Talks & Conversations

Paper Made: Artists’ Inventive Explorations of the Fine Art of Paper

The image depicts many small paper circles with hand-written numbers attached to a canvas. The circles are densely clustered over a yellowish rectangular canvas. Each paper circle has a handwritten number. The arrangement of the circles creates a textured surface with a sense of depth and complexity.
Howardena Pindell, Untitled, #20, 1974, collage with hole-punched paper dots, pen and black ink, monofilament, and talcum powder on oak tag paper, Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, 2007.6.303

Join us to explore the creative possibilities of paper through the National Gallery’s collection of art and artist materials. Shelley Langdale, curator and head of modern and contemporary prints and drawings, will highlight works made primarily of paper. Amy Hughes, head of paper conservation, will share our little-known but fascinating collection of artist papers and materials. This important resource helps us understand how artists choose papers based on the touch, texture, and flexibility, as well as color, tone, and translucency. 

Held as part of Rooted in Fiber: Celebrating 40 Years of Hand Papermaking Magazine, an annual conference organized by North American Hand Papermakers featuring demos, workshops, lectures, and discussions led by Papermaking artists, scholars and practitioners. This talk is free and open to the public. 

You may also like

Talks & Conversations:  Poetry Writing Workshop: María Fernanda on Language

–
This is a painting of a person surrounded by abstract forms. The person is facing the right, and they have pale skin, high cheekbones, and pink lips. They appear to be wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a thick white collared shirt. One of their hands is visible, clenched in a fist and resting on a brown table. To the right of the person is a white shape that looks like a four-pointed star. Behind the person are similarly abstract swirls of red, blue, and white.

virtual

Talks & Conversations:  The Art of Looking: David Alfaro Sinqueiros, Self-Portrait 

–
Registration Required
An armored man on horseback hands a piece of emerald-green cloth down to the nearly nude man standing next to him in this slightly stylized, vertical painting. Both men have light skin, and they, along with the horse, nearly fill the composition. To our right, the bright white horse stands angled to our right with the front left hoof raised. It has a smoke-gray mane, and wears a black bridle. The man riding the horse has short, copper-blond hair and a long face with a pointed chin. He looks down at the ground with dark eyes under black, arched brows. He has a long, thin nose, and his small lips are closed and framed by the faint suggestion of a mustache. He wears a white ruff pleated into figure-eights over his high-necked armor, which is liberally outlined and decorated with gold against the pewter-colored plates. He grips the voluminous, green cape in one hand and holds a sword in the other, down by the leg we can see. The cleanshaven man next to him, to our left, looks off to our right in profile. He has close-cropped, dark hair and smooth skin. His lips are parted, and he tips his head slightly away from us. He holds the green cloth with the hand closer to the horse and gestures down with his other pointer finger, in front of his hip. A white cloth bandage is wrapped around one shin, and he rests his weight on the other leg. The horse and man stand on a curving spit of brown earth. A spring-green landscape dips down behind them, running low near the bottom edge of the painting. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the composition, and fog-gray and white clouds create thin screens across the topaz-blue sky. The loose brushstrokes are visible in some areas, especially in the landscape and clothing. The artist signed his name in Greek near the lower right corner.

Talks & Conversations:  Finding Awe: El Greco’s Saint Martin and the Beggar 

–
Registration Required