Color is a significant part of how we view our world. Perhaps most noticeably, it impacts how we view art. An artist’s color choices can dictate the mood of an artwork, its appeal to art collectors, its neighbors in a gallery, and its impression on its viewers. Color as a concept is easily understood when we select examples in the world around us, but it is much harder to define when we think about it abstractly either as light rays bouncing off an object or as something inherent in a material. Art historians, scientists, philosophers, artists, and many others have defined color for centuries – in varying ways and for various purposes. Close looking at a few paintings and objects from the VMFA’s collection can facilitate a discussion of how we experience color, the factors that contribute to it, and the many differing ways that it has been defined. Students will learn about color, the history of color in art, and discuss how their subjective experiences of color may or may not differ from those of their peers.
Archives
“My kindergartener could have made that”: Painting from Representation to Abstraction and Back
Look at the evolution of Western art from representational work to fully abstract work and then the return of representation in the mid-to-late twentieth century. Discuss topics such as: what does abstraction mean? How did it become accepted and mainstream? How does an artist arrive at abstract methods? The goal of the talk will be to foster an appreciation for abstraction that goes beyond the surface appeal of the objects, which is rooted in the history of abstraction and its development. Artists to be considered include Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, Jackson Pollock, Norman Lewis, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Josef Albers, Sol Lewitt, Richard Roth, and more.
Orson Welles and “It’s All True!”
Welles was perhaps the most fascinating filmmaking maverick in Hollywood who was, in the words of Martin Scorsese, “responsible for inspiring more people to be film directors than anyone else in history of the cinema.” This presentation shows images from his career plus focusses a complex story of his ill-fated attempts to make an anthology film about the life and culture of South America and concludes with an excerpt of one of the film’s unfinished segments from rediscovered original footage. The entire movie may be shown contingent on paying an extra fee for performance rights. Please contact Jeffrey Allison for details.
Magic of Melies:
Early French silent filmmaker Georges Melies made delightful, humorous short films at the birth of cinema in the 1890s and early 1900s. He almost single-handedly invented movie special effects in his largely fantasy-type films. All filmmakers today owe him so much. Enjoy excerpts from his films, some in color, with this presentation.
The Juxtaposed: Rousseau, Magritte, Cornell
United through their art, this talk with images explores the connections between three vastly different artists: France’s Henri Rousseau, Belgium’s René Magritte, and U.S.A.’s Joseph Cornell. Surrealism, a literary and visual artistic movement which began in the 1920s, experimented with new modes of expression. Rousseau, pre-dating Surrealism, was a naive “involuntary” Surrealist and was adored by the Surrealist group of Paris. Magritte’s works, quintessentially Surreal, helped define this artistic form. Cornell appreciated the movement but took it in his own direction. All offered a lighter even humorous side of Surrealism.
Early Artistic Pioneers of American Cinema:
American movie directors D.W. Griffith and Edwin Porter developed the artistry of cinema in the early 20th century. Griffith even used the paintings of Jean Francois Millet to design his film A Corner in Wheat (1909). This presentation highlights the art of movies as Griffith and Porter created it. Excerpts from their films also shown.
Abe Lincoln’s Image in Movies
The movies have loved Abraham Lincoln and helped form his legend. He is the U.S. president who has appeared as a character in more movies and TV shows than any other, over 300 documented works. This presentation focuses on and includes images from Hollywood movies and of many famous and not-as-famous actors who have portrayed Lincoln on screen plus a nod to Mary Todd Lincoln.
What You Always Wanted to Know About Postmodern Art
Our current era of art and society is considered Postmodern. This talk will define Postmodernism and show its evolution throughout history with examples from art and architecture. Postmodernism is not necessarily the new; it is often a process of recovering popular motifs of the past. Sometimes Postmodernism is perceived as puzzling and avant garde but this talk approaches the subject in a user- friendly way that demonstrates Postmodernism as a triumph of the familiar with a sense of humor.
Roman Echoes on the National Mall: The National World War Two Memorial
The National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. is one of the most recent and popular destinations on the National Mall. Designed by the modernist architect Friedrich St. Florian, this monument’s overall design and its details are deeply rooted in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. In this lecture, Peter Schertz provides an in-depth examination of the WWII Memorial through comparison with the architecture of ancient Roman and a discussion of how Roman victory commemorations in art and architecture inform the visual vocabulary of St. Florian’s design.
“An Ornament to Empire:” The Temple of Herod as a Roman Building
The Temple of Herod in Jerusalem was one of the largest and most thoroughly documented religious sanctuaries in the Roman world. Described as an “Ornament to Empire” by its destroyer, the future emperor Titus, it is the Temple that stood in the time of Jesus. Working with archaeological evidence as well as ancient Jewish, Christian, and Polytheist literary texts, Peter Schertz explores the Second Temple in its Roman context.