In this discussion of late 20th- through 21st-century African American art from the VMFA’s permanent collection, learn what it means to view art and how can we discover new things when properly looking at a work of art. Our discussion begins with simply looking. Then we will explore influences, such as race, gender, or context, as well as technique and subject matter in the work of Kehinde Wiley, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, Allison Saar, Renée Stout, and Robert Pruitt.
Archives
The African American Art at VMFA
Expand your knowledge of African American culture by examining art in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ collection. This lecture will observe many works by artists who deal with African American life and history as well as art that ranges in time period, style, and subject matter. Gain an understanding of and appreciation for the discipline of African American art.
Mirage on the Sahara? Timbuktu and Mali, Yesterday and Today
Often thought of as a “verbal mirage” meaning the farthest place imaginable, Timbuktu was essential to the economy of broad stretches of West Africa for many centuries as well as a noted center of learning where books and manuscripts were valued as much as gold. Today, the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been thrust into a dramatically pivotal role in Mali’s sudden struggle with democracy and partition. This talk will survey the stunning history of art and culture in Mali and Timbuktu from the earliest times to today.
A Horse of Course: The Equine Image in Art
A Horse of Course explores the numerous ways in which the horse has inspired artists throughout the ages. No animal has been more important to us, or figured more prominently in our art, than the horse. This exhibition is a testament to the magnificence of the horse throughout history and its changing image over time. A wide variety of artists are represented, ranging from George Stubbs, to Edgar Degas, to Deborah Butterfield. The twelve photographic reproductions are selected from the permanent collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. While this exhibition is perfect for K – 12 students, anyone interested in horses or art history will find the diversity of works fascinating.
While in modern times the utilitarian context of the horse has faded with the emergence of the automobile, the equine image has not lost its ability to inspire. However, artistic depictions of the horse today are drastically different from what they were in the past. Contemporary artists, like Deborah Butterfield, have made horse sculptures out of media never used in traditional representations. This evolution in artistic renderings reflects the ever-present, albeit changing, role of a beautiful and captivating animal.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a variety of exhibitions available for statewide travel. This exhibition is supported by the Paul Mellon Fund.
LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Code Number: GA-102
Framed Size: 16″ x 20″
Running Feet: 19.5′
Boxed Weight: 70 lbs.
To supplement the exhibition, we recommend the following related resources available through the Statewide Program. For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop, or media resource, phone 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.
Curator Talk with Jeffrey W. Allison
Artist Workshops:
Exploring Paul Mellon Collection: I Spy Through Edgar Degas’s Eye with Donna Drozda
Exploring Paul Mellon Collection: I Spy Through Herbert Haseltine’s Eye with Donna Drozda
Exploring Paul Mellon Collection: I Spy Through George Catlin’s Eye with Donna Drozda
Speakers:
Equestrian Excellence: The Art of George Stubbs with Jeffrey W. Allison
The Hierarchy of the Hunt: 18th Century British Sporting Art with Jeffrey W. Allison
Transforming Images: Degas’s Debt to Photography with Jeffrey W. Allison
The World of George Catlin with Jeffrey W. Allison
Teacher Workshop:
Horse of Course: The Equine Image in Art
MEDIA RESOURCES
DVDs:
Ancient Civilizations for Children #s 4 and 5
Deborah Butterfield: Dialogue with the Artist
Degas and the Dance
The Impressionists #2
The Mystery of Picasso
Paul Mellon: In His Own Words
Picasso: The Man and His Work
This Sporting Life: British Art from the Collection of Paul Mellon
VHS Cassettes:
100 Greatest Paintings, pts. 5, 9 and 14
An African Perspective: African Art
Africa’s Enduring Art: Now and Then
American Visions #5
Ancient Civilizations #4
Arts of the East: China, Japan, India, Tibet
The Atlantic Coast of Winslow Homer
The Cubist Epoch
Degas: Beyond Impressionism
Edgar Degas: The Unquiet Spirit
A First Look at Farm Animals
Frontier Visionary: George Catlin
George Stubbs
The Horse Sculptures of Deborah Butterfield
Jewel in the Himalayas
Legacy: Origins of Civilization #s 2 and 4
Lost Civilizations #6
Montparnasse #s 1 and 2
Meishu: Travels in Chinese Art #s 1 and 2
New Ways of Seeing
Picasso is 90
Picasso’s Guernica
Reconstruction of Space
The Romantic Rebellion: Romantic versus Classic Art #13
Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting #5
The Taj Mahal
Two White Horses
Winslow Homer: The Nature of the Artist
The World Began at Ile-Ife: Meaning and Function in Art
Yoruba Performance
Yoruba Ritual
CD-ROMs:
Animals in Art #s 1 and 2
American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
What IS American Art? Is it an 18th century portrait that captures the pride of a citizen in the newly formed United States? Is it a magnificent landscape that presents a stunning vista of the American West? Perhaps it is a lavish still life that flaunts the wealth of the Gilded Age, or an abstract composition that challenges the eye to dance with it across the canvas.
