National Gallery Of Art | Audio

USCO, also known as the Company of US or US Company, was a group of artists, poets, filmmakers, engineers, and composers who formed a multimedia collective in 1963. Two of its cofounders—Michael Callahan (b. 1944), an electronics innovator and president of Museum Technology Source, and Gerd Stern (b. 1928), a poet, media artist, and president of Intermedia Foundation—reflect on their lives and the creation of USCO. Callahan and Stern discuss their artistic journeys and initial collaborations, which led to the formation of this innovative and technologically prescient multimedia collective. They provide insight into USCO’s influences and activities during the 1960s. Archival footage and behind-the-scenes access to their visit to the National Gallery of Art in preparation for their performance on March 3, 2019, provide a greater context for understanding USCO’s collaborative spirit, rich history, and art practice. This video opens with Michael Callahan and Gerd Stern, seated side by side, shown from about the w

David Gariff, Senior Lecturer, National Gallery of Art In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this two-part lecture examines art and photography created during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (from the end of the 19th century to 1922). The Antarctic expeditions of Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, Ernest Shackleton, and Douglas Mawson were the equivalent of NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Antarctica was the last place on earth to be discovered and explored. It was, to many, like going to the moon—and, indeed, photographs of the polar landscape resemble images of the lunar surface. Today, locations on the moon attest to the continuing link between the heroic accomplishments of Antarctic explorers and lunar astronauts. “Shackleton,” named after the Antarctic explorer, is an impact crater at the south pole of the moon. And NASA is now working to send American astronauts to the lunar south pole, a place no human has ever gone before. Artists and photographers

David Gariff, Senior Lecturer, National Gallery of Art In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this two-part lecture examines art and photography created during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (from the end of the 19th century to 1922). The Antarctic expeditions of Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, Ernest Shackleton, and Douglas Mawson were the equivalent of NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Antarctica was the last place on earth to be discovered and explored. It was, to many, like going to the moon—and, indeed, photographs of the polar landscape resemble images of the lunar surface. Today, locations on the moon attest to the continuing link between the heroic accomplishments of Antarctic explorers and lunar astronauts. “Shackleton,” named after the Antarctic explorer, is an impact crater at the south pole of the moon. And NASA is now working to send American astronauts to the lunar south pole, a place no human has ever gone before. Artists and photographers

Sir Nicholas Penny, currently visiting professor, National Academy of Art, Hangzhou; previously director, National Gallery, London (2008–2015); former senior curator of sculpture, National Gallery of Art (2002–2008) Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence is the first-ever monographic exhibition in the United States on Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488). The National Gallery of Art is the sole American venue of the exhibition that runs from September 15, 2019 through January 12, 2020. Verrocchio was both a draftsman and modeler whose designs were carried out in painting and sculpture by his own hand, but also by pupils and assistants, including Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, and likely Sandro Botticelli. In this lecture held on December 15, 2019, Sir Nicholas Penny argues that Verrocchio was one of the most influential of all European artists because he developed practices that came to be of fundamental importance in subsequent centuries, notably the separate study of drapery, the nude

Marc Fumaroli (professor emeritus at the Collège de France and former Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor at the National Gallery of Art) examines four landscape paintings by Jean Honoré Fragonard from the period 1775/1780: A Game of Hot Cockles, Blindman’s Buff, The Swing, and A Game of Horse and Rider. In contrast to the pleasure-seeking pursuits usually identified in these garden scenes, Fumaroli sees fearful apprehension in Fragonard’s ambiguous depiction of natural settings and human expressions.

Charles Ritchie, artist, and former associate curator, department of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art In this lecture held on October 27, 2019, in conjunction with the month-long Sketching is Seeing program at the National Gallery of Art, Charles Ritchie presents varied approaches to collecting ideas. For example, do artists fill a sketchbook from front to back or do they open it to an empty space and begin working? Does writing accompany the drawings and how might it relate to the images? Are the drawings and/or writings employed for developing skill, or are they compost for the creation of other works, or does the book document completed works? Using his experience as a keeper of a sketchbook/journal, Ritchie explores the creative practices of some of his favorite artists including Isabel Bishop, Paul Cézanne, Eugène Delacroix, Alberto Giacometti, and Edward Hopper, among others, and he touches on formative manuscripts by Emily Dickinson, Jack Kerouac, and Wallace Stevens. The presentatio

Gabriele Finaldi, director, National Gallery, London In his lecture, presented on December 8, 2019, Gabriele Finaldi of the National Gallery, London, discusses Mantegna's particular universe as constructed in stone: carved, cut, polished, and sometimes invented. In his compelling imaginarium, the ancient world is a severe construct of marble, alabaster, and porphyry. He juxtaposes sculpted stone with flesh, creating potent dualities of ancient and modern, eternal and transient, dead and alive. In the skies of his paintings, clouds take on mysterious forms, sometimes rocklike, that want to insinuate themselves into his narratives. This lecture explores how the realms of nature, art, and antiquity are fused into the unique vision of Mantegna's Renaissance world.

