This audio series offers entertaining, informative discussions about the arts and events at the National Gallery of Art. Notable Lectures podcasts gives access to special Gallery talks by well-known artists, authors, curators, and historians. Included in this podcast listing are established series:
Introduction to the Exhibition: Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory 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.
Itō Jakuchū's Colorful Realm: Juxtaposition, Naturalism, and Ritual 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.
解決當代中國藝術中「東方與西方的難題」 Martin J. Powers, Sally Michelson Davidson 中國藝術與文化教授，前密西根大學中國研究中心主任
二十世紀初，中國藝術家們遇到一個吃力不討好的困境：如果他們使用中國水墨畫法，他們的作品會被認為「伝統守舊」，但是如果他們採用歐式或是現代主義畫法，人們則認為藝術家「無創意, 抄襲他人」。我們可稱此一情況為當代中國藝術中東方與西方的難題。
以中國長期文化競爭的歷史為背景，Martin J. Powers 探討數種方式中國藝術家使用來超越這數十年來的難題。於2012年2月19日在美國國家藝廊 Powers教授以中文與英文探討此一課題。
Solving the East/West Conundrum in Modern Chinese Art Martin J. Powers, Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures and former director, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
At the beginning of the 20th century, artists in China found themselves in a no-win situation: if they made use of Chinese brushwork, their art was considered "traditional," and if they adapted European or modernist methods, it was called "derivative." We may call this the East/West conundrum in modern Chinese art. Against the background of a long history of cultural competition in China, Martin J. Powers explores several ways in which Chinese artists managed to transcend the East/West conundrum in recent decades. Professor Powers delivered this lecture in both English and Mandarin on February 19, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art.
Art on the Mall: The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden Marla Prather, curator and head of the department of 20th-century art, National Gallery of Art
On May 23, 1999, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton accepted the completed National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden on behalf of the nation. Designed by landscape architect Laurie D. Olin of Olin Partnership, the Sculpture Garden was given to the nation by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. In this lecture recorded on September 19, 1999, curator Marla Prather explains the history and evolution of the 6.1-acre Sculpture Garden, highlighting the site's historical significance in Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for Washington, DC, the 1974 construction of the fountain, the 1991 transfer of jurisdiction of the Sculpture Garden site from the National Park Service to the National Gallery of Art, and the selection and installation of the garden's 17 original sculptures.
David Finley, Andrew Mellon, and the Founding of the National Gallery David A. Doheny, lawyer and former general counsel of the National Trust for Historic Preservation In this podcast recorded on June 17, 2006, David A. Doheny presents a lecture in conjunction with the publication of his book, David Finley: Quiet Force for America's Arts. Doheny discusses the relationship between Andrew W. Mellon and David E. Finley Jr., the National Gallery of Art's first director. Finley played an influential role in Mellon's acquisition of works from the Italian Renaissance, in particular the 1936 purchase of 30 paintings and 24 sculptures from Lord Joseph Duveen. In January 1937, Mellon formally presented to President Roosevelt his proposal to create the National Gallery of Art for the American public. On March 24, 1937, an act of Congress accepted Mellon's art collection as well as funds for the museum and approved plans for an elegant building on the National Mall designed by John Russell Pope. When Mellon and Pope both died within a day of each other later that year, Finley oversaw the construction and completion of the Gallery. Finley was also responsible for acquiring important collections for the Gallery, including those of Samuel H. Kress, Joseph E. Widener, Chester Dale, and Lessing J. Rosenwald.
Garden of Illusions: The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden Molly Donovan, assistant curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art
A month after the dedication of the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden on May 23, 1999, Molly Donovan discusses the grandeur and significance of its two components: the garden and the sculptures. In this lecture recorded on June 27, 1999, Donovan shares the history of the 6.1-acre space, from Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for Washington, DC, up to its 20th-century realization as the Gallery's Sculpture Garden. On April 22, 1791, while touring the grounds of the Potomac Valley, L'Enfant stated that "nothing can be more admirably adapted for the purpose [for the federal city]; nature has done much for it, and with the aid of art it will become the wonder of the world." L'Enfant's plan for a public, landscaped garden—originally known as L'Enfant Square–was based on the grounds at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, France. A refuge from the linear expanse of the National Mall, the Gallery's Sculpture Garden features meandering paths, a fountain, and contemporary art. In this way, two hundred years later, the National Gallery of Art and Laurie D. Olin of Olin Partnership, the garden's architect, achieved L'Enfant's original vision of showcasing both natural beauty and artistic achievement.
