National Gallery of Art | Audio

April 2014 - William Tronzo, visiting faculty, University of California, San Diego. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections, on view from October 6, 2013, through March 2, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art, this symposium takes its name and perspective from art critic and novelist John Peter Berger's 1972 book Ways of Seeing. Noted scholars Glenn Peers, Bissera Pentcheva, William Tronzo, and Alicia Walker seek to place the Heaven and Earth exhibition objects in context by answering questions generated by Berger's book: What world did these objects constitute in Byzantium and how did they form it? What values did they embody or create? How were they used and understood? Conversely what world do these objects constitute for us now? How do we understand them? And most important, then and now, are these works considered art?

April 2014 - Robin Cormack, professor emeritus of art history, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. When Lord Byron went to Greece in 1810, it was the art and culture of antiquity that attracted him. The appreciation of the art of Christian Greece is very modern. Sometimes this Byzantine art is seen as a "decline" from classical art and sometimes as a new and progressive art form. In this lecture recorded on February 27, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art, Robin Cormack considers ways of looking at Byzantine art on the basis of the Gallery's exhibition Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections. In this first-ever exhibition of Byzantine art at the Gallery, some 170 works, many never before lent to the United States, are on view through March 2, 2014. This program was coordinated with and supported by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

April 2014 - Nancy Locke, associate professor of art history, The Pennsylvania State University Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city; the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film; and the relationship between Marville's urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

April 2014 - Anthony Grafton, Princeton University. In this six-part lecture series entitled Past Belief: Visions of Early Christianity in Renaissance and Reformation Europe, Anthony Grafton will focus on the efforts of artists and scholars to recreate the early history of Christianity in a period of crisis in the church from the 15th to the 17th century. In this second lecture, entitled "Bearers of Memory and Makers of History: The Many Paths to Christian Antiquity," originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on April 6, 2014, Professor Grafton argues that the history of knowledge was for millennia a history of books, the production of which established new standards of study and argument and ultimately the great libraries of Europe. Knowledge about the early church took the form of immense books—the work of learned scholars rich in erudition and impassioned by their beliefs, whose scholarship was often deeply prejudiced but sometimes reached original, prescient, and unexpected conclusions.

April 2014 - Anthony Grafton, Princeton University. In this six-part lecture series entitled Past Belief: Visions of Early Christianity in Renaissance and Reformation Europe, Anthony Grafton focuses on the efforts of artists and scholars to recreate the early history of Christianity in a period of crisis in the church from the 15th to the 17th century. In this first lecture, entitled "How Jesus Celebrated Passover: The Jewish Origins of Christianity," originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on March 30, 2014, Grafton explores how the pictorial form of the Last Supper, a central theme in art, was radically transformed after the beginning of the Reformation in 1517. He shows how writers with great archaeological and historical learning delved into Jewish sources and material culture from the time of the origins of Christianity in order to bring back the world in which the Last Supper actually took place.

April 2014 - Allan McCollum, artist. Born in Los Angeles in 1944, Allan McCollum briefly considered a career in theater before attending trade school to study restaurant management and industrial kitchen work. In the late 1960s, he began to educate himself as an artist. Applying strategies of mass production to handmade objects, McCollum has spent nearly fifty years exploring how works of art achieve personal and public meaning in a world largely constituted within the manners of industrial production. McCollum has given attention to the "drama of quantities" in his pursuit of the dynamic relationship between work and viewer. His installations—large fields of related small-scale works, each usually unique and categorically arranged—are the products of various systems. By engaging a cast of assistants, scientists, and local craftspeople in his processes, McCollum has often embraced a collaborative and democratic artistic practice. His approach to art cuts across its hierarchies—by medium, audience, context, and preconception. In honor of the National Gallery of Art's acquisition of his Collection of Four Hundred and Eighty Plaster Surrogates (1982/1989) last year, McCollum presented the 21st annual Elson Lecture on March 27, 2014.

April 2014 - Hollis Clayson, Samuel H. Kress Professor 2013–2014, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city; the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film; and the relationship between Marville's urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

March 2014 - Maria Kanellopoulos, collection-manager and exhibition coordinator, Wedge Curatorial Projects; Kenneth Montague, collector, curator, and director, Wedge Curatorial Projects; and Trevor Schoonmaker, chief curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Kenneth Montague is a Toronto-based art collector and the founder and director of Wedge Curatorial Projects. Created in 1997, Wedge evolved from a commercial gallery into a nonprofit organization, exhibiting photo-based work with a strong focus on exploring black identity and the African diaspora. Wedge has collaborated with local and international institutions to create original exhibitions, educational programming, publications, and film and music series that speak to youth about shaping their own identity. In 2011 Montague organized Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection in collaboration with Trevor Schoonmaker at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. In this conversation recorded on March 9, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art as part of the Collecting of African American Art series, Montague and Schoonmaker discuss the history and mission of their individual institutions and collaborations between them. Moderated by Maria Kanellopoulos, Wedge collection-manager and exhibition coordinator, the conversation also considers the future of acquisitions, exhibitions, and scholarship of work of the African diaspora.

March 2014 - Leo Rubinfien, photographer and guest exhibition curator of Garry Winogrand. In honor of the National Gallery of Art's exhibition Garry Winogrand, Leo Rubinfien, a friend and protégé of Winogrand's during the last decade of his life, delivers this opening day lecture on March 2, 2014. A renowned photographer of American life—particularly New York City—from the 1950s through the early 1980s, Winogrand (1928–1984) worked with dazzling energy and a voracious appetite. Rubinfien provides an introduction to Winogrand's body of work: its themes, its optimism and fatalism, and the turbulent years in which it developed. This first Winogrand retrospective in 25 years presents some 180 photographs, including iconic images and more than 60 never-seen-before prints and contact sheets. Together they reveal the full breadth of his art. Garry Winogrand is on view through June 8, 2014.

March 2014 - Stéphane Kirkland, author, Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city; the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film; and the relationship between Marville's urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

March 2014 - Maygene Daniels, chief of Gallery Archives, and Gregory Most, chief of library image collections, National Gallery of Art; and Lynn H. Nicholas, author of The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) program was established in 1943 under the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied armies. The creation of the MFAA was largely the result of the Roberts Commission, which was headquartered at the National Gallery of Art and vice-chaired by the Gallery's director, David Finley. The officers who served in the MFAA (also known as the Monuments Men) were charged with the identification, protection, and restitution of Europe's cultural treasures during and after World War II. Prior to the war, six of these officers were associated with the National Gallery of Art, and in later years three held important positions at the museum. This lecture recorded on March 16, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art delves into the behind-the-scenes stories of these real-life Monuments Men, and women.

March 2014 - Neil Harris, Preston and Sterling Morton Professor Emeritus of History and of Art History, University of Chicago In his book Capital Culture: J. Carter Brown, the National Gallery of Art, and the Reinvention of the Museum Experience, author Neil Harris reviews the twenty-three year tenure of J. Carter Brown as National Gallery of Art director. From 1969 to 1992, Brown transformed the Gallery, presided over the construction of the East Building, energized Washington cultural life, and reshaped thinking about museum exhibitions and museum experiences across the United States. In this lecture recorded on October 13, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art, Harris describes how Brown brought drama and excitement to a heavy exhibition schedule, and, for many, personified the glamorous alliance of art and international diplomacy.

March 2014 - Min Kyung Lee, assistant professor, Modern Architecture and Urban Planning College of the Holy Cross. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city; the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film; and the relationship between Marville's urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

March 2014 - Michael Snow, artist. Internationally renowned multidisciplinary artist Michael Snow (b. 1928, Canada) visited the National Gallery of Art on February 8 and 9, 2014, to introduce two programs of his influential experimental films. The four titles included—Wavelength (1966), So Is This (1982), Back and Forth (1969), and One Second in Montreal (1969)—all consider the astonishing, but often unrecognized, effects of light, memory, and duration on perception. Michael Snow introduced the program, and graciously took questions from the audience.

March 2014 - Panel discussion includes David Bindman, emeritus professor of the history of art, University College London; Ruth Fine, curator (1972–2012), National Gallery of Art; Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University; Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History, Duke University; and Sharmila Sen, executive editor-at-large, Harvard University Press. Moderated by Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art. In the 1960s, art collector and philanthropist Dominique de Menil began a research project and photo archive called The Image of the Black in Western Art. Through the collaboration of Harvard University Press and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, the project nears its completion. This panel discussion commemorates the publication of the penultimate volume of the series, The Image of the Black in Western Art: The Twentieth Century: The Impact of Africa (vol. 5, part 1). The last two volumes in the series mark the 20th-century transition from the depiction of people of African descent by others to their self-representation in the US and elsewhere. In this program recorded on February 23, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art, the panelists discuss the implications of this dramatic shift in the emphasis of the volumes.