ONLINE PROGRAM

Woodford Mansion: Collecting, Preserving, and Restoring in a 18th-century Country House

Jeff Duncan, Curator and Site Manager, Woodford Mansion Kristen Regina, Trustee (Naomi Wood Trust) and Director (Woodford Mansion)

Woodford Mansion is a 1756 National Historic Landmark displaying the Naomi Wood Trust's collection of 18th-century American fine and decorative arts. The Trust collects and grows the collection to more fully tell the stories of life in Colonial Philadelphia and of the diverse owners who lived at Woodford, which included both Patriots and Loyalists.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

HYBRID IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROGRAM

Tabula Rasa: The Music of Arvo Pärt

Judah Adashi, composer and composition faculty at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, artistic director, Evolution Contemporary Music Series & Rise Bmore

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

Dr. Judah Adashi, a composer on the faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, returns to the Art Seminar Group to discuss the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). Pärt is best known for his signature "tintinnabuli" style, developed in the early 1970s. The surface simplicity of this musical language marked a radical departure from dominant approaches to composition in late 20th-century European music. We will explore some of Pärt's major works and consider why he is one of the most-performed living composers in the world.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

Members’ Program: Watershed: Transforming the Landscape in Early Modern Dutch Art

Dr. Lara Yeager-Crasselt, curator and department head of European painting and sculpture, The Baltimore Museum of Art

Depictions of the Dutch landscape in the 17th century feature cloud-filled skies, low horizons, and expansive waters filled with daily activities. Artists like Jan van Goyen, Salomon van Ruysdael, and Rembrandt van Rijn captured images that became symbols of the prosperity and tranquility of the Dutch Republic; however, this era was also one of significant change. Although the Dutch gained political and religious independence in 1648, they constantly battled water since much of their land lies at or below sea level. To address environmental challenges, they undertook extensive drainage projects, built dikes and canals, and reinforced coastlines. By managing their landscape and water, they were able to expand their territory and pursue maritime ventures.

Drawn from the Baltimore Museum of Art's exhibition Watershed: Transforming the Landscape in Early Modern Dutch Art, this lecture explores how the Dutch Republic's ability to harness, adapt to, and profit from the water became a defining aspect of its art and culture. The approximately 40 prints, drawings, paintings, and rare books on view in the exhibition offer an opportunity to reframe how we engage with images of the Dutch landscape and the people and forces that shaped it.

Members-only, registration required (limited to 50 people), no fee. Register online here or via the button below:: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration/members-program-watershed-transforming-the-landscape-in-early-modern-dutch-art-with-lara-yeager-crasselt-3/13/2025

HYBRID IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROGRAM

Connecting The Dots: Mckim, Mead & White in Baltimore

Samuel G. White, FAIA

Of nearly one thousand commissions received by McKim, Mead & White between 1879 and 1920, fifteen were for projects in Baltimore. Twelve of those designs were constructed, and seven buildings remain, of which three—the Ross Winans and Garrett Jacobs houses and Lovely Lane United Methodist Church—are important contributions to late nineteenth-century American architecture. Each of the Baltimore designs, particularly those three, can be celebrated for beauty alone, but they also can be explored for dimensions other than pure aesthetics. How did a three-year-old New York firm get a commission in Baltimore? Who did they know? What other projects were they working on? What were they looking at? Did they have a formal paradigm, and did it evolve? Who were their collaborators? Who actually designed the building?

