Soon after ascending the throne at age 13, King Louis XV of France decided to abandon governance in favor of a life of sensual pleasures, to be enjoyed with his wife, mistresses official and unofficial, and countless encounters with young adventuresses brought to him from many parts of his country. The formalities and complexities of love, legitimate and otherwise, among the aristocracy were brilliantly reflected in the works of the three greatest painters of the 18th century. Antoine Watteau, a Fleming whose success caused him to be ‘acclaimed’ to membership in the Royal Academy, portrayed an idealized and lyrical vision is bucolic settings, called the fête gallante; François Boucher, a bourgeois Parisian who had nearly every official honor bestowed upon him, painted the frank and unrestrained hedonism of his time; and Honoré Fragonard, from Grasse in the South, turned his back entirely on the public art establishment, painting risqué scenes of contemporary love exclusively for private clients. In this lecture we will introduce these great formulators of the rococo style, and investigate the meanings and public reception of their work for a society approaching its doom.
Archives
Passion and Violence in a Most Unassuming Art: The Wonders of Greek Vase Painting
We see Greek vases standing in quiet dignity in museum galleries, their lovely shapes designed for service and display. But more than any other art form, the decorations on them give us a most vivid insight into the lives and character of the ancient Greeks. Painted with the greatest artistry, often by artists who signed their work and even boasted about their talent, they show us an energetic, rowdy people given to surprising extremes, in subjects taken sometimes from literature and at other times from daily life. We see episodes of abandoned revelry celebrated alongside the brutalities of warfare; athletes, artists, work and sex are seen along with myths and jokes, magical spells and events that we just cannot understand. This lecture will also introduce the forms of Greek vases and their functions, which often relate to the decorations of these wonderful art objects; and we will see why no one should want to pass by a display of Greek vases ever again.
From Photographs to Fabric Patterns
Biology, art and activism merge in this presentation. Dawn Flores, Creative Director for The Forest Project, tells the story of how she collaborated with other artists to document a 60-acre urban forest clear-cut for development. Dawn has created over 1,000 fabric patterns from photographs she took, of the now clear-cut property, and works with quiltmakers to sew quilts commemorating what was lost. Her slide presentation includes detailed information about designing fabric on Spoonflower, a web site dedicate to creating fabric for designers. There will be time for a question and answer period and opportunity to view fabric samples and quilts made for The Forest Project.
Duration: 2 hours
Audience: middle school, high school, and adult
Style 1900: Art & Artists at the Turn of the Last Century
The Paris Exposition of 1900 was a pivotal moment for Western art and design. Explore artists and designers who were and who weren’t included at the exhibition and the works of art that dazzled and dismayed critics and the public.
Depictions of the American Landscape
Although activists often pinpoint its genesis in the 1960s, the environmental movement in the United States has roots in 19th-century American landscape painting. Beginning with the Hudson River School, artists, predominately painters, have depicted the environment as an allusion to such disparate ideologies as manifest destiny, environmental concerns, gendered places, or literary devices. Looking at specific examples from the VMFA’s permanent collection, we will consider works by 19th century painters, including Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, and Frederick Church, 20th century painters, such as Thomas Hart Benton, Winslow Homer, and Childe Hassam, and 21st-century artists, including Sally Mann, Julie Mehretu, and Dean Byington.
Sally Mann’s Photographs
A nearly lifelong resident of Rockbridge County, Virginia, photographer and writer Sally Mann developed her first photograph in April 1969. During the 1970s, Mann took photographs of women, the Virginia countryside, still lives, and nudes. In 1983, Mann turned her camera almost exclusively to adolescent girls and then began taking photographs of her own children in 1984. Beginning in 1993, Mann returned to making landscape photographs, which she has continued to make into the present. In 2018, the National Gallery of Art presents a traveling retrospective, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings, which will include new portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. This lecture will provide an overview of Mann’s career by focusing on her photographic processes, influences, and transitions while highlighting her major works.
The Agecroft Story
Come hear the extraordinary story of how Agecroft Hall moved from Lancashire, England to Richmond, Virginia! Agecroft Hall started life as a rural estate in the 16th century, but several hundred years later, the Industrial Revolution was rapidly encroaching on the bucolic manor. Learn why T.C. Williams, Jr. chose the house to become the centerpiece of his new development, Windsor Farms, and how the unwanted house suddenly became the center of a national controversy in Britain that raged all the way down to Parliament. Discover what steps the British took to try to prevent the house from leaving the country and how Mr. Williams and his team prevailed.
The Cloth Unfolded 1: Linen, Laundry, and Laundresses in 19th-Century Still Life
(45 minute illustrated lecture – PowerPoint) Using images from the VMFA permanent collections, Mary Prevo, art historian and museum educator, will discuss her project: the carefully laundered linen table covering in nineteenth-century still life and its function as a measure of middle-class status. In the hands of artists like Fantin-Latour, Manet, Cezanne and Gauguin cool, smooth and subtly colored table coverings speak of comfort and domestic order. These images also witness to admiration these artists had for Dutch and French 17th– and 18th–century domestic interiors. These pictures also raise other questions: Who was responsible for doing the laundry and under what circumstances? Is the lavish use of the unfolded cloth in still life the other side of an equally pervasive interest the laundress? Do developments in domestic economy and the laundry industry in the 19th-century relate to the images of the unfolded linens, laundresses and ironers, who were described by Alcott and Zola and painted by Daumier, Boudin, and Degas?
Modern Art: Native American Style
Mid-century modern art is exemplified by an abstract aesthetic that emphasizes the materiality of the work. Numerous Native American artists, such as Kay Walkingstick, engaged with the rhetoric surrounding modern art but their self-identity as a Native American has overshadowed their contribution to modern art. This talk will examine the way mid-century Native American modern artists participated in the modern art scene.
Sex and Death in the Ancient Americas
Images of sex or death may be deemed immoral or inappropriate in current culture, however, ancient American cultures viewed these acts in a different manner. From the Aztecs of Mexico to the Moche of Peru, sex and death were the bookends of life with one representing conception and the other termination. Instead of being in contrast, these ideas were intimately linked within a cosmology that included ancestors, mythological beings and inanimate objects. This lecture will explore the images of sex and death on artworks from ancient Mesoamerican and Peruvian cultures.