The Collecting of African American Art I: Introduction Alvia J. Wardlaw, associate professor, Texas Southern University and curator of modern and contemporary art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
For the inaugural lecture of The Collecting of African American Art series on February 10, 2008, Alvia J. Wardlaw provides an overview of the substantial history of collecting African American art. She regards the preservation of objects of cultural importance within the African American community as a holistic endeavor. Collecting was not merely about acquiring items for private holdings, but also about establishing a connection between African Americans and their African past, enabling families and communities to share and pass on traditions. Wardlaw relates the role of collectibles, including such cherished items as family photographs and Bibles, to the interest in collecting African American artworks, which arose in the 19th century. She also examines this phenomenon within the context of individual artistic careers, intellectual movements, and trends in the patronage of African American art.
Side by Side: Cimabue and Giotto at Pisa Julian Gardner, Samuel H. Kress Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art
In this lecture recorded on February 5, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, Julian Gardner, professor emeritus at the University of Warwick, discusses a pair of large works by two of the greatest figures in early Italian painting: Cimabue and Giotto. Miraculously preserved, these two paintings now hang in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Their current placement at the Louvre mimics the original installation in the church of San Francesco in Pisa. By reconstructing the original setting in Italy, Gardner examines how it is possible to learn more about these paintings, the intention of the artists and patrons, and the works' interrelationship with the Franciscan church.
Speech on the Dedication of the East Building of the National Gallery James Earl Carter Jr., 39th President of the United States of America
In 1971, on a triangular lot once occupied by tennis courts, architect I. M. Pei broke ground on the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. Funds for construction were given by Paul Mellon and the late Ailsa Mellon Bruce, the son and daughter of the founder, and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The contemporary building was designed to accommodate the Gallery's growing collections and houses an advanced research center, administrative offices, a great library, and a burgeoning collection of drawings and prints. President Jimmy Carter accepted the new building on behalf of the nation in this speech recorded on June 1, 1978.
Speech on the Dedication of the National Gallery of Art Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States of America
The National Gallery of Art was created on March 17, 1937, by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. Designed by John Russell Pope, the West Building was made possible by construction funds provided by the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. In this speech, recorded on March 17, 1941, during an evening of ceremonies attended by 8,822 people, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepts the completed West Building of the National Gallery of Art and the art collection of Andrew W. Mellon on behalf of the people of the United States.
Vilhelm Hammershøi and His Contemporaries Kasper Monrad, chief curator, National Gallery of Denmark
Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916) was the most outstanding Danish painter of the late 19th century. Best known for his paintings of interiors, Hammershøi concentrated on a small number of other motifs—landscapes, monumental buildings, and portraits—and his palette was dominated by nuances of grey. Though Hammershøi stands alone in Danish art, it is possible to point at important parallels with international art of the period. In this podcast recorded on November 1, 2011, Kasper Monrad sheds light on the direct influences on Hammershøi's work, as well as the parallel endeavours in contemporary painting in Europe and the United States. Hammershøi is discussed in connection with American artist James McNeill Whistler, French artists Eugène Carrière, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat, Belgian painter Fernand Khnopff, and the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.
Elson Lecture: Kerry James Marshall: The Importance of Being Figurative Kerry James Marshall, artist
Kerry James Marshall is a master of the human figure. His imposing, radiant paintings and installations draw equally upon African American history and the history of Western art. Born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, he moved with his family to the town of Watts in 1963, shortly before the race riots began. At Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles he studied with social realist painter Charles White. Marshall's mature career can be dated to 1980, when, inspired by Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, he developed his signature motif of a dark, near-silhouetted figure. This figure of "extreme blackness," as he puts it, has been important for younger artists including Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker. In honor of the Gallery's acquisition of its first painting, Great America (1994), by the artist last year, Marshall presented the 19th annual Elson Lecture, titled The Importance of Being Figurative, on March 22, 2012.
About Four Honest Outlaws Michael Fried, J. R. Herbert Boone Professor of Humanities and the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University
In his new book, Four Honest Outlaws, Professor Michael Fried considers the work of video artist and photographer Anri Sala, sculptor Charles Ray, painter Joseph Marioni, and video artist and intervener in movies Douglas Gordon. The book's title is derived from a Bob Dylan lyric: "To live outside the law you must be honest." In this lecture, recorded on January 22, 2012, at the National Gallery of Art, Fried explains how each of these four contemporary artists found his or her own unsanctioned path to extraordinary accomplishment, in part by defying the norms and expectations of today's art world.