This talk will approach the Baltimore commissions as a lens for observing the artistic and professional development as well as the internal organization of a partnership that had its origins with Henry Hobson Richardson in the 1870s and that, over the next forty years, would become the largest and most famous architecture office in the world.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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Lines are lineages …

Lisa Blas, painter, educator, creator of Monday's Image Weekly blog, adjunct faculty at New York Academy of Art

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

In this talk, artist and educator Lisa Blas will trace the origin stories of women and abstraction to reach new perspectives of painting in a global context. The program will begin with an overview of a groundbreaking exhibition that highlighted three painters working in relative isolation, setting the stage for future exhibitions on women artists in the 21st Century. We will learn how poets and historians contextualized their production via overlapping themes of nature, materiality, and feminism, in addition to how contemporary artists have responded to their work since. These thematic trajectories will lead to the introduction of a Belgian painter and professor of art, active in the post-war era, whose work radically traversed the spaces of abstraction, minimalism, and architecture yet is largely unknown to an American audience. Through this lecture, we will navigate renewed routes of abstraction to expand the story further afield.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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'A Summering Maker Place:‘ F. Holland Day's Nubians and the Limits of American Progressivism

Lori Nel Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor of art history, Morgan State University

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

Recent biographies of pictorialist photographer F. Holland Day (1864-1933) have lauded him as a modern master for his contributions to American art and his progressive values, particularly around gay rights, immigrant rights, and the urban poor. However, this talk will critically examine Day's philanthropic work at Little Good Harbor (LGH), his summer residence in Five Islands, Maine.

For nearly two decades, Day hosted a diverse array of American society—from affluent friends to impoverished immigrant youths. Yet, despite the appearance of a classless utopia at LGH, one group was notably excluded: Blacks. Historians often overlook this absence beyond Day's domestic staff, which not only normalizes their marginal presence in modern spaces but also ignores their contributions to American modernism, including those outside designated Black periods like the Harlem Renaissance. This talk investigates the social, linguistic, and historical processes that facilitated the exclusion of Blacks from LGH and from the narratives of Pictorialism, Arts & Crafts, and Symbolism.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

Members' Tour: About Town - The James E. Lewis Museum of Art (JELMA) at Morgan State University  

Schroeder Cherry, Ed.D., curator, James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University 

Join us as we visit JELMA where Dr. Cherry will take us on a walk through several of the contemporary art exhibitions on view. He will share the museum's scope and plans, as well as address some of the ideas and issues facing an art museum that is part of an HBCU. Following the discussion, members will have an opportunity to visit the museum's permanent collection of African Arts on their own.

Members-only, registration required (limited to 30 people), no fee. Register online here or via the button below: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration/members-tour-about-town-the-james-e-lewis-museum-of-art-jelma-at-morgan-state-universitywith-schroeder-cherry-2/20/2025

ONLINE PROGRAM

American Voices and Visions: Reimagining Modern and Contemporary Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Sarah Newman, the James Dicke curator of contemporary art and deputy head curator at SAAM

After a redesign of its modern and contemporary galleries, the Smithsonian American Art Museum launched a dynamic reinstallation of its modern and contemporary collection in late 2023. Sarah Newman, the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art and Deputy Head Curator at SAAM will discuss this fresh look at the museum's collection, as well as highlight exciting recent acquisitions now on view.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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The Good Shepherd: Symbolism, Mysticism, and Tanner's Spiritual Conversion

Lori Nel Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor of art history, Morgan State University

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

According to his son Jesse Tanner, of all the subjects that his father, Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), painted over his long career, his favorite was The Good Shepherd from John 10:11-18. This is not surprising given that Tanner was the son of a bishop and theologian. More than Tanner’s Christian upbringing, this motif encapsulated his desire to represent the “kinship of all humanity.”

Initially, Tanner demonstrated his belief in the unity of people through genre paintings of everyday scenes, whether featuring peasants from Brittany or the hills of North Carolina. Eventually, he abandoned realism in favor of Symbolism. While some post-racial critiques suggest Tanner forsook painting Blacks after moving to France in the 1890s, this talk will examine how Tanner’s conversion to mysticism allowed him to purify his art not by eliminating Black figures, but by combining meaning and form, reconciling opposites such as Black/white, ancient/modern, and occident/orient.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

ONLINE PROGRAM

Botticelli: Beauty, Bankers and the Bonfire of the Vanities

Elaine Ruffolo, Renaissance art historian

Sandro Botticelli, one of the most celebrated artists of the Italian Renaissance, emerged from the vibrant and turbulent milieu of Florence in the late 15th century. Born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi around 1445, Botticelli's work captures the rich tapestry of Renaissance art, characterized by its revival of classical themes and its exploration of humanism. His paintings, such as The Birth of Venus and Primavera, exemplify his mastery of line, form, and mythological narrative, which have captivated audiences for centuries.