Dylan T. Smith, Robert H. Smith Research Conservator, department of object conservation, National Gallery of Art Between 1464 and 1473, Andrea del Verrocchio created two funerary monuments for the Medici in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence: the tomb of Cosimo the Elder and the tomb of his sons, Piero and Giovanni. These monuments integrate marble, porphyry, and bronze into magnificent designs that were both highly original and technically innovative. In this lecture given on December 10, 2019, conservator Dylan T. Smith presents the results of new technical investigations that offer greater insight into the materials and techniques of the tombs—pivotal works in the career of this Renaissance master. This program is held in conjunction with the exhibition Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence, on view through January 12, 2020.

Lara Langer, 2019 Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow In 1943 Lessing J. Rosenwald gifted roughly 6,000 works on paper to the nascent National Gallery of Art. By the time of his death in 1979, his collection had grown to over 28,000, including nearly 2,400 early modern portrait prints representing Europe’s major leaders, artists, and thinkers. On November 25, 2019, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Lara Langer looks at several examples from the Rosenwald collection while discussing the history of collecting portrait prints and their importance in the development of portraiture.

Sarah Hyde, development officer for planned giving, National Gallery of Art Cima da Conegliano was a prolific painter in the Venetian Renaissance known for his bright colors and spatial harmony in his landscapes. While Cima is often compared to his contemporaries, such as Giovanni Bellini, his landscape paintings are particularly poetic, as he anchors his religious subjects in real places. In this lecture held on October 21, 2019, as part of the Works in Progress series, Sarah Hyde investigates Cima’s landscapes within the context of recent scholarship on Venetian landscape painting. Hyde specifically addresses the artist’s depiction of trees to explain his vision of nature.

Alex Braden, artist, and Emily Francisco, artist, and gallery support specialist, department of media production, National Gallery of Art In this conversation held on November 4, 2019, as part of the Works in Progress series, artists Alex Braden and Emily Francisco discuss how they develop collaborative projects in relation to their independent artistic and curatorial practices. Last year Braden and Francisco created Bipedal Soundscapes, the inaugural Arlington Art Truck activation that involved participants pedaling a stationary bike to power a five-tiered turntable housing vinyl records. Each visitor created their own unique audio experience by controlling the speed of the turntable through their pedaling.

Zach Feldman, contractor, department of film programs, National Gallery of Art The notion of didactic art has been both lauded by the ancient Greeks as a powerful educational technique and dismissed by 19th-century Romantics as overburdened with facticity and morality. In recent decades, however, didactic films and videos have been utilized, in both satire and earnest, within art spaces as a subversive tool to acutely observe and diagnose the conditions of contemporary life. In this lecture, as part of the Works in Progress series, on September 9, 2019, Zach Feldman considers this tool in select nonfiction instructional videos by filmmakers and artists Harun Farocki and Hito Steyerl.

Antoinette Le Normand-Romain (former director of the Institut national d’histoire de l’art and former Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor at the National Gallery of Art) discusses Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Walking Man (1903). Le Normand-Romain describes a history of The Walking Man that reveals much about Rodin’s methods, his deep appreciation of antiquity, and the significance of his art in the evolution of modern sculpture.

