Experience Nam June Paik’s global journey on his path to becoming the father of video art. Challenge the definition of art and discover the world of new media and performance. Explore technology’s role in art, society, and culture. See how to place the seemingly mundane on a pedestal while delving into the lives and practices of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Joseph Beuys, and other Fluxus artists.
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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.
Return to the Flame or Retreat from the Heat: The New Wheel Order
Two of Great Britain’s finest academic, ceramic art institutions recently closed their venerable, scholarly doors. Harrow Westminster and Camberwell, both in London, were hallowed ground for Twentieth Century potters and sculptors. Bernard Leach, Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, Mick Casson and Katherine Pleydell-Bouvierie are only a few of the “sacred ghosts” that must wonder, from their graves, what happened. The same thing will happen in America if ceramic art educators lose awareness of what made the craft movement possible after the Second World War. The New Wheel Order is a restoration and expansion of the notion of function in ceramic art. It involves the consideration of optical warmth as well as optical worth and regards function beyond mere utility. It asks the question, “When does meaning occur,” that is to say the actual experience of art. Does this experience happen in the museum, gallery or the kitchen? There is so much careerism masquerading as education that the salient issues of Craft and Creativity are often elided right out of the conversation. The New Wheel Order is akin to Cezanne’s quest for the truth as he said, “Truth lies not in verisimilitude but in how things are.” VMFA Resident Potter Steven Glass will discuss these ideas and conduct a power point presentation of contemporary ceramic art.
Request ProgramBuilding a 21st-Century Collection in a Traditional Museum
This lecture will address the way in which a curator builds a collection of new art within the context of a traditional museum. Specific themes that will be discussed include the balance between taste and judgment, new materials and new media, globalism, hybridity, and mystery. The work of artists such as Julie Mehretu, Ryan McGinness, Fred Tomaselli, Kehinde Wiley, Bill Viola, and Teresita Fernandez, among others will be explored.
Request ProgramA Succession of Masks: Batman and the Sexual Revolution
In 1954, Batman and Robin were “outed” by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham as closet homosexuals, an accusation that caused the comic’s creators to skirt sexuality in the Batman comics. This presentation parallels Batman and Robin’s plight against the backdrop of gay rights (The Lavender Scare) and women’s lib, from the late 1930s through the 1970s. Subjects covered include the communist witch hunt, the Batman TV show, pop art and camp, the sexually chaotic Batwoman of the Eisenhower era and the liberated Batgirl of the 1960s.
Request ProgramScouting the Postmodern Film Frontier
Our current era of art and society, which is now commonly referred to as the “Postmodern,” has been foreshadowed in avant-garde films and videos since the 1920s. This talk will explain and define Postmodernism and show short filmic examples to illustrate, such as works by Man Ray, Joseph Cornell, and Andy Warhol.
Request ProgramThe New 19th Century
This lecture will present the past seven years of acquisitions of 19th-century academic and salon paintings intended to complement the Impressionist paintings in the collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.
Request ProgramThe Grand Tour: “Spring Break” for the 18th-Century Man
For most young men, the Grand Tour, a hallmark coming-of-age trip through France and Italy, was a folly, but for others it was a completely different experience. With the ever-popular Neoclassical movement continuing to take hold in Europe, artists like Benjamin West saw the Grand Tour as an opportunity for inspiration. Take a grand tour through the art and culture of this era and see how the classical past came alive again in 18th-century Britain and France.
Request ProgramIcons: Windows into the Divine
Modern viewers often see the icon — a type of religious image still in use in the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches — as a charming and somewhat primitive type of painting. Nothing could be further from the truth. The icon, from its earliest inception, is a highly intellectual and consciously spiritualized image. The beliefs with which icons are infused are so powerful that they have led to their being outlawed for a time in the 8th and 9th centuries, but their meanings are so profound that their use has survived even the most concerted attempts to stifle them. In this lecture, Dr. Schrader introduces the theology behind the icon, briefly recounts the history of icons in the West, and explains the meanings behind some of the most important individual types of religious image.
Request ProgramFresco Painting in the Renaissance
Decorating walls with paintings made on fresh plaster is a grimy, laborious practice, which in the Middle Ages was thought to be the most mechanical and craftsman-like task of the painter. Beginning in the 14th century, however, higher artistic standards began to reveal just how splendid a chamber transformed by fresco painting could be. By the end of the 15th century, the fresco painter was hailed as the most ambitious and able artist of all. In this lecture we learn the techniques — good and bad — that mural painters used. See how truly great painters, such as Botticelli and Ghirlandaio in the 15th century and Michelangelo and Raphael in the 16th century, triumphed as fresco artists above all others.
Request ProgramFirst Impressions: A Brief History of Early Illustrated Texts
During the mid-15th century, the invention of printing and movable type changed the distribution of the visual medium. In this talk, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts librarian Nick Curotto covers the processes and technology of early printing and assembling of texts with a focus on the incorporation of print illustrations. The techniques of relief and intaglio printing will be discussed highlighting the artists, artisans, and printers who were imperative in the progression of technologies during the hand-press period of the 15th – 18th centuries.
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