American art is all of this and much more: a rich and varied visual expression of America’s history and the people and ideas that shaped it. The works represented in American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are just a small sampling of the museum’s collection of our nation’s creative heritage. A close and careful look may reveal aspects of the American Experience that will surprise you.
This educational exhibition presents a wide variety of American artists ranging from Charles Willson Peale to Eastman Johnson to Mary Cassatt to Georgia O’Keeffe to Stuart Davis. The works are selected from the permanent collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The twelve photographic reproductions plus text panel and wall labels are easy to hang. While this exhibition is perfect for K-12 students, anyone interested in art history and United States history will find the diversity of works fascinating.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a variety of exhibitions available for statewide travel. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources, please phone 804.204.2681.
LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Code Number: GA-107
Panel sizes: Varies up to 16″ X 20″
Running Feet: 21′
Boxed weight: 60 lbs.
MEDIA RESOURCES
DVDs:
Against the Odds
American Time Capsule & The Sixties
Andrew Wyeth Self-Portrait: Snow Hill
Andy Warhol: The Complete Picture
Ansel Adams
Art of Romare Bearden
Betye and Alison Saar: Conjure Women of the Arts
Chuck Close: Portrait in Progress
Chuck Close: Close Up
Ed Ruscha: Four Decades
Edward Hopper
Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments
Faith Ringgold: The Last Story Quilt
Faith Ringgold Paints Crown Heights
George Caleb Bingham
Horace Pippin: There Will Be Peace
Jacob Lawrence: The Glory of Expression
Kiki Smith: Squatting the Palace
Life and Art of William H. Johnson
Mary Cassatt: A Brush with Independence
The Natural Palette: The Hudson River Artists and the Land
Painters Painting
Red Grooms: Sculptopicturamatist
Romare Bearden: Visual Jazz
Rothko: An Abstract Humanist
Roy Lichtenstein: Reflections
Sol Lewitt: Four Decades
Thomas Eakins: Scenes from Modern Life
Wayne Thiebaud: Line
VHS Cassettes:
American Visions series
Ben Shahn: A Passion for Justice
George Segal: American Still Life
The Hudson River and its Painters
John Singer Sargent
The Landscapes of Frederick Edwin Church
Norman Rockwell
Thomas Hart Benton’s Missouri
Educator Resource Kits:
Art by African-American Artists: Selections from the Twentieth-Century
20th Century Art
A New Mosaic: African American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
This exhibition features high-quality photographic reproductions of works by African American artists spanning nearly 200 years, from the 19th century through today. Encounter striking landscapes in the style of the Hudson River School, cityscapes integrating the mode of French Fauvism, the craftsmanship of a 19th-century professional furniture maker, and the contemporary integration of Japanese ukiyo-estyle prints with the symbolism of present-day urban American life. The exhibition showcases the great diversity in style, media, and subject matter of African American art.
The artworks in A New Mosaic were chosen from the VMFA collection providing an opportunity to see art by regional artists that have been in the collection for decades along with more recently acquired pieces by internationally celebrated figures. A New Mosaic demonstrates the growth of the museum’s collection of African American art from the first acquisition in the 1940s to almost the present day. While this exhibition is SOL-based and perfect for K – 12 students, anyone interested in art will enjoy the selection of works.
The eleven artists represented are Edward Mitchell Bannister, Leslie Bolling, iona rozeal brown, Thomas Day, Beauford Delaney, Robert S. Duncanson, George H. Ben Johnson, Julie Mehretu, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Charles White, and Kehinde Wiley.
