Minstrelsy “Uncorked”: Thomas Eakins’ Empathetic Realism
Wyeth Lecture in American Art, 2009

The lecture focuses on Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) as uniquely empathetic among the many 19th-century artists who depicted African American performance and entertainment. Eakins’ Negro Boy Dancing (1887; Metropolitan Museum of Art) shows a young banjo player, an elderly teacher, and an adolescent dancer, evoking the American rage for the form of musical theater known as minstrelsy. Eakins' watercolor, along with two oil-on-board studies at the National Gallery of Art, challenged the tendency of minstrelsy to employ racial ridicule and physical exaggeration. Instead, Powell argues, Eakins adhered to a painterly realism as well as his own brand of empathy and ethics.
Discover more

Video: Print Like a Great: Elizabeth Catlett
What happens when legacy, artistry, and womanhood collide? LaToya Hobbs creates a stunning woodcut portrait of Naima Mora, inspired by the life and work of legendary printmaker Elizabeth Catlett—Naima’s own grandmother.

Video: End as Beginning: Chinese Art and Dynastic Time
The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts presented by Wu Hung (2019)

Video: Master Printmaker LaToya Hobbs Creates a Woodblock Print Inspired by Elizabeth Catlett
Master printmaker LaToya Hobbs creates a woodblock print portrait of Naima Mora, referencing the sculpture Naima created by Elizabeth Catlett.