National Gallery of Art | Videos

James Layton, manager, Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center, The Museum of Modern Art; David Pierce, founder of Media History Digital Library and president, Sunrise Entertainment Inc. Color was an integral part of early cinema, with tinting, toning, and other processes adding imaginative dimension to black-and-white images. In this Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture recorded on December 6, 2015, James Layton and David Pierce, authors of The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915–1935, illustrate the efforts of Technicolor to give filmmakers tools to present naturalistic color on the screen, even as the company was striving to overcome countless technical challenges and persuade cost-conscious producers of color’s virtues. Rare photographs from the Technicolor corporate archive chart the development of the early two-color process and the new aesthetic color photography required for lighting, costumes, and production design. Three early Technicolor shorts preserved by the George Eastman House followed the lecture: Manchu Love (1929), The Love Charm (1928), and Sports of Many Lands (1929).

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.

Melissa Beck Lemke, image specialist for Italian art, National Gallery of Art. When the National Gallery of Art opened its doors in March 1941, the original Andrew W. Mellon gift was augmented by a collection of Italian art donated by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Kress was the first to offer a donation in response to Andrew Mellon's call for contributions for the new national art museum. For the Gallery's opening, Kress gave almost 400 paintings and sculptures. Ultimately, the foundation gave the Gallery a total of over 700 paintings and sculptures, in addition to over 1,300 small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. In 2010, the foundation awarded the Gallery a grant to conduct provenance research on the entire Kress collection of paintings, distributed nationwide to regional museums and study collections in university-affiliated institutions. In this lecture recorded on May 23, 2016, Melissa Beck Lemke reveals the history of Kress collection objects through documents, lantern slides, negatives, and photographs preserved in the Gallery’s department of image collections. The images were made throughout the 20th century and illustrate Kress’s collecting practices, as well as cleanings, restorations, and display of the individual objects. This program celebrates the 75-year relationship of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the National Gallery of Art, the enduring legacy of the Kress gifts nationwide, and recent research into the Kress Collection. This program is supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Project.

Max Koss, Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Fellow, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art and University of Chicago When the National Gallery of Art opened its doors in March 1941, the original Andrew W. Mellon gift was augmented by a collection of Italian art donated by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Kress was the first to offer a donation in response to Andrew Mellon's call for contributions for the new national art museum. Ultimately, the foundation gave the Gallery a total of over 700 paintings and sculptures, in addition to over 1,300 small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. In 2010, the foundation awarded the Gallery a grant to conduct provenance research on the entire Kress collection of paintings, distributed nationwide to regional museums and study collections in university-affiliated institutions. In this lecture recorded on May 23, 2016, Max Koss explains that the Kress “giveaway” included 22 works donated to the University of Chicago, which had no significant collection of Western art, much less a museum to house it. Edward A. Maser, professor of art history and founding director of the David and Alfred Smart Museum, secured the gift and used the boost it provided to build an exemplary teaching institution. This program is supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Project.

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.

Chiyo Ishikawa, Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art and curator of European painting and sculpture, Seattle Art Museum. When the National Gallery of Art opened its doors in March 1941, the original Andrew W. Mellon gift was augmented by a collection of Italian art donated by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Kress was the first to offer a donation in response to Andrew Mellon's call for contributions for the new national art museum. For the Gallery's opening, Kress gave almost 400 paintings and sculptures. Ultimately, the foundation gave the Gallery a total of over 700 paintings and sculptures, in addition to over 1,300 small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. In 2010, the foundation awarded the Gallery a grant to conduct provenance research on the entire Kress collection of paintings, distributed nationwide to regional museums and study collections in university-affiliated institutions. In this lecture recorded on May 23, 2016, Chiyo Ishikawa shares how the Seattle Art Museum was a recipient of the Kress “giveaway.” Seattle’s position on the Pacific Rim made the Seattle Art Museum a natural home for Asian art, but the great European tradition was not represented. This changed thanks to the Kress gift, but the process was rocky and the collection was almost withdrawn before it became the foundation of a growing European collection. This program is supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Project.

Max Marmor, president, Samuel H. Kress Foundation. When the National Gallery of Art opened its doors in March 1941, the original Andrew W. Mellon gift was augmented by a collection of Italian art donated by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Kress was the first to offer a donation in response to Andrew Mellon's call for contributions for the new national art museum. For the Gallery's opening, Kress gave almost 400 paintings and sculptures. Ultimately, the foundation gave the Gallery a total of over 700 paintings and sculptures, in addition to over 1,300 small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. In 2010, the foundation awarded the Gallery a grant to conduct provenance research on the entire Kress collection of paintings, distributed nationwide to regional museums and study collections in university-affiliated institutions. Discoveries included both new information about the histories of specific paintings and ways to look at the collection as a whole. Max Marmor, president of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation since 2007, opens this program held on May 23, 2016 to celebrate the 75-year relationship of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the National Gallery of Art, the enduring legacy of the Kress gifts nationwide, and recent research into the Kress Collection. Marmor also offers brief remarks on the foundation’s history. This program is supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Project.

