Patricia Fortini Brown, professor emerita of art and archaeology, Princeton University. When we think of Venice, we think of a city in the sea, a city surrounded by water. And yet, before the modern era, the city had no source of fresh water other than the rain from heaven or barges from the mainland. Therein lies the paradox: Venice is in the water and has no water. In this 20th annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art recorded on November 6, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, Patricia Fortini Brown addresses how the Venetians dealt with this deficiency of nature by creating a unique genre of public art: the Venetian wellhead. Also addressed are the change and the challenge that came with the expansion of the Venetian empire: the gift of running water and the need to harness it. Again, the Venetians seized the initiative and created fountains that transformed urban spaces from the Terraferma to the Stato da Mar into places of encounter and aesthetic delight.

Explore the impact and legacy of the Afro-Atlantic Diaspora across four continents. This unprecedented exhibition includes more than 130 artworks and documents made in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe from the 17th to the 21st century.

Kelley Conway, historian. In the December 3, 2017 Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture, historian Kelley Conway, professor in the department of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, explores French filmmaker Agnès Varda’s career and her documentary practice. Varda is often associated with the French New Wave but her importance really transcends that historical moment. Through clips from some of Varda’s most iconic work from the 1960s to the present, Conway explores notions of subjectivity, representation, and voice in the nonfiction flims of one of the world’s greatest living auteurs.

Yuriko Jackall, assistant curator, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. When Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon, arrived in the United States in 1815, he brought with him his exquisite collection of 18th-century French paintings. Put on public view, the works caused a sensation, and a new American taste for French art was born. Over the decades, appreciation of French 18th-century art has fluctuated between preference for the alluring decorative canvases of rococo artists such as François Boucher and Jean Honoré Fragonard and admiration of the sober neoclassicism championed by Jacques Louis David and his pupils. To celebrate the exhibition opening of America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting on May 21, 2017, Yuriko Jackall shares some of the best and most unusual examples held by American museums. On view through August 20, 2017, these 68 paintings tell their stories on a national stage: Who were the collectors, curators, museum directors, and dealers responsible for bringing 18th-century French painting to America? Where are the paintings now?

Robert T. Singer, curator and head, department of Japanese art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art Artworks representing animals—real or imaginary, religious or secular—span the full breadth and splendor of Japanese artistic production. As the first exhibition devoted to the subject, The Life of Animals in Japanese Art covers 17 centuries (from the sixth century to the present day) and a wide variety of media—sculpture, painting, lacquerwork, ceramics, metalwork, textile, and the woodblock print. A selection of some 315 works, drawn from Japanese and American public and private collections, includes seven that are designated as Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government. The artists represented range from Sesson Shūkei, Itō Jakuchū, Soga Shōhaku, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, to Okamoto Tarō, Kusama Yayoi, Issey Miyake, Nara Yoshitomo, and Murakami Takashi. To celebrate the opening on June 2, 2019, Robert T. Singer introduces the exhibition curated with Masatomo Kawai, director, Chiba City Museum of Art, in consultation with a team of esteemed of Japanese art historians. The Life of Animals in Japanese Art is on view through August 18, 2019

David Gariff, Senior Lecturer, National Gallery of Art In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this two-part lecture examines art and photography created during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (from the end of the 19th century to 1922). The Antarctic expeditions of Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, Ernest Shackleton, and Douglas Mawson were the equivalent of NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Antarctica was the last place on earth to be discovered and explored. It was, to many, like going to the moon—and, indeed, photographs of the polar landscape resemble images of the lunar surface. Today, locations on the moon attest to the continuing link between the heroic accomplishments of Antarctic explorers and lunar astronauts. “Shackleton,” named after the Antarctic explorer, is an impact crater at the south pole of the moon. And NASA is now working to send American astronauts to the lunar south pole, a place no human has ever gone before. Artists and photographers, most notably Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley, accompanied the various Antarctic expeditions. These artist-explorers made photographs, films, paintings, and drawings that reveal the triumphs and tragedies of first attempts to reach the South Pole. In Part I of this lecture, presented on November 19, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores the artists and photographers who visually documented the Antarctic continent during this heroic age of 20th-century exploration.

Aquatint, a revolutionary printing process, grabbed the attention of artists and art-lovers across 18th-century Europe. The new technique allowed subtle washes of tone that brought depth and drama to images of all kinds—from erupting volcanoes and moonlit landscapes to biting caricatures and depictions of amorous lovers. Join Rena Hoisington, curator of old master prints at the National Gallery of Art, as she traces the rise of aquatint from its origins in 1700s Paris to Francisco Goya’s experimental 1799 series “Los Caprichos.”

In the December 2, 2018, Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture, Rick Prelinger, archivist and founder of the Prelinger Archives – a celebrated repository of home movies and ephemeral films –explored the particular difficulties contemporary archivists (film, media, and paper) must contend with today: historical amnesia, uncertain funding, technological change, and the flow from a relentless digital fire hose. Prelinger looks at the future of memory, the renaissance of physical media, the virtues of inconvenience, and how archives and cultural repositories can serve as a force for inclusion.

Charles Ritchie, artist, and former associate curator, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art In this lecture held on October 27, 2019, in conjunction with the month-long Sketching is Seeing program at the National Gallery of Art, Charles Ritchie presents varied approaches to collecting ideas. For example, do artists fill a sketchbook from front to back or do they open it to an empty space and begin working? Does writing accompany the drawings and how might it relate to the images? Are the drawings and/or writings employed for developing skill, or are they compost for the creation of other works, or does the book document completed works? Using his experience as a keeper of a sketchbook/journal, Ritchie explores the creative practices of some of his favorite artists including Isabel Bishop, Paul Cézanne, Eugène Delacroix, Alberto Giacometti, and Edward Hopper, among others, and he touches on formative manuscripts by Emily Dickinson, Jack Kerouac, and Wallace Stevens. The presentation concludes with a meditation on some of the forces at the core of drawing and writing: the desire to remember, the spirit of play and improvisation, and the essential ingredient―curiosity.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. The First World War, known as the Great War, was also the first modern war, claiming millions of lives, in part, by newly invented weapons such as the machine gun, tank, aircraft, and poison gas. The arts of the period present a portrait of the terrible price paid by humanity—the carnage and suffering caused by the war were documented in paintings, sculptures, novels, memoirs, and poems produced both during, and immediately after, the struggle. In this presentation on March 27, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores the responses of artists and writers to the trauma of the First World War, which transcended national boundaries. Paintings, sculptures, and prints by Otto Dix, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Käthe Kollwitz, Fernand Léger, John Singer Sargent, and Natalija Goncharova; poems by Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Anna Akhmatova; and memoirs and novels by Ernest Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque, and Robert Graves are discussed against the backdrop of “the war to end all wars.”

Jeffreen M. Hayes, executive director, Threewalls An outstanding sculptor associated with the intellectual and cultural awakening known as the Harlem Renaissance, Augusta Savage (1892-1962) overcame poverty, racism, and sexual discrimination in pursuit of her goals. Creating new visions of black identity in her work, she was also an activist, campaigning for equal rights for African Americans in the arts. The traveling exhibition Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman and its accompanying catalog is the first to reassess Savage’s contributions to art and cultural history in light of 21st-century attention to the concept of the artist-activist. The exhibition viewing dates are as follows: the Cummer Museum of Art, October 12, 2018-April 7, 2019; the New York Historical Society, May 3–July 28, 2019; the Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, August 24–December 8, 2019; and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, January 19–March 22, 2020. The groundbreaking catalog features illustrations of more than 40 works by Savage, her students, and her contemporaries, archival letters, rarely seen photographs, and an extensive bibliography and essays by Kirsten Pai Buick, Bridget R. Cooks, and Howard Dodson. In celebration of the Washington, DC, book launch on June 23, 2019, exhibition organizer Jeffreen M. Hayes discusses the life, work, and lasting legacy of Savage as an artist and a community builder. This program was proposed and made possible by Darryl Atwell.

Kimberly A. Jones, curator of 19th-century French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870) was a central figure in the history of early impressionism who worked closely with the renowned artists Claude Monet (1840–1926) and Auguste Renoir (1840-1917). Killed in the Franco-Prussian War just prior to his 29th birthday, Bazille all but vanished from history before his talent could be fully recognized. To celebrate the opening of Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism on April 9, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Kimberly A. Jones provides an overview of the exhibition , the first devoted to the artist in the United States in a quarter century. On view through July 9, 2017, the exhibition examines Bazille’s place within the vibrant avant-garde art scene of Paris in the 1860s and the role he played in the birth of the impressionist movement.

Julien Chapuis, deputy director of the Sculpture Collection and Museum for Byzantine Art, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. In this lecture, delivered on October 6, 2016, Julien Chapuis reflects on The Lost Museum , an exhibition organized at the Bode Museum in 2015. Most of the visitors to Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie, he contends, are so impressed by the many masterpieces on the walls that they probably do not realize that more than 430 paintings that belonged to the collection before 1945 are missing: works by Rubens, Veronese, Van Dyck, Caravaggio, and others. Similarly, the sculpture collection lost about a third of its holdings, including important examples by Donatello, Verrocchio, and Riemenschneider. Since 1945 most of these paintings and sculptures have gradually disappeared from the awareness of art historians and the public. The exhibition shed light on the historical circumstances of damage and destruction by fire in 1945, the subsequent recovery of numerous works by the Allies, and the return of recovered art to the divided city of Berlin in the 1950s. With plaster casts and photographic reproductions at original size, the exhibition sought to bring masterpieces of the Berlin painting and sculpture collections back into the public consciousness. It also explored the ethical and practical problems behind the restoration of art damaged by war. Every approach to this legacy expresses a particular view of the past as well as the prevailing political zeitgeist, and addressing it has meant something different for each generation as well as for each individual.

C. D. Dickerson III, curator and head of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art Alonso Berruguete, active on the Iberian Peninsula during the first half of the 16th century, initially trained as a painter before becoming known for his painted sculptures in wood. Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain is the first major exhibition held outside Spain to celebrate Berruguete’s expressive art. The exhibition presents more than 40 works from across the artist’s career, including early paintings and the largest group of his drawings ever to be assembled, along with an unprecedented number of sculptures. These works range from single figures to large sections of multistory altarpieces, or retablos, that combine reliefs, statues, paintings, and architectural details. In this lecture, delivered on October 14, 2019, curator C. D. Dickerson III provides an overview to this exhibition of work by Berruguete, the preeminent sculptor of Renaissance Spain.

Elizabeth Alexander, poet, essayist, playwright, scholar, and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Manthia Diawara, writer, cultural theorist, film director, scholar, and professor of comparative literature and cinema studies and director emeritus of the Institute of African American Affairs, New York University Painter Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962–2012) from Asmara, Eritrea, and filmmaker Manthia Diawara from Bamako, Mali, meet metaphorically in this program focusing on their work. Political refugees, activists, scholars, and storytellers, both men settled in the United States and found themselves working odd jobs, joining the African American community of poets and each digging into his own artistic practice. Ghebreyesus’s epic painting The Sardine Fisherman’s Funeral combines symbols, historical references, and iconography from different cultures to express a depth of feeling for the power of the sea. Diawara’s film An Opera of the World (2017), based on the African opera Bintou Were , mines the Malian filmmaker’s own migration experience against the backdrop of recent tragedies among refugees on the Mediterranean Sea. In this post-screening conversation held on March 23, 2019, at the National Gallery of Art, Manthia Diawara and Elizabeth Alexander discuss and contrast Ghebreyesus’s painting with Diawara’s filmic inquiry into the power of bearing witness.

