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Curators

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James Meyer, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art

In his book The Art of Return: The Sixties and Contemporary Culture, introduced at the National Gallery of Art on September 8, 2019, James Meyer turns to art criticism, theory, memoir, and fiction to examine the fascination with this period and expressions of cultural memories across the globe. He draws on a diverse range of cultural objects that reimagine the “long” 1960s―a revolutionary era stretching from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s―including reenactments of civil rights, antiwar, and feminist marches; paintings; sculptures; photographs; novels; and films. Many of these works are by artists and writers born during this period who are driven to understand a monumental era that they missed. These cases show us that the past becomes significant only in relation to our present, and our remembered history never perfectly replicates time past. This, Meyer argues, is precisely what makes our contemporary attachment to the past so important: it provides us a critical opportunity to examine our own relationship to history, memory, and nostalgia.

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James Meyer, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art

In his book The Art of Return: The Sixties and Contemporary Culture, introduced at the National Gallery of Art on September 8, 2019, James Meyer turns to art criticism, theory, memoir, and fiction to examine the fascination with this period and expressions of cultural memories across the globe. He draws on a diverse range of cultural objects that reimagine the “long” 1960s―a revolutionary era stretching from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s―including reenactments of civil rights, antiwar, and feminist marches; paintings; sculptures; photographs; novels; and films. Many of these works are by artists and writers born during this period who are driven to understand a monumental era that they missed. These cases show us that the past becomes significant only in relation to our present, and our remembered history never perfectly replicates time past. This, Meyer argues, is precisely what makes our contemporary attachment to the past so important: it provides us a critical opportunity to examine our own relationship to history, memory, and nostalgia.

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Kristen Gonzalez, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art

Jacobus Vrel is not exactly a household name. A painter of quiet Dutch genre scenes, he produced some fifty works and quickly fell into obscurity. Composing modest interiors and street scenes, Vrel’s mature paintings predate those of the most celebrated Dutch masters in the 17th century. In fact, many of his works were misattributed to Johannes Vermeer. In this lecture held on April 22, 2019, Kristen Gonzalez discusses the Gallery’s Young Woman in an Interior by Jacobus Vrel and the striking modernity of his genre paintings. In anticipation of a major retrospective exhibition in Munich, Paris, and the Hague next year, Kristen discusses the challenge of studying the enigmatic Vrel and establishing his artistic identity distinct from Vermeer and his contemporaries.

 

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Kristen Gonzalez, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art

Jacobus Vrel is not exactly a household name. A painter of quiet Dutch genre scenes, he produced some fifty works and quickly fell into obscurity. Composing modest interiors and street scenes, Vrel’s mature paintings predate those of the most celebrated Dutch masters in the 17th century. In fact, many of his works were misattributed to Johannes Vermeer. In this lecture held on April 22, 2019, Kristen Gonzalez discusses the Gallery’s Young Woman in an Interior by Jacobus Vrel and the striking modernity of his genre paintings. In anticipation of a major retrospective exhibition in Munich, Paris, and the Hague next year, Kristen discusses the challenge of studying the enigmatic Vrel and establishing his artistic identity distinct from Vermeer and his contemporaries.

 

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Elizabeth Alexander, poet, essayist, playwright, scholar, and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Manthia Diawara, writer, cultural theorist, film director, scholar, and professor of comparative literature and cinema studies and director emeritus of the Institute of African American Affairs, New York University

Painter Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962–2012) from Asmara, Eritrea, and filmmaker Manthia Diawara from Bamako, Mali, meet metaphorically in this program focusing on their work. Political refugees, activists, scholars, and storytellers, both men settled in the United States and found themselves working odd jobs, joining the African American community of poets and each digging into his own artistic practice. Ghebreyesus’s epic painting The Sardine Fisherman’s Funeral combines symbols, historical references, and iconography from different cultures to express a depth of feeling for the power of the sea. Diawara’s film An Opera of the World (2017), based on the African opera Bintou Were, mines the Malian filmmaker’s own migration experience against the backdrop of recent tragedies among refugees on the Mediterranean Sea. In this post-screening conversation held on March 23, 2019, at the National Gallery of Art, Manthia Diawara and Elizabeth Alexander discuss and contrast Ghebreyesus’s painting with Diawara’s filmic inquiry into the power of bearing witness.

