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.
Archives
The Worlds of Nam June Paik and the Avant-Garde
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.
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.
Building 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.
A 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.
Scouting 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.
The 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.
The 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.
Myths, Saints, Symbols: The Use of Attributes in Art
Image, conceived and given form, is the essence of visual art. Consequently, the body of images, their formation, transmission, and transformation in and from one culture to another, and their intrinsic meaning constitutes a fundamental aspect of research in the history of art. This lecture traces the transition of symbols and attributes from Classical Antiquity through the Early Christian era when it was the task of the church to redeem the world and all humankind. The church did not hesitate to borrow from every available source in its effort to convert and redeem; the sign and symbol, particularly those most common in the realm of human experience, were given a Christian and spiritual meaning. The lecture continues with the full flowering of symbolism in the northern Renaissance and Baroque eras.
Icons: 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.