Designing Women: French Art Nouveau and Deco Decorative Arts and Women

This talk will focus on women and their role in the Decorative arts between 1890 to 1930, with a specific focus on French Art Nouveau and French Art Deco styles. Women served as model and muse for Art Nouveau and Art Deco artists, which will be discussed in this talk through numerous artworks in the…

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Museums and Social Responsibility

Museums are places for ideas and dialogue that use collections, exhibitions, and programs to inspire people. The power of museums lies in acting as agents of social change. Museums are uniquely positioned to acknowledge and accept the needs, concerns, and issues of the diverse, often disenfranchised, and shifting audience landscape. As a place of dialogue…

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Propaganda vs. Social Commentary in Art During World War I

The Twentieth Century presented society with a long list of incomprehensible situations and events, beginning with World War I. Acting as a buffer between the horrors of reality and individual’s perceptions of the world, art helps to inform, explain and educate society, but it can also be used to change people’s perceptions. In August 1914,…

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The Nativity Cycle in Western Art

Narrative scenes of the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary were, by the Middle Ages, the most common images in Western art, and were found throughout the architecture of the church – pulpit, doors, altarpieces, and so on. These scenes were remarkable for their consistency of composition. The reason is that these scenes were…

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On With the Show…

Anthropomorphism parodies our tendency to see the human in everything, reminding us at the same time of the separate, secret reality of nature. Most cultures possess a long-standing fable tradition with anthropomorphized animals as characters that can stand as commonly recognized types of human behavior. This lecture traces the anthropomorphic development of the classic characters…

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“My Day Long Obsession, Joy and Torment”: The Use of Color in Art

The American Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko once said: “A painting is not about an experience. It is an experience.” Objectively, color is the element of art that is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye. Subjectively, color is a sensation, a human reaction to a hue arise in part from…

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Art Goes to War: The Tragedies of Franz Marc and August Macke

When World War I broke out in August 1914, many German Expressionist artists initially believed it could be the apocalyptic event that would at last overthrow the self-satisfied materialism of the nation’s monarch and bourgeoisie. Franz Marc and August Macke, two of the leading artists of German Expressionism, were among those who enlisted for active…

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Pop Art: Blurring Boundaries

Pop Art brought mass consumerist culture into museums and galleries in the early 1960s radically changing the course of art by eliminating the boundary between “high” culture and everyday life. Part of what paved the way was that it was the first major art movement with a sense of humor. This talk, using images of…

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Aspects of Ingenuity and Innovation: A Potter’s Perspective on VMFA’s Ceramic Art Collection

From Greco-Roman pottery to Annabeth Rosen’s clay sculptures, the VMFA’s ceramics collection includes examples of not only great artistic achievement but technological invention as well. Greek red and black figure ware, Koran sanggam inlay decoration, San Ildefonso Pueblo black ware, high fire celadons, and Japanese tea ceremony vessels are but part of an enduring, endearing…

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From Invisibility to Political Activism: the Black Experience in American Art

Historically, and in our own time, African American artists have foregrounded in their work the social, political, and cultural successes of Black Americans and have offered vociferous critiques of violations of their civil rights, and of systemic racism. In their art they questioned racial stereotyping and engaged their audience in thoughtful, but also provocative interrogations…

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