The color white remains a significant, yet often overlooked, color in art. White serves to highlight, delineate, enhance, and emphasize within a multitude of mediums. This visual presentation examines the invaluable use of white in a variety of works – from quilts to Rothko.
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What a Relief: How Prints are Made
Join artist and the Thomas C. Gordon Jr. Director of the VMFA Studio School Mary Holland as she shares examples of original relief prints from her extensive print collection. She will also show the step-by-step process of image design, transfer, carving the plate, inking the plate, and printing. The history of relief prints, the oldest method of the printmaking processes, will be covered. This is a great lecture/demonstration for students, artists, and people who want to learn more about how art