Botticelli's art reflects not only his technical prowess but also a window into the cultural and intellectual currents of his time. His career flourished under the patronage of the Medici family, whose influence permeates much of his work, blending classical mythology with contemporary Florentine ideals. However, Botticelli's trajectory was significantly impacted by the dramatic events of the late 15th century, notably the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497, when religious fervor led to the destruction of many artworks deemed immoral or decadent.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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Duke Ellington

Quentin Walston, pianist, composer, educator

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

Join jazz educator and pianist Quentin Walston for an immersive concert seminar exploring the life and music of Duke Ellington. Through captivating performances and insightful commentary, Quentin will highlight Ellington's enduring legacy in jazz, from his innovative compositions to his influential career. Ellington, a DC native, was a self-taught composer who began his career in the 1920s as jazz was rocketing in popularity.  Interested in composing and arranging for large ensembles, he quickly became one of the most recognizable voices of the Swing Era. His ability to create and blend tonal colors, as well as his unique piano technique, made Duke stand out among his big band peers. His lasting impact can be heard in his many compositions that are "jazz standards", performed and interpreted by students and professionals of all jazz styles. Quentin Walston's unique concert seminar blends music and education, offering audiences a deeper appreciation of the "Duke's" genius. A Q&A session will follow, allowing attendees to engage further with the world of jazz.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

ONLINE PROGRAM

Heinz Berggruen, an Art Dealer, and his Collection

Chris Boïcos, art historian and director of Paris Art Studies

Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007) was born to a Jewish family in Berlin and sought refuge in California at the outbreak of WWII. At the end of the war, Berggruen returned to Europe, first to his native country as a journalist and then to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. He gradually made his way into the art market, first with a small gallery on Place Dauphine and later on Rue de l'Université, specializing in modern graphic art. He met not just artists but also most of the key art dealers, historians, poets, critics, and collectors of the post-war period. Guided by his superb taste, he built up an extraordinary and intimate personal collection of 20th-century works from his two favorite masters, Picasso and Paul Klee, as well as Matisse and Alberto Giacometti. Berggruen donated his collection to the German state in 2000, a few years before his death. The heart of the collection is on exhibition in Paris before the Berggruen Museum in Berlin completes its renovations next year.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

ONLINE PROGRAM

Siena: A Gothic Dream

Elaine Ruffolo, Renaissance art historian

Perched on three hills, Siena is the most beautiful city in Tuscany, a captivating medieval ensemble of palaces and towers built from warm brown, burnt-Siena-colored brick. Its skyline is dominated by the striking black and white cathedral banner and the Torre di Mangia. The Palazzo Pubblico, the heart of the city, is just a short walk from olive groves and orchards. This contrast adds to Siena's charm: densely built brick urbanity beside expansive Tuscan farmland. Here, art and civic pride merged to create a distinctive world. Siena is acclaimed not only for its medieval allure but also for its significant contribution to art history. During the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, Siena cultivated a unique artistic identity that rivaled Florence. While Florence emphasized humanism and realism, Sienese art maintained a more spiritual, decorative, and mystical quality. Central to this was the Sienese School, which produced renowned painters like Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti brothers. Their works are characterized by elegant lines, vibrant colors, and a profound sense of devotion, flourishing within the city's rich civic and religious culture, especially its reverence for the Virgin Mary. In this lecture, we will explore how Sienese artists shaped the broader development of European art while preserving their distinct style, reflecting the unique cultural, political, and religious landscape of medieval and Renaissance Siena. 

