, curatorial assistant, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Arrechea (b. Trinidad, Cuba, 1970) graduated from the prestigious Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana in 1994 and was a founding member of the Cuban artist collective Los Carpinteros (1991-2003). Arrechea's work employs visual metaphors for social themes of inequality, cultural disenfranchisement, and the disputed position of art in a global, media-driven society.

Venus through the Looking Glass: Reflections on Titian's Complex Goddess
March 21 at 12:10, 1:10
West Building Lecture Hall

David Essex, curatorial assistant, department of Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art

The Sixty-Fifth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts

The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts were established in 1949 to bring to the people of the United States the results of the best contemporary thought and scholarship bearing upon the subject of the fine arts. Vidya Dehejia, Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Columbia University, will present the six-part lecture series The Thief Who Stole My Heart: The Material Life of Sacred Bronzes in Chola India, c. 850 – 1280 in the East Building Auditorium.

Gods on Parade: Sacred Forms of Copper
April 3 at 2:00

Shiva as "Victor of Three Forts": Battling for Empire, 855 – 955
April 10 at 2:00

Portrait of a Queen: Patronage of Dancing Shiva, c. 941 – 1002
April 17 at 2:00

An Eleventh-Century Master Sculptor: Ten Thousand Pearls Adorn a Bronze
April 24 at 2:00

Chola Obsession with Sri Lanka and the Silk Route of the Sea in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
May 1 at 2:00

Worship in Uncertain Times: The Secret Burial of Bronzes in 1310
May 8 at 2:00

Museums, Universities, Colleges, and Places Represented

The more than 25 participants in the Gallery's Winter/Spring 2016 Lecture Program represent the following: Academy of Athens; Greek Open University; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; George Mason University; Harvard University; George Washington University; Ohio State University; University of California, Berkeley; The J. Paul Getty Museum; University of Maryland; New York University; Columbia University; University of St. Andrews; Bryn Mawr College; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; Berlin; Italy; and Greece.