Release Date: September 22, 2017

National Gallery of Art 2017–2018 Fall and Winter Lecture Series Brings Together Renowned Artists, Authors, Scholars, Philanthropists, Historians, and Teachers; Book Signings Feature Highly Anticipated Publications

A book signing of Carrie Mae Weems: Kitchen Table Series follows Carrie Mae Weems’ lecture at the National Gallery of Art on October 17, noon, in the East Building Auditorium.

Washington, DC—The National Gallery of Art fall and winter lecture and book-signing program—September 2017 through February 2018—will present more than 35 talks by renowned artists, scholars, curators, and historians discussing new releases about or by well-known artists, philanthropists, scholars, and historical activists. Book signings will follow many of the lectures.

Diverse lectures include Bunny Mellon: The Pursuit of Perfection (Meryl Gordon, director of magazine writing, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University); Calder: The Conquest of Time: A Conversation with Jed Perl and Alexander S. C. Rower (Jed Perl, author and contributor, The New York Review of Books; Alexander S. C. Rower, Calder's grandson and president, Calder Foundation); Kitchen Table Series (Carrie Mae Weems, artist); and Leonardo da Vinci Walter Isaacson, author, and president and chief executive officer, The Aspen Institute).

Other events include the public symposium Edgar Degas (1834–1917): A Centenary Tribute, with a keynote address by independent scholar Richard Kendall and illustrated lectures by other scholars, including art historian Anne Pingeot; Fashion à la Figaro: Spanish Style on the French Stage by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, fashion historian; Anne Truitt in Washington: A Conversation with James Meyer and Alexandra Truitt (James Meyer, curator of art, 1945–1974, National Gallery of Art, and Alexandra Truitt, independent photo editor and picture researcher, and manager, Estate of Anne Truitt); Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art by Noah Charney, author, adjunct professor of art history, American University of Rome and University of Ljubljana, and founder, Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA); and many more.  

Works in Progress, the Gallery's half-hour, midday or lunchtime series held in the West Building Lecture Hall on Mondays, highlights new research by Gallery staff, interns, fellows, and special guests. The 30-minute talks are followed by question-and-answer periods.

Lectures are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-seated basis. Unless otherwise noted, all programs take place in the East Building Auditorium. The East Building of the National Gallery of Art is located at Fourth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Please visit nga.gov/podcasts for lecture recordings.

Schedule of Lectures and Book Signings

Edvard Munch: Spiritualism, Science, and Color
September 10 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Edvard Munch: Color in Context

Valerie Hellstein, independent scholar, and Elizabeth Prelinger, Keyser Family Professor of Art History and Modern Art, Georgetown University, in conversation with Mollie Berger, curatorial assistant, department of prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art

Kevin Beasley
Kevin Beasley, artist
September 17 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Kevin Beasley creates sculptures and performances out of found objects of cultural and personal significance—anything from housedresses and do-rags to Air Jordan sneakers and football helmets. He combines these with polyurethane foam and resin, mashing, squeezing, or ripping them to create new, sometimes haunting forms. Sometimes he embeds audio equipment in his sculptures, making them listen or speak.
This program is conceived and made possible by Darryl Atwell.

Public Symposium: Edgar Degas (1834–1917): A Centenary Tribute
September 22
10:30 to 5:00
East Building Auditorium

Introduction by Mary Morton, curator and head off the department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art; keynote address by Richard Kendall, independent art historian and curator. Illustrated lectures by other independent scholars and Gallery staff.
A book signing of Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History, Volume 3: Degas follows.

Steps toward Reality: Matthias Mansen in Conversation with John Tyson
Matthias Mansen, artist, and John A. Tyson, assistant professor of art, University of Massachusetts Boston
September 24 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Mansen advances the tradition of woodblock printing by transforming pieces of scavenged wood into printing blocks, which he progressively carves and recarves, using them to create large-scale compositions. The special installation Matthias Mansen: Configurations, on view December 13, 2017, presents thirteen woodcuts from the National Gallery of Art's collection. In this conversation, Mansen and Tyson discuss the artist's career, his distinctive process, and the impact of research on subjects from cartography to the U.S. Exploring Expedition on his artworks.

Fray: Art and Textile Politics: A Conversation with Julia Bryan-Wilson and Lynne Cooke
October 1 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Julia Bryan-Wilson, associate professor of modern and contemporary art, University of California, Berkeley, and Lynne Cooke, senior curator, special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
A book signing of Fray: Art and Textile Politics follows.

