Release Date: October 15, 2004

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART UNVEILS FALL AND WINTER LECTURE SERIES PROGRAM

Washington, DC--The National Gallery of Art is presenting 20 illustrated lectures as part of its fall and winter lecture series program. Book signings with authors, scholars, and curators will follow several of the presentations. Lectures 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.

October 3
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Artistic Exchange on the Mediterranean Rim: Islamic, Byzantine, and European Art, Part I

Illustrated lectures by noted experts of Islamic, Byzantine, and European medieval and Renaissance art who discuss the remarkable interchanges of these cultures.

Catherine Hess, associate curator, department of sculpture and decorative arts, J. Paul Getty Museum; Scott N. Redford, director, Alanya Program and associate professor, Georgetown University; and Alicia Walker, lecturer, department of art history and archaeology, Columbia University. Moderated by Rosamond E. Mack, independent scholar, Washington, D.C.

October 10
Shaping a Modern History of American Art
2:00-4:00 pm
A panel discussion and book signing will follow.

Noted American art experts discuss the development of American art scholarship and collections of American art. William H. Gerdts, professor emeritus, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Jules David Prown, professor emeritus, department of history of art, Yale University; and Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., curator, Fogg Art Museum, join John Wilmerding, respected and widely known authority on American art, collector, and Christopher Binyon Sarofim ’86 Professor in American Art, Princeton University; and Franklin Kelly, senior curator, American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art.

October 17
2:00 pm
The Photographs of Roger Fenton: A New Starting Point
Books will be available for signing after the lecture.

Sarah Greenough, curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, presents the opening day lecture for the landmark exhibition of the work of Roger Fenton, All the Mighty World: The Photographs of Roger Fenton, 1852-1860

Monday, October 18
12:10 and 1:10 pm
A question and answer session to follow each 30-minute lecture.
East Building Small Auditorium
Noise in Transmission: The Journals of International Dada

Matthew S. Witkowsky, assistant curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, presents new research on the journals of Dada, the literary and artistic movement born in Europe during the horror of World War I. Witkovsky will discuss the various journals of the movement that was officially not a movement, its artists not artists, and its art not art.

Saturday, October 23
11:00 am- 5:00 pm
Dan Flavin Lecture Program

Illustrated lectures by leading scholars and critics in the field including Briony Fer, Hal Foster, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Michael Govan, Alex Potts, and Anne Wagner are followed by a panel discussion moderated by Jeffrey Weiss, curator and head, modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art.

October 24
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Dan Flavin: A Panel Discussion

A public conversation with friends and colleagues of Dan Flavin includes panelists Tiffany Bell, Steve Morse, and Michael Venezia. Moderated by Jeffrey Weiss, curator and head, modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art.

October 31
2:00 pm
Arts of Splendor: Islamic Luxury Goods in Renaissance Italy

Noted Renaissance scholar Rosamond E. Mack, independent scholar, Washington, D.C, will discuss the impact of the glorious art objects of the Islam world that helped to transform Italian Renaissance art. Mack is the acclaimed author of From Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600 (2002).

November 6
11:00 a.m.
A book signing will follow
The Making of "Mosque"

David Macaulay, author-illustrator, architect, professor of illustration at Rhode Island School of Design

November 7
11:15 am – 4:00 pm
A book signing will follow the lecture
Gerard Ter Borch: Contemplating the Interior

Noted specialists of Dutch art, including Alison Kettering, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Art History, Carleton College; Nanette Salomon, associate professor of art history at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York; Arie Wallert, curator, department of paintings, Rijksmuseum; Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., curator, northern Baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art; and Marjorie E. Wieseman, curator of European paintings and sculpture, Cincinnati Art Museum; present this opening day lecture program, which illuminates the exhibition of stunning oils by the Dutch Little Master.

Monday, November 8
12:10 and 1:10 pm
30-minute lectures followed by question and answer sessions
East Building Small Auditorium
‘The colony of colonies’: The Forest of Fontainebleau and the Rise of Modern Landscape Painting in France

Kimberly A. Jones, associate curator, French paintings, National Gallery of Art, gives an illustrated presentation describing new research for the upcoming exhibition on this little known aspect of French art.