George Koutsouflakis, director, department of archaeological sites, monuments and research, Hellenic Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. The exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World , on view from December 13, 2015, through March 20, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, features 50 works that survey the development of Hellenistic art as it spread from Greece throughout the Mediterranean between the fourth and first centuries BC. On land sites, bronze artworks have seldom survived the vicissitudes of history. The sea remains the richest reservoir of ancient bronzes lost during transit. While the Aegean Sea has yielded some of the most spectacular and well-known masterpieces over the last century, only a handful of them have been retrieved from excavated shipwrecks. These limited discoveries are by far outnumbered by isolated, chance finds, raised by fishing nets, which present no direct evidence of a context. No matter how exceptional, isolated bronzes offer little information on the circumstances of their transit, while wreck sites from where they were detached remain elusive and seem to persistently resist discovery. In this lecture recorded on January 17, 2016, marine archaeologist George Koutsouflakis presents an overview of bronzes found in the Aegean, highlighting the conditions of their recovery, elusiveness of the wrecks, and historical context of the transportation. This program is cosponsored by the Washington DC Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

David Bindman, emeritus professor of the history of art, University College London. Antonio Canova’s (1757-1822) sculptures, as they have come down to us, 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. Why did this cause such an adverse reaction, and in which quarters? In this 19th annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art recorded on November 8, 2015, at the National Gallery of Art, David Bindman discusses the heart of the immense prestige of marble sculpture over every other kind of art in the 19th century and the attitudes we have toward it now.

Heidi Applegate, guest lecturer In this lecture, presented at the National Gallery of Art on December 9, 2019, guest lecturer Heidi Applegate explored the depiction of cats across a wide range of artistic media, genres, and styles in the Gallery’s collection. Throughout history, artists have represented lions as the trusted companions of gods and saints and as a symbol of royalty, courage, and strength. Other feline species—domestic cats in particular—may often represent less noble qualities.

Mary Morton, curator and head, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Bringing together some 60 paintings drawn from collections around the world, Cézanne Portraits is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to this often neglected area of Paul Cézanne’s work. To celebrate the exhibition opening on March 25, 2018, Mary Morton introduces the pictorial and thematic characteristics of Cézanne’s portraits, the chronological development of his style and method, and the range and influence of his sitters. Issues of resemblance and identity are addressed across groupings of particular great portraits, which mutually inform each other to reveal arguably the most personal, because most human, aspect of his art. The sole American venue, Cézanne Portraits is on view on through July 1, 2018.

John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Distinguished Curator and Lecturer, Princeton University Art Museum. Bringing together some 60 paintings drawn from collections around the world, Cézanne Portraits is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to this often-neglected area of Paul Cézanne’s work. His portraits were widely thought to be shockingly inept when they were first exhibited, but were understood by a small circle of artists and critics to be extremely radical works. In this lecture held on June 3, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art, John Elderfield discusses how Cézanne’s extended, methodical style of painting—“one stroke after the other” is how the artist described it—readily led to the creation of one painting after the other of the same subject. Elderfield also explains how indifferent Cézanne was to the “personality” or “character” of his sitters—long thought to have been necessary aims of portraiture—wanting simply to paint the objective, permanent presence of someone seen. Cézanne Portraits, in its sole American venue at the National Gallery, is on view through July 1, 2018.

Mary Morton, curator and head, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot is best known as the great master of landscape painting in the 19th century who bridged the French neoclassical tradition with the impressionist movement of the 1870s. In honor of the opening of the exhibition Corot: Women, Mary Morton argues that Corot’s figure paintings, although constituting a much smaller, less well-known portion of his oeuvre, are of equal importance to the history of art, in particular for the founders of modernist painting such as Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque. Dressed in rustic Italian costume or nude on a grassy plain, Corot’s women read, dream, and gaze directly at the viewer, conveying a sense of their inner lives. On September 9, 2018, at that National Gallery of Art, Morton explains how Corot’s sophisticated use of color and his deft, delicate touch applied to the female form resulted in pictures of quiet majesty. Corot: Women is on view through December 31, 2018.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. David Smith (1906–1965) is arguably America’s greatest sculptor of the 20th century. His art enlarged the vocabulary of sculpture by employing welding and industrial processes and materials, laying the groundwork for the directness of minimalism and the realization that sculpture could be anything the artist desired. Smith’s oeuvre is a logical outgrowth of earlier 20th-century sculptural trends in cubism, constructivism, and surrealism. However, his work also represents a new paradigm for the language of modern sculpture that reflects the dynamic growth and industrial prowess of the United States after the Second World War. Smith’s confrontation with the process of creation broke the rules and expanded the possibilities of his art form. In part one of this lecture, presented at the National Gallery of Art on March 7, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores Smith’s revolutionary art through a discussion of some of his most important and innovative works, including the Agricola, Tanktotem, Sentinel, Zig, Voltri, and Cubi series.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. David Smith (1906–1965) is arguably America’s greatest sculptor of the 20th century. His art enlarged the vocabulary of sculpture by employing welding and industrial processes and materials, laying the groundwork for the directness of minimalism and the realization that sculpture could be anything the artist desired. Smith’s oeuvre is a logical outgrowth of earlier 20th-century sculptural trends in cubism, constructivism, and surrealism. However, his work also represents a new paradigm for the language of modern sculpture that reflects the dynamic growth and industrial prowess of the United States after the Second World War. Smith’s confrontation with the process of creation broke the rules and expanded the possibilities of his art form. In part two of this lecture, presented at the National Gallery of Art on March 7, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores Smith’s revolutionary art through a discussion of some of his most important and innovative works, including the Agricola, Tanktotem, Sentinel, Zig, Voltri, and Cubi series.

Walter Isaacson, president and chief executive officer, The Aspen Institute, and author of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolutio n (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992). In this lecture held on November 6, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Walter Isaacson discusses his newly published biography, Leonardo da Vinci , on history’s most creative genius. Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, the book weaves a narrative that connects Leonardo’s art to his science. Leonardo produced the two most famous paintings in history: The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa . But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. Isaacson demonstrates how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. The Gallery has in its collection the only painting by Leonardo in the Americas— Ginevra de’ Benci (c. 1474/1478) is one of his three extant female portraits and is among his earliest experiments with the new medium of oil paint.

Deborah Luster, artist. In 1990, the National Gallery of Art launched an initiative to acquire the finest examples of the art of photography and to mount photography exhibitions of the highest quality, accompanied by scholarly publications and programs. In the years since, the Gallery’s collection of photographs has grown to nearly 15,000 works encompassing the history of the medium, from its beginnings in 1839 to the present, featuring in-depth holdings of work by many masters of the art form. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of this initiative, the Gallery presents 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 . On view from May 3 through September 13, 2015, The Memory of Time explores the work of 26 contemporary artists who investigate the richness and complexity of photography’s relationship to time, memory, and history. For more than 20 years, artist Deborah Luster has been engaged in an ongoing investigation of violence and its consequences. In this lecture held on the exhibition’s closing day, Luster discusses the evolution of her work from One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana and Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish , as well as her current project at Louisiana’s Angola Prison.

Kimberly A. Jones, curator of 19th-century French paintings, National Gallery of Art Edgar Degas (1834–1917) is celebrated as the painter of dancers, a subject that dominated his art for nearly four decades. An exuberant display of rich imagination and keen observation, his renowned images of the Paris Opéra are among the most sophisticated and visually compelling works he created. Celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Opéra’s founding, Degas at the Opéra presents approximately 100 of the artist’s best-known and beloved works in a range of media, including paintings, pastels, drawings, prints, and sculpture. On opening day, curator Kimberly Jones shares insights on the exhibition, the first to explore Degas’s enduring fascination with the Opéra. Organized with the Musées d'Orsay et de l'Orangerie, Paris, the exhibition is on view at the National Gallery of Art from March 1 through July 5, 2020. BP America is proud to be a sponsor of this Washington, DC, exhibition as part of its support for the arts in the United States. Adrienne Arsht also kindly provided a leadership gift for this exhibition. Additional funding is provided by Jacqueline B. Mars and The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Eric Denker, Senior Lecturer, National Gallery of Art Edgar Degas was fascinated by music, opera, and ballet throughout his long career. He was a regular attendee at the old Paris Opéra house on the Rue Le Peletier through his early career, and then at the Garnier Opéra after its opening in 1875. Degas explored every aspect of the world of the opera—from rehearsals to performances, from the practice rooms to the stage. Yet his many paintings of the rehearsal rooms and the operas were never done on the spot; they were the product of his careful study of the ballerinas, singers, and musicians posed in his studio. The leader of the avant-garde group known as the impressionists, Degas always asserted that nothing was less spontaneous than his art. He kept volumes of drawings of figures, from every conceivable angle, that he would return to time and again for compositions throughout his career. He was interested in the body in motion and at rest, often in characteristic (if awkward) positions. Toward the end of his life, when his sight began to fail, Degas substituted brilliant color for the precise draftsmanship of his earlier work. To celebrate the exhibition, on March 13, 2020, Eric Denker, Senior Lecturer, National Gallery of Art, provides an overview of the exhibition.

Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture and deputy head of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art. A new art form emerged in fifteenth-century Florence through the genius of Luca della Robbia, exalting the humble material of clay with brilliant modeling and surfaces shining with color that seems to defy time. The first comprehensive exhibition of Della Robbia work in the United States, originating at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and taking new form at the National Gallery of Art, shows how three generations of Luca's family of skilled artists and entrepreneurs, responding to international demand, created magnificent sculpture in glazed terracotta. To celebrate opening day on February 5, 2017, Alison Luchs explores the human sensitivity, spirit-lifting color, and technical ingenuity that secure the appeal of Della Robbia sculpture into the twenty-first century. Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence is on view through June 4, 2017.

Ginger Hammer, assistant curator, old master prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia is a rare and unusual illustrated volume about the Franciscan Sanctuary of La Verna, depicting the monastery and dramatic rocky terrain where Francis of Assisi (1181/1182–1226) received the stigmata nearly 400 years earlier. Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627), a celebrated draftsman and then head of the Academy of Drawing in Florence, created 22 preparatory drawings in 1608 that were subsequently etched or engraved into full-page plates for the volume. It is the centerpiece of the exhibition Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna on view at the National Gallery of Art through July 8, 2018. In this lecture held on June 24, 2018, Ginger Hammer expands on the art-historical context of traditional representations of Saint Francis at La Verna and the innovations in Franciscan subject matter characteristic of the Counter-Reformation.

Elif Rongen, curator, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam. Belgian-born film impresario Jean Desmet (1875 – 1956) spurred the growth of a new urban film culture in Europe before and during World War I. Desmet’s collection of 35mm prints and related materials (including posters, handbills, correspondence, and other ephemera) is now a vast visual-historical archive preserved at the EYE Film Museum in Amsterdam. In 2011 the Desmet collection was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register — one of the few film collections in the world to receive this designation. On January 14, 2017, EYE film curator Elif Rongen introduced Up in the Air!, the first program of short films from the Desmet collection for the six-part NGA film series Jean Desmet’s Dream Factory, 1906 – 1916 .

