National Gallery of Art | Audio

July 2010 - Chuck Close, artist; Ambassador Cynthia P. Schneider, Georgetown University and the Brookings Institution; and Robert Storr, dean, Yale School of Art. Moderated by Joseph J. Krakora, executive officer for development and external affairs, National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery of Art hosted this panel discussion, in coordination with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, on April 12, 2010, to examine the important role that art plays in representing the United States abroad.

July 2010 - Rachel Whiteread, artist, in conversation with Molly Donovan, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. British sculptor Rachel Whiteread has enjoyed international acclaim for her provocative sculptural practices. Beginning in the early 1990s with positive casts of empty architectural spaces and household objects, Whiteread has continued to articulate typically unseen, immaterial space in increasingly public settings. Her breakthrough work, Ghost (1990), was given to the National Gallery of Art in 2004 by the Glenstone Foundation. In this podcast recorded on October 12, 2008, at the National Gallery of Art, Rachel Whiteread and Gallery curator Molly Donovan discuss all aspects of Whiteread's career, with a particular focus on Ghost.

July 2010 - Mel Bochner, artist, in conversation with Jeffrey Weiss, curator and head of the department of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. Mel Bochner is one of the most prominent figures of the minimal and conceptual art generation. In this podcast recorded on March 11, 2007, at the National Gallery of Art, he discusses his body of work, which spans 40 years and includes painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film, and installation, with Gallery curator Jeffrey Weiss. This podcast honors the Gallery's acquisition of Bochner's painting Theory of Boundaries (1969-1970).

July 2010 - Chuck Close, artist, in conversation with Jeffrey Weiss, curator of 20th-century art, National Gallery of Art. This podcast recorded on October 17, 1999, was the first program in the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art. The series began on a high note with artist Chuck Close, one of the preeminent painters of his generation, who discussed his work and career with Gallery curator Jeffrey Weiss.

July 2010 - Byron Kim, artist, and Molly Donovan, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art. In this podcast recorded on January 10, 2010, at the National Gallery of Art, Molly Donovan and Byron Kim discuss Synecdoche, a watershed work that is a continuing project of portraiture recently acquired by and installed at the Gallery. Synecdoche consists of more than 400 10 x 8 inch panels, each painted a single hue that is meant to record the skin tone of individual sitters. Kim and Donovan also examine Kim's exploration of abstract painting, color, human identity, and existence.

June 2010 - Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, in conversation with artists Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, and William T. Williams. On February 21, 2010, distinguished artists Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, and William T. Williams joined Ruth Fine, National Gallery of Art curator of special projects in modern art, for a conversation "about abstraction." In this podcast Edwards, Gilliam, and Williams discuss the role of abstraction in their work as well as the most important influences on their careers.

June 2010 - Harold Holzer, cochair, United States Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission According to noted expert Harold Holzer, United States President Abraham Lincoln transformed the city of Washington, DC�not only into the command center of a great war and executive authority, but also a mecca for artists. In this podcast recorded on February 14, 2010, at the National Gallery of Art, Holzer sheds light on this transformation and on the role of these artists, who recorded the great events of the day and whose works documented the evolving image of the 16th president.

June 2010 - Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Dorothy and Herbert Vogel have amassed one of the greatest collections of minimal, conceptual, and post-minimal art in the world, acquiring works by some of the most important contemporary artists of our time. Curator Ruth Fine spoke with the Vogels two years after they announced The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States project, which distributed their vast collection across the country for all to enjoy. In this podcast, the Vogels relate stories from the recipient museums and their special exhibitions celebrating the gifts.

June 2010 - Nancy Anderson, curator, American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Charles Brock, associate curator, American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art. Distinguished by a rigorous focus on leading artists from the first generation of American modernists, the Shein Collection is one of the nation's foremost private collections of works from this movement. Curators Nancy Anderson and Charlie Brock discuss the importance of these artists in the development of modernism in the United States and Europe during the 20th century, on the occasion of the exhibition American Modernism: The Shein Collection.

May 2010 - Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Keith Christiansen explores the complex relationship of painting and sculpture in 15th-century Florence, in this podcast recorded on November 8, 2009, as part of the Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art series. Christiansen notes that Ghiberti's contribution has long been overshadowed by Donatello's genius in art-historical literature. Ghiberti has been classified as a transitional figure between the Gothic and Renaissance periods. Christiansen seeks to correct this legacy by explaining that the two principal reference points of Renaissance aesthetics in the figurative arts�nature and classical antiquity�are not fixed concepts, and that such thinking has led to false distinctions and misrepresentations of Ghiberti and the painters of Florence.

May 2010 - P. Adams Sitney, professor of visual arts, Princeton University. P. Adams Sitney, distinguished film historian, theorist, and professor of visual arts at Princeton University, delivered a presentation at the National Gallery on December 6, 2009, on the films of several American avant-garde artists as a fulfillment of the promise of a truly American aesthetic, an idea first defined by philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. The short films Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (Marie Menken, 1961); Visions in Meditation #2�Mesa Verde (Stan Brakhage, 1989); Gloria! (Hollis Frampton, 1979); and Gently Down the Stream (Su Friedrich, 1980) were screened in their entirety following the lecture.

May 2010 - Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Bill Morgan, author and Ginsberg archivist. In the early 1980s American poet Allen Ginsberg rediscovered his early photographs and negatives taken throughout the Beat movement. With encouragement from photographers Berenice Abbott and Robert Frank, he reprinted many of these works and made new portraits of longtime friends and new acquaintances, such as Francesco Clemente and Bob Dylan, adding extensive inscriptions by hand. In the second of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, Greenough talks with Bill Morgan about cataloguing the poet's archives and his photographic contributions in the last 15 years of his life.

May 2010 - Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Bill Morgan, author and Ginsberg archivist.American poet Allen Ginsberg took occasional snapshots in the 1940s, but in 1953 he purchased a small, secondhand Kodak camera that he took with him everywhere. For the next decade, he made numerous portraits of himself and his friends, including the writers Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, while also formulating and refining his poetic voice. In the first of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, Greenough talks with Bill Morgan about the poet's role in documenting the Beat movement.

May 2010 - Brice Marden, artist, in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator and head of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art, Washington. As part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art, artist Brice Marden joined Harry Cooper, the Gallery's curator and head of the department of modern and contemporary art, to discuss the evolution of his career and the influence of his contemporaries on his work. In this podcast, recorded on November 22, 2009, Marden and Cooper also discuss five paintings and two drawings by Marden in the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, promised gifts to the National Gallery.

April 2010 - Harry Cooper, curator and head of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art, in conversation with Susan Rothenberg, artist. Over the past 30 years, Susan Rothenberg has done more than any other living artist to expand the poetic and painterly possibilities of her craft. In this podcast recorded on March 25, 2010, for the Elson Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art, Rothenberg and curator Harry Cooper discuss her life and career in painting. The Gallery has two important paintings by Rothenberg in its collection: Butterfly (1976), currently on loan to the White House, and Head within Head (1978).