Release Date: September 4, 2015

Fall Lecture Program Highlights Artists Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Luster, Exhibitions, the Vermeer Phenomenon, and More

Artist Carrie Mae Weems. Photo courtesy Jerry Kleinberg, 2011

Washington, DC—The advent of fall brings to the National Gallery of Art a fresh new program of lectures given by distinguished artists and scholars. Highlights include artists Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Luster, as well as programming in honor of the 1995-1996 blockbuster exhibition Johannes Vermeer and 2015 exhibitions Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye; Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638); Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World; The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund; and The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L.

The Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series provides a forum for distinguished artists to discuss the genesis and evolution of their work in their own words. On Saturday, September 12, at 2:00 p.m., Carrie Mae Weems will present a lecture on her artistic practice and career. Weems makes provocative, socially motivated art that examines issues of race, gender, and class inequality, shedding light on those who have been left out of the historical record. Her work is represented in the Gallery’s collection by the chromogenic prints After Manet (2002) and May Flowers (2002), as well as Slow Fade to Black II (2010), a group of 17 inkjet prints. All are on view in The Memory of Time exhibition.  Weems will sign copies of the exhibition catalog following the lecture.

For the sixth presentation by an artist featured in The Memory of Time exhibition, photographer Deborah Luster will celebrate closing day with a lecture and book signing program on Sunday, September 13, at 2:00 p.m. In a lecture titled Archive of Lamentations, Luster will discuss the evolution of her work from the projects One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana and Tooth for an Eye: A Choreography of Violence in Orleans Parish. She will also speak about her current project at Louisiana’s Angola Prison. Luster is available after the lecture to sign copies of Tooth for an Eye and The Memory of Time.

Talking Shop with Sidney Felsen: Fifty Years of Artists at Gemini G.E.L. is a conversation between Lauren Schell Dickens, curatorial consultant at the National Gallery of Art, and Sidney Felsen, cofounder and codirector of Gemini G.E.L., on October 1 at 2:00 p.m. They will discuss the 50th anniversary of the renowned Los Angeles artists' workshop and publisher, in honor of The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L. exhibition.

On November 8 at 2:00 p.m., David Bindman, emeritus professor of the history of art at University College London, delivers the 19th annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art entitled Canova and Color. The Freedberg Lecture features distinguished scholars presenting original research. Antonio Canova’s (1757-1822) sculptures are notable for their pure use of marble. However, the sculptor was the subject of controversy in his own time because he often toned down the whiteness of the marble and in some cases tinted the stone in flesh colors. Bindman will discuss the immense prestige of marble sculpture over every other kind of art in the 19th century and the attitudes we have towards it now.

The Vermeer Phenomenon, on Sunday, November 15 at 2:00 p.m., is a lively lecture program recollecting the historic 1995–1996 exhibition on the Dutch master. Present to recount their experiences of this defining moment in the history of museum exhibitions will be Maygene Daniels, chief of Gallery Archives; Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings; and Deborah Ziska, chief of communications.

On December 6 at 2:00 p.m., the Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture will be presented by James Layton, manager of the Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center at the Museum of Modern Art, and David Pierce, founder of Media History Digital Library and president of Sunrise Entertainment Inc. In Technicolor at 100, Layton and Pierce discuss one of the most widely recognized names in the American film industry. The lecture includes a screening of three early Technicolor shorts and a book signing of The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915–1935.

All lecture programs are presented free of charge in the East Building Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis.

Panel Discussion
Caillebotte/Durand-Ruel: Making Impressionism
Thursday, September 10, 3:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Panel discussion includes Mary Morton, curator and head, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art; Joseph J. Rishel, The Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900 and Senior Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum; and Jennifer A. Thompson, The Gloria and Jack Drosdick Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture before 1900, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum

Artist lectures held in conjunction with the exhibition The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL L ECTURE SERIES
Carrie Mae Weems
Saturday, September 12, 2:00 p.m.
Carrie Mae Weems, artist. A book signing of The Memory of Time follows.

Archive of Lamentations
Sunday, September 13, 2:00 p.m.
Deborah Luster, artist. A book signing of Tooth for an Eye and The Memory of Time follows.

Works in Progress

All lectures are offered on Mondays in the West Building Lecture Hall at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.

Beneath the Surface of Caillebotte’s “Paris Street, Rainy Day”
September 28
John Delaney, senior imaging scientist, scientific research department, National Gallery of Art; Kelly Keegan, assistant conservator of paintings, Art Institute of Chicago

Exploring the Making of Portrait Busts through Digital Technology: The Case of Roubiliac’s Busts of Alexander Pope
October 19
Malcolm Baker, Distinguished Professor, department of the history of art, University of California, Riverside

Objects Collected: Recent Research on Decorative Art Objects at the National Gallery of Art
November 2
Jon Frederick, museum specialist — curator branch, Naval History and Heritage Command

Lectures

Gods and Goddesses Behaving Badly: The Art of Joachim Wtewael
Sunday, September 20, 2:00 p.m.
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. A book signing of Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael follows.

Caillebotte and Monet: At the Impressionist Exhibition of 1877
Sunday, September 27, 2:00 p.m.
Richard Brettell, founding director of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History and Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair and co director, Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Museums, University of Texas at Dallas

Talking Shop with Sidney Felsen: Fifty Years of Artists at Gemini G.E.L.
Thursday, October 1, 2:00 p.m., West Building Lecture Hall
Sidney B. Felsen, cofounder and codirector, Gemini G.E.L., in conversation with Lauren Schell Dickens, curatorial consultant, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, and former assistant curator of contemporary art, Corcoran Gallery of Art

Introduction to the Exhibition — The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L.
Sunday, October 4, 2:00 p.m.
Adam Greenhalgh, exhibition curator and associate curator, Mark Rothko Catalogue Raisonné, Works on Paper, National Gallery of Art

“A Hankering for Public Fame”: Authorship, Celebrity, and the Portrait Bust in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Sunday, October 18, 2:00 p.m.
Malcolm Baker, Distinguished Professor, department of the history of art, University of California, Riverside. A book signing of The Marble Index: Roubiliac and Sculptural Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Britain follows.

WYETH LECTURE IN AMERICAN ART
The Art of the Name: Soldiers, Graves and Monuments in the Aftermath of the Civil War
Wednesday, October 21, 4:30 p.m.
Kirk Savage, professor of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh.
Established in 2003, the Wyeth Lecture in American Art is a biennial event hosted by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, and supported by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Wyeth lecturers are chosen on the basis of their outstanding contributions to the study of and scholarship on American art.

Abstraction and Its Capacities
Sunday, October 25, 2:00 p.m.
David Getsy, Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor of Art History and chair, department of art history, theory, and criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A book signing of Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender follows.

SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG LECTURE ON ITALIAN ART
Canova and Color
Sunday, November 8, 2:00 p.m.
David Bindman, emeritus professor of the history of art, University College London

The Vermeer Phenomenon
Sunday, November 15, 2:00 p.m.
Maygene Daniels, chief of Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art; Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art; and Deborah Ziska, chief of communications, National Gallery of Art

Thomas Hart Benton: Painting the Song
Sunday, November 22, 2:00p.m.
Leo G. Mazow, associate professor of art history, University of Arkansas, and guitarist, The Coverlets; Brittany Stephenson, singer, The Coverlets. The lecture will be followed by a musical performance including songs such as “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “John Henry,” and “Wreck of the Old ’97.”

RAJIV VAIDYA MEMORIAL LECTURE
Technicolor at 100
Sunday, December 6, 2:00 p.m.
James Layton, manager, Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center, The Museum of Modern Art; David Pierce, founder of Media History Digital Library and president, Sunrise Entertainment Inc. Followed by three early Technicolor shorts: Manchu Love, The Love Charm, and Sports of Many Lands. A book signing of The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915 – 1935 follows.

Introduction to the Exhibition — Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World
Sunday, December 13, 2:00 p.m.
Jens M. Daehner and Kenneth S. Lapatin, associate curators of antiquities, The J. Paul Getty Museum. A book signing of Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World follows.