National Gallery of Art

Agnès Varda Viewing Art

April 4 – 12, 2020

Belgian-born pioneer of the French nouvelle vague, Agnès Varda died in 2019 at the age of ninety. Her celebrated filmography signifies not only her agency as a woman in the male-dominated realm of midcentury European cinema but also an endless interest in the arts as subject matter. From her student days at the École du Louvre and École des Beaux-Arts, Varda engaged with the arts on many levels; the space of the museum and culture of the art world, combined with her quirky poetry, were frequent motifs. The filmmaker's later multimedia installations were often featured in galleries. This program includes assorted Varda films that contemplate art — as object, as metaphor, as inspiration — and complements a simultaneous Agnès Varda retrospective at the AFI in Silver Spring.