Celeste-Marie Bernier, professor of black studies and personal chair in English literature, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh, and co-editor-in-chief, Journal of American Studies , Cambridge University Press. On the bicentenary of Frederick Douglass’s birth, we commemorate the many sides of the man: the abolitionist, statesman, autobiographer, orator, reformer, essayist, politician, and, not least of all, father. In this lecture held on February 25, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art, Celeste-Marie Bernier traces the activism, artistry, and authorship of Douglass alongside the sufferings and struggles for survival of his daughters and sons: Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., Charles Remond, and Annie Douglass. As activists, educators, campaigners, civil rights protesters, newspaper editors, orators, essayists, and historians in their own right, his children each played a vital role in the freedom struggles of their father. They were no less afraid to sacrifice everything as they each fought for black civic, cultural, political, and social liberties by every means necessary. No isolated endeavor undertaken by an exemplary icon, the fight for freedom was a family business, as the Douglasses’ rallying cry lives on to inspire today’s activism: “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!”

Sarah Cash, associate curator, department of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Ka’mal McClarin, museum curator, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Collection, National Park Service. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) is revered as an abolitionist, statesman, orator, reformer, essayist, and autobiographer. But it is less commonly known that he was also a steward of the arts. In this presentation held on October 2, 2017, as part of the Works in Progress lecture series at the National Gallery of Art, Ka’mal McClarin traces Douglass’s love of art through his personal collection preserved at Cedar Hill, his Anacostia home from 1877 until his death in 1895. The house is furnished much as it was during Douglass's lifetime, with paintings and photographs depicting people and places significant to the family and to African American history. Sarah Cash discusses Douglass’s interest in the Corcoran Gallery of Art collection using contemporary diary entries and newspaper articles, as well as museum catalogs and works of art kept at Cedar Hill. Among his favorite Corcoran works were Richard Norris Brooke’s A Pastoral Visit (1881) and Emily Renouf’s The Helping Hand (1881). While visiting the Corcoran in 1892 he also surely saw Frederic Edwin Church’s Niagara (1857) and Hiram Powers’s The Greek Slave (1841-1843). Douglass had a keen interest in Niagara Falls, and he owned several prints and photographs depicting the majestic site.

David W. Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University, and the 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner in history David Blight’s Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom sheds new light on Douglass (c. 1818–1895), particularly the last 30 years of his life, thanks to a trove of letters, manuscripts, and scrapbooks in a private collection that no other historian previously used in any full-length biography. Blight writes that the collection, owned by Walter O. Evans of Savannah, GA, “makes possible many new insights into the final third of Douglass’s life. The younger Douglass—the heroic escaped slave and emerging abolitionist—is better known, in part because of the author’s masterful first two autobiographies. The older Douglass, from Reconstruction to the end of his life in 1895, has never been so accessible or rendered so fascinating and complicated as in the Evans collection.” In this lecture held on June 2, 2019, in conjunction with the exhibition In the Library: Frederick Douglass Family Materials from the Walter O. Evans Collection , Blight shares how this material revealed the full extent of Douglass’s complex personal life. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2019, this biography masterfully weaves together the more popularly known story of Douglass’s life of public activism with his perhaps lesser-known private life to paint a complete portrait of the great American hero.

Melanie Gifford, research conservator, National Gallery of Art, and Lisha Glinsman, conservation scientist, National Gallery of Art. Recent technical research at the National Gallery of Art explores artistic exchange among the painters featured in the exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry , on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018. In this lecture held on October 30, 2017, as part of the Works in Progress series, Melanie Gifford and Lisha Glinsman share discoveries from their research. Study reveals that these elegant scenes, painted for an elite Dutch art market, shared physical characteristics that defined a collective “high-life” style. At the same time, the research shows that painters each marketed their works by cultivating a distinctive personal manner and that, through subtle variations of technique and materials, they could sell at somewhat different price levels. Finally, technical study offers direct evidence for 17th century artists’ evaluations of their contemporaries’ artistic style: the recognizable features they selected and quoted in their own works for the amusement of sophisticated collectors. Gifford and Glinsman’s essay, “Collective Style and Personal Manner: Materials and Techniques of High-Life Genre Painting,” published in the exhibition catalogue explores these issues in detail.

Jennifer Henel, curatorial coordinator for digital content, department of curatorial records and files. When looking at 17th-century Dutch genre painting, we see a story, recall a memory, or marvel at its craftsmanship and beauty. For some, there is yet another layer of experience in hearing these remarkable paintings. What kind of cadence do we see and hear; what is the timing and tempo of the music? What kind of major and minor keys do we see and hear? This lecture, given on December 5, 2017, explores synesthesia and the lens of music to interpret selected works from the landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry. On view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018, the exhibition examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting.

The newly independent Dutch Republic established a vast and profitable trade network in the 17th century. Among the most coveted of the impressive luxury imports was the parrot. Beautiful, exotic, and rare, parrots become a mainstay in Dutch genre paintings. Their presence in these works is, however, more than ostentatious display. These very social and intelligent creatures were highly valued companions. The interaction between parrots and people gave Dutch genre painters an unprecedented opportunity for creativity and candor, upon which they skillfully capitalized. In this lecture held on December 26 at the National Gallery of Art, Kristen Gonzalez traces the iconography of these birds in the history of art and highlights the departure from tradition evident in their depiction in the Dutch Golden Age. This lecture accompanies the landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry , on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018, which examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting.

Eric Denker, Senior Lecturer and Manager of Gallery Talks and Lectures for Adults, Department of Education. Dutch 17th-century homes typically would have included a variety of wall decorations, including curtains, mirrors, and pictures. Many specialists in genre painting represented interiors with paintings and prints of recognizable subjects. These pictures within pictures are sometimes, though not always, a significant clue as to the interpretation of a painting. This lecture, given by Eric Denker on December 19, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, explores the added or reinforced symbolism of these depictions in the context of the genre painting of Vermeer and his contemporaries. The symbolic use of mirrors is also considered. This lecture is in conjunction with the landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry— on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018—which examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting.

Alexandra Libby, assistant curator, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. Part of the enduring appeal of Dutch paintings is their extraordinary naturalism, their ability to “create semblance without being,” as one 17th-century art theorist wrote. Genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age have long been admired for just this ability, producing exquisite images of everyday life that, no matter how remote, feel like candid moments captured in time. The landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry , on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018, examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of depictions of domestic life. These artists each relied on naturalism and notions of temporality in their work, but to very different ends. While many genre painters, including Frans van Mieris or Jan Steen, sought to suggest temporal development, Vermeer often reduced narrative or compositional elements in his paintings to the point of temporal indeterminacy. In this lecture delivered on November 12, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Alexandra Libby will explore how cultural events, scientific developments, and critical musings on time and temporality may have influenced these 17th-century genre painters to create many of their most enduring, timeless works.

H. Perry Chapman, Professor, Department of Art History, University of Delaware . In the age of Vermeer, virtuous rivalry was thought to inspire painters to do their best; in contrast, envy, or jealous rivalry, was painting’s greatest enemy. Rembrandt's training and early career provide a context for understanding the foundational nature of friendly artistic competition, or emulation. In this lecture held on October 31, 2017, H. Perry Chapman uses two paintings by Johannes Vermeer, A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (National Gallery, London) as case studies to determine whether such virtuous rivalry could inspire invention and originality. This lecture accompanies the landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry , on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018, which examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting.

Henriette Rahusen, researcher, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. The paintings that portray daily life in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century often include images of alcohol, be it wine or beer. Scenes of festive dinners and boisterous parties in taverns suggest that alcohol flowed freely, whereas in some depictions of intimate gatherings the presence of a single glass of wine merely hints at drinking. In other genre scenes signs of alcohol are totally absent. This lecture, given on October 14, 2017, by Henriette Rahusen, poses a number of questions: Did the Dutch imbibe with gusto or nip with restraint? Were they so wretchedly frugal in all things, excepting alcohol, as the paintings and historical records suggest? This lecture is in conjunction with the landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, on view from October 22, 2017, through January 21, 2018, The exhibition examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting.

Paige Rozanski, curatorial assistant, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art. In this lecture held on September 26, 2016, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Paige Rozanski sheds light on the discoveries she made during her research at the Dwan Gallery Archives and the Virginia Dwan Archives in preparation for the exhibition Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959–1971 . Rozanski underscores the integral role this material played in planning the exhibition, illustrates how the archives contributed to scholarship, and outlines her approach to writing the chronology and exhibition history published in the exhibition catalog.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. There are many works in the National Gallery of Art which have been inspired by the glorious story of Easter. Paintings and sculptures from the Gallery’s extensive and rich permanent collection illustrate and speak to the significance of this timeless and moving story for artists and their audiences throughout history. On March 18, 2019, senior lecturer David Gariff explores both the spiritual nature of the Easter story through excerpts from the King James Version of the Bible, apocryphal writings, and later interpretations by saints, along with its related visual representations by some of the world’s greatest artists. Prominent paintings and prints by Matthias Grünewald, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco, Tintoretto, Perugino, and Benvenuto di Giovanni, along with sculptures by Giovanni della Robbia, Pietro Tacca, Alessandro Algardi, and François Duquesnoy are featured in this commemoration of the Easter holiday.

Diane Waggoner, curator of nineteenth-century photographs, National Gallery of Art. The first exhibition to focus exclusively on photographs made in the eastern half of the United States during the 19th century, East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography showcases some 175 works—from daguerreotypes and stereographs to albumen prints and cyanotypes—as well as several photographers whose efforts have often gone unheralded. Celebrating natural wonders such as Niagara Falls and the White Mountains, as well as capturing a cultural landscape fundamentally altered by industrialization, the Civil War, and tourism, these photographs not only helped shape America’s national identity but also played a role in the emergence of environmentalism. Diane Waggoner introduces the exhibition in this opening-day lecture recorded on March 12, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art. East of the Mississippi is on view through July 16, 2017.

Mitch Epstein, artist and president, Black River Productions Ltd. The first exhibition to focus exclusively on photographs made in the eastern half of the United States during the 19th century, East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography showcases some 175 works—from daguerreotypes and stereographs to albumen prints and cyanotypes—as well as several photographers whose efforts have often gone unheralded. In this lecture held at the National Gallery of Art on May 21, 2017, in conjunction with the exhibition, artist Mitch Epstein shares how the distress of the New England industrial town of his childhood and the vibrancy of the city of New York, where he’s lived for 45 years, have informed his photographic sensibility. Epstein traces his work, drawn from the eastern United States for nearly five decades, and considers it in the context of his 19th-century predecessors. East of the Mississippi is on view from March 12 through July 16, 2017. This program is made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, fashion historian. The 2012 discovery of a drawing by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) depicting his so-called fantasy figures is the inspiration for a revelatory exhibition of the corresponding paintings—rapidly executed, brightly colored portraits of lavishly costumed individuals, including the National Gallery of Art’s Young Girl Reading (c. 1769). Fragonard’s Fantasy Figures , on view from October 8 through December 3, 2017, examines the 18th-century Parisian world of new money, unexpected social alliances, and extravagant fashions from which these paintings emerged. In this lecture held on November 26, 2017, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell explores the profound effects that Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s Figaro trilogy had on French fashion—though less familiar than the work's well-documented impact on society and politics, these influences were nonetheless transformative. Among his many careers, Beaumarchais had spied for Louis XV in Spain, and his Figaro trilogy drew upon his knowledge of Spanish culture, custom, and costume. The plays—and the operas they inspired—popularized fashionable interpretations of traditional Spanish dress, prolonging the vogue for fantasy portraits à l’espagnole in France.