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, Part II at the BMA 12/19/2024

Leila Grothe, BMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art

Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum—an initiative including a series of exhibitions throughout the museum—centers the work, experiences, and voices of Native artists. Preoccupied explores the vital cultural contributions of Native people through the presentation of historical objects as well as works created by a breadth of contemporary makers. 

ASG toured through the first half of the initiative in June, this moment marks an opportunity to view the remaining exhibitions with one of the project's curators. Leila Grothe, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, will bring the group through the following solo exhibitions: Laura Ortman: Wood that Sings; Nicholas Galanin: Exist in the Width of a Knife's Edge; and Dana Claxton: Spark. These powerful solo exhibitions insist on the vibrancy of Indigenous artists making work throughout this continent while refusing assumptions that non-Natives often make about Native existence and cultural production. 

Developed with guidance from the Native community and cultural leaders in and around Baltimore, the Preoccupied initiative also includes interpretative interventions in the display and labeling of certain objects across the museum’s collection galleries, a publication designed with guidance from Native methodologies, and a broad array of public programs. Preoccupied significantly increases the presence of Native artists in the BMA’s galleries and actively subverts the colonialist tendencies and hierarchies upon which museums have been built. The initiative will continue through February 2025. 

Image: 
Installation view, Dana Claxton: Spark, Baltimore Museum of Art. Photo: Mitro Hood

 Members-only, registration required (limited to 35 people) no fee. Register online here: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration

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Champions of the Cello: Beethoven and Brahms

Evan Drachman, cellist and Wan-Chi Su, pianist

Please join us for a holiday party preceding the program from 12:00 - 1:30 pm!

To help us with party planning, RSVP for the holiday party here

Evan Drachman, cellist, and Wan-Chi Su, pianist, will perform Beethoven's Seven Variations in Eb (E flat) and Brahms' Sonata in E minor. They will also discuss the cello’s path toward instrumental equality through Beethoven and Brahms. This will be an afternoon of musical masterpieces with commentary and discussion. 

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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FROM THE PRESENT: Contemporary Art from Serbia

Vesela Sretenović, independent curator and scholar

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

This talk will be in conjunction with the exhibition, FROM THE PRESENT: Contemporary Art from Serbia, on view at the Katzen Center at American University from February to May 2025. The exhibition will showcase recent works by artists from the Republic of Serbia. Neither the talk nor the exhibition intends to be an overview of contemporary art from that region but rather to offer a glance at the vital and energetic, though often disregarded, art scene. The exhibition will display manifold directions and practices by artists of different generations whose works have been produced in the last five years. Although employing distinct vocabularies and revealing individual sensibilities, the artists shared a geo-political background shaped by the aftermath of the 1990s civil war that led to the collapse of former Yugoslavia, disastrous economic downfall, and a state of distress and total disillusionment. Moreover, considered in cultural terms “off the beaten path,” the art of this region has mainly been seen in the shadow of the mainstream Western art tendencies while the artists, due to the lack of marketplace and exhibition opportunities outside the country, remained largely unknown to wider audiences. Given this, both the exhibition and the talk aim to bring to light aspects of the current artistic production in Serbia by discussing a diverse body of work by contemporary artists in alignment with global matters of today, namely the viability of democracy.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

Members' Program: Race Stories at UMBC

UMBC Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC)

(Depart from The Central Presbyterian Church, 7308 York Road, Towson)

This event celebrates the launch of a book of essays by Dr. Maurice Berger, former Research Curator at CADVC (until his tragic early passing in 2020). The event will include offerings from his widower, Dr. Marvin Heiferman (editor of the volume), as well as Lowery Stokes Sims, Maleke Glee, Aruna D'Souza, and others to be announced. This event will also form the launch of two key activities related to Dr. Berger's legacy at CADVC: the relaunch of a publication series and the launch of an endowment to fund programs in his honor. The backdrop for the event will be the exhibition Levester Williams: all matters aside. Charter bus/van service will be provided. For those who choose to self-drive, this program begins at 3:15 pm and ends at 5:30 pm.

