News from the Center

Recent updates from the National Gallery’s research institute, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, including events, fellowships, videos, and publications.

Programs

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A castle-like compound surrounded by trees with mountains in the background.

Dawn over the Alhambra, c. 2014, Creative Commons License

Dawn over the Alhambra, c. 2014, Creative Commons License

May 1, 2025 :  Black, White, and All the Reds In Between

Abbey Stockstill is associate professor of Islamic art and architecture at Southern Methodist University and currently Paul Mellon Senior Fellow (2024–2025).

Registration required
A female torso from the neck to the shoulders and knees is carved from white marble in this freestanding sculpture. The body is square toward us in this photograph. The neck is jagged where the head has broken off, and the arms are missing below the shoulders. The leg on our right is broken off above the knee and the other below the knee. Firm, round breasts are above a soft belly and smooth groin. Some areas of the surface are smooth and others are rough, and the marble has darkened to tan in places. The sculpture is supported by a metal rod on our right, and the work rests on a square base. The wall behind is light gray.

April 25, 2025 :  On Beauty and the Divine in Ancient Greece

In this conversation, Center fellows Mary Beard and Hugo Shakeshaft explore the place of beauty in ancient Greece. 

A light-skinned man, woman, boy, and girl, and a brown-skinned man sit and stand around a table spread with papers and a map in this horizontal portrait. The light-skinned man sits on a red upholstered chair at the table to our left, and his body faces our right in profile. His legs are crossed, and he rests his right elbow, closer to us, on the back of the chair. He has a sloping, rounded nose, dark eyes, jowls along his jawline, and his closed mouth juts forward. His left arm rests on an open pamphlet on the table next to a sword with a delicate silver hilt. To our left, the young boy stands also looks to our right in profile, next to the older man's chair. The boy wears a dusky rose-pink suit with a white lacy collar. With his right hand, he pulls back a dark green cloth covering a globe on a wooden stand along the left edge of the canvas. The woman sits at the right side of the table, across from the man. She has dark eyes, full cheeks, a double chin, and her pale lips are closed. She wears a voluminous ivory satin gown and petticoat with a black lace shawl, and an ivory cap with a satin bow covers her gray hair. She points to a spot on a map on the table with a closed fan held in her right hand. The young girl, wearing a gauzy white dress with a pine-green sash at the waist, stands on the far side of the table near the woman, holding the curling edges of the map. Behind the women, the brown-skinned man wears a rust-orange and gray uniform, and stands with one hand tucked into his vest in the shadows at the edge of the composition. His features are indistinct but he faces our left in profile. The room has a gold-and-yellow checkerboard floor, and a red cloth drapes from columns frame the scene to each side. It is unclear whether a river view at the back of the room is seen through an open window or door, or if it is a large painting behind the people.

March 9–30, 2025 :  Mellon Lectures

Cultural historian, architectural designer, and curator Mabel O. Wilson of Columbia University delivers the 74th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts.

March 8, 2025 :  Updating Art History: Women in the Artists’ Academy in Rome

A Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in collaboration with the National Gallery Library.

March 1, 2025 :  Middle Atlantic Symposium

Since 1971 the Center has partnered with the department of art history and archaeology at the University of Maryland to present this even that brings together museum and academic communities and provides a platform for the latest research from graduate students in our region.

Ongoing :  Fellows’ Presentations

Join us in person or online for our research talks by Center professors and senior fellows in residence from September to May. Presentations will begin at 2:00 p.m. on select Thursdays in the West Building Lecture Hall.

Fellowships

Calls for applications and new appointments

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Deadline: March 21, 2025 :  Apply for a Fellowship

We’re currently accepting applications for our visiting senior fellowship program. Applications are due on March 21, 2025.

Appointments :  Visiting Senior and Postdoctoral Fellows

We’re pleased to announce the appointment of seven visiting senior fellows and a visiting postdoctoral fellow. Based in Hungary, Italy, and across the United States, they will join the Center for two-month appointments from March to August 2025.

Appointments :  2024–2025 Academic Year

We’ve announced this year’s appointments, including Mary Beard, award-winning author and professor emerita of the ancient world at University of Cambridge, as Kress-Beinecke Professor.

Videos

Watch recent program recordings and videos featuring members of the Center’s community

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Video :  America’s Architecture of Freedom and Unfreedom

Mabel O. Wilson of Columbia University delivers the 75th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts (2025)

Video:  Blood Joining Blood: The Immersive in Caravaggio’s Malta

Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art presented by Keith Sciberras (2024)

Video:  Latinx Art and the Intimacy of Dislocation

Wyeth Lecture in American Art presented by Roberto Tejada (2023)

Video:  Chasing That Which Is Not Me / Chasing That Which Is Me

The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts presented by Anna Deavere Smith (2024)

Video:  How Does Seurat Connect Pointillism to Workers Rights?

Aruna D’Souza (2022 Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor) discusses works in the National Gallery’s collection that, to her, hold a promise for a better future.

Video:  Artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith Takes on Pop Art

Aruna D’Souza (2022 Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor) discusses works in the National Gallery’s collection that, to her, hold a promise for a better future.

Video:  How Artist Chakaia Booker Turns Car Tires Into Transcendence

Aruna D’Souza (2022 Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor) discusses works in the National Gallery’s collection that, to her, hold a promise for a better future.

Video:  How Eva Hesse’s Sculpture Changed the Face of Minimalism

Aruna D’Souza (2022 Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor) discusses works in the National Gallery’s collection that, to her, hold a promise for a better future.

Publications

New and forthcoming publications, awards, and annual reports

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Annual Report :  Center 44

Record of Activities and Research Reports, June 2023–May 2024

This year, we hosted 43 programs, supported 52 individual projects, and engaged a community of nearly 100 people, from staff to advisory board members to fellows.

Publication:  Black Modernisms in the Translatlantic World

Ten leading scholars broaden our understandings of modernism by centering Black artists and experiences with beautifully illustrated essays.

Publication:  Contact: Art and the Pull of Print

A leading art historian presents a new grammar for understanding the meaning and significance of print.

Publication:  The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s

A vivid historical imagining of life in the early United States.

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The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts is the National Gallery’s research institute. 

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