Throughout South Asia, the Goddess Devi is an important cultural and religious symbol in both Hindu and Buddhist communities. The variety of her forms, both wrathful and peaceful, underscores the dynamic nature of this figure. This lecture examines the roots of the goddess tradition in ancient India and the contemporary aspects of Devi’s worship, addressing…
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Archived Lectures. Some no longer available. Please visit the Statewide Faculty page for up-to-date listings.
VMFA Speakers on the Arts lectures are an excellent complement to programming at partner sites. They can also introduce new areas of art to Partner audiences and enhance community events and celebrations. A wide selection of topics and speakers is available for VMFA Statewide Partners. See Booking Speakers on the Arts for information about requesting a lecture.
Buddhist Art and Pilgrimage
Shortly after the death of Buddha in the 5th century BCE, pilgrimage was promoted as a vital component of Buddhist practice and spiritual development. Subsequently, the art and architecture that developed at these sites have become intrinsic components of Buddhist visual culture. Utilizing objects in the permanent collection at the VMFA, this program examines the…
Request ProgramLatin American Perspectives
From the ancient to the contemporary, discover the Latin American connection to artworks from VMFA’s collection. Learn how these works were influenced by artists’ perceptions of Central and South America’s social, political, economic, and cultural world, and how these same perspective are relevant today.
Request ProgramPolitics and Painting: French Art Movements of the 19th Century
France was the most advanced and most prosperous country in the world during the 19th century. It was also dynamic and politically unstable, undergoing four changes of constitution before 1900. The visual arts, and in particular painting, played an important role in the social turmoil of the French republic. Controversies about social class, gender, and economic equity played out in art as much as in the press. This lecture explores many of these topics and the painters who alternately championed or turned their backs on the great causes of their time — including David, Delacroix, Courbet and Manet.
Request ProgramBerthe Morisot and the Impressionist Image of Women
Berthe Morisot was a woman of extraordinary talents who carved a career for herself out of the male-dominated art world of 19th century Paris. She was one of only a few women who exhibited with both the Paris Salon and the highly influential and innovative Impressionists. Morisot’s art depicts the world of the bourgeoisie: their clothes, their lifestyle, their surroundings, and their relationships. Through her unusual talent, the modern viewer can see the essence of quotidian life for the rising middle class of 19th century Paris.
Request ProgramAn Album of a Century: Photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue
French photographer and painter Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) is most famous for his stunning photos of automobile races, planes, and fashionable Parisian women from the turn of the century. This lecture explores Lartigue’s photographs from his first sincere, often playful, presentation of friends, family, and French society made as early as age 6 to his later fashion layouts and portraits.
Request ProgramA Brilliant Disorder: The Works of William Blake
From his early visions as a child to his later prints and poems, Blake saw the world through the vivid lens of his personal theology. Influencing countless artists and writers, most of which worked long after his death, Blake’s imaginative genius still enthralls viewers today. Though most often known for his poetry and prose, Blake was also an accomplished artist, regarded as seminal and significant within the history of both art and literature. Focusing on his illuminations, prints, and paintings in the context of his personal and literary life, this lecture explores the life and work of William Blake, English poet, mystic, and artist.
Request ProgramTravels with George Catlin
George Catlin recorded for posterity the appearances and customs of the Indian tribes of North America. Between 1830 and 1836, Catlin made five trips to the American West. From his visits to 58 tribes, he produced 485 paintings and collected over seven tons of artifacts. These he exhibited in the United States and Europe as Catlin’s Indian Gallery. Throughout his life, Catlin struggled to keep the collection whole and pursued its acquisition by the newly created Smithsonian Institution. This lecture looks at Catlin’s life from his travels through the American West to the end of his career when, facing bankruptcy, he traveled to South America and rekindled his interest in painting and the scientific recording of Native American life.
Request ProgramThe Duchamp Effect: Assemblage, Combines and Collage
Modern art changed forever with the French artist Marcel Duchamp’s submission ofFountain, a literal porcelain urinal, to the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917. Inspired by the European Dada movement, Duchamp’s use of play, chance and everyday objects changed art-making in America. We will begin by exploring how Duchamp’s ideas were disseminated through American musician John Cage’s work. Then we will look at how Cagean aesthetics filtered into assemblage, combines and collage works of the 1950’s through 1970’s. We will consider examples from the VMFA’s permanent collection, including those by: Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Morris, John Chamberlain, Richard Stankiewicx, James Rosenquist, Tom Wesselmann, Wallace Berman, Arman, and Ed Ruscha.
Request ProgramWhy is that Art?
Looking at modern art can often be challenging. It always raises questions, even amongst the most knowledgeable viewers: What is an abstract painting “of”? How do you determine if something is “good”? A close look at the history of modern art, dating from roughly 1870 through 1950, demonstrates that the changes that occurred, chiefly that art became more abstract, were not arbitrary but rather developed along deliberate paths. Artists were not working in a vacuum but were responding to changes in technology like the development of photography, cultural moments like the industrial revolution and WWI and WWII, as well as the artists and movements that preceded them. Using works from VMFA’s collection, this chronological telling of important moments in modern art provides the context in which to answer questions like those above.
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