Members-only, registration required by November 25 (limited to 25 people); $50 event fee (includes donation to UMBC CADVC). $35 maximum refund (70%); no refunds after 11/28/2024. Register online here: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration

ONLINE PROGRAM

Medardo Rosso (1858-1928): Opening the Door to Modern Sculpture

Dr. Sharon Hecker, art historian and curator

The Italian/French artist Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) was a key figure in expanding the definition of sculpture for the modern era. Not only did he focus on every day, contemporary subjects, but he also experimented with light in order to render sculpture ephemeral and seemingly insubstantial. His heads and figures in plaster, wax, and bronze - frequently portrayed as tired, meditative, laughing, or melancholy - appear to be caught in fugitive visual, physical, or emotional states. As fleeting “impressions” of modern life, they stand in marked contrast to the monumental, idealized depictions typical of traditional sculpture before and during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This lecture explores Rosso’s production through his experimental sculptures, photographs, and drawings, as well as his enormous influence upon Henry Moore, Umberto Boccioni, Constantin Brancusi, and Alberto Giacometti. Today, his work is fundamental to contemporary artists, from Tony Cragg to Diana Al-Hadid, Marisa Merz, Luciano Fabro, and Barry X Ball.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

ONLINE PROGRAM

Contemporary Art & Classical Myth, Part II: Myth as Method & Performing Myth

Jennie Hirsh, professor of modern and contemporary art at the Maryland Institute College of Art

Building on the foundation of "Myth as Meaning" and "Myth as Medium," this lecture explores the value of classical mythology today. In that vein, I argue that myth offers - and historically has - a uniquely creative critical methodology for understanding artistic practice and its impact. To better understand this premise, we will review case studies dedicated to Duane Hanson, Bas Jan Ader, Vlatka Horvat, Francis Alÿs, and Bill Viola. Finally, the writing and performance work of artist-critic Johanna Frueh offers the opportunity to imagine how mythological self-expression can open new, and in this case, especially feminist avenues for living.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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Contemporary Art & Classical Myth, Part I: Myth as Meaning & Myth as Medium

Jennie Hirsh, professor of modern and contemporary art at the Maryland Institute College of Art

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

This lecture opens a two-part series on how classical mythology intersects with contemporary art. The talk will illustrate how myth has come to serve not only artists but also critics working in the last half-century. By exploring works by Cy Twombly, Luciano Fabro, Yayoi Kusama, Bracha Ettinger, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, we will see how certain artists have appropriated and, at times, revised classical narratives. "Myth as Meaning" will investigate how these practitioners adapt these timeless stories to address perennial psychological dynamics by illustrating ancient tales in contemporary ways. Taking a less literal approach, "Myth as Medium" looks instead at how the mechanics and themes of certain myths resurface, unwittingly, in given works of art. To that end, we will examine works by Roy Lichtenstein, Tracey Emin, Ghada Amer, and Wim Delvoye to identify mythical practices that not only revive myth's relevance but also underscore what is at stake in assigning mythological meaning to artistic projects. 

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

Highlights of French Painting at the BMA

Chris Boïcos, art historian and director of Paris Art Studies

 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm tour times - tours are 75 minutes each

The BMA is famous for the masterpieces from the Cone collection gifted to the museum in 1949, including such masterworks as Matisse’s Blue Nude (1907) and Large Reclining Nude (1935), Paul Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry (c. 1897), Paul Gauguin’s Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) (1892), and Marie Laurencin’s A Group of Artists (1908). The BMA has the largest collection of Matisse works in the world outside of Russia, lovingly collected by Claribel and Etta Cone during their annual visits to France from 1903 to 1929. Our visit will include highlights from the Cone collection and connect them to earlier masterpieces of French art in the museum by Chardin, Nattier, Fragonard Vigée-Lebrun, Gerôme, and more. We will focus most particularly on French artists’ presentation of women and femininity from the 18th century to the early Modern period.

