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…
Request ProgramAmerican Art
Intended & Unintended Meanings of the American Monument
The moment of the unveiling of a public monument marks the end of a process. The need for commemoration was felt, an artist engaged to express the idea, and the means found to bring the project to realization. Whatever the intended meaning, once in the public eye an installation acquires its own history. The interpretation…
Request ProgramIn The Round: Sculpture in America
This presentation is designed to create a greater aesthetic understanding and appreciation of sculpture in America. We will delve into sculptural works of art across eras and genres, forms and subject matters, and methods and materials of American sculptors.
Request ProgramCollecting for the Commonwealth, Preserving for the Nation: A Century of Art Patronage at VMFA
In 1919, John Barton Payne made a gift of artworks to the Commonwealth of Virginia. His vision: a public art museum that could educate and unite a disparate people. A hundred years on, VMFA has emerged a leading repository of great world art. That success is due to the passion and persistence of a century…
Request ProgramOf Glitter and Grit: American Art from the McGlothlin Collection
From the early investment in landscape as the mythological source of America’s manifest destiny, to the closing of the frontier and the rise of a gilded empire, to the disaffection caused by rapid economic, social and political change: the development of the United States finds visual voice in the American art of the McGlothlin Collection.…
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