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Elizabeth Alexander, poet, essayist, playwright, scholar, and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Manthia Diawara, writer, cultural theorist, film director, scholar, and professor of comparative literature and cinema studies and director emeritus of the Institute of African American Affairs, New York University

Painter Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962–2012) from Asmara, Eritrea, and filmmaker Manthia Diawara from Bamako, Mali, meet metaphorically in this program focusing on their work. Political refugees, activists, scholars, and storytellers, both men settled in the United States and found themselves working odd jobs, joining the African American community of poets and each digging into his own artistic practice. Ghebreyesus’s epic painting The Sardine Fisherman’s Funeral combines symbols, historical references, and iconography from different cultures to express a depth of feeling for the power of the sea. Diawara’s film An Opera of the World (2017), based on the African opera Bintou Were, mines the Malian filmmaker’s own migration experience against the backdrop of recent tragedies among refugees on the Mediterranean Sea. In this post-screening conversation held on March 23, 2019, at the National Gallery of Art, Manthia Diawara and Elizabeth Alexander discuss and contrast Ghebreyesus’s painting with Diawara’s filmic inquiry into the power of bearing witness.

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Beverly Louise Brown, Fellow, The Warburg Institute. In this lecture, presented on November 19, 2017, Beverly Louise Brown discusses Titian’s portrait of Clarice Strozzi. A popular nineteenth-century nursery rhyme tells us that little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails while little girls are filled with sugar and spice and all things nice. And who could be nicer than two-year-old Clarice Strozzi, who in Titian’s portrait so sweetly shares a ring-shaped biscuit with her toy spaniel? Today, Instagram abounds in similar snapshots eagerly sent by adoring parents to family and friends. Such images would seem to embody the essence of childhood by celebrating their subjects’ natural spontaneity. They are lasting reminders of the days of childhood innocence. It is in this spirit that we might assume Clarice Strozzi’s parents commissioned her portrait in 1542. But if we look more carefully at Titian’s charming portrayal of a little girl and her dog, we soon discover that it is unlikely to have been a mere celebration of sugar and spice and all things nice.

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Lynne Cooke, senior curator, special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, in conversation with Douglas Crimp, art historian, critic, and Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History and professor of visual and cultural studies, University of Rochester. Douglas Crimp is the rare art critic who profoundly influenced a generation of artists. He is best known for his work with the “Pictures Generation”—a name Crimp coined to define the work of artists like Robert Longo and Cindy Sherman, who appropriated images from mass culture to carry out a subversive critique. But while his influence is widely recognized, little is known about Crimp’s own formative experiences before the Pictures Generation. On January 8, 2017, Douglas Crimp joined Lynne Cooke to discuss the publication of Before Pictures. Part biography and part cultural history, Before Pictures is a courageous account of an exceptional period in both Crimp’s life and the life of New York City during the late 1960s through the turbulent 1970s.

 

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Lynne Cooke, senior curator, special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, in conversation with Douglas Crimp, art historian, critic, and Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History and professor of visual and cultural studies, University of Rochester. Douglas Crimp is the rare art critic who profoundly influenced a generation of artists. He is best known for his work with the “Pictures Generation”—a name Crimp coined to define the work of artists like Robert Longo and Cindy Sherman, who appropriated images from mass culture to carry out a subversive critique. But while his influence is widely recognized, little is known about Crimp’s own formative experiences before the Pictures Generation. On January 8, 2017, Douglas Crimp joined Lynne Cooke to discuss the publication of Before Pictures. Part biography and part cultural history, Before Pictures is a courageous account of an exceptional period in both Crimp’s life and the life of New York City during the late 1960s through the turbulent 1970s.

 

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Ruth Fine, curator (1972-2012), National Gallery of Art, and curator and catalog editor, Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis is the first comprehensive museum overview of the work of this influential artist. Norman Lewis (1909-1979) became committed to issues of abstraction at the start of his career and continued to explore them over its entire trajectory. His art derived inspiration from music (jazz and classical) and nature (seasonal changes, plant forms, and the sea). Also central to his work were the dramatic confrontations of the civil rights movement, in which he was an active participant alongside fellow members of the New York art scene. Bridging the Harlem Renaissance, abstract expressionism, and other movements, Lewis is a crucial figure in American art whose reinsertion into the discourse further opens the field for recognition of the contributions of artists of color. Procession was organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and brings together works from major public and private collections. In this lecture, recorded on February 14, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, exhibition curator Ruth Fine presents an overview of the approximately 130 paintings, unique works on paper, objects, and prints dating from the early 1930s through the late 1970s featured in both the Procession exhibition and its companion show Stone and Metal: Lithographs and Etchings by Norman Lewis. Bringing much-needed attention to Lewis’s output and significance in the history of American art, the multiauthor exhibition catalog—edited by Fine, who wrote the key overview essay—is a milestone in Lewis scholarship and a vital resource for future study of the artist and abstraction in his period.

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Curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. introduces the collection of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings at the National Gallery of Art. Filmed in the elegant oak-paneled galleries where the Dutch paintings hang, Wheelock discusses the collection’s history and changing character since the Gallery was founded in 1941.

