Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Mary Morton, PhD- Curator and Head, Department of French Paintings
National Gallery of Art
Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment
Bio: Mary Morton has been curator and head of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art since 2010. She previously served as associate curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum (2004-2010) and associate curator of European art at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Houston (1998-2004). She received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in history, and her PhD from Brown University, concentrating on 19th and early 20th century European painting.
Lecture description: On April 15, 1874, an exhibition organized by the “Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, etc.” opened in Paris at the studio of the photographer Nadar on the Boulevard des Capucines. One of the exhibition reviewers coined the term by which the group would come to be known: “impressionist.” Although it only lasted a month, the first impressionist exhibition remains a key moment in the history of Western painting, taking on an almost mythical status with the passage of time.
Marking the 150th anniversary of the first impressionist exhibition, the National Gallery’s Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment takes a fresh look at this seminal exhibition. Bringing together some 130 paintings, the show both reconstructs and recontextualizes the impressionist exhibition within the broader social, political, historic and aesthetic currents of this crucial year.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024 *Mabel Brown lecture
Brianne Van Vorst - Principal
Liberty Stained Glass Consulting, Freehold, NJ
A Grave Discovery: Surveying 1,000 windows at Woodlawn Cemetery
Bio: Brianne Van Vorst is the principal of the consulting firm, Liberty Stained Glass Conservation. She worked as part of one of Britain’s oldest stained glass firms; the York Glaziers Trust where she worked as part of the team conserving York Minster’s Great East Window (1405-1408). Brianne holds professional memberships with the Corpus Vitrearum Medi Aevi: International Committee for the Care of Stained Glass, Association for Preservation Technology, New York Landmarks Conservancy, Partners for Sacred Spaces, the American Glass Guild, and the Stained Glass Association of America. She received an MA in Stained Glass Conservation and Cultural Heritage Management (Historic Preservation) at the University of New York.
Lecture description: Founded in 1863, Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York, is recognized asone of the United States of America's most historically significant properties. Woodlawn is also home to one of the country's most comprehensive stained glass collections, containing over 1200 windowsspanning more than 150 years by such renowned artists as Louis Comfort Tiffany, John La Farge, and Edward Sperry. The collection is (mostly) original and unique, illustrating changing tastes in stained glass and burial traditions during the 19th and 20th centuries. The diverse conditions, timeline, and variety of known and unknown artists create the perfect backdrop for the most extensive stained glass survey ever undertaken in the US.
This lecture will describe the art historical and conservation approach to this enormous project.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 *Mary Ellis Jarvie lecture
Philip S. Palmer, PhD- Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head, Literary and Historical Manuscripts
The Morgan Library & Museum
Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy
Bio: Philip S. Palmer is the Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum. He holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and worked for five years at UCLA's Clark Library as a before coming to the Morgan in 2019. His interests are wide ranging, and he has curated exhibitions at the Morgan on Woody Guthrie, James Joyce, Beatrix Potter, and The Little Prince, and is co-curator of the Morgan’s current exhibition on Belle da Costa Greene.
Lecture description: Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was one of the most prominent librarians in American history. She ran the Morgan Library for forty-three years—initially as the private librarian of J. Pierpont Morgan and then his son, Jack, and later as the inaugural director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (now the Morgan Library & Museum). Not only did Greene build one of the most important collections of rare books and manuscripts in the United States, but she also transformed an exclusive private collection into a major public resource, originating the robust program of exhibitions, lectures, publications, and research services that continues today. speak about Greene’s storied life and career, from her roots in a predominantly Black community in Washington, D.C., to her distinguished career at the helm of one of the world’s great research libraries. Philip will discuss a selection of objects appearing in the exhibition, highlight two projects related to Belle Greene’s letters, and explore her enduring legacy as a cultural heritage executive.
The Morgan Library & Museum is currently holding a major retrospective exhibition on Belle Greene, which opened in the fall of 2024. The show’s curatorial lead, Philip S. Palmer, will speak about Greene’s storied life and career, from her roots in a predominantly Black community in Washington, D.C., to her distinguished career at the helm of one of the world’s great research libraries. Philip will discuss a selection of objects appearing in the exhibition, highlight two projects related to Belle Greene’s letters, and explore her enduring legacy as a cultural heritage executive.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Sarah Eckhardt, PhD- Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Reconstructing the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection of German Expressionism at VMFA
*This program has been organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and is supported, in part, by the Paul Mellon Endowment and the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund
Bio: Sarah Eckhardt is VMFA’s assistant curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and holds a PhD in art history from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her MA in art history from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and BA in art and English from Valparaiso University.