Charles Le Brun—Louis XIV's Most Powerful Artist
October 6 at 3:30
East Building Auditorium

Wolf Burchard, furniture research curator, National Trust, England
A book signing of The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV follows.

Introduction to the Exhibition—Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures
October 8 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium
Yuriko Jackall, assistant curator, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art
A signing of the exhibition catalog Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures follows.

Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art
October 12 at 3:30
East Building Auditorium

Noah Charney, author, adjunct professor of art history, American University of Rome and University of Ljubljana, and founder, Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA)
A book signing of Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art follows.

Bunny Mellon: The Pursuit of Perfection
October 15 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Meryl Gordon, director of magazine writing, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University, and author of The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark (2014) and Mrs. Astor Regrets: The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach (2008).
A book signing of Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend follows.

Carrie Mae Weems: Kitchen Table Series    
Carrie Mae Weems, artist
October 17 at noon
East Building Auditorium
A book signing of Carrie Mae Weems: Kitchen Table Series follows.
This program is made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.
This program is coordinated with Now Be Here #4, DMV, the fourth and final US iteration of a project to gather female and female-identifying visual artists for a group photograph of historic proportions.

Introduction to the Exhibition—Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry
October 22 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Adriaan Waiboer, head of collections and research, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art
A livestream of the lecture will be available in additional locations in the Gallery and at nga.gov/live.
A signing of the exhibition catalog, Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting, follows.

Wyeth Lectures in American Art
Established in 2003, the Wyeth Lecture in American Art is a biennial event hosted by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, and supported by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Wyeth lecturers are chosen on the basis of their outstanding contributions to the study of and scholarship on American art.

The Panorama and the Globe
Expanding the American Landscape in World War II
October 25, 4:30–6:00
West Building, Lecture Hall

Cécile Whiting, University of California, Irvine, focuses her research primarily on American art of the mid-twentieth century, as evidenced by the three books she has published: Antifascism in American Art (Yale, 1989), A Taste for Pop: Pop Art, Gender, and Consumer Culture (Cambridge, 1997), and Pop L.A.: Art and the City in the 1960s (Berkeley, 2006). Her most recent book was awarded the 21st Charles C. Eldredge Prize, awarded annually by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for outstanding scholarship in the field of American Art.

Amy Sherald
Amy Sherald, artist
October 29 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Sherald paints dynamic portraits designed to divulge an erudite understanding of the psychological consequences of stereotyping and racism. In 2016, Sherald was the first woman to win the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition grand prize from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. In her lecture, Sherald discusses her career, artistic process, and latest projects.
Held in conjunction with Now Be Here: Now Let's Talk, the fourth and final US iteration of a project to gather female and female-identifying visual artists for a group photograph of historic proportions

Calder: The Conquest of Time: A Conversation with Jed Perl and Alexander S. C. Rower
November 5 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium
Jed Perl, author of Calder: The Conquest of Time, and contributor, The New York Review of Books Alexander S. C. Rower, Alexander Calder's grandson and president, Calder Foundation
A book signing of Calder: The Conquest of Time: The Early Years: 1898–1940 follows.

Michelangelo Pistoletto
Michelangelo Pistoletto, artist
November 6 at 1:00
East Building Auditorium

Michelangelo Pistoletto is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist, who is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera, a contemporary art movement.
A book signing of Michelangelo Pistoletto: The Minus Objects 1965–1966 follows.  

Leonardo da Vinci
November 6 at 3:30
East Building Auditorium

Walter Isaacson is president and chief executive officer of The Aspen Institute, the former chairman and CEO of Cable News Network (CNN) and the managing editor of Time. He is a writer, journalist, and author of biographies about Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Henry Kissinger.
A book signing of Leonardo da Vinci follows.  

Anne Truitt in Washington: A Conversation with James Meyer and Alexandra Truitt
Alexandra Truitt, independent photo editor and picture researcher, and manager, Estate of Anne Truitt
James Meyer, curator of art, 1945–1974, National Gallery of Art
November 19 at noon
East Building Auditorium

Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art
The Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art features distinguished scholars present­ing original research. This annual lecture series offered by the National Gallery of Art began in 1997 and is named after the great specialist of Italian art Sydney J. Freedberg (1914–1997). Professor Freedberg earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1940, where he taught for 29 years until he was appointed chief curator of the National Gallery of Art in 1983.

