Release Date: September 30, 2005

National Gallery of Art Unveils 2005-2006 Fall and winter Lecture Series Program

The National Gallery of Art’s 2005-2006 Fall and Winter Lecture Program includes lectures and signings with authors of recently published books; lectures on current exhibitions and recent art and film research; and in-depth presentations on major artists, works of art, and printmaking. Lectures scheduled through December 2005 are listed below. All presentations are illustrated and are free and open to the public. Seating is offered on a first-come, first-seated basis. Unless otherwise noted, all programs are on Sundays at 2:00 p.m., in the East Building Auditorium. For the most up-to-date- information about these programs, visit www.nga.gov/programs/lecture.htm.

EXHIBITION-RELATED LECTURES

October 9
2:00 p.m.
The Beginnings of Image Printing in Europe
Peter Parshall, the Gallery’s curator of old master prints, introduces the newly-opened exhibition Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public. It is the first major international exhibition to be devoted to the earliest images printed on paper in the Western world.

November 13
2:00 p.m.
The Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art:
Illuminated Choral Manuscripts of the Italian Renaissance
Jonathan J.G. Alexander, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, is an expert on Italian manuscript illumination. This is the ninth lecture offered by the Gallery in a series named after the great specialist of Italian art,
Sydney J. Freedberg. The subject of this year’s lecture coincides with the newly opened exhibition, Masterpieces in Miniature: Italian Manuscript Illumination from the J. Paul Getty Museum.

November 27
2:00 p.m.
The Still Lifes of Pieter Claesz: Visual Feasts That Delight the Eye and Whet the Appetite
Arthur K. Wheelock, curator, northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art

Food in Pieter Claesz’s Paintings: Reflections of Reality?
Peter G. Rose, author and food historian

Just in time for the season of feasting! This two-part lecture program presents the newly opened exhibition of still life masterpieces by Claesz and a mouth-watering appreciation of the imagery. Leave room for dessert!

December 18
2:00 p.m.
Looking at Winslow Homer's Watercolors
Barbara Ernst Prey, artist, and Judy Walsh, associate professor of paper conservation, Buffalo State University, New York, discuss how Homer worked and the impact of his choice of papers and technique on the finished products.

LECTURES WITH BOOK SIGNINGS

Saturday, November 19
12:00 noon
New Art City: Adventures among the Painters and Poets of Mid-Century Manhattan
Jed Perl, art critic, The New Republic and author of New Art City, will discuss his new book, which explores art and culture in mid-20th-century New York City. Through a combination of social history, biographical portraiture, and criticism, Perl addresses the work of such figures as Jackson Pollock, David Smith, Willem de Kooning, Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol, and Donald Judd.

Saturday, December 3
2:00 p.m.
Champion of the Avant-Garde: Katharine Kuh and the New York School
Avis Berman, writer and art historian, will discuss her new book on this great figure of 20th-century art. Katharine Kuh (1904–1994) was a pioneering curator, critic, and writer, who devoted much of her career to the advocacy of modern art. The lecture will reprise various episodes from Kuh’s life and career and focus on her close relationships with artists Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Franz Kline, and other members of the New York School. The illustrated presentation will include photographs of Kuh and the artists she knew, as well as relevant works of art.

December 11
2:00 p.m.
The Domenichino Affair: Novelty, Imitation, and Theft in Seventeenth-Century Rome
Elizabeth Cropper, dean, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art

Imitation was the basis of artistic invention and education for centuries. How was it possible then for the painter Giovanni Lanfranco to accuse his Bolognese contemporary Domenichino of having stolen the idea for his altarpiece, The Last Communion of St. Jerome, from another artist? Cropper will lecture and read from her new book, The Domenichino Affair, which examines this issue in the context of the obsession with novelty in early 17th-century Italy, and considers its reverberations into the 20th century, and its implications for the history of art.

Saturday, December 17
12:00 noon
The Story of a Missing Caravaggio
Jonathan Harr, best-selling author of A Civil Action, and more recently The Lost Painting reads from his latest book and talks about Caravaggio’s long-lost painting The Taking of Christ, both its mysterious fate and the circumstances of its disappearance. Caravaggio scholars estimate that between 60 and 80 of the artist’s works are in existence today; many others have been lost to time.

NEW RESEARCH IN ART HISTORY

October 16
2:00 p.m.
The Art of Frank Lloyd Wright
What did one of America’s greatest architects collect? Anthony Alofsin, Roland Roessner Centennial Professor, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, presents his recent research on Frank Lloyd Wright’s art collection.

October 23
2:00 p.m.
Renaissance Art Discovers the Icon
Alexander Nagel, Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, presents a re-evaluation of how Byzantine art was received by Italian Renaissance artists and collectors as a part of his look at “Alternative Antiquities in the High Renaissance.”

October 30
2:00 p.m.
Rethinking the European Installations at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ronni Baer, senior curator of European paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston discusses the new installation of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts in the venerable Boston institution, giving the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges presented by a major museum reinstallation.

November 6
2:00 p.m.
Titian Paints Isabella d’Este
What is behind Titian’s brilliant portrayal of Isabella d’Este, one of the most powerful rulers of Renaissance Italy? Joanna Woods-Marsden, professor of art history, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of numerous publications on Renaissance portraiture, presents the audience a new look at a superb portrait.

November 20
2:00 p.m.
Rediscovering a French Romantic Artist: Félicie de Fauveau
Independent scholar Charles Janoray demonstrates that it is still possible to rediscover a “new” artist, in this case a French sculptor of enormous range living in exile in Italy, who enjoyed a great following during her lifetime.

December 4
2:00 p.m.
Louis Malle's Reinventions
Margarita de la Vega-Hurtado, executive director, International Film Seminars, presents an illustrated lecture. A film will follow.

MONDAY LUNCHTIME LECTURES

October 17
12:10 and 1:10
East Building Small Auditorium
Elephants Bearing Ladies in a Fifteenth-Century Italian Pageant and an Eastern Manuscript
The rich artistic interchange between the Islamic world and Europe is illuminated by imagery such as the paintings and manuscripts that will be discussed by Washington, DC-based independent scholar Rosamond E. Mack, author of Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300–1600.

October 31
12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
East Building Small Auditorium
Monuments of Modernity: George Bellows’ Excavated City
Sarah Newman, graduate curatorial intern, National Gallery of Art, discusses her recent research on Bellows’ iconic picture of New York at the turn of the 20th century.

November 14
12:10 and 1:10 pm
East Building Small Auditorium
The Mermaid in the Study: Renaissance Bronzes of Hybrid Sea Creatures
Fantastic sea creatures abound in the Renaissance art of Venice and its subject city Padua. Alison Luchs, the Gallery’s curator of early European sculpture, is working on a book on the subject, and will discuss the purposes and meanings of some bronze examples in the Gallery’s collection.

December 5
12:10 and 1:10 pm
East Building Small Auditorium
The Art of the Name: Some Sixteenth-Century Italian Artists’ Names
What’s in a name? Names reveal status, style, place of origin, and even sexuality. In this lecture, Robert G. LaFrance, research associate, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, explores the relationship between some Italian Renaissance artists’ names and their practices.

December 12
12:10 and 1:10 pm
East Building Small Auditorium
From Jerusalem to Paris with the Volto Santo of Lucca
Areli Marina, visiting assistant professor, department of art, music, and theater, Georgetown University

The miracle-working statue of the crucified Christ known as the Volto Santo of Lucca offers the faithful a vision of God here on earth. Areli Marina examines a lavishly illustrated but little-known Vatican Library manuscript which recounts the image’s history from its legendary supernatural origins in first-century Jerusalem to its cult among Parisian courtiers at the dawn of the Renaissance.

CHRISTIAN IMAGERY IN EUROPEAN ART LECTURES

Christian Imagery in European Art
J. Russell Sale
10:15 a.m.
East Building Auditorium
This six-part series, held on Friday mornings, provides a context for better understanding religious art in the National Gallery of Art’s collections by exploring major themes and symbols from the Old and New Testaments, as developed in imagery from the rise of Christianity through the seventeenth century.

October 7
10:15 a.m.
Adam, Eve, and the Patriarchs

October 21
10:15 a.m.
Heroes and Heroines of the Old Testament

October 28
10:15 a.m.
Images of the Youth and Public Ministry of Jesus

November 4
10:15 a.m.
Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus

November 11
Mary, Angels, and the Saints

November 18
More Saints and the Last Judgment

BEHIND THE SCENES LECTURE SERIES

October 27 and 29
12:00 noon
West Building Lecture Hall
Being Buhot: Discovering a Master Printmaker’s Process
Gregory Jecmen, assistant curator, old master prints, National Gallery of Art
Marian Dirda, paper conservator, National Gallery of Art
Kimberly Schenck, director of conservation and paper conservator, The Baltimore Museum of Art
In this series, lecturers present illustrated talks that give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into ongoing projects and programs at the Gallery.

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.

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phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

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