The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
Detail of wall painting, c. 1220–1230, St. Johann, Taufers im Münstertal, South Tyrol, Italy. Photo: Martin Schwarz
Inaugurated in 1949, the Mellon Lectures is the longest-running lecture series at the National Gallery of Art. The series was founded “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.” Past lecturers have included art historians, artists, poets, and musicologists.
Beginning May 3, 2026, award-winning medievalist Aden Kumler of Universität Basel will focus on difficulty as an aesthetic strategy, value, and theme in medieval European art in the four-part series, In Praise of Difficulty: Ambiguity, Aesthetics, and the Work of Art in Medieval Europe.
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