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice? Titian's Portrait of Clarice Strozzi
Beverly Louise Brown, The Warburg Institute
November 19, 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Beverly Louise Brown is a fellow of the Warburg Institute, London. After teaching at Wellesley College as well as Brown, Harvard, and Princeton Universities, she served as a curator of southern baroque painting at the National Gallery of Art and as assistant director of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. The recipient of fellowships and awards from the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society, she was appointed visiting professor at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University's Center for Renaissance Studies (1998 – 1999). She has published widely on Italian Renaissance and baroque art, looking recently at the depiction of antique sculpture in the work of Bellini and Titian. Brown has organized numerous exhibitions, including The Age of Correggio and the Carracci (1986), Veronese (1988), Jacopo Bassano (1993), Giambattista Tiepolo: Master of the Oil Sketch (1993), Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer, and Titian (1999), and The Genius of Rome (2001).

Fashion à la Figaro: Spanish Style on the French Stage
November 26 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, fashion historian
The 2012 discovery of a drawing by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) depicting his so-called fantasy figures is the inspiration for a revelatory exhibition of the corresponding paintings—rapidly executed, brightly colored portraits of lavishly costumed individuals, including the National Gallery of Art's Young Girl Reading (c. 1769). In this lecture, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell explores the profound effects that Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais's Figarotrilogy had on French fashion.
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures

A Century Gone By: American Art and the First World War
December 10 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

David M. Lubin, Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art, Wake Forest University, and Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor 2016–2017, Oxford University
A book signing of Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War follows.  

Johannes Vermeer: An Artist of His Time Yet Timeless
January 7 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art

Suffering, Struggle, Survival: The Activism, Artistry, and Authorship of Frederick Douglass
February 25 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Celeste-Marie Bernier—professor of black studies and personal chair in English literature, School of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures, University of Edinburgh, and coeditor in chief, Journal of American Studies, Cambridge University Press
A book signing of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (anniversary edition, 2018); Pictures and Power: Imaging and Imagining Frederick Douglass 1818–2018; and Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century's Most Photographed American follows.    

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.

The Art of Working with Visitors with Memory Loss: A New Gallery Program
September 18 at 12:10 and 1:10
West Building, Lecture Hall

Lorena Bradford, head of accessible programs, education division, National Gallery of Art, shares insights and lessons learned during the pilot phase of Just Us at the National Gallery of Art, the new and inspiring education program designed for people with memory loss and their care partners.
Held in conjunction with the new education program Just Us at the National Gallery of Art

Picnic Ware Fit for a Feast
Giovanni Bellini (1430/1435–1516) and Titian's (1488/1490–1576) The Feast of the Gods
September 25 at 12:10 and 1:10
West Building, Lecture Hall
Rosamond Mack, independent scholar
Giovanni Bellini (1430/1435–1516) and Titian's (1488/1490–1576) The Feast of the Gods is one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in the United States by two fathers of Venetian art. Mack will discuss how Bellini lavished unprecedented attention on vessels and containers in the painting, which range from common Venetian wares to rare exotic imports.

Frederick Douglass and the Visual Arts in Washington, DC
October 2 at 12:10 and 1:10
West Building, Lecture Hall

Sarah Cash, associate curator, department of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Ka'mal McClarin, museum curator, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Collection, National Park Service

Innovation, Competition, and Fine Painting Technique: Marketing High-Life Style in the Dutch 17th Century
October 30 at 12:10 and 1:10
West Building, Lecture Hall

Melanie Gifford, research conservator, National Gallery of Art
Lisha Glinsman, conservation scientist, National Gallery of Art

More than Mimicry: The Parrot in Dutch Genre Painting
November 20 at 12:10 and 1:10
West Building, Lecture Hall

Kristen H. Gonzalez, curatorial assistant, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry

Time and Temporality in 17th-Century Dutch Genre Painting
December 18 at 12:10 and 1:10
West Building, Lecture Hall

Alexandra Libby, assistant curator, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry

New Technical Research on the Tomb of Mary of Burgundy
February 12 at 12:10 and 1:10
East Building, Small Auditorium

Emily Pegues, curatorial assistant, department of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art, and Dylan Smith, Robert H. Smith Research Conservator, department of object conservation, National Gallery of Art