Meredith J. Gill, professor of Italian Renaissance art and chair, department of art history and archaeology, University of Maryland, College Park. To think about angels among the world’s religions is to think about the question of embodiment. As messenger figures, they choose human form, yet they are incorporeal and without gender in their theological essence. Angels have long invited highly abstract and intricate categories of classification, particularly within the medieval university curriculum for which Bonaventure, the “Seraphic Doctor,” and Thomas Aquinas, the “Angelic Doctor,” wrote foundational texts. Yet angels have also invited the most sublime feats of artistic imagination. In this lecture recorded on April 28, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Meredith Gill discusses several angelic episodes in Renaissance art, such as Tobias and the Angel and the Fall of the Rebel Angels, reflecting on mortal identity and experience in early modern times.

Yuriko Jackall, assistant curator, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Combining art, fashion, science, and conservation, the exhibition Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures brings together for the first time some 14 of the paintings known as the fantasy figures by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806). Fragonard is considered among the most characteristic and important French painters of his era, and this series—several rapidly executed, brightly colored paintings of lavishly costumed individuals—includes some of his most beloved works. The revelatory exhibition explores the many interpretations of the fantasy figures in the context of the artist's career and elucidates the development of that career, the identity of Fragonard’s sitters and patrons, and the significance of his innovative imagery. To celebrate its opening on October 8, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Yuriko Jackall introduces the exhibition, which is on view through December 3, 2017.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. Germany around 1900 was a volatile contradiction—modernizing rapidly, yet deeply conservative in values. This was fertile ground for the birth of German expressionism represented by the paintings and sculptures of Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, Otto Müller, Emil Nolde, and others. With the rise of national socialism in the 1930s in Germany, many of these avant-garde artists and the movements of which they were a part came to be labeled “degenerate.” The recent gift of the Arnold and Joan Saltzman collection of German expressionist art has transformed the Gallery’s holdings of modern art in this area. In this lecture presented on May 4, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art, senior lecturer David Gariff explores the nature of German expressionist art against the backdrop of two important exhibitions mounted by the Nazis in 1937: The Great German Art Exhibition, on July 18, and the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition, on July 19. Through these two exhibitions and their related documents and propaganda, the Nazis sought to establish and support the reputation of the approved art of the Third Reich, while at the same time to unleash a destructive “tornado” (as Hitler referred to it) against modern art.

Philip Brookman, consulting curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. During the 1940s American photographer Gordon Parks (1912–2006) grew from a self-taught photographer making portraits and documenting everyday life in Saint Paul and Chicago to a visionary professional shooting for Ebony , Vogue , Fortune , and Life. For the first time, the formative decade of Parks’s 60-year career is the focus of an exhibition, which brings together 150 photographs and ephemera—including magazines, books, letters, and family pictures. Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950 is on view at the National Gallery of Art from November 4, 2018, through February 18, 2019. In this lecture held on November 18, 2018, Philip Brookman illustrates how Parks’s early experiences at the Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information, and Standard Oil (New Jersey), as well as his close relationships with Roy Stryker, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison, helped shape his groundbreaking style.

Heidi Applegate, guest lecturer. Coinciding with the Kennedy Center’s production of the Broadway musical Hamilton , guest lecturer Heidi Applegate surveys works of art featuring Alexander Hamilton in this presentation delivered August 5, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art. The American painter John Trumbull and the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Cerrachi are Hamilton’s best known portraitists thanks to the countless reproductions of their works made after Hamilton’s death. Several other artists also created portraits of Hamilton from life, many of which were replicated during the 19th century. Applegate also discusses portraits of Hamilton’s family members and other founding fathers who were important to Hamilton’s political career, as well as the major posthumous paintings and monuments that helped to secure Hamilton’s legacy.

Christine Laloue, chief curator of harpsichords and fine arts, and Jean-Philippe Echard, curator of bowed string instruments, Musée de la musique, Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris. The harpsichord, standing at the center of baroque European culture, served not only as a musical instrument but also as a receptacle of painting. Collections in townhouses and mansions from Venice to London and Antwerp to Paris included, alongside traditional easel paintings, harpsichords bearing works by masters as renowned as Jan Brueghel, Annibale Carracci, Noël Coypel, Christophe Huet, or Sebastiano Ricci. The paintings on harpsichords’ soundboards featured flowers, birds, and insects, connecting these works to Flemish still-life paintings and the celebration of creation. Others presented allegorical, mythological, or vanitas scenes on their lids. In traditional paintings, the harpsichord functioned as a sign of the culture of the gentleman and life at the court, as well as a symbol of artistic inspiration. The harpsichord was indeed a total work of art and an emblem of harmony, but it was swept away by the historical breaks at the turn of the 19th century, leaving only sweet but anecdotal memories in our imagination. In this lecture held on April 6, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art, Christine Laloue and Jean-Philippe Echard propose, using the example of the harpsichord, an interpretation of the strong links between painting and music in the aesthetics of 16th- through 18th-century Europe.

Nina L. Dubin, associate professor of art history, University of Illinois at Chicago. On the occasion of the exhibition Hubert Robert, 1733–1808 at the National Gallery of Art , Nina Dubin presented a lecture on September 26, 2016, that examined a series of Hubert Robert’s paintings from the 1780s. The theme of these works is courtship menaced by the potential for calamity. Male suitors climb ladders in an attempt to procure flowers for their female love interests or cling to tree branches while trying to secure a token of their affection in the form of a bird’s nest. No less than his contemporaneous views of Paris—evocations of a city vacillating between prosperity and ruin—Robert’s chronicles of the rise and potential fall of a man in love embody the suspenseful confluence of dread and hope that characterized the prerevolutionary period. As Dubin argues, it is no accident that in such a climate, Robert would take up the theme of a lover’s potential mishap: along with the ancient myths of Icarus, Phaethon, and others who fatally believed they could defy the force of gravity, the folly of love furnished eighteenth-century audiences with a shorthand means of coming to terms with the dawning ethereality—the manias, fads, and bubbles—of modern existence.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. The films of Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) display a broad formal range and expressionistic style. The director's devotion to theater and music and his gift for working with an ensemble of actors who routinely probe complex issues of morality, death, and faith are well known. Less often discussed is his debt to the visual arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture. As part of a global celebration of the centennial of Bergman’s birth, senior lecturer David Gariff explores the relationship between the director’s film language and the wider visual arts in this July 29, 2018, lecture at the National Gallery of Art.

Kristen Gonzalez, department of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art Jacobus Vrel is not exactly a household name. A painter of quiet Dutch genre scenes, he produced some fifty works and quickly fell into obscurity. Composing modest interiors and street scenes, Vrel’s mature paintings predate those of the most celebrated Dutch masters in the 17th century. In fact, many of his works were misattributed to Johannes Vermeer. In this lecture held on April 22, 2019, Kristen Gonzalez discusses the Gallery’s Young Woman in an Interior by Jacobus Vrel and the striking modernity of his genre paintings. In anticipation of a major retrospective exhibition in Munich, Paris, and the Hague next year, Kristen discusses the challenge of studying the enigmatic Vrel and establishing his artistic identity distinct from Vermeer and his contemporaries.

Diana Greenwald, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, departments of American and British paintings and American and modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. Self-taught artist James Castle (1899–1977) lived in remote rural Idaho until moving to the outskirts of Boise in his thirties. Not only was he isolated geographically, he was also born deaf. For Castle—like many “outsider” artists—past scholarship used biography and his marginalized social status to interpret his work. On December 3, 2018, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Diana Greenwald argues that the progressive integration of visual culture—nationally and globally—is key to understanding this artist’s work. Greenwald considers Castle through the same art historical lens applied to mainstream artists of the period who were similarly engaged with mass-circulated visual culture. Classifying Castle as a pop artist, although one without the pretense to distinguish “high” from “low” visual sources, moves away from the myth-making rhetoric that pervades discussion about outsider artists and makes an important contribution to the literature.

A multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes performance, film, installation, puppetry, and painting, Janie Geiser, from the School of Theater, CalArts, and internationally recognized films are known for their recontextualization of abandoned images and objects, their embrace of artifice, and sense of suspended time. In this illustrated talk delivered on May 11, 2019, Geiser explores her most recent films and performances with an emphasis on her collaborative processes and methodologies.

Janine Antoni (b. 1964, Freeport, Bahamas) received her BA in 1986 from Sarah Lawrence College in New York before earning her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989. In the early 1990s, she began to perform mundane rituals—eating, sleeping, and washing—and transformed them into sculptures, centering attention on creative processes. Over a nearly 30-year career, her conceptual works have utilized an expansive variety of materials (from food to stone) and mediums (including photography, solo and collaborative performance, sculpture, and video) to emphasize the meanings attached to art-making. In 1993, Antoni created Lick and Lather , a set of 14 self-portrait busts, seven in chocolate and seven in soap. Initially the busts looked identical to each other, and to Antoni, until the artist licked the chocolate busts and bathed with the soap, effacing them to create a collective portrait of artistic presence and absence, likeness and alienation. Lick and Lather also reflects on the history of representation: the chocolate and soap recall both the classical bronze and marble sculptures of antiquity and the variable nature of cast sculpture, all while questioning ideals of female beauty and desire. The set of Lick and Lather at the National Gallery of Art, the only iteration of the project that features all fourteen busts, comprises the fullest picture of Antoni’s concept. On March 1, 2018, as part of the Elson Lecture Series, Antoni discusses her career and latest projects.

Joel Shapiro, artist On October 28, 2012 at the National Gallery of Art, Joel Shapiro presents a lecture on his nearly 50-year career as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series. Born in 1941 in New York City, Shapiro received BA and MA degrees from New York University. Since his first exhibition in 1970, Shapiro has become one of the most widely exhibited American sculptors and the subject of many solo exhibitions and retrospectives, and his work can now be found in numerous public collections in the United States and abroad. His work, from early minimal objects to increasingly expansive and complex forms, has always dealt with such central issues of the sculptural tradition as size and scale, balance and imbalance, figuration and abstraction. He believes that all sculpture is a projection of thought into the world, and he strives to create intimacy and vitality in all his projects. Shapiro lives and works in New York City. The Gallery owns 16 works by the artist, including drawings, prints, and sculptures.

