Release Date: January 9, 2009
The National Gallery of Art opens 2009 with an engaging array of public lecture programs. Legendary photographer Robert Frank appears in connection with the exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans," while Viccy Coltman, senior lecturer in the history of art at the University of Edinburgh, discusses the rediscovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii in relation to the exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples. Two public symposia featuring noted scholars provide deeper insights on both of these special exhibitions.
In addition to lectures by many of the Gallery's own curators and experts, the Gallery presents Jonathan Lopez, historian and author of The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren, and Paul Sanderson, producer and director ofAugustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture. Later in the spring, Timothy James Clark, George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair and professor of the history of art at University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the Fifty-eighth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts in a series entitled "Picasso and Truth."
All lecture programs are free and take place on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. in the East Building Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis.
Public Symposia
Robert Frank and the Photographic Book,
1930–1960
Saturday,
January 24, 1:00–5:00 p.m.
Illustrated lectures by noted
scholars, including Stephen Brooke, Martin Gasser, Olivier Lugon, and Alan
Trachtenberg
Roman Art and Culture on the Bay of Naples
Friday, March 20, 11:00
a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 21, 1:00–5:00
p.m.
Illustrated lectures by noted scholars,
including John Bodel, Lucilla Burn, Faya Causey, John R. Clarke, Bjoern Ewald,
Nathalie Kampen, Barbara Kellum, Miranda Marvin, Rebecca Molholt, John Pollini
and Hérica Valladares
Elson Lecture
A Conversation with Robert Frank
Thursday, March 26 at 3:30 p.m.
Robert Frank, photographer, in conversation
with Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs,
National Gallery of Art
Lecture Series
The Collecting of African American Art
A Historical Overview
February 8
Jacqueline Francis, independent scholar
Preserving the Legacy of Excellence
February 15
Raymond J. McGuire, collector, in conversation with Ruth Fine,
curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art
The Art of Collecting
February 22
Harmon and Harriet Kelley, collectors, in conversation with
Deborah Willis, Tisch School of the Arts, New York
University
The Fifty-eighth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
Picasso and Truth
Sundays, 2:00 p.m.
The Fifty-eighth A. W. Mellon Lecture series will be presented
by Timothy James Clark, George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair
and professor of the history of art, University of California, Berkeley
March 22: Object
March 29: Room
April 5: Window
April 19: Monster
April 26: Monument
May 3: Mural
Works in Progress: Mondays
East Building Small Auditorium, 12:10 and
1:10 p.m.
Who was Edgar Wind—and Why Does
It Matter?
January 26
Debra Pincus, independent scholar
Maria Sibylla Merian Flipped
February 2
Peter Parshall, curator and head of the department of old master
prints, National Gallery of Art
Italian Futurism and the Legacy of the Milanese Scapigliatura
February 9
David Gariff, lecturer, National Gallery of Art
"The Fall of Phaeton": Exploring Rubens' Creative Process
through an Interactive Web Feature
March 30
Melanie Gifford, research conservator, and John Gordy, Web
manager, National Gallery of Art
Tempests on Metal: Tornado Paintings on Copper by Jeff Wilson
April 20
Jeff Wilson, graphics designer, design department, National
Gallery of Art
Alma Thomas' "Red Rose Cantata"
May 11
Lea-Ann Bigelow, financial manager, office of the treasurer,
National Gallery of Art
Old Topographics: Charles Marville in
Haussmann's Paris
May 18
Sarah Kennel, assistant curator of photographs, National Gallery
of Art
SUNDAY LECTURES
The Man Who Made Vermeers: Han
van Meegeren's Life in Forgery
January 11
Jonathan Lopez, writer and historian
Followed by book signing of The
Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van
Meegeren
Transforming Destiny into Awareness: Robert Frank's "The
Americans"
January 18
Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department
of photographs, National Gallery of Art
Conversations with Authors: Michael Fried on Photography,
Modernism, and the Importance of Not Losing Faith in the Dialectic
January 25
Michael Fried, J. R. Herbert Boone Professor of Humanities,
The Johns Hopkins University, in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator
and of head the department of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery
of Art
Book signing of Why Photography Matters as Art as Never
Before follows
City Views: Pride and Prosperity in the Dutch Golden Age
February 1
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings,
National Gallery of Art
Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture
February
15 at 12:00 noon
Introduction to the film by Paul Sanderson, producer
and director
Is Anything New Under the Sun? Environmental Quality around
the Bay of Naples in AD 79 and the Present Day
March 1
Mark Walters, environmental consultant and write
The Society of Dilettanti: Grecian Taste and Roman Spirit
March 8
Bruce Redford, professor of art history and English, Boston
University
Followed by book signing of Dilettanti: The Antic and the
Antique in Eighteenth-Century England
Art and Nature in Eighteenth-Century Naples: From the Rediscovery
of Herculaneum and Pompeii to Emma Hamilton's Attitudes
March 15
Viccy Coltman,
senior lecturer in the history of art, School of Arts, Culture, and Environment,
University of Edinburgh
Images of Friendship from Renaissance Florence: From Dante
to Michelangelo
April 12
Dale Kent, professor of history, University of California,
Riverside
Painting the Poor: Manet's "Old
Musician" in Context
May 10
John House, Samuel H. Kress Professor, Center for Advanced
Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art
Luis Meléndez: Marvelous Works of Nature Revealed
May 17
Gretchen A. Hirschauer, associate curator of Italian and Spanish
paintings, and Catherine A. Metzger, senior conservator of paintings, National
Gallery of Art
General Information
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times
free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd
and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through
Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00
p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information
call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD)
at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.
Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon
entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and
located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented
at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray
screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances.
For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried
into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot
be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in
the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by
the Gallery or its checkrooms.
For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:
Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov
Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov
If you are a member of the press and would like to be added to our press list, click here.