Members-only, registration required (limited to 35 people - approx 18 per tour), no fee. Register online here: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration

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Caillebotte - Painting Men at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, from October 8th, 2024 to January 19th, 2025

Chris Boïcos, art historian and director of Paris Art Studies

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm 

The exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay in autumn 2024 focuses on Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) and his predilection for masculine forms and portraits of men. It seeks to examine this artist's radical modernity through the lens of our changing perspective on 19th-century forms of masculinity.

In a desire to produce a new, authentic form of art, Caillebotte took his subjects from his surroundings (Haussmann's Paris, the country houses around the capital) and his male acquaintances (his brothers, the workers employed by his family, his boating friends). In response to the Realist movement, he introduced new figures into his paintings: an urban worker, a man on a balcony, a sportsman, and even an intimate portrait of a male nude after his bath. In an era when virility and republican fraternity prevailed, but traditional masculinity was also in crisis for the first time, these new, powerful images challenged the established order, both social and sexual. The exhibition, which presents around 70 pieces, includes Caillebotte's most important paintings of people, as well as pastels, sketches, photographs, and documents.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

ONLINE PROGRAM

Shahzia Sikander

Valerie Fletcher, emeritus senior curator, Hirshhorn Museum

Born in 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander enrolled at the National College of Art in 1987. There, she studied under one of the few living artists skilled in the Mughal tradition of miniature painting. She mastered the original meticulous techniques, including grinding minerals for pigments, making specialized paintbrushes, and preparing burnished paper. Determined to bring the long-neglected art into the modern era, Sikander featured contemporary locales and figures in her BFA project in 1991. Two years later, the artist emigrated to the U.S. to earn an MFA at RISD, which was followed by intensive work during a two-year residency at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. 

In this lecture, Valerie Fletcher traces Sikander’s trajectory as she emerged from obscurity and rose to international fame. In 1999, her solo show at the Hirshhorn Museum attracted critical acclaim, which was dimmed by the anti-Muslim backlash after the events of 9/11. Sikander’s iconography subsequently addressed and then moved beyond the ensuing fears and cultural misunderstandings. Receiving a MacArthur “genius” award in 2006 enabled the artist to expand into other media, notably murals, mosaics, and video. The retrospective exhibition in 2016 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Houston Museum cemented her reputation as a pioneering transnational artist.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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Four Protest Songs That Changed America

Anna Harwell Celenza, professor - Johns Hopkins University

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm

Pete Seeger once said: “The right song at the right time can change history.” This talk takes that idea to heart and explores the intersections of politics, race, economics, and gender in four American songs: Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1962), Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” (1964), Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On" (1971) and Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman” (1972). Using the roots of American folk music as a key to defining the power of these songs, Prof. Celenza reveals how popular music became synonymous with protest as the Civil Rights era merged with Vietnam. These were years when sharing the troubles of real people through song found a role in America’s expanding music industry. And as recent historical events have revealed, the messages of these songs continue to echo across American society. 

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

Members’ Day Trip: Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment at the NGA and a visit to the Hirshhorn for Revolutions and Osgemeos

Bus pick up/drop off from The Central Presbyterian Church, 7308 York Road, Towson

Join us for a day trip to DC focusing on the prized exhibition Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment at the National Gallery of Art with a visit to the Hirshhorn for a survey of the collection from 1860-1960 in celebration of the museum’s 50th anniversary and Brazilian contemporary art by Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo. Charter bus service will be provided.

