Update: March 26, 2020 (original release date: January 27, 2020)

National Gallery of Art’s Winter and Spring Lecture Series Feature World-Renowned Artists and Scholars in a Wide Variety of Programs

Left: Artist, curator, and critic Teju Cole will give the Arnold Newman Lecture on Photography alongside artist Fazal Sheikh on March 18. Photo by Maggie Janik; right: Artist Mary Kelly will give the Elson Lecture on April 2 with Shelley Langdale, the Gallery’s curator and head of modern prints and drawings. Photo by Kelly Barrie

Washington, DC—The 2020 winter and spring program of lectures and book signings at the National Gallery of Art presents distinguished artists, scholars, curators, and historians and offers unique programs and opportunities to engage directly with living artists. Special evening programs feature artists including Teju Cole, Fazal Sheikh, and Mary Kelly. Other lectures are presented by world-renowned art historians such as Princeton University professor Yve-Alain Bois and Alexander Calder biographer Jed Perl, who will be in conversation with Alexander S. C. Rower, Calder's grandson and chairman and president of the Calder Foundation.

Continuing this spring, Works in Progress, the Gallery's Monday lunchtime series, highlights new research by Gallery staff, interns, fellows, and guests and gives special insight into their work. These 30-minute talks are followed by question-and-answer sessions. Works in Progress lectures are denoted with an asterisk (*) below.

Lectures are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-seated basis. All locations are listed below. Please visit nga.gov/lectures for updated event listings and full details. Visit nga.gov/audio-video.html for lecture recordings.

JANUARY
Some Notes on Andrea del Verrocchio and a Forgotten Attribution*
January 6 at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Maximillian Hernandez, graduate student, Università degli Studi di Firenze

Enduring Visions: Arts Spaces in Washington, DC, 1975–1996
January 11 at 2:00 p.m.
Shaw (Watha T. Daniel) Neighborhood Library, 1630 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001
Judith Benderson and Lucy Blankstein from the Washington Women's Arts Center, with Lynn McCary and Paula Schumann, founders of Botswana, in conversation with Ray Barker, archivist of special collections/Washingtoniana, DC Public Library. This program was organized by the DC Public Library.

Lines of Transmission: Cinema and Art History
January 12 at 2:00 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Richard I. Suchenski, associate professor of film and electronic arts, Bard College

Local to Global: Teaching Critical Thinking through Art—the Gallery's first Massive Open Online Course*
January 27 at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Julie Carmean, manager of national teacher programs, National Gallery of Art, and Sara Lesk, manager of Art Around the Corner, National Gallery of Art

FEBRUARY
Collecting European Landscape Sketches—An Introduction to True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
February 2 at 2:00 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Mary Morton, curator and head of French paintings, National Gallery of Art, in conversation with Ger Luijten, director, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris; Jane Munro, keeper of paintings, drawings and prints, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and director of studies in history of art, Christ's College, Cambridge; and Alice Goldet, collector. A signing of exhibition catalog follows.

Creating Violin Woman, African Dreams*
February 3 at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Diane Monroe, professional violinist, in conversation with Curlee R. Holton, artist and director of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park

Painting in the Open Air: A Conversation with Ann Lofquist
February 23 at 2:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
Mary Morton, curator and head of French paintings, National
Gallery of Art, and Ann Lofquist, artist

Woody Powers: Camo and Charcoal*
February 24 at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Woody Powers, security assistant, National Gallery of Art, in conversation with Terence Washington, curatorial liaison for public programs in modern art, National Gallery of Art

MARCH
(In)habitable and (Un)seen: Failures and Fissures in the Art of Sondra Perry*
March 4 at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Megan Driscoll, postdoctoral research associate, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art

Introduction to the Exhibition—Degas at the Opéra
March 8 at 2:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
Kimberly A. Jones, curator of 19th-century French paintings, National Gallery of Art. A signing of exhibition catalog follows. The program will be streamed live at nga.gov/live.

Painting as an Artist, Painting as a Conservator*
March 9 at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
Dina Anchin, artist; and associate conservator of paintings, National Gallery of Art, in conversation with Alexandra Libby, assistant curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art

Arnold Newman Lecture Series on Photography
Teju Cole and Fazal Sheikh
March 18 at 6:30 p.m.—Canceled
West Building Lecture Hall
Teju Cole, artist, curator, novelist, photography critic for New York Times Magazine (2015–2019), and Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing, Harvard University, in conversation with and Fazal Sheikh, artist and Artist-in-Residence, Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton University. A book signing of Human Archipelago follows. Held in conjunction with Richard Mosse: Incoming. The program will be streamed live at nga.gov/live.

Introduction to the Exhibition—Lynda Benglis
March 22 at noon—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Molly Donovan, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art

The 69th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
El Lissitzky: Axonometry as "Symbolic Form"?
March 22 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Yve-Alain Bois, distinguished expert in 20th-century art and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

The 69th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
From Denis Diderot to William Farish: Mechanical Drawing and Its Failed Encounter with Industry
March 29 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Yve-Alain Bois, distinguished expert in 20th-century art and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

APRIL
Elson Lecture
Mary Kelly
April 2 at 3:30 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Mary Kelly, artist, in conversation with Shelley Langdale, curator and head of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art

The 69th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
From Crystallography to Josef Albers via the Necker Cube: Transparency versus Ambiguity
April 5 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Yve-Alain Bois, distinguished expert in 20th-century art and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

Alternative Antiquities: Clodion and Terracotta Sculpture in 18th-Century France*
April 6 at 12:10 and 1:10 p.m.—Canceled
West Building Lecture Hall
Ashley Hannebrink, Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation Curatorial Intern, department of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art

The 69th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
Architectural Rationalism and the Worm's-Eye View
April 19 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Yve-Alain Bois, distinguished expert in 20th-century art and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

15 Minutes of Fame: From Warhol to Today
April 19 at 4:30 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Bob Colacello, author of Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up and former editor of Interview magazine, in conversation with David M. Rubenstein, cofounder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, trustee of the National Gallery of Art, and chairman of the Smithsonian Institution. A book signing follows. This program is coordinated with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies.

The 69th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
Theo van Doesburg versus Walter Gropius: Axonometry as the Graphic Esperanto of Modernist Architecture
April 26 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Yve-Alain Bois, distinguished expert in 20th-century art and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

MAY
The 69th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
The Postwar Resurgence of Axonometry: From Alison and Peter Smithson to Minimalist Sculptors
May 3 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Yve-Alain Bois, distinguished expert in 20th-century art and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

The Old Master: Giovanni Bellini's Last Works
May 10 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
David Alan Brown, former curator and head of Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art. A book signing of Giovanni Bellini: The Last Works follows.

Calder: The Conquest of Space: A Conversation with Harry Cooper, Jed Perl, and Alexander S. C. Rower
May 17 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art; Jed Perl, author of Calder: The Conquest of Space: The Later Years: 1940–1976 and contributor to the New York Review of Books; and Alexander S. C. Rower, Alexander Calder's grandson and chairman and president of the Calder Foundation. A book signing follows.

Folger Poetry Board Reader: Billy Collins
May 18 at 7:30 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Billy Collins, former United States Poet Laureate. This reading is cosponsored with the Folger Shakespeare Library. Admission is free, but registration is required via the calendar listing at nga.gov/lectures. This reading is co-sponsored with the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Introduction to the Exhibition—A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750
May 31 at 2:00 p.m.—Canceled
East Building Auditorium
Jonathan Bober, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art. A signing of exhibition catalog follows

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