Robert P. Kolker, emeritus professor, department of English, University of Maryland, and adjunct professor of media studies, University of Virginia. Stanley Kubrick’s films have occasionally been criticized as seeming cold or distant. The images and the stories they tell, however, speak another narrative of deeply held, ironically expressed passion, a level of feeling that the viewer has to seek out and be open to. In this lecture held at the National Gallery of Art on September 2, 2018, acclaimed film scholar Robert P. Kolker illustrates, through numerous clips, that Kubrick’s films often reference specific works of art. The presentation celebrates Kolker’s publication of The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and the Reimagining of Cinema , an exploration of how movies work, what they mean, and why they bring us so much pleasure. Reflecting on a lifetime of teaching and writing on these filmmakers, in The Extraordinary Image Kolker offers a deeply personal set of insights on three artists who have changed the way he understands movies.

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, commissioner, American Battle Monuments Commission; chairperson, Historic Landmarks Preservation Center; commissioner, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; founder and chair, NYC Landmarks50 Alliance; chair, New York State Council on the Arts; and director, Trust for the National Mall. As the definitive resource on the architectural history of New York City, The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City’s Historic Buildings, 6th ed., documents and illustrates the 1,352 individual landmarks and 135 historic districts that have been accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission since its establishment in 1965. Arranged chronologically by date of construction, the book’s entries offer a sequential overview of the city’s architectural history and richness, presenting a broad range of styles and building types: colonial farmhouses, Gilded Age mansions, churches, schools, libraries, museums, and the great 20th-century skyscrapers that are recognized throughout the world. In this lecture recorded on March 1, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel shares how so many of these structures have endured, in large measure, through the efforts of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and hundreds of private sector preservation organizations, large and small. Since the commission was established, New York City has become the leader of the preservation movement in the United States, with more buildings and districts designated and protected than in any other city

Elizabeth Alexander, poet, essayist, playwright and scholar; chancellor, Academy of American Poets; director of creativity and free expression, Ford Foundation; and Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University. Elizabeth Alexander is the author of six books of poetry, including American Sublime , a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize; two collections of essays; and The Light of the World , her critically acclaimed memoir on love and loss. Her writing explores such subjects as race, gender, politics, art, and history. Alexander earned her BA in English from Yale University in 1984, her MA in English (Creative Writing) from Boston University in 1987, and her PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. She has received many awards, fellowships, and honorary degrees, among them grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She received the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry and is the inaugural recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 2015, Alexander joined the Ford Foundation as director of creativity and free expression. She shapes and directs Ford’s grant making in arts, media, and culture. She guides the foundation’s efforts to examine how cultural narratives affect and shape social movements and how media and the arts, including film and visual storytelling, can contribute to a fairer and more just society. In The Light of the World , Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband, Ficre Ghebreyesus. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into rich, lucid prose, Alexander tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss—which she shares in this presentation held on September 11, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art. This program is generously supported by Darryl Atwell.

Glenn Ligon’s intertextual works examine cultural and social identity—often through found sources such as literature, Afro-centric coloring books, and photographs—to reveal the ways in which slavery, the civil rights movement, and identity politics inform our understanding of American society. In 2012, the Gallery acquired its first painting by Ligon, Untitled (I Am a Man) (1988). In honor of this acquisition, Ligon presented the 20th annual Elson Lecture on March 14, 2013, in conversation with associate curators of modern art Molly Donovan and James Meyer. Untitled (I Am a Man) is a reinterpretation of the signs carried by 1,300 striking African American sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968 and made famous in Ernest Withers' photographs of the march. Proclaiming "I Am a Man," the signs evoke Ralph Ellison's famous line—"I am an invisible man." Approximating the size of these signs, Ligon’s roughly made painting combines layers of history, meaning, and physical material in a dense, resonant object. As the first painting in which the artist appropriated text, it is a breakthrough. In subsequent works he would transform texts into fields of semilegible and masked meanings. The Gallery owns sixteen works by Ligon, including a suite of etchings and a print portfolio.

A vast trading empire blossomed during the “Little Ice Age” of the 1600s, bringing great wealth to the Dutch Republic and neighboring Flanders. Betsy Wieseman, exhibition curator and head of the National Gallery’s department of northern European paintings, explores a few of the meticulously detailed landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, genre scenes, and portraits seen in Clouds, Ice, and Bounty: The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Collection of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings . Clouds and ice abound in these wide-ranging works, but how much of the bounty did artists exaggerate to create a stronger impression of abundance? Learn how to untangle these subtly distorted realities.

Lorna Simpson, artist. Born in 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, Lorna Simpson earned her BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1983, and her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 1985. She first gained recognition in the mid-1980s for her large photograph-and-text works that confront and challenge, conventional views of gender, identity, culture, history, and memory. With unidentified figures as a visual point of departure, Simpson uses the human form to examine the ways in which gender and culture shape the interactions, relationships, and experiences of contemporary American lives. On September 10, 2016, Simpson delivers the inaugural presentation of the Arnold Newman Lecture Series on Photography held at the National Gallery of Art. Her work is represented in the Gallery’s collection by Two Pairs, a photogravure published by Graphicstudio, U. S. F., and Untitled (Two Necklines), two gelatin silver prints and 11 engraved plastic plaques. Untitled (Two Necklines) is on view in the exhibition Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art through January 2, 2017.

France Scully Osterman, artist, educator, and lecturer at Scully & Osterman Studio and guest scholar at the George Eastman Museum. Bringing together some 115 photographs from across four decades of the artist’s career, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings offers both a sweeping overview of her achievement and a focused exploration of the continuing influence of the American South on her work. In the late 1990s, borrowing freely and shamelessly from the past, Mann began to use the same wet collodion process that countless 19th-century photographers had employed to make their negatives. To learn the ins and outs of this somewhat cumbersome process that dominated photographic practice from the mid-1850s into the 1880s, Mann could not have found better instructors than Mark Osterman, photographic historian at George Eastman Museum, and his wife, photographer France Scully Osterman. On April 21, 2018, in conjunction with the exhibition, Scully Osterman shares her experience as Mann’s guide to making the “technical and aesthetic leap” to wet-plate collodion. Although she came to appreciate the almost ceremonial aspect of creating a collodion wet plate, Mann realized as she experimented that it was “the flaws I like.” This program is made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

Gabriele Finaldi, director, National Gallery, London In his lecture, presented on December 8, 2019, Gabriele Finaldi of the National Gallery, London, discusses Mantegna's particular universe as constructed in stone: carved, cut, polished, and sometimes invented. In his compelling imaginarium, the ancient world is a severe construct of marble, alabaster, and porphyry. He juxtaposes sculpted stone with flesh, creating potent dualities of ancient and modern, eternal and transient, dead and alive. In the skies of his paintings, clouds take on mysterious forms, sometimes rocklike, that want to insinuate themselves into his narratives. This lecture explores how the realms of nature, art, and antiquity are fused into the unique vision of Mantegna's Renaissance world.

Alexandra Libby, assistant curator, northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. The Dutch rose to greatness from the riches of the sea. From their massive cargo- and warships to their small vessels and fishing boats, they commanded the high seas and inland and coastal waterways, becoming leaders in maritime travel, transport, and commerce. Yet, the water was also a source of pleasure and enjoyment. In the warm summer months dune-covered beaches offered scenic vistas, while in the winter frozen canals offered a place for people of all ages to skate, play, and enjoy the outdoors. In this lecture held at the National Gallery of Art on July 1, 2018, Alexandra Libby discusses the essential, multifaceted relationship the Dutch maintained with the water, as seen in the exhibition Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden.

James Meyer, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art In his book The Art of Return: The Sixties and Contemporary Culture , introduced at the National Gallery of Art on September 8, 2019, James Meyer turns to art criticism, theory, memoir, and fiction to examine the fascination with this period and expressions of cultural memories across the globe. He draws on a diverse range of cultural objects that reimagine the “long” 1960s―a revolutionary era stretching from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s―including reenactments of civil rights, antiwar, and feminist marches; paintings; sculptures; photographs; novels; and films. Many of these works are by artists and writers born during this period who are driven to understand a monumental era that they missed. These cases show us that the past becomes significant only in relation to our present, and our remembered history never perfectly replicates time past. This, Meyer argues, is precisely what makes our contemporary attachment to the past so important: it provides us a critical opportunity to examine our own relationship to history, memory, and nostalgia.

Estelle Lingo, Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. The Tuscan sculptor Francesco Mochi (1580-1654) has long been viewed as an early innovator of the baroque style whose career was eclipsed by his brilliant younger contemporary Gianlorenzo Bernini. But for his 17th-century biographer, what distinguished Mochi’s sculpture was his determination to adhere to “the Florentine manner.” Estelle Lingo’s new book, Mochi’s Edge and Bernini’s Baroque , argues that the religious and political climate of the later 16th century posed specific challenges for the medium of sculpture, particularly as it had been practiced by Florentine sculptors, most famously Michelangelo. In this lecture held on April 29, 2018, Lingo explores how Mochi’s distinctive sculptural style emerged directly from his attempt to carry forward this 16th-century Florentine tradition and to adapt it to the exigencies of a new era. Mochi’s ambitious undertaking produced some of the century’s most breathtaking and technically sophisticated sculptures, but its inherent tensions also offer new ways of understanding the formation and rise to dominance of Bernini’s mature sculptural style.

Susan Meiselas, artist. In 1990 the National Gallery of Art launched an initiative to acquire the finest examples of the art of photography and to mount photography exhibitions of the highest quality, accompanied by scholarly publications and programs. In the years since, the Gallery’s collection of photographs has grown to nearly 15,000 works encompassing the history of the medium from its beginnings in 1839 to the present, featuring in-depth holdings of work by many of the masters of the art form. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of this initiative, the Gallery presents 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 . On view from May 3 through September 13, 2015, The Memory of Time explores the work of 26 contemporary artists who investigate the richness and complexity of photography’s relationship to time, memory, and history. In this lecture recorded on May 31, 2015, Susan Meiselas discusses the themes and broader historical context of the installation The Life of an Image: “Molotov Man,” 1979-2009 featured in the exhibition . This installation traces the life and authorship of this iconic image taken during the last days of the Nicaraguan revolution in 1979.

Kimberly A. Jones, curator of 19th-century French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Two of Claude Monet’s paintings of the garden at his home in Vétheuil, France, have been reunited for the first time since they were created more than 100 years ago, thanks to a long-term series of loan exchanges between the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. In celebration of this special installation, Kimberly A. Jones discusses the genesis of the four versions of The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil (1881) and their place within the larger context of Monet’s artistic development during his three-year sojourn at Vétheuil, a period marked by personal tragedy and intense creativity.

Mia Fineman, curator, department of photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art 2019 marks 50 years since Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, capturing the attention of viewers worldwide who eagerly awaited the first photographs taken onsite. Photography played a key role in the space race of the 1960s, both as a tool of scientific documentation and as a medium of public relations. In this lecture held on October 20, 2019, in celebration of the exhibitions By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs at the National Gallery of Art and Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, curator Mia Fineman explores the connections as well as the tensions between these two functions, delving into the fascinating history of lunar imaging.

From the 1920s to the 1950s, independent women photographers around the world helped create the New Woman, a model of newfound freedom and self-determination in life and art. Their work ranged from studio portraits, street photography, sports, and fashion to avant-garde experiments. Andrea Nelson, associate curator of photography at the National Gallery of Art, talks about the trailblazing “new women” behind some of the most iconic images of the twentieth century.