This day trip begins with a half-hour overview of the exhibition at the West Building Lecture Hall with curator Jennifer Riddell (general seating, first come first served). Discover the origins of the French art movement in a new look at the radical 1874 exhibition considered the birth of modern painting. A remarkable presentation of 130 works on view at the National Gallery of Art includes a rare reunion of many of the paintings first featured in that now-legendary exhibition. Revisit beloved paintings by Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and meet their lesser-known contemporaries. See the art norms they were rebelling against and learn what political and social shifts sparked their new approach to art. This is a unique chance to immerse yourself in the dynamic Parisian art scene of 1874 - the NGA is the only American stop for this historic touring exhibition.

Following lunch on own at the NGA, members are invited to visit the Hirshhorn for Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960, and OSGEMEOS: Endless Story. Revolutions is a major survey of artwork made during a transformative period characterized by new currents in science and philosophy and ever-increasing mechanization. Revolutions captures shifting cultural landscapes through the largely chronological presentation. In its first rotation, the installation presents 208 artworks in the museum’s permanent collection by 117 artists—including Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Lee Krasner, Wifredo Lam, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Jackson Pollock - made during 100 turbulent and energetic years. The exhibition includes contemporary work by 19 artists, such as Torkwase Dyson, Rashid Johnson, Annette Lemieux, Dyani White Hawk, and Flora Yukhnovich, whose practices demonstrate how many revolutionary ideas and approaches that arose during these 100 years remain critical.

With OSGEMEOS: Endless Story, The Hirshhorn Museum presents the first US museum survey and largest US exhibition of work by identical twin brothers Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo (b. São Paulo, Brazil, 1974), known globally as OSGEMEOS - Portuguese for “the twins.” The yearlong, full-floor presentation brings together approximately 1,000 artworks, photographs, and archival materials to highlight the trajectory of their collaborative, multidisciplinary practice, including the roots of their fantastical artistic language inspired by their upbringing in urban Brazil.

Members-only, registration required (limited to 50 people); $60 trip fee. Register online here: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration

ONLINE PROGRAM

Rethinking Italian Renaissance Art - Part II: The Evolving Cinquecento

Kerr Houston, professor of art history, theory and criticism, Maryland Institute College of Art

Concentrating on specific examples, this lecture will detail how our shared understanding of Italian art of the 1500s has evolved in recent decades. For instance, scholars drawing on reception theory and somaesthetic learning have stressed the importance of embodied looking and offered exciting new ways of thinking about Cellini’s Perseus and the devotional works at the Sacro Monte di Varallo. Art historians have also stressed the relationship between art, systems of exchange, the age of exploration, and colonialism - themes central to the Walters Art Museum’s 2012 exhibit Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe and Jill Burke’s studies of the Renaissance nude. We will consider re-readings of Giorgio Vasari’s Vite, including attempts to situate his writings in relation to literary tropes and cultural norms - and a radical suggestion involving Vasari as an author. This lecture will end by trying to imagine how the field of Renaissance art history may continue to develop in the coming years.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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Rethinking Italian Renaissance Art - Part I: Old Masters, New Lenses

Kerr Houston, professor of art history, theory and criticism, Maryland Institute College of Art

Reception 10:30 - 11:00 am

Between 1300 and 1600, Italian artists produced some of the most celebrated works in the history of art. In recent decades, however, art historians have offered a range of compelling new ways of thinking about these old favorites. Drawing on feminist theory, reception theory, queer studies, and critical race theory, scholars have enriched our understanding of how Italian art was conceived and received in its time - and of what it means to us today. We will discuss examples by Giotto, Donatello, Pollaiuolo, Michelangelo, and lesser-known works.