A New Mosaic is one of a variety of educational exhibitions available for statewide travel through the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. For details call 804.204.2681 or e-mail edpartner@vmfa.museum.
LIMITED Security
Suggested Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Catalog Number: GA-113
Piece Size: 16″ x 20″
Running Feet: 18.3′
Boxed Weight: 80 lbs.
Educational Guide
Two levels of a teacher educational guide accompany A New Mosaic in pdf form: one is designed for grades K – 5 and the other for 6 – 12. Each guide includes lesson plans, vocabulary, pronunciation guide, curriculum connections, audio tour script, and additional background information. The borrower will be sent an attachment to access these guides. Wall labels are also in pdf form, which will be sent to the borrower via email for printing.
Related Resources
To supplement the exhibition, VMFA recommends the following related resources available through the Statewide Partnership Program. For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop, or media resource, call 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.
Performing Arts
World Beat Workshop
Robert Jospé, Drummer, Percussionist, and Composer, and Kevin Davis, Percussionist
Inner Rhythm
Robert Jospé, Drummer, Percussionist, and Composer
Inner Rhythm Educational Program
Robert Jospé, Drummer, Percussionist, and Composer
Michael Jefry Stevens and Friends: What is Jazz?
Michael Jefry Stevens, Jazz Composer and Pianist
Artist Workshops
Abstract Watercolor Exploration
Dawn Flores, Artist
Drawing on the Self
Dawn Flores, Artist
Oil Painting Basics
Marjorie Perrin, Artist and Educator
Landscape Painting
Marjorie Perrin, Artist and Educator
Speakers on the Arts
African American Art at VMFA
Karen Getty, Tour Services Coordinator, VMFA
Civil War to Civil Rights: How African American Artists Engage the Past
Evie Terrono, Associate Professor of Art History, Randolph-Macon College
Media Resources: DVDs
The Art of Romare Bearden
Betye and Alison Saar: Conjure Women of the Arts
Elizabeth Catlett: Sculpting the Truth
Faith Ringgold: The Last Story Quilt
The Highwaymen: Florida’s Outsider Artists
Horace Pippin: There Will Be Peace
I Can Fly: Kids and African American Art
Jacob Lawrence: The Glory of Expression
The Life and Art of William H. Johnson
What Color is Black … African American Art and The David C. Driskell Collection
Architecture in Virginia: The Old Dominion
Virginia emerged from the American Revolution battle-scarred and debt-ridden. Tidewater planters could no longer afford to construct many fine buildings, as they had done in the decades before. Population and power began to shift toward the central and western areas of the state, a movement symbolized by the transfer of Virginia’s capital inland, from Williamsburg to Richmond, in 1780.
Even before the Revolution, Thomas Jefferson had begun an elegant plantation house on his estate at Monticello in Albemarle County, inspired by architectural designs from Italian and English books in his vast reference library. In 1785, Jefferson was asked to design a capital building for Virginia’s new center of government in Richmond. His design, based on the famous Maison Carrée, a Roman temple in France, inaugurated the Roman Neoclassical style in America.
Alongside this monumental, Roman-inspired architecture, many Virginia structures of the late 18th century were built in the simpler Federal style. By the 1820s, however, the stately Neoclassical style was favored for most important houses and public buildings. European archaeologists and writers had created a taste for the styles of ancient Greece, and so a Greek Revival grew alongside the Roman style favored by Jefferson. This exhibition presents photographs and descriptions of 24 significant examples of Virginia architecture, built primarily between 1780 and 1861. The text is based on Architecture in Virginia, a popular guidebook by Virginia architectural historian William B. O’Neal.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a variety of exhibitions available for statewide travel. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources, please phone 804.204.2681.
LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Code Number: AF-12
Framed Size: 18″ x 22″
Running Feet: 43′
Boxed Weight: #1, 118 pounds; #2, 113 pounds
To supplement the exhibition, we recommend the following related resources available through the Statewide Program. For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop or media resource, call 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.
MEDIA RESOURCES
VHS Cassettes:
New World Visions II
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
I Am: Identity in African Art at VMFA
What can the visual arts tell us about an individual or community? This exhibition explores the concept of identity in traditional African art and culture by focusing on objects that speak to various roles and personal status within a society. Featuring twelve high-quality photographic reproductions of objects in VMFA’s African collection, this display exposes the union between art and life in Africa.