Andrew W. Mellon: Collecting for the Nation David Cannadine, director and professor, Institute of Historical Research, University of London
To celebrate the landmark publication Mellon: An American Life, David Cannadine inaugurated and concluded his U.S. book tour at the National Gallery of Art with lectures on the founding benefactor of the Gallery, Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937). In this second lecture recorded on December 9, 2006, Cannadine concentrates on Mellon's art collecting as his only nonprofessional gratification, and his great gift of the Gallery to the nation. His son Paul Mellon commissioned this biography in the mid-1990s to document the magnitude and range of his father's contributions to American history. Preeminent in the diverse fields of business, politics, art collecting, and philanthropy, Mellon was one of the greatest art collectors and philanthropists of his generation. According to Cannadine, the Gallery remains Mellon's culminating and most tangible legacy, although he did not live to see its completion and dedication on March 17, 1941.
Mellon: A Life David Cannadine, director and professor, Institute of Historical Research, University of London
David Cannadine launched the U.S. book tour for his landmark publication, Mellon: An American Life—the first commissioned biography of the great American industrialist and founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon—on October 8, 2006, at the National Gallery of Art. Mellon was born in Pittsburgh in 1855 and over time established himself as preeminent in four different fields: business, politics, art collecting, and philanthropy. He died in 1937. In this lecture, Cannadine describes Mellon's life and work before creating the Gallery as a gift to the nation—"from the smokestacks of Pittsburgh to the matchless, stripped neoclassical [West] Building." In explaining the magnitude and range of Mellon's contribution to American history, Cannadine starts with his business career as banker and creator of iconic American companies, and his political career as Secretary of the Treasury (1921–1932) and U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain (1932–1933). Cannadine finished his tour with a second lecture at the Gallery on December 9, 2006. This second lecture, titled Andrew W. Mellon: Collecting for the Nation, focused on Mellon's art collecting and philanthropy, and on the Gallery as the culminating and most enduring endeavor of his life.
Conversations with Artists: Joel Shapiro, Thoughts on the Organization of Form in Modern Sculpture Joel Shapiro, artist
Following the installation of Joel Shapiro's Untitled (1989) in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden with other major post–World War II sculptures, the artist received an invitation to curate an exhibition of his work alongside the 19th-century sculpture of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. In this podcast recorded on March 9, 2003, Shapiro explains that the upcoming exhibition gave him an opportunity to focus on the continuity of thought in sculpture. Although certain ideas for form in sculpture seem radical and contemporary, they have already been discovered and worked with in earlier times. Shapiro finds that the development of form seems to repeat itself, although it is ever-changing, more or less focused, and contextualized by the era in which it was created.
Nineteenth-Century Redux: A New Look at a Great Collection of French Paintings Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art
Curator Mary Morton celebrates the reinstallation of the impressionist and post-impressionist paintings galleries in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in this lecture recorded on January 29, 2012. Among the world's great collections of paintings by Cézanne, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh, the Gallery's nineteenth-century French paintings are recently back on view after a two-year period of gallery repair, restoration, and renovation. Morton discusses the new installation and its thematic, monographic, and art historical organization.
Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of art history and African American studies, University of California, Irvine
In this lecture, recorded at the National Gallery of Art on March 4, 2012, Professor Cooks presents research from her book Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum, in which she analyzes the curatorial strategies, challenges, and critical reception of the most significant museum exhibitions of African-American art in the United States. Cooks also exposes the issues involved in exhibiting cultural differences that continue to challenge art history, historiography, and American museum exhibition practices.
A Sense of Place—Norman Lewis in Harlem: "An Inquiry into the Laws of Nature" Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
In this podcast recorded on January 15, 2006, Ruth Fine discusses the Harlem-based life and career of Norman Lewis in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday weekend. Lewis was born in Harlem in 1909 and died in New York at the age of 70. Except for short periods spent elsewhere, New York and, in one way or another, the Harlem community remained Lewis' home base throughout his life. Harlem changed radically during the artist's lifetime, becoming the cultural center of black America. He is considered by many to be the first African American artist fully engaged by abstraction. Lewis' drawings, paintings, and prints date from the 1930s to 1970. Supporting himself as an elevator operator, house painter, short-order chef, merchant marine, tailor, and taxi driver, Lewis worked steadily at his art. "I have sustained myself in whatever the moment called for and done what has been necessary to just exist." Lewis' art and attitudes were highly influential on the next generation of African American artists, including Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, and William T. Williams.
The Collecting of African American Art VIII: Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker in conversation with Michael Harris Collectors of African American art and art of the African diaspora and former National Basketball Association players Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker, in conversation with Michael D. Harris, associate professor of art history and African American studies, Emory University
In this podcast recorded on February 26, 2012, former National Basketball Association players Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker discuss their collection of African American art and art of the African diaspora with Professor Michael D. Harris. Perry and Walker began to collect art during the extensive travels of their professional sports careers, and both have amassed important collections of modern and contemporary art that have been exhibited throughout the country. The collectors have dedicated themselves to educational and philanthropic causes to preserve and showcase African American culture. Professor Harris is an artist, curator, and scholar of contemporary African and African American art and has contributed to the exhibition catalogue Images of America: African American Voices: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Walker.
Compositions and Collaborations: The Arts of Lou Stovall Lou Stovall, artist, in conversation with Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
As part of the National Gallery of Art summer lecture series Five African American Artists: Johnson-Tanner-Johnson-Stovall-Thomas, Lou Stovall participated in a Conversations with Artists program with Ruth Fine on August 3, 2003. "Compositions and Collaborations: The Arts of Lou Stovall" is a rare opportunity to hear Stovall discuss his own work and his collaborations with other artists, and to listen as he responds to questions from the audience. Stovall has been a major figure in the Washington, DC, arts community since the early 1960s, when he arrived at Howard University for his BFA program. In 1968 Stovall founded Workshop, Inc., a professional printmaking studio, where he has collaborated with more than 70 artists over the years. In addition to his own drawings and silkprints, and his collaborative printmaking projects, Stovall is a published essayist and poet.
Conversations with Artists: David C. Driskell and Frank Stewart David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and emeritus professor of art history, University of Maryland at College Park, and Frank Stewart, photographer, in conversation with Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
Following The Art of Romare Bearden, on view at the National Gallery of Art from September 14, 2003, through January 4, 2004, exhibition curator Ruth Fine joined lenders David C. Driskell and Frank Stewart to discuss another collaboration—their visual biography of the artist. Bearden (1911–1988) worked closely with Stewart from 1975 until his death and allowed Stewart to photograph him in his studio, at art-related events, and during his personal time. The resulting book, Romare Bearden, contains introductory texts by Driskell and Fine as well as an interview Fine conducted with Stewart that serves as running commentary alongside the book's images. In this Conversations with Artists program recorded on December 11, 2004, the collaborators discuss their relationship with Bearden, the Gallery's Bearden exhibition, and the newly published visual biography.
The Collecting of African American Art VII: David C. Driskell in Conversation with Ruth Fine David C. Driskell, artist, collector, and emeritus professor of art history, University of Maryland at College Park; in conversation with Ruth Fine, consulting curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
Highly respected as an artist, art historian, curator, and teacher, David C. Driskell's life as a collector is less well known. In this podcast recorded on February 12, 2012, Ruth Fine and David C. Driskell discuss publicly for the first time the expansive range of his art acquisitions, which he started to collect during his years as an art student at Howard University in Washington, DC. Among the treasures in Driskell's collection are old master and modern European prints, antique rugs, African sculpture, and works by African American masters from the 19th century through the present.
Remembering and Forgetting: Imagery and Its Role in the Slave Trade and Its Abolition James Walvin, professor of history, University of York, United Kingdom
To commemorate the bicentennial of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade on March 25, 1807, Professor James Walvin published two books: A Short History of Slavery and The Trader, The Owner, The Slave. Shortly before their publication, Walvin presented this lecture on February 18, 2007, at the National Gallery of Art, discussing his thoughts on what is remembered—and what is forgotten—about slavery and the slave trade. In it, he questions the kind of role the government and public memory should play in commemorating this extraordinary transformation in public policy two hundred years ago. The difficult history of slavery and the slave trade is both immediately present, as a documented part of human history with its descendants as part of the population, and everywhere in places where it can't be seen; just beneath the surface of the Western world its evidence is all around.
A Conversation with David C. Driskell David C. Driskell, professor emeritus, University of Maryland at College Park; Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art; and Julie L. McGee, Rockefeller Humanities Fellow, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution and author of David C. Driskell: Artist and Scholar
To celebrate the publication of David C. Driskell: Artist and Scholar, Ruth Fine and Julie L. McGee discuss the first biography and comprehensive monograph of his work with David C. Driskell. In this podcast recorded on April 14, 2007, at the National Gallery of Art, the participants share the collaborative process behind writing the book, which traces Driskell's personal, artistic, and scholarly journey. A pioneer in establishing the study of African American art within the canon of American art criticism and theory, Driskell is also an artist whose work approaches questions of nature and culture, African and African American heritage, spirituality, family, and other subjects.
Works on Paper by African Americans: The Growth of the National Gallery of Art Collection Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
To coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday weekend, Ruth Fine describes the history and growth of the collection of works on paper by African American artists at the National Gallery of Art in this podcast recorded on January 16, 2011. The Gallery owns approximately 70,000 prints and 30,000 drawings, all of which have been acquired by donation or purchased with donated funds. The Gallery, which opened to the public in 1941, acquired its first works by African American artists in 1943, which is the starting point of Fine's presentation. She tracks the collection's riches by the chronological order in which the drawings and prints entered the collection. The earliest of them are Edward Loper's contributions to the Index of American Design, acquired in 1943, with the most recent being Norma Gloria Morgan's etching and aquatint Turning Forms, added in 2010. Throughout the lecture, Fine suggests the unique ability of works on paper to reveal much about an artist's thought processes.
An Introduction to the Exhibition—Édouard Vuillard 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.
A Sense of Place—Cézanne in Provence: An Introduction to the Exhibition 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.
Fifty-Second A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock Kirk Varnedoe, Institute for Advanced Study
This six-part series examines abstract art over a period of fifty years, beginning with a crucial juncture in modern art in the mid-1950s, and builds a compelling argument for a history and evaluation of late twentieth-century art that challenges the distinctions between abstraction and representation, modernism and postmodernism, minimalism and pop. The accompanying publication, Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock, is available for purchase from the Gallery Shops.
Part 1: Why Abstract Art?
In this first lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on March 30, 2003, the distinguished art historian Kirk Varnedoe begins with Jackson Pollock at a key moment in the emergence of a new form of abstract art in the mid-1950s. Building on Ernst Gombrich's Mellon Lectures of 1956, Varnedoe begins by asking: Can there be a philosophy of abstract art as compelling as Gombrich's argument for illusionism? What is abstract art good for? And finally, what do we get out of abstract art?
Part 2: Survivals and Fresh Starts
In this second lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on April 6, 2003, the distinguished art historian Kirk Varnedoe discusses the reactions of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns to prewar traditions of constructivism, and the initiation of new movements that utilized similar forms but with very dissimilar premises. While raising the question of whether abstract art can have a fixed meaning, he argues that abstraction provides no respite from interpretation or retreat from the contingencies of art history.
Part 3: Minimalism
In this third lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on April 13, 2003, the distinguished art historian Kirk Varnedoe contrasts multiple forms of minimalism in the 1960s, as seen in the works of Donald Judd, Robert Morris, and James Turrell, and examines, among other things, the degree to which this art is quintessentially American.
Part 4: After Minimalism
In this fourth lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on April 27, 2003, the distinguished art historian Kirk Varnedoe marks 1968 as a turning point in minimalism, when a new organicism emerged in the work of Richard Serra and Eva Hesse. A change in scale and in relationship to the body and to landscape is epitomized in works such as Walter De Maria's Lightning Field, Michael Heizer's Double Negative, and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty.
Part 5: Satire, Irony, and Abstract Art
In this fifth lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on May 4, 2003, the distinguished art historian Kirk Varnedoe explores the 1980s, when Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Claus Oldenburg, and others confronted the ironic relationship between abstraction and the representation of man-made objects, thus producing a politicized critique of abstraction. Varnedoe concludes by looking at artists including Gerhard Richter and Cy Twombly, whose varied approaches shifted abstract art from its position as the ultimate modern art to one of many options.
Part 6: Abstract Art Now
In this sixth and final lecture of the series, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on May 11, 2003, the distinguished art historian Kirk Varnedoe returns to a question raised in lecture one: Can an argument be made for abstraction as a legitimate part of both our cognitive process and our nature as a modern liberal society? Varnedoe leads the listener through a tour of Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipses, making an impassioned case for abstraction as an art of subjectivity—an art dependent on experience, human invention, and constant debate.
Audio