Lecture description: Ludwig and Rosie Fischer were forward-thinking collectors from Frankfurt, Germany, who embraced the challenging art of their time. Between 1915 and 1925, they built one of the most important collections of German Expressionist art in Germany, with a strong emphasis on Die Brucke- "the Bridge"- a pivotal group within the movement. After their deaths, their collection was divided between their two sons, Max and Ernst Fischer. Of Jewish descent, both brothers needed to flee Germany after the Nazis came to power. Ernst and his young family arrived in Richmond, Virginia in 1935 with his portion of the collection, which now comprises the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection of over 200 German Expressionist art works at the VMFA. Max, however, left most of his collection behind. In recent years, three important works from Max's half of the collection have been located and restituted to the Fischer heirs, who have in turn ensured that these works rejoin the larger Fischer collection at VMFA. Inspired by the Fischer descendants' commitment to the legacy of their family's collection, VMFA will hold an exhibition at VMFA scheduled for 2027 that reconstructs as much of the original Ludwig and Rosy Fischer collection as possible. Dr. Sarah Eckhardt will discuss the history of the collection as well as the complex and ongoing detective work required to find many of these masterpieces.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 Mindy N. Besaw, PhD- Director of Research, Fellowships and University Partnerships and Curator, American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Jami C. Powell, PhD- Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth
Knowing the West [Visual Legacies of the American West]
Bios: Mindy Besaw is Director of Research, Fellowships, and University Partnerships, and Curator, American Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art since 2014. Prior to her current post, Besaw was curator of western American art at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and curatorial associate at the Denver Art Museum. Besaw holds a PhD in American Art History from the University of Kansas.
Jami Powell is Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art and serves as a senior lecturer in the Native American and Indigenous Studies Department at Dartmouth College. Jami is a member of the Osage Nation and has a PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jami has served on curatorial advisory boards for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and is on the Board of Directors for the Native American Art Studies Association.
Lecture description: Co-curators Jami Powell and Mindy Besaw will share insights about the exhibition to embrace the American West as more inclusive, complex, and reflective of the diverse peoples who contributed to art and life there. Americans often feel they "know the West," whether informed by direct experience or popular culture. The exhibition of over 120 historic works by Native Americans and non-Native American artists brings together textiles, baskets, paintings, pottery, sculpture, beadwork, saddles, and prints to encourage deeper exploration of a familiar topic. This talk will discuss themes of the exhibition, highlight remarkable artworks and stories about the artists, and share more about the deeply collaborative process used to organize and realize the exhibition.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Jennifer Thompson- The Gloria and Jack Drosdick Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, Curator of the John G. Johnson CollectionPhiladelphia Museum of Art
Mary Cassatt’s Models
Bio: Jennifer Thompson is Head of the European Art Department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and curator of the Rodin Museum. Since joining the department in 1999, she has played an essential role in interpreting, displaying, and developing the museum’s collections of European painting and sculpture. She is presently preparing Mary Cassatt at Work, the first large-scale exhibition devoted to the artist in thirty years, which will open in Philadelphia in May 2024. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Lecture description: The talk will explore the range of models employed by Mary Cassatt—the family members, domestic staff, neighbors, and acquaintances who posed for her—and how Cassatt’s pictures reflect reality and create fictions.
Monday, May 5, 2025, Annual Meeting, Lecture, and Luncheon Nancy J. Troy, PhD- co-author, Mondrian’s Dress: Yves Saint Laurent, Piet Mondrian and Pop Art
Kress-Beinecke Professor 2023-2024, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Victoria and Roger Sant Professor in Art, Emerita, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Mondrian’s Dress: Yves Saint Laurent, Piet Mondrian, and Pop Art
Bio: Nancy J. Troy is Victoria and Roger Sant Professor in Art, Department of Art & Art History, at Stanford University. In addition to Mondrian’s Dress: Yves Saint Laurent, Piet Mondrian and Pop Art, she is the author of Modernism and the Decorative Arts in France: Art Nouveau to Le Corbusier, Couture Culture: A Study in Modern Art and Fashion, and, most recently, The Afterlife of Piet Mondrian. Professor Troy received her BA from Wesleyan University in 1974, her MA from Yale University in 1976, and her PhD from Yale University in 1979. A past president of the National Committee for the History of Art, she was Editor-in-Chief of the flagship art history journal, The Art Bulletin, from 1994 to 1997.
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