Ruth Fine, curator (1972-2012), National Gallery of Art, and curator and catalog editor, Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis , Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis is the first comprehensive museum overview of the work of this influential artist. Norman Lewis (1909-1979) became committed to issues of abstraction at the start of his career and continued to explore them over its entire trajectory. His art derived inspiration from music (jazz and classical) and nature (seasonal changes, plant forms, and the sea). Also central to his work were the dramatic confrontations of the civil rights movement, in which he was an active participant alongside fellow members of the New York art scene. Bridging the Harlem Renaissance, abstract expressionism, and other movements, Lewis is a crucial figure in American art whose reinsertion into the discourse further opens the field for recognition of the contributions of artists of color. Procession was organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and brings together works from major public and private collections. In this lecture, recorded on February 14, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, exhibition curator Ruth Fine presents an overview of the approximately 130 paintings, unique works on paper, objects, and prints dating from the early 1930s through the late 1970s featured in both the Procession exhibition and its companion show Stone and Metal: Lithographs and Etchings by Norman Lewis . Bringing much-needed attention to Lewis’s output and significance in the history of American art, the multiauthor exhibition catalog—edited by Fine, who wrote the key overview essay—is a milestone in Lewis scholarship and a vital resource for future study of the artist and abstraction in his period.

Lynne Cooke, senior curator, department of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. In the exhibition Outliers and American Vanguard Art, more than 250 works explore three distinct periods in American history when mainstream and outlier artists intersected, ushering in new paradigms based on inclusion, integration, and assimilation. On view at the National Gallery of Art from January 28 through May 13, 2018, the exhibition aligns work by such diverse artists as Charles Sheeler, Christina Ramberg, and Matt Mullican with both historic folk art and works by self-taught artists ranging from Horace Pippin to Janet Sobel and Joseph Yoakum. It also examines a recent influx of radically expressive work made on the margins that redefined the boundaries of the mainstream art world and challenged the very categories of “outsider” and “self-taught.” Historicizing the shifting identity and role of this distinctly American version of modernism’s “other,” the exhibition probes assumptions about creativity, artistic practice, and the role of the artist in contemporary culture. Lynne Cooke introduces the exhibition in this lecture held on February 4, 2018.

Kimberly Schenck, head of paper conservation, National Gallery of Art, and Stacey Sell, associate curator of old master drawings, National Gallery of Art Through the centuries, artists have adopted a variety of approaches to pastel, experimenting with it to achieve exciting and unexpected effects. Featuring approximately 70 exquisite examples drawn entirely from the permanent collection, The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art traces the history of pastel from the Renaissance to the 21st century and examines the many techniques that artists have developed to work with this colorful and versatile medium. To celebrate the opening on September 29, 2019, Kimberly Schenck and Stacey Sell provide an overview of the works, many of which have never been exhibited before. The exhibition is on view at the National Gallery of Art through January 26, 2020.

David DeVorkin, senior curator of astronomy and the space sciences, National Air and Space Museum; Jennifer Levasseur, curator of space history, National Air and Space Museum; Matthew Shindell, curator of planetary science, National Air and Space Museum The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. Photography played a significant role both in preparing for the mission and in shaping the cultural consciousness of the event. By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs features works ranging in date from the 19th century to the “space-age” 1960s. The event Photographing the Moon , held on October 3, 2019, at the National Gallery of Art, celebrated this exhibition by inviting three curators from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum to give talks on the intertwined histories of photography and space exploration.

France Scully Osterman, artist, educator, and lecturer at Scully & Osterman Studio and guest scholar at the George Eastman Museum. In this presentation held on May 6, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, France Scully Osterman provides an overview of historical photographic processes used to create works in the exhibition East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography . Osterman demonstrates how to make cyanotypes and salted paper prints, two popular 19th-century photographic processes. Beginning with coating papers by hand, she prints the light-sensitive papers with collodion negatives, and she then elaborates on the similarities between the salted paper and albumen printing processes and how they were toned. Osterman also shows examples of photographic techniques, including retouching negatives and waxing prints. East of the Mississippi is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on photographs made in the eastern United States during the 19th century. On view from March 12 through July 16, 2017, East of the Mississippi showcases some 175 works—from daguerreotypes and stereographs to albumen prints and cyanotypes—as well as several photographers whose efforts have often gone unheralded. This program is made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

Beverly Louise Brown, Fellow, The Warburg Institute. In this lecture, presented on November 19, 2017, Beverly Louise Brown discusses Titian’s portrait of Clarice Strozzi. A popular nineteenth-century nursery rhyme tells us that little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails while little girls are filled with sugar and spice and all things nice. And who could be nicer than two-year-old Clarice Strozzi, who in Titian’s portrait so sweetly shares a ring-shaped biscuit with her toy spaniel? Today, Instagram abounds in similar snapshots eagerly sent by adoring parents to family and friends. Such images would seem to embody the essence of childhood by celebrating their subjects’ natural spontaneity. They are lasting reminders of the days of childhood innocence. It is in this spirit that we might assume Clarice Strozzi’s parents commissioned her portrait in 1542. But if we look more carefully at Titian’s charming portrayal of a little girl and her dog, we soon discover that it is unlikely to have been a mere celebration of sugar and spice and all things nice.

Linda S. Ferber, museum director emerita and senior art historian, New-York Historical Society, and Barbara Dayer Gallati, curator emerita of American art, Brooklyn Museum In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Ruskin (1819–1900), the most influential art critic of the Victorian era, the Gallery presents The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists , an exhibition of more than 90 artworks created by American artists who were profoundly influenced by Ruskin’s call for a revolutionary change in the practice of art. A group of artists, architects, scientists, critics, and collectors sympathetic to Ruskin’s ideas formed the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, which sought reform not only in artistic practices but also in the broader political arena. Most were abolitionists deeply engaged in the fight against slavery, and coded references to the Civil War are present in a number of landscape paintings. Members of the group heeded Ruskin’s call to record the natural world faithfully; they also created works that often include a rich political subtext. Linda S. Ferber and Barbara Dayer Gallati delivered a paired lecture on April 14, 2019, at the National Gallery of Art to introduce the exhibition.

Richard I. Suchenski, associate professor of film and electronic arts and director of the Center for Moving Image Arts, Bard College; and editor, Hou Hsiao-hsien. In this lecture recorded on September 3, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, Richard I. Suchenski discusses his book, Projections of Memory: Romanticism, Modernism, and the Aesthetics of Film— an exploration of innovative cinematic works that use their extraordinary scope to construct monuments to the imagination through which currents from the other arts can flow. By examining these works, Projections of Memory remaps film history around some of its most ambitious achievements and helps to clarify cinema as a twentieth-century art form. Suchenski addresses some of the core concerns of the book through a discussion of films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr, and Jean-Luc Godard alongside paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Jacopo Tintoretto, and Matthias Grünewald.

James Welling, artist. On April 23, 2017, at the National Gallery of Art, artist James Welling discusses his series Railroad Photographs , made from 1987 to 2000 in the context of his 19th-century predecessors. Fascinated with railroads since childhood, Welling has photographed train and railroad landscapes, radiating out from his home in New York City up through Connecticut, Massachusetts, upstate New York, to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and eventually Wyoming and California. This presentation is held in conjunction with East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography , the first exhibition to focus exclusively on photographs made in the eastern half of the United States during the 19th century. On view from March 12 through July 16, 2017, East of the Mississippi showcases some 175 works—from daguerreotypes and stereographs to albumen prints and cyanotypes—as well as several photographers whose efforts have often gone unheralded. This program is made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

Jonathan Bober, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art In celebration of the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, the Gallery presents 25 prints and drawings in an intimate installation. The works illustrate how Raphael’s art shaped the standard of aesthetic excellence for later artists, connoisseurs, and scholars. The exhibition features four drawings by Raphael: the sheet from which the design of his painting Saint George and the Dragon was transferred; the cartoon for the so-called Belle Jardinière ; a detailed representation of the prophets Hosea and Jonah; and a well-known study for part of the frescoes in the church of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. Nine drawings by his closest collaborators and followers—Giulio Romano, Polidoro da Caravaggio, and Perino del Vaga—are also on view. The exhibition includes 10 engravings, as well as a chiaroscuro woodcut, by the earliest interpreters of Raphael’s designs: Marcantonio Raimondi and his followers Agostino dei Musi and Marco Dente as well as Ugo da Carpi. To celebrate the exhibition opening, on February 21, 2020, Jonathan Bober, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art, provided an overview of the exhibition.

Eric Denker, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art Raphael is recognized by many as the foremost figure of the classical tradition in Western painting. Unparalleled in the complexity of his style and the near reverence his art has inspired over the five centuries since his death, few artists are so deserving of commemoration. In the early twentieth century, the mark of a great Italian collection in the United States was to have work by Raphael. No Michelangelo paintings or sculpture were in America’s collections, nor any work by Leonardo da Vinci. However collectors in the United States astutely acquired 14 paintings by Raphael, five of which would become part of the National Gallery of Art’s collection. To celebrate the exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, Eric Denker, senior lecturer at the National Gallery of Art, gave this talk on March 13, 2020. He provides an overview of the exhibition and examines the Gallery’s extraordinary collection of paintings, drawings, and prints by Raphael and his workshop.

Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern art, National Gallery of Art. It is often said that the National Gallery of Art is a collection of collections. All its acquisitions of art are the resultof gifts, whether of art itself or of the funds to acquire art. In the realm of modern art, one of the principal mechanisms of this generosity has been the Collectors Committee, a group of patrons who came together in 1975 to commission and donate major works to help inaugurate the East Building, which opened in 1978. In this lecture held on July 8, 2018, Harry Cooper surveys the gifts made by the Committee since 2008, when he joined the Gallery’s staff. This revealing inside look at the acquisition process demonstrates how dramatically the collection of contemporary works has grown over the past decade.

This exhibition features rare prints by iconic artists such as Albrecht Dürer and Hendrick Goltzius, along with spectacular works by their printmaking contemporaries, including masterpieces never before exhibited at the museum. From small allegorical compositions intended for private contemplation to oversize, multisheet woodcuts made for civic decoration, these engravings, etchings, and woodcuts highlight the immense creativity and technical skill of the graphic artists working north of the Alps.

For 50 years, Robert Adams has made compelling, provocative, and highly influential photographs that show the wonder and fragility of the American landscape, its inherent beauty, and the inadequacy of our response to it. Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art, introduces American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams that celebrates the art of this seminal photographer and explores the reverential way he looks at the world around him and the almost palpable silence of his work. The exhibition and catalog are made possible through the leadership support of the Trellis Fund and a generous gift from Jane P. Watkins. The exhibition is also made possible in part by The Shared Earth Foundation. Additional support is provided by Randi and Bob Fisher, Wes and Kate Mitchell, Nion McEvoy, Greg and Aline Gooding, and the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

Gregory Jecmen, associate curator of old master prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. On March 17, 1943, the National Gallery of Art marked its second anniversary with the announcement of an extraordinary gift from print collector and former Sears, Roebuck and Company chairman Lessing J. Rosenwald: Rosenwald's print and drawing collection, ultimately numbering more than 22,000 works at the time of his death in 1979. The collection, with works ranging in date from the late 11th century to the mid-20th century, was the finest ever assembled by one person in the United States, and its donation constituted the single largest gift by a private individual to the nation. The gift immediately catapulted the Gallery’s public collection of prints and drawings into one of the most exceptional in the country. In this lecture recorded on March 16, 2018, Gregory Jecmen reveals Rosenwald’s extraordinary legacy as both a learned print collector and an enthusiastic promoter for the appreciation of the graphic arts. Jecmen also highlights the collection’s strengths and emphasizes selected works by some of Rosenwald’s favorite artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, William Blake, and James Whistler.

Sally Mann, artist. In this presentation recorded on June 21, 2015, at the National Gallery of Art, acclaimed photographer Sally Mann reads from her revealing memoir and family history Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs. In this groundbreaking book, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South is described as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her. Sorting through boxes of family papers and yellowed photographs, she finds more than she bargained for: "deceit and scandal, alcohol, domestic abuse, car crashes, bogeymen, clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land . . . racial complications, vast sums of money made and lost, the return of the prodigal son, and maybe even bloody murder." Mann crafts a totally original form of personal history that has the page-turning drama of a great novel, but is firmly rooted in the fertile soil of her own life.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. For more than forty years, Sally Mann (b. 1951, Lexington, Virginia) has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs—a broad body of work that includes figure studies, still lifes, and landscapes. Offering both a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievement and a focused exploration of the continuing influence of the South on her work, the exhibition Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings presents some 115 photographs, many of which have not been exhibited or published previously. This powerful and provocative work is organized into five sections: Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains. On view from March 4 through May 28, 2018, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog with essays that explore the development of Mann’s art; her family photographs; the landscape as repository of personal, cultural, and racial memory; and her debt to 19th-century photographers and techniques. Sarah Greenough celebrates the exhibition with this introductory lecture recorded on opening day.

Judith Brodie, curator and head, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art. In this lecture held on January 14, 2018, Judith Brodie presents the special installation of 18 drawings, two photographs, and an assortment of small sculptures by Saul Steinberg (1914–1999). This installation is part of an initiative—dating from the reopening of the East Building galleries in 2016—to include selected modern drawings, prints, and photographs as part of the permanent collection display. Revered by millions for his outstanding covers for the New Yorker magazine, Steinberg was an extraordinary draftsman whose line, according to the art critic Harold Rosenberg, was “delectable in itself.” Whether making independent works or ones for publication, Steinberg brought a mordant wit and a sharp eye to all his art, creating works that disarm, enchant, and electrify. On view from September 12, 2017, through May 18, 2018, Saul Steinberg spans the years 1945 to 1984 and includes a wide range of subjects and types: from World War II air raids to New York hipsters, from collages incorporating real stationery to bogus documents enhanced with fake signatures and seals.

Jeanine Michna-Bales and Clarissa Sligh, artists. For more than forty years, artist Sally Mann has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that are all bred of a place, the American South. Using her deep love of her native land and her knowledge of its fraught history, Mann asks provocative questions—about history, identity, race, and religion—that reverberate across geographic and national boundaries. On view from March 4 through May 28, 2018, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings considers how Mann’s relationship with this land has shaped her work and how the legacy of the South—as both homeland and graveyard, refuge and battleground—continues to permeate American identity. On May 20, 2018, in conjunction with the exhibition, artists Jeanine Michna-Bales and Clarissa Sligh share their processes of reimagining and representing histories of African Americans. The program focuses on their recent projects. Michna-Bales’s Through Darkness to Light: Seeking Freedom on the Underground Railroad is a remarkable series of images taken in the dead of night that reveal historical sites, cities, and other places freedom seekers passed through, including homes of abolitionists who offered them sanctuary and a place to rest during daylight hours. Sligh’s Transforming Hate: An Artist's Book evolved from an exhibition in which the artist created sculpture by folding origami cranes from pages of white supremacist books. This program is made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

Susan Tallman, adjunct associate professor of art history, theory, and criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and editor in chief, Art in Print. For centuries, Western artists strove to depict perfection and order—a created world that made more sense than the found one. Much contemporary art has chosen instead to articulate profusion, fragmentation, and the squiggly line between explanation and digression. In this lecture, held on January 24, 2016 to coincide with the exhibition The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L. at the National Gallery of Art, Susan Tallman looks at the essential role of prints and printmaking in the rise of conceptual and physical complexity. Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited), the renowned Los Angeles artists’ workshop and publisher of fine art limited edition prints and sculptures, has collaborated with some of the most influential artists of the past five decades. On view from October 4, 2015 to February 7, 2016, The Serial Impulse features 17 multipart series by 17 different artists.

John Hand, curator of northern Renaissance paintings, National Gallery of Art. Undoubtedly the greatest Renaissance artist from Estonia, Michel Sittow (c. 1469-1525) was born in Reval (now Tallinn in present-day Estonia), quite likely studied in Bruges with Hans Memling, and worked at the courts of renowned European royals such as King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. Organized by the Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, and the National Gallery of Art, the exhibition Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter at the Courts of Renaissance Europe marks the occasion of the centennial of the Estonian Republic in 2018. On view at the Gallery from January 28 through May 13, 2018, the exhibition represents most of Sittow's small oeuvre through some 20 works. In this lecture held on March 11, John Hand examines Sittow's art in a broader context, including his relationship to Netherlandish contemporaries and a possible collaboration with Juan de Flandes.

Eric Denker, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. Ailsa Mellon Bruce was the only daughter of Andrew Mellon, the founder of the National Gallery of Art, and a patron of the Gallery since 1941. Through direct donation and various funds she was responsible for the Gallery’s acquisition of many major works, including Ginevra de’ Benci by Leonardo. At her death in 1969 she left 153 paintings, primarily by French artists, to the Gallery. For the 1978 opening of the East Building, selected paintings from the collection were shown as a memorial exhibition under the title Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. In this lecture celebrating the 40th anniversary of the East Building, presented on August 26, 2018, Eric Denker, senior lecturer at the National Gallery of Art, describes the exhibition—a great favorite among visitors that would continue in various forms for 35 years. The show included jewel-like works by, among others, Corot, Manet, Degas, Boudin, Seurat, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art. This holiday presentation explores the biblical episodes surrounding the birth of Christ as depicted in masterworks from the Gallery’s permanent collection. Gariff examines excerpts from the King James Version of the Bible and investigates the iconography, artistic technique, and historical context of works from the Gallery’s collection, such as paintings by Duccio, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Giorgione, and Gerard David. This lecture was presented on December 13, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art.

Eric Denker, senior lecturer and manager of gallery talks and lectures for adults, National Gallery of Art On the occasion of the exhibition of Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, Eric Denker, senior lecturer at the National Gallery of Art, presents a four-part lecture series examining Jacopo Tintoretto’s work in the context of 16th-century Venetian art, history, and culture. In the first lecture, “Tintoretto in Context: Framing Tintoretto: Sixteenth-Century Venetian Painting,” held on April 16, 2019, Denker discusses Venetian Renaissance painting beginning with Giovanni Bellini, his workshop, and his followers, in the second half of the 15th century. Giorgione and Titian were among his most prominent pupils, developing out of Bellini’s linear style the more atmospheric color, light, and shadow characteristic of Venetian High Renaissance oil painting. Though Titian would dominate the painting of large-scale altarpieces and decorations in Venice during the first half of the 16th century, rivals influenced by contemporary central Italian art appeared in Venice by the 1520s and ’30s. Artists including Pordenone and Andrea Schiavone provided alternative sources of style and imagery for both painters and patrons.

Eric Denker, senior lecturer and manager of gallery talks and lectures for adults, National Gallery of Art On the occasion of the exhibition of Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, Eric Denker, senior lecturer at the National Gallery of Art, presents a four-part lecture series examining Jacopo Tintoretto’s work in the context of 16th-century Venetian art, history, and culture. In this second lecture, “Tintoretto: The Early Work,” held on April 23, 2019, Denker investigates Tintoretto’s formative years as an artist. According to early biographers, Tintoretto only briefly studied with the eminent painter Titian early in his career. The ambitious young son of a cloth dyer drew his inspiration from both the older master’s works and from a variety of younger, more experimental artists during his formative years. Tintoretto’s work was informed both by the example of Pordenone as a kind of anti-Titian mannerist and by the experimentation of younger collaborators, including Andrea Schiavone and Bonifacio dei’ Pitati. By the time Tintoretto was 30, his own painting had reached a new level of sophistication and confidence, as seen in St. Mark and the Miracle of the Slave , which he painted for the Scuola Grande di San Marco in 1548.

Eric Denker, senior lecturer and manager of gallery talks and lectures for adults, National Gallery of Art On the occasion of the exhibition of Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, Eric Denker, senior lecturer at the National Gallery of Art presents a four-part lecture series examining Jacopo Tintoretto’s work in the context of 16th-century Venetian art, history, and culture. In this third lecture, “Tintoretto Central: The Scuola Grande di San Rocco,” held on May 7, 2019, Denker discusses the decorations for the charitable confraternity Scuola Grande di San Rocco, which occupied Tintoretto for more than 25 years. In 1564 his painting San Rocco in Glory won the competition for the central ceiling canvas of the Scuola’s board room. His greatest masterpiece, the 40-foot-wide Crucifixion, was painted the following year. In the 1570s he completed the Old and New Testament cycles for the upper level of the Scuola, and in the 1580s he finished the decoration of the ground floor with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. In all, Tintoretto executed more than 65 paintings for the brotherhood of the Scuola, a remarkable achievement for the humble cloth dyer’s son.

Eric Denker, Senior Lecturer and Manager of Gallery Talks and Lectures for Adults, National Gallery of Art On the occasion of the exhibition of Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, Eric Denker, senior lecturer at the National Gallery of Art presents a four-part lecture series examining Jacopo Tintoretto’s work in the context of 16th-century Venetian art, history, and culture. In this final lecture, “In Situ: Tintoretto in Venice,” held on May 14, 2019, Denker discusses the many masterpieces by the artist scattered throughout Venice. Tintoretto was both a superlative painter and an ambitious entrepreneur. As a native Venetian, he worked for the Republic of Venice, for the church, and for charitable confraternities throughout his long career, often for below-market prices. Without a carefully planned route through Venice it is difficult to understand the trajectory of Tintoretto’s career from his early experimental years to his mature work. This lecture offers a chronological itinerary that begins with the early work in the Accademia Galleries, proceeding to the church of the Madonna dell’Orto, the church of San Cassiano, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and ends in the Ducal Palace.

Robert Echols, independent scholar, and Frederick Ilchman, chair of the art of Europe department and Mrs. Russell W. Baker Curator of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Jacopo Tintoretto (1518/1519–1594), three institutions—the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia; and the Gallerie dell’Accademia—organized a major exhibition on the Venetian master. Following its term at the Palazzo Ducale, Venice (its only other venue), Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice is on view at the Gallery from March 24 through July 7, 2019. As the first retrospective of the artist in North America, the exhibition features nearly 50 paintings and more than a dozen works on paper spanning the artist’s entire career, ranging from regal portraits of Venetian aristocracy to religious and mythological narrative scenes. Tintoretto has been considered one of the “Big Three” 16th-century Venetian painters, alongside Titian and Paolo Veronese, and works by Tintoretto’s assistants and followers have frequently been misattributed to the master. The exhibition curators, Tintoretto experts Robert Echols and Frederick Ilchman, are widely responsible for a new and more accurate understanding of Tintoretto’s oeuvre and chronology, first explored in the Museo del Prado’s Tintoretto exhibition in 2007. Echols and Ilchman celebrate the exhibition opening in this introductory lecture held on March 24, 2019.

Stephen J. Campbell, Henry and Elizabeth Wiesenfeld Professor of Art History, Johns Hopkins University. In this lecture, presented on November 4, 2018, Stephen J. Campbell addresses the conflicted reception of the Venetian painter Titian outside his home city during a crucial phase in the formation of his reputation—his achievement of celebrity as a Hapsburg court painter and his inclusion in an emerging canon of Venetian and central Italian artists. While Titian’s production for Hapsburg patrons in Spain and other non-Italian destinations shows him performing as the quintessential artist of the Italian "modern manner," by the mid-sixteenth century his work for sites in Italy pursued a different course: artistic and critical reaction suggests that it was found to be inscrutable or alienating. Campbell’s lecture proposes that this reception resulted from a tacit disavowal on Titian's part of contemporary critical accounts—by Lodovico Dolce, Pietro Aretino, and Giorgio Vasari—that increasingly sought to define his work.

Nick Sousanis, comics artist, educator, and postdoctoral fellow in comics studies, University of Calgary. Unflattening began as an experiment in making an argument through images and as a challenge to traditional scholarship as it is currently produced in American universities. It embodies the importance of visual thinking in teaching and learning. In this lecture recorded on June 12, 2016 at the National Gallery of Art, Nick Sousanis delves into the distinct ways that comics create meaning through the constant play of word and image. He explains how to see and read comics better, and may even inspire you to make your own comics.

Photographer James Van Der Zee chronicled Harlem, New York and its majority Black residents during the 1920s and 1930s and beyond. His carefully composed photographs captured the personalities and spirit of the neighborhood. Diane Waggoner, the National Gallery’s curator of 19th-century photographs, tells the story of James Van Der Zee’s studio and the people he memorialized in dignified portraits that still resonate today.

Giorgio Vasari wrote two biographies of the Florentine painter Piero di Cosimo: the text published in the second edition of his Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects in 1568 is a much-revised version of the first, printed in 1550. Both works are profoundly teleological, since they are both based on a misleading notion of artistic progress: the first culminating in the figure of Michelangelo, who mastered all three major arts, and the second ending with the eulogy of the Accademia del Disegno, recently founded (1563) under the political auspices of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. As Alessandro Nova shows in this lecture, Piero’s lives do not fit the theoretical model, and their meaning can be fully appreciated only when they are embedded in a network that connects Vasari’s récit of Paolo Uccello’s biography with his fictional life of Jacopo Pontormo. All three were represented as improper intellectual figures deeply absorbed in their creative process, and their behavior allegedly endangered Vasari’s efforts to promote a new figure of the artist perfectly integrated into the courtly society of his time.​ Recorded on February 18, 2015.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. Exhibitions always provide opportunities for seeing works of art with fresh eyes. Rarely, however, have the comparisons of much-beloved paintings, such as those brought together in Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry , yielded so many insights about artistic achievement and the creative process. The landmark exhibition examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting, or depictions of daily life. In this lecture held on January 7, 2018, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. discusses some of these revelations and how they help explain the enduring impact of Vermeer’s paintings. Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting is on view at the National Gallery of Art through January 21, 2018.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. Johannes Vermeer , the unprecedented exhibition that featured 21 of the existing 35 works known to have been painted by the Dutch artist, was on view from November 12, 1995, through February 11, 1996, at the National Gallery of Art. It was drawn from museums and private collections in Europe and the United States. Among the paintings on display was View of Delft , on loan from the Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague, which had never been seen outside Europe. In the winter of 1995/1996, the Gallery was closed during two federal government shutdowns and a blizzard, which severely affected public access to the exhibition. As a result, the Vermeer exhibition was inaccessible for 19 days of its run at the Gallery. After 10 days of the second government furlough (on December 27), the exhibition was reopened using private funds. The rest of the Gallery remained closed to the public. In this presentation held on November 15, 2015, to celebrate the 20th anniversary, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. shares the amazing journey behind the scenes to bring this exhibition to the public.

Maygene Daniels, chief of Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art. Johannes Vermeer , the unprecedented exhibition that featured 21 of the existing 35 works known to have been painted by the Dutch artist, was on view from November 12, 1995, through February 11, 1996, at the National Gallery of Art. It was drawn from museums and private collections in Europe and the United States. Among the paintings on display was View of Delft , on loan from the Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague, which had never been seen outside Europe. In the winter of 1995/1996, the Gallery was closed during two federal government shutdowns and a blizzard, which severely affected public access to the exhibition. As a result, the Vermeer exhibition was inaccessible for 19 days of its run at the Gallery. After 10 days of the second government furlough (on December 27), the exhibition was reopened using private funds. The rest of the Gallery remained closed to the public. In this presentation held on November 15, 2015, to celebrate the 20th anniversary, Maygene Daniels explains that the exhibition was truly distinctive because of its confluence with unusual public events. Anticipation, press coverage, and word of mouth all brought visitors to the Gallery. Due to the limited access, over time the Vermeer experience moved from intense interest to frenzy to near hysteria as the unforeseen became reality.

Adriaan Waiboer, head of collections and research, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. The landmark exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting, or depictions of daily life. The introduction of quiet scenes unfolding in private household spaces, featuring elegant ladies and gentlemen, was among the most striking innovations of Dutch painting of the Golden Age, a time of unparalleled innovation and prosperity. The exhibition brings together nearly 70 works by Vermeer and his fellow painters, including Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu, Frans van Mieris, Caspar Netscher, and Jan Steen, who lived in various towns throughout the Dutch Republic, from Delft and Deventer to Amsterdam and Leiden. To celebrate the exhibition opening on October 22, 2017, Adriaan Waiboer and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. share how these artists inspired, rivaled, surpassed, and pushed each other to greater artistic achievement. Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting is on view at the National Gallery of Art through January 21, 2018.

Sir Nicholas Penny, currently visiting professor, National Academy of Art, Hangzhou; previously director, National Gallery, London (2008–2015); former senior curator of sculpture, National Gallery of Art (2002–2008) Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence is the first-ever monographic exhibition in the United States on Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488). The National Gallery of Art is the sole American venue of the exhibition that runs from September 15, 2019 through January 12, 2020. Verrocchio was both a draftsman and modeler whose designs were carried out in painting and sculpture by his own hand, but also by pupils and assistants, including Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, and likely Sandro Botticelli. In this lecture held on December 15, 2019, Sir Nicholas Penny argues that Verrocchio was one of the most influential of all European artists because he developed practices that came to be of fundamental importance in subsequent centuries, notably the separate study of drapery, the nude, and expressive heads and hands.

Andrew Butterfield, exhibition curator, and president of Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence is the first-ever monographic exhibition in the United States on Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488), the innovative artist, painter, sculptor, and teacher whose pupils included Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, and likely Sandro Botticelli as well. The exhibition examines the wealth and breadth of Verrocchio's extraordinary artistry by bringing together some 50 of his masterpieces in painting, sculpture, and drawing that allow viewers to appreciate how his work in each art form stimulated creativity in the others. Groundbreaking technical research explores Verrocchio's materials and techniques, offering revelations about his artistic choices. Several carefully argued new attributions in different media are proposed in the exhibition. The National Gallery of Art is the sole American venue for the exhibition, and in this lecture, delivered on November 3, 2019, curator Andrew Butterfield provides an overview of Verrocchio’s work.

Charles Ritchie, artist and associate curator, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art As an artist who has worked behind the scenes with the prints and drawings collections of the National Gallery of Art for 35 years, associate curator Charles Ritchie relishes his unique vantage point for watching artists think. He has an intimate view of everything from the sketching, erasing, and refining at the core of drawing, to studying the sequences of proof impressions that record the development of a print. On March 25, 2019, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Ritchie shares how his own drawing, journal keeping, and printmaking have been influenced by what he’s learned. The presentation offers a collection of his observations.

Offered in conjunction with the exhibition True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870 on view at the National Gallery of Art February 2 – May 3, 2020, senior lecturer David Gariff discusses shifting definitions and visual explorations of weather in European painting. In this lecture, presented on February 26, 2020, at the National Gallery of Art, Gariff investigates how approaches to painting the effects of weather — storms, rain, snow, wind, floods, and cloud formations — slowly transform from symbolic portrayals in religious, mythological, and history paintings to more scientific and empirical depictions of weather, reflecting the influence of the new science of meteorology emerging in the nineteenth century.

Carol Mattusch, Mathy Professor of Art History, George Mason University. On view from December 13, 2015, through March 20, 2016, the exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World features 50 works that survey the development of Hellenistic art as it spread from Greece throughout the Mediterranean between the fourth and first centuries BC. Through the medium of bronze, artists were able to capture the dynamic realism, expression, and detail that characterized the new artistic goals of the period. Power and Pathos brings together works from world-renowned archaeological museums in Austria, Denmark, France, Georgia, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Spain, Tunisia, the United States, and the Vatican. The exhibition presents a unique opportunity to witness the importance of bronze in the ancient world, when it became the preferred medium for portrait sculpture. In this lecture recorded on February 7, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, Carol Mattusch explains that many of the bronzes in Power and Pathos are incomplete, and explores these questions: What did the complete statues look like? What were the sculptures used for? And were they all statues or did some of them serve other functions?

When James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and Joanna Hiffernan (1839–1886) met in 1860, they began a close professional and personal relationship that lasted for over two decades. Featuring some 60 works including paintings, drawings, and prints, "The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler" explores their partnership and the iconic works of art arising from their collaboration. Bringing together nearly every known depiction of Hiffernan, as well as relevant documents and letters, this exhibition explores who Hiffernan was, her partnership with Whistler, and her role in the creative process.

Molly Donovan, curator of art, 1975–present, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art. Rachel Whiteread , the first comprehensive survey of this British sculptor’s 30-year career, features drawings, photographs, architecture-scaled sculptures, archival materials, documentary materials on public projects, and several new works on view for the first time. In this introductory lecture recorded on September 16, 2018, Molly Donovan explains how Whiteread’s sculptures memorialize everyday objects, domestic interiors, and public spaces. Donovan also shares the ways in which Whiteread has effectively recast the memories of these locations and objects to chart the seismic changes in how we live, from the late 20th century and into the 21st. The exhibition is on view through January 13, 2019.

Kara Fiedorek Felt, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington Held on November 24, 2019, in conjunction with the exhibition The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art , the lecture Before the Kodak Girl explores the many roles that women played in nineteenth-century photography. From working in major studios to producing photographs as professionals and amateurs, women were deeply involved in the medium’s first half-century, though histories and collections of photography tend to emphasize only a few extraordinary examples. Kara Felt illustrates the diverse contributions of women—highlighting a selection of known and relatively unknown figures—while discussing the factors enabling, and limiting, their advancement. Ultimately, the lecture illuminates the emergence of photography as a central interest of the modern woman in the 1890s, when Eastman Kodak launched a highly successful campaign to sell its products through imagery of the independent, camera-toting “Kodak Girl.”