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Rembrandt van Rijn’s art is marked by his ability to capture the human experience in its joys, its drama, and its vulnerabilities. His many self-portraits are among the most iconic of his works. Curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. explains how Rembrandt, in his Self-Portrait of 1659, depicted himself as a proud and thoughtful individual, worn with age but with an inner dignity gained from the personal difficulties he had experienced in the mid-1650s.

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 By examining the stylistic relationships between two paintings in the National Gallery of Art, The Fall of Man by Hendrik Goltzius and Daniel and the Lions’ Den by Peter Paul Rubens, curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. explains how Goltzius drew inspiration from the great Flemish master. In 1612 Rubens traveled from Antwerp to Haarlem to visit Goltzius, and as The Fall of Man (1616) demonstrates, that meeting had a profound impact on Goltzius’ subsequent style.

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The dramatic composition and emotional power of Rembrandt’s The Mill has made it one of the most renowned paintings in the Dutch collection at the National Gallery of Art. Curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. takes viewers through the fascinating history of this masterpiece, which includes major controversies about its attribution and its appearance.   

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Many of the Dutch paintings at the National Gallery of Art have fascinating histories. Curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. recounts how, under the threat of the Third Reich, the Petschek family in Aussig (now the Czech Republic) saved their beautiful landscape by Albert Cuyp from the Nazis.  Wheelock also relates the peaceful, Arcadian quality of Cuyp’s paintings to the political and social ideals of the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century.

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Many seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings are small because they were created for domestic settings.  In 1995 the National Gallery of Art unveiled the Dutch and Flemish Cabinet Galleries, a suite of intimately scaled, wood-paneled rooms that emulates the viewing experience one might have had in such an environment. Curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. tours the cabinet galleries, discusses his inspiration for them, and explains why they are especially appropriate for paintings such as Vermeer’s remarkable genre scenes.

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Kim Jones, associate curator of French paintings, and Barbara Berrie, head of scientific research, explain how Titian used oil glazes to tone and deepen color. “Trenta, quaranta velatura” (Thirty, forty glazes), he once boasted. This is an exaggeration, surely, but one that emphasizes the importance of these thin veils of translucent paint applied layer on layer. The effects made possible with these glazes offered the greatest advantage of oil paints over the older tempera paints. This clip is from Making Art: Seeing Color, produced by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

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At the time of their acquisition in 1995, Cornelis Verbeeck's paintings Dutch Warship Attacking a Spanish Galley and Spanish Galleon Firing Its Cannons were covered with layers of discolored varnish. Their sojourn in the conservation lab, however, revealed a complex story that transformed our understanding of these paintings. Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque paintings, is joined by Michael Swicklik, senior conservator, and Richard Ford, frame conservator, as they discuss this exciting discovery, and the paintings' new appearance as two halves of a reunited battle scene.

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Brice Marden continues to make some of the most surprising and ravishing paintings of our time. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was known for matte, monochromatic paintings, often with multiple panels. His 1984 visit to an exhibition of Japanese calligraphy triggered a dramatic shift in style that culminated in a masterful series of gestural paintings and drawings entitled Cold Mountain. Since that time, through several further changes in vocabulary, Marden has continued to explore linear networks as the basis for ambitious, allover abstractions. In this video, recorded in October 2009 in the artist's Manhattan studio, Marden discusses his technique, sources of inspiration, and works in progress with Harry Cooper, curator and head of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art.

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Over the course of nearly half a century, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff acquired works by some of the most influential American artists in the postwar era, building a collection that bridges the divide between abstract and figurative painting. More than 40 artists are represented, with special focus on Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Harry Cooper, the National Gallery's curator of modern and contemporary art, gives a tour of the exhibition, which includes 126 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture. By discussing the works according to themes such as Line, Drip, Gesture, and Concentricity, he presents the collection in new and often unexpected ways. The Meyerhoffs have donated 47 works to the National Gallery of Art since 1987, and their entire collection will eventually be given to the museum.

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Over the course of nearly half a century, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff acquired works by some of the most influential American artists in the postwar era, building a collection that bridges the divide between abstract and figurative painting. More than 40 artists are represented, with special focus on Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Harry Cooper, the National Gallery's curator of modern and contemporary art, gives a tour of the exhibition, which includes 126 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture. By discussing the works according to themes such as Line, Drip, Gesture, and Concentricity, he presents the collection in new and often unexpected ways. The Meyerhoffs have donated 47 works to the National Gallery of Art since 1987, and their entire collection will eventually be given to the museum.