Makeda Best, Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography, Harvard Art Museums On the 180th anniversary of photography’s introduction to the world in 1839, The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art offers an in-depth look at the development of the medium throughout its first 50 years. In this lecture held in conjunction with the exhibition on October 6, 2019, Makeda Best explores the function of slavery and enslaved people in visual narratives about the Civil War. Working through the photography by and associated with the Scottish-born photographer Alexander Gardner and his Washington, DC–based photographic corps, Best compares and contrasts portrayals of slavery and enslaved people and demonstrates how Gardner contextualized chattel slavery within a broader and decades-long discussion about the meaning of American democracy. This program was made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography. The Eye of the Sun is on view from September 8 through

Kimberly Schenck, head of paper conservation, National Gallery of Art, and Stacey Sell, associate curator of old master drawings, National Gallery of Art Through the centuries, artists have adopted a variety of approaches to pastel, experimenting with it to achieve exciting and unexpected effects. Featuring approximately 70 exquisite examples drawn entirely from the permanent collection, The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art traces the history of pastel from the Renaissance to the 21st century and examines the many techniques that artists have developed to work with this colorful and versatile medium. To celebrate the opening on September 29, 2019, Kimberly Schenck and Stacey Sell provide an overview of the works, many of which have never been exhibited before. The exhibition is on view at the National Gallery of Art through January 26, 2020.

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland, College Park; and Curlee R. Holton, artist and director, David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora organized the Living Legacy National Speaking Tour to present, celebrate, and document the achievements and legacy of its founder, David C. Driskell (b. 1931). This tour, a series of conversations between Driskell and Curlee R. Holton, highlights his contributions as an artist, scholar, and cultural historian and the contributions of African American artists to the country’s artistic heritage. Driskell has lived through and witnessed firsthand the dynamic historic changes that define America’s contemporary cultural landscape. In addition to Driskell’s singular acc

David Gariff, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art Italian sculpture of the 15th century in Florence and Tuscany, departed from the elegant, decorative style of the earlier Gothic period to reflect a greater admiration for, and understanding of, the strength and structure of the human body. In this respect, Renaissance sculptors emulated the ideals of the ancient Greeks and Romans when depicting contemporary or Christian subjects. Sculptors like Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Mino da Fiesole, Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino, Luca and Andrea della Robbia, Jacopo della Quercia, and Verrocchio, revived a classical interest in the human body depicted in full-length figures demonstrating naturalism and ease of movement. Relief sculptures explored new effects of light and atmosphere. Displaying a variety of materials including marble, bronze, wood, terracotta, and ceramic; and a range of processes from carving to modeling to casting, 15th-century Florentine sculpture served a variety of secular and religio

Daniel Boomhower, director of the research library, Dumbarton Oaks; Sir Peter Crane, president, Oak Spring Garden Foundation; Nancy E. Gwinn, director, Smithsonian Libraries; Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress; Roger Lawson, executive librarian, National Gallery of Art; David Leonard, president, Boston Public Library; E. C. Schroeder, director, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; Michael Witmore, director, Folger Shakespeare Library; moderated by Kaywin Feldman, director, National Gallery of Art On September 25, 2019, the National Gallery of Art hosted eight library leaders from major cultural heritage institutions to discuss how libraries have incorporated innovative thinking to meet traditional challenges and seize new opportunities for audience engagement. This special program was held in conjunction with the fall 2019 meeting of the National Gallery of Art Trustees’ Council and in honor of outgoing Gallery president, Frederick W. Beinecke.

Eric Denker, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series, Celebrating the Old Master Collections of the National Gallery of Art, takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by Italian, French, Dutch, and American artists are featured in this visual tour. New insights and surprising discoveries await, featuring Gallery favorites and recently acquired works. In this first lecture in the series, presented on July 14, 2019 senior lecturer Eric Denker discusses the Gallery’s collection of 17th-century Dutch paintings, one of the most important outside of the Netherlands. The holdings include a distinguished selection of well-known masters, including Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, as well as many superlative works by lesser-known painters of the Golden Age of Dutch painting. Intense competition during this era propelled artists to specialize in specific genres of painting including portraiture, landscape, still life, and scene

Eric Denker, senior lecturer, National Gallery of Art The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series, Celebrating the Old Master Collections of the National Gallery of Art, takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by Italian, French, Dutch, and American artists are featured in this visual tour. New insights and surprising discoveries await, featuring Gallery favorites and recently acquired works. In this second lecture in the series, presented on July 21, senior lecturer Eric Denker discusses the Gallery’s collection of Venetian painting. The holdings begin with rare works by Giovanni Bellini, such as his late masterpiece The Feast of the Gods , as well as works by the most important artists to emerge from Bellini’s studio, including Giorgione, Titian, and Carpaccio. Also well represented in the Gallery’s remarkable collection are Venetian paintings from the second half of the 16th century by Tintoretto and Veronese, and the 18th century, by Giovanni Battista Tiepol