Follow the journey of Marc Chagall’s masterful mosaic, Orphée, from its original setting in a private Georgetown garden through extensive conservation at the National Gallery of Art to its installation in a secluded spot in the Gallery’s Sculpture Garden. Chagall designed the 10-by-17-foot mosaic as a wedding gift to John and Evelyn Nef, Washington art collectors and philanthropists, proclaiming: “Nothing for the house. The house is perfect as it is. But I will do something for the garden: a mosaic.” Fully realized by mosaic artist Lino Melano, Orphée presided over the Nefs’ garden for over 40 years, until it was bequeathed to the Gallery in 2009. For three years, a team of Gallery staff and contractors collaborated to safely remove the mosaic from its original garden setting, to stabilize each of the 10 panels and prepare them for reinstallation, and to attach them to a new wall in the Sculpture Garden, recreating the contemplative setting of the Nefs’ garden. This once hidden jewel now delights visitors to the Sculpture Garden.

Leo Villareal, artist, in conversation with Molly Donovan, associate curator, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art. Born in 1967 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Leo Villareal began experimenting with light, sound, and video while studying set design and sculpture at Yale University, where he received his BA. He earned his Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in the design of new media, computational media, and embedded computing from New York University’s pioneering interactive telecommunications program at the Tisch School of the Arts. There he also learned the programming skills that enable him to push LED (light-emitting diode) technology far past familiar commercial applications. Since the 1960s, a growing number of artworks have exploited light to frame and create spaces in the built environment. While Villareal’s art acknowledges this influence, his concepts relate more closely to the instructional wall drawings of Sol LeWitt and the systems-based paintings of Peter Halley. Villareal’s work is represented in the Gallery’s collection by Multiverse, one of his largest and most complex light sculptures. As part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series held at the National Gallery of Art on May 7, 2016, Leo Villareal and Molly Donovan discuss his site-specific commissions throughout the world since the installation of Multiverse in 2008.

Lee Ewing, National Gallery of Art photographer, explores the challenges of photographing Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. The only sculpture that Degas exhibited during his lifetime, Little Dancer is one of the Gallery’s most important works. So fragile that it is rarely moved, this masterpiece is known for its unique mixed media: pigmented beeswax, a cotton bodice and tutu, linen slippers, and human hair. This video provides an inside look at the process of bringing this most human of artworks to life through photography.

The National Gallery of Art is expanding its resources for the deaf community! Taye Akinola, an American Sign Language (ASL) guide at the Gallery, introduces the museum’s two buildings and collection and also shares information about on-site programs and online features. These include monthly ASL at the NGA tours and 27 collection highlights videos in ASL. Please join us!

Elsa Mora, artist, and Magda González-Mora, curator of Elsa Mora: Timeline, and in conversation with Michelle Bird, curatorial assistant, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Elsa Mora (b. Holguín, Cuba, 1971) graduated from the Professional School of Visual Arts in Camagüey in 1990. Mora was invited to teach as a visiting artist in residence at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. She has since completed several residencies at US universities and the MoMA Design Store. In her Timeline series, Mora examines her surreal personal journey and the surprising lessons she has learned along the way. Works in a variety of media—from photography and drawing to paper cutting—represent a timeline of events that have shaped her life from childhood in Cuba to adulthood in the United States. In her own words, “I’m endlessly curious about human stories, especially those related to survival, inner growth, and connectivity.” In this conversation, held on May 9, 2016, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Mora discusses the National Arts Club exhibition of Timeline in relation to her full body of work with the show’s curator, Magda González-Mora, and National Gallery of Art curatorial assistant Michelle Bird.

Frank Gehry, architect, in conversation with Paul Goldberger, architecture critic and author, Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry. Moderated by Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery of Art, in collaboration with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), hosted a panel discussion with architect Frank Gehry and Pulitzer Prize–winning architectural critic Paul Goldberger on April 18, 2016. The conversation, moderated by Harry Cooper, was held in honor of Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry. This first critical biography presents and evaluates the work of a man who has almost single-handedly transformed contemporary architecture in his innovative use of materials, design, and form. Gehry is also among the very few architects in history to be both respected by critics as a creative, cutting-edge force and embraced by the general public as a popular figure. At once a sweeping view of a great architect and an intimate look at creative genius, Building Art is in many ways the saga of the architectural milieu of the 21st century. But most of all it is the compelling story of the man who first comes to mind when we think of the lasting possibilities of buildings as art.

On March 28, 2014, in honor of the National Gallery of Art’s acquisition of his Collection of Four Hundred and Eighty Plaster Surrogates (1982/1989), Allan McCollum discusses the origin of his plaster surrogates and surrogate paintings. McCollum is interested in the context in which paintings are shown and the idea of a painting being part of a diverse set of objects considered collectibles. Applying strategies of mass production to handmade objects, he has spent nearly 50 years exploring how works of art achieve personal and public meaning in a world largely constituted within the manners of industrial production. This interview takes place on the East Building Mezzanine following McCollum’s participation in the Elson Lecture Series.

Mark Ruwedel (American, b. 1954) is a photographer who examines the interaction between society and the landscape of the western United States, creating works that are in his words “about the interrogation of human values, not only about beauty or geology.” Active as a professional photographer since the 1970s, Ruwedel has often focused on nature’s reclamation of land over time, as in the series Westward the Course of Empire (1994–2007), in which he turned his lens to the faint traces of the railroad lines that once snaked through the West. His photographs capture the dramatic cuts through landmasses, scattered remains of trestles, and the lingering imprint of the long-forsaken tracks in the subtle grade of the terrain. Ruwedel’s more recent series Dusk (2007–2010), a study of derelict houses in the California desert, similarly addresses the relationship between natural and built environments. In these projects and others Ruwedel examines the landscape not to marvel at its splendor, but rather to better understand how history is written into its topography.