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Late 19th–century art is usually identified with airy and colorful impressionist paintings and the radiant atmosphere of Paris. But in the shadowy recesses an art of a very different kind thrived. Prints, drawings, and small sculpture from the period present an alternative vision in depictions of the inner worlds of emotions, anxieties, and fantasies. Mainly stored away rather than openly displayed by their owners, the works in this exhibition appealed to artists and audiences devoted to a private aesthetic experience. Peter Parshall, the Gallery's curator of old master prints, talks about the works in the exhibition and their subtle and complex depictions of human psychology decades before the publication of Sigmund Freud's theories on the unconscious.

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The armor, paintings, and tapestries in the exhibition were made for the Spanish royal family—the nobles, kings, and Holy Roman Emperors who expanded Spain’s influence throughout Europe and the New World. These objects reveal the exquisite work of artists and craftsmen who served the Spanish ruling class from the 15th to the 18th century. In the intricate and finely wrought details on shields, portraits, and tapestries, something quite different is also revealed: an attempt to link the Spanish monarchy with the pieties of the Catholic Church, the power of the ancient Roman empire, and the cultural glories of ancient Greece. David Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish paintings at the National Gallery of Art, describes this subtle advertising campaign waged by the Spanish throne to advance its goals and reputation.

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Vermeer: Master of Light is a visual pilgrimage in search of what makes a Vermeer a Vermeer. It is a journey of discovery, guiding the viewer through an examination of three of Johannes Vermeer's paintings and exploring the "secrets" of his technique. Utilizing the potential of x-ray analysis and infrared reflectography as well as the power of computer technology, the program delves beneath the surface of the paintings to unveil fascinating insights into Vermeer's work. This film celebrates one of the most extraordinary painters in the history of art. Narrated by Meryl Streep, with commentary by Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, and David Bull, conservator. This segment explores the power of the National Gallery's painting A Lady Writing. It examines Vermeer's painting techniques and his use of color.

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Vermeer: Master of Light is a visual pilgrimage in search of what makes a Vermeer a Vermeer. It is a journey of discovery, guiding the viewer through an examination of three of Johannes Vermeer's paintings and exploring the "secrets" of his technique. Utilizing the potential of x-ray analysis and infrared reflectography as well as the power of computer technology, the program delves beneath the surface of the paintings to unveil fascinating insights into Vermeer's work. This film celebrates one of the most extraordinary painters in the history of art. Narrated by Meryl Streep, with commentary by Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, and David Bull, conservator. This segment uses computer technology to illustrate how Vermeer applied the optical principle of the camera obscura while painting Girl with the Red Hat.

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Vermeer: Master of Light is a visual pilgrimage in search of what makes a Vermeer a Vermeer. It is a journey of discovery, guiding the viewer through an examination of three of Johannes Vermeer's paintings and exploring the "secrets" of his technique. Utilizing the potential of x-ray analysis and infrared reflectography as well as the power of computer technology, the program delves beneath the surface of the paintings to unveil fascinating insights into Vermeer's work. This film celebrates one of the most extraordinary painters in the history of art. Narrated by Meryl Streep, with commentary by Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, and David Bull, conservator. This segment uses computer technology to deconstruct The Music Lesson and demonstrate to the viewer how Vermeer has painstakingly placed every object in the painting to achieve his desired result.

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Vermeer: Master of Light is a visual pilgrimage in search of what makes a Vermeer a Vermeer. It is a journey of discovery, guiding the viewer through an examination of three of Johannes Vermeer's paintings and exploring the "secrets" of his technique. Utilizing the potential of x-ray analysis and infrared reflectography as well as the power of computer technology, the program delves beneath the surface of the paintings to unveil fascinating insights into Vermeer's work. This film celebrates one of the most extraordinary painters in the history of art. Narrated by Meryl Streep, with commentary by Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, and David Bull, conservator. This segment analyzes the National Gallery of Art's painting Woman Holding a Balance. With the help of special effects we are able to understand Vermeer's construction of the painting and his complete control of the work.

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The National Gallery of Art has released a new video podcast about the artist and his work and influence. In the podcast, which features more than 50 of Hopper's paintings and watercolors, Senior Curator Franklin Kelly discusses New York City, New England, and the cinema as Hopper saw and portrayed them—and as we view them today through his work. The filming of the pod cast was made possible by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Music composed and performed by Scott Silbert of the US Navy Band. Music engineered by David Morse of the US Navy Band.

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Vermeer: Master of Light is a visual pilgrimage in search of what makes a Vermeer a Vermeer. It is a journey of discovery, guiding the viewer through an examination of three of Johannes Vermeer's paintings and exploring the "secrets" of his technique. Utilizing the potential of x-ray analysis and infrared reflectography as well as the power of computer technology, the program delves beneath the surface of the paintings to unveil fascinating insights into Vermeer's work. This film celebrates one of the most extraordinary painters in the history of art. Narrated by Meryl Streep, with commentary by Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, and David Bull, conservator. This compilation video combines all 5 parts of the Vermeer: Master of Light video podcast series.