Following an overview of the most influential early art historical approaches to the Italian Renaissance, the first lecture in the series will turn to the methodological ideas that have re-shaped the field over the past generation. We’ll consider the recent material turn, focusing on a provocative re-reading of Giotto’s canonical Scrovegni Chapel, frescoes by Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, and we’ll look at recent analyses of the associations of cast bronzes and woven carpets in a range of Renaissance contexts. We’ll also investigate the impact of queer theory in exploring several revisionist studies of gender and sexuality in Renaissance Italy including Adrian Randolph’s work on Donatello’s enigmatic David. In sum, this lecture will offer a detailed sense of how evolving scholarly interests and angles of analysis have shed new light on the work of some of the best-known artists of the Trecento and the Quattrocento.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

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Conversation with a Stranger: The Photo-Book-Museums of Dayanita Singh

Rebecca M. Brown, professor, history of art, Johns Hopkins University

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm

Photographs harbor within them multiple moments - the time of the shutter opening, attentiveness to the subject’s pose, the care of developing and selecting, and the arrangement in albums or on shelves with other photos and other objects. They also speak to us in our moment: in the words of contemporary artist Dayanita Singh, they are a "conversation with a stranger in the future." Singh's photographic practice emerges in and through the photo book form in all its variety: in printed books, in little accordion-fold booklets nested in boxes or kept in the pockets of custom-made garments, in teak boxes with windows for curating your own mini-museum, or in tall towers of photos that surround a place to sit and talk. Singh has explored the life and loves of a dear friend, India’s haunting industrial spaces, archives and government offices, the daily lives of families in Kolkata, and many more subjects. She photographs with care and attentiveness over a long period, later bringing these images into dialogue with one another and with us, creating a conversation that we, future strangers, might someday join. The lecture will include seeing some of her book objects in person. 

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

HYBRID IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROGRAM

Mark Rothko and the Spiritual in Art

David Gariff, art historian and senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art

Reception 1 - 1:30 pm

The most daring development in modern art in the first half of the 20th century was the step into abstraction - the decision to make paintings that were no longer pictures of the visible world but simply paintings. Abstraction elicited both excitement and anxiety (“What is to replace the object?”). Painters looked to new sources for the kind of structure that observation once provided: to music (seen as the very model of an abstract art form), the logic of geometry, the forces of emotion and spirituality, the material facts of paint and canvas, and scientific developments that revealed new ways to “see” the world, from X-rays to Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Artists from several countries hoped that abstraction might become a lingua franca, transcending cultural differences. While that did not quite happen, the energies unleashed by abstraction and the search for the spiritual in art were far-reaching. Art historian David Gariff discusses the complex relationship between art and spirituality through the works of Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and their European counterparts Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)

Members' Day Trip: Kreeger + Katzen with Kristen Hileman

Kristen Hileman, independent curator

Bus pick up/drop off from The Central Presbyterian Church, 7308 York Road, Towson

Join independent curator Kristen Hileman for tours of two contemporary exhibitions she has organized for Washington venues and a day brimming with painting, sculpture, photography, and architecture. Charter bus service will be provided. Our first stop is the private Kreeger Museum in upper Northwest Washington. Hileman has gathered the work of 14 artists from our region, but originally hailing from 9 different countries, to celebrate the Kreeger’s 30th anniversary. These works represent a variety of ways that today’s artists take inspiration from the natural world. At the same time, they speak to the stunning natural imagery in the Kreeger’s significant collection of European Impressionist and Modernist painting, as well as the harmony between the Kreeger’s gorgeous landscape and its celebrated Philip Johnson-designed building.

A seated lunch will take place at Al Dente – included in the trip fee. After lunch, we’ll continue to the Katzen Art Museum at American University to see Hileman’s retrospective exhibition of Baltimore photographer Connie Imboden, well-known for her radiant underwater images of models. Imboden’s haunting and art historically inspired figurative compositions were the subject of a past ASG lecture. In addition to teaching and making photographs over her five-decade career, Imboden founded Baltimore’s Baker Artist Awards. This is the most comprehensive exhibition of her work to date.

Members-only, registration required (limited to 25 people); $150 trip fee (includes lunch). Register online here: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration