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Events will be added as they are scheduled. Please check back regularly for the most up-to-date calendar of events information.

Events By Type
Image: George de Forest Brush, An Aztec Sculptor, 1887, Gift (Partial and Promised) of the Ann and Tom Barwick Family Collection, 2005.107.1Image: One of a pair of pendants showing the Dragon Master, Tillya Tepe, Tomb II, Second quarter of the 1st century AD, National Museum of Afghanistan, Photo © Thierry Ollivier/Musée GuimetImage: Martin Puryear, Lever No. 3, 1989, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 1989.71.1Image: Jean Poyet, The Coronation of Solomon by the Spring of Gihon, c. 1500, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2006.111.3

Lecture-related events are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-seated basis. Registration is not required.

Lecture Abstracts Archive

The Sixty-First A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts | Elson Lecture | Public Conference | Public Symposia | Lectures | Works in Progress | Notable Lectures Podcasts
The Sixty-First 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.

Chinese Painting and Its Audiences
Craig Clunas, professor of history of art, University of Oxford

 

Beginning and Ending in Chinese Painting
March 11 at 2:00PM
The Gentleman
March 18 at 2:00PM
The Emperor
March 25 at 2:00PM
The Merchant
April 1 at 2:00PM
The Nation
April 15 at 2:00PM
The People
April 22 at 2:00PM
Elson Lecture

The Elson Lecture Series features distinguished contemporary artists whose work is represented in the Gallery's permanent collection. The Honorable and Mrs. Edward E. Elson generously endowed this series in 1992.

The Importance of Being Figurative
March 22 at 3:30PM

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 received a resident fellowship from the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1985. Two years later he and his family settled in Chicago, where he still lives and works.

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 person. These figures of "extreme blackness," as he puts it, have been important for younger artists including Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker. From 1993 to 2006, he taught at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Chicago. In 1997, he received the MacArthur Foundation Grant, and in 2003 his work was featured at the Venice Biennale.

Last year the National Gallery acquired its first painting by Marshall. Great America (1994) reimagines a boat ride through a haunted tunnel as the Middle Passage of slaves from Africa to the New World. What might have been a work of heavy political irony becomes instead a delicate interweaving of the histories of painting and race—a screen or backdrop onto which we project our own associations with its powerful imagery.

Public Conference
The Art of Itō Jakuchū
March 30 from 10:00AM to 5:00PM

Illustrated lectures by noted scholars and conservators of Japanese art. This program is co-organized by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, and the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

Presented in honor of the National Cherry Blossom Festival

Public Symposia
Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre in Focus
April 20 from 3:00PM to 5:00PM

April 21 from 11:00AM to 5:00PM
Celebrating the Reopening of the Nineteenth-Century French Galleries
April 27 from 12:00PM to 5:00PM

April 28 from 12:00PM to 5:00PM

The two-day public symposium begins on Friday with public lectures on issues surrounding the reinstallation of 19th-century paintings collections. On Saturday, a roundtable discussion features slide presentations by curators and specialists active in the field of 19th-century French painting.

Lectures

Pythagoras and Art History from Antiquity to the Renaissance
January 8 at 2:00PM

Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, professor emerita of art history, The University of New Mexico; scholar in residence, American University; and visiting scholar, George Washington University

Woodcarving and Woodcarvers in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Venice
January 15 at 2:00PM

Anne Markham Schulz, professor of art history and architecture, Brown University
Book signing of Woodcarving and Woodcarvers in Venice 1350–1550 follows.

About Four Honest Outlaws
January 22 at 2:00PM

Michael Fried, J. R. Herbert Boone Professor of Humanities and the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University
Book signing of Four Honest Outlaws: Sala, Ray, Marioni, Gordon follows.

Nineteenth-Century Redux: A New Look at a Great Collection of French Paintings
January 29 at 2:00PM

Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art

Meet the Curators!
January 29 at 3:00PM

Following the opening day lecture, the French paintings department curators will be in the galleries for a question-and-answer session.

Side by Side: Cimabue and Giotto at Pisa
February 5 at 2:00PM

Julian Gardner, Samuel H. Kress Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art

The Collecting of African American Art VII: David C. Driskell in Conversation with Ruth Fine
February 12 at 2:00PM

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

View other lectures from the Collecting of African American Art series.

Solving the East/West Conundrum in Modern Chinese Art (in Mandarin)
February 19 at 1:00PM

Martin J. Powers, Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures and former director, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan

Solving the East/West Conundrum in Modern Chinese Art (in English)
February 19 at 2:00PM

Martin J. Powers, Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures and former director, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan

The Collecting of African American Art VIII: Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker in Conversation with Michael D. Harris
February 26 at 2:00PM

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

View other lectures from the Collecting of African American Art series.

Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum
March 4 at 2:00PM

Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of art history and African American studies, University of California, Irvine
Book signing of Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum follows.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
March 12 at 12:00PM

Lecture demonstration recreating Peter Paul Rubens' Decius Mus Addressing the Legions presented by William Woodward, artist

Itō Jakuchū's Colorful Realm: Juxtaposition, Naturalism, and Ritual
April 29 at 2:00PM

Yukio Lippit, professor of Japanese art, Harvard University
Book signing of Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) follows.

Presented in honor of the National Cherry Blossom Festival

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.
 

Reflections and Undercurrents: Printmaking in Venice, 1900–1940
January 30 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Eric Denker, lecturer, National Gallery of Art

More than Ninety Miles Away: A Dialogue with Cuban Artist Rodolfo Peraza
February 6 at 12:10PM

Rodolfo Peraza, artist, in conversation with Michelle Bird, curatorial assistant, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art

View other lectures from the More than Ninety Miles Away series.

Use of Multi- and Hyper-Spectral Infrared Imaging Spectroscopy to Improve Infrared Reflectography of Paintings, Drawings, and Illuminated Manuscripts
February 13 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

John Delaney, senior imaging scientist, scientific research department, National Gallery of Art

Changing the Face of Research: The Dutch Online Systematic Catalogue Project of the National Gallery of Art
February 27 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Neal Johnson, information technology specialist; G. Memo Saenz, web designer; Karen Sagstetter, senior editor, publishing office; and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art

Mannequins in Museums: Humankind on Display
March 5 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of art history and African American studies, University of California, Irvine; and Jennifer Wagelie, senior academic officer, Indiana University Art Museum

Six Generations of Movers and Shakers in the Dutch Golden Age
March 19 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Henriette S. de Bruyn Kops, exhibitions research assistant, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art

The Reticular Landscape: An Allusion to Musical Rhythms
April 2 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Glenn Perry, exhibition specialist, department of silkscreen, National Gallery of Art

Painting Conservation: Continuing Discoveries
April 23 at 12:10PM, 1:10PM

Sarah Fisher, senior conservator and head of painting conservation, National Gallery of Art

Notable Lectures Podcasts

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