The images chosen for this exhibition vary in medium, size, function, geographic region, and cultural group, demonstrating the diversity that exists on the vast continent of Africa. “I Am: Identity in African Art” characterizes the expanse of VMFA’s African collection, which spans 2,000 years and represents over 100 different cultures.
This exhibition is well suited for a wide variety of audiences including K-12 students. Students and adults alike will benefit from exploring the exhibition’s objects and themes, which speak to the joys and struggles of daily life. Viewers will encounter works that deal with agriculture, environment, leadership, spirituality, and important life stages.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a variety of exhibitions available for statewide travel. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources, please phone 804.204.2681.
LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Code Number: GA-114
Framed Size: 16″ x 20″
Approx Running Feet: 19
Approx Boxed Weight: 70 lbs.
Jamestown and Beyond: The World of 1607
This fascinating educational exhibition examines how the new colony in Virginia fit into the cultural, historical, and geographical context of the day — and how the story of Jamestown has continued to inspire American artists. Twelve reproductions of images from VMFA’s collection combine with explanatory text and an introductory panel to illustrate the connections between the struggling colony and the world of 1607.
At the dawn of the 17th century, exchanges of plants and animals were changing the diet of both of the world’s hemispheres. New diseases and technologies were crossing the Atlantic. Political and religious ideas and concepts were transforming societies. Economic fluctuations had worldwide effects, vast populations were relocated, and the first truly international wars were fought. These critical developments are accentuated through images as diverse as a glittering Spanish ewer and basin, portraits of Sir Thomas Dale and Queen Anne of Denmark, and the haunting image of Mount Fuji rising above the Musashino plain.
This Virginia SOL-related exhibition also reveals how the legacy of Jamestown has continued to affect art and culture in the last four hundred years through paintings by John Gadsby Chapman, Richard Norris Brooke, Thomas Hart Benton, and a sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Jamestown and Beyond: The World of 1607 is one of many Educational Exhibitions organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for statewide travel and is supported by Jamestown 2007. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources, phone 804.204.2681.
LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Code Number: GA-100
Framed Size: 22″ x 30″
Running Feet: 30′
Boxed Weight: 90 lbs.
For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop or media resource, call 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.
Looking Toward an Inner Light: Portraits from the Paul Mellon Collection
Portraits reveal much about the history and culture of the people portrayed. They can tell us who they were, how they lived, and what they thought about themselves. This exhibition focuses on the work of eleven 19th-century French painters who worked during the first era in which photography was used as a portrait medium. The twelve photographic reproductions of paintings from the VMFA Mellon Collection offer the viewer an opportunity to explore the ways in which these artists broke with tradition by depicting real people as they existed in the contemporary world.
From Gustave Courbet’s robust, realistic painting of Gustave Chaudey, Impressionist portraits by Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot, to Paul Cézanne’s emotionally intense portrait of Victor Chocquet and Picasso’s Jester on Horsebackfrom his Rose Period, these artists created images of real people filtered through their unique artistic styles. While this exhibition is SOL-based and perfect for K-12 students, anyone interested in 19th-century French portraiture will find this colorful range of works fascinating.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a variety of exhibitions available for statewide travel. For additional information on VMFA and its statewide resources call 804.204.2681.
LIMITED Security
Loan Period: 4 to 6 Weeks
Fee: Free
Code Number: GA-112
Size of panels: Varying up to 16” X 20”
Running Feet: Approx.20′
Boxed weight: 60 lbs.
To supplement the exhibition, we recommend the following related resources available through the Statewide Program. For more information or to schedule a speaker, workshop or media resource, call 804.204.2681or email edpartner@vmfa.museum.
MEDIA RESOURCES
DVDs:
Claude Monet
Courbet
Degas
Degas and the Dance
Edgar Degas
From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism
Impressionist Paintings
The Impressionist Surface
Little Dancer Aged 14
Monet
The Mystery of Picasso
Paris 1900
Paul Cezanne
Picasso: The Man and His Work Pts. 1&2
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Portrait Drawing
Portraits: People
Renoir
13 Beautiful People: Filmed Portraits by Andy Warhol
VHS Cassettes:
Degas: Beyond Impressionism
Impression: Painting Quickly
Impressionists on the Seine
What is Impressionism?