November 14
2:00 pm
Eighth Annual Lecture in Tribute to Sydney J. Freedberg
The Third Italian Renaissance: Art of the Lombard Plain

Charles Dempsey, professor of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, The Johns Hopkins University, presents an illustrated lecture addressing the flowering of painting in northern Italy, "the third cradle" of the Italian Renaissance after Florence and Rome.

Saturday, November 20
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Artistic Exchange on the Mediterranean Rim: Islamic, Byzantine, and European Art, Part II

Julian Raby, director, Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; David J. Roxburgh, professor of the history of art and architecture, Harvard University; and William L. Tronzo, professor of art history, Tulane University – noted experts of Islamic, Byzantine, and European medieval and Renaissance art– present illustrated lectures and discuss the remarkable interchanges of these cultures. Moderated by Massumeh Farhad, chief curator and curator of Islamic art, Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

November 21
2:00 pm
American Artists in the City of Light (1870-1914) and the Paris Nocturne

Noted speaker S. Hollis Clayson, professor of art history, Northwestern University, will walk the audience through the night scenes of Paris with both famous and little-known illustrations. Paris was a great magnet for American painters in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

November 28
2:00 pm
Mimesis and Melancholy: Paradoxes of Seventeenth-century Dutch Art
Claudia Swan, associate professor of art history, Northwestern University.

Artists in seventeenth-century Holland produced thousands of paintings which were masterpieces of mimesis, or imitation. Many copy the content of the original–including the natural world–, and introduced the time’s "best modes of expression," including melancholy. Arrangement and style were considered simultaneously by the artists, resulting in some of the best-loved works of Holland’s Golden Age.

Saturday, December 4
2:00 pm
A book signing will follow.
Celebrating "National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection"

Book launch of the new, lavish overview of the Gallery’s masterpieces, authored by curator John Oliver Hand. Alan Shestack, deputy director, will introduce the program of illustrated talks by Hand, and other Gallery curators, Philip Conisbee and Kimberly A. Jones.

December 5
2:00 pm
The Art of Portraiture in the Contemporary Anti-Mafia Italian Martyr Film

Millicent Marcus, Mariano DiVito Professor of Italian Studies and Director of the Center for Italian Studies, University of Pennsylvania. Illustrated lecture followed by showing of One Hundred Steps (I cento passi) (Marco Tulio Giordana, 2000).

Monday, December 6
12:10 and 1:10 pm
East Building Small Auditorium
The Great War Re-remembered: The De-composition of the 'Panthéon de la Guerre' Panorama

Mark Levitch, graduate curatorial intern, modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. Illustrated lectures (30 mins.) showcasing new research on a once-fabulously popular painting which toured the world after the Great War. Question and answer session to follow.

Saturday, December 11
1:30 pm
A book signing will follow.
"Romare Bearden" Photographs by Frank Stewart

David C. Driskell, distinguished professor emeritus of art, University of Maryland, introduces Frank Stewart, senior staff photographer at Jazz at Lincoln Center, who presents an illustrated lecture.

December 12
2:00 pm
A question and answer session and book signing will follow the lecture.
Misinterpreting and Interpreting Renaissance Portraits: Reflections Arising from the New Catalogue of Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in the National Gallery in London

Nicholas Penny, senior curator of sculpture, National Gallery of Art, will provide an insider’s view including new discoveries about the world famous London collection.

December 19
2:00 pm
Books will be available for signing after the lecture.
Joos van Cleve and Painting in Antwerp in the Sixteenth Century
John Oliver Hand, curator, northern renaissance paintings, National Gallery of Art.

Although Joos van Cleve is not a household name today, his paintings are actually widely known throughout the world – as favorite images reproduced on Christmas cards and postage stamps. The illustrated lecture will introduce this fascinating figure to the public. A book signing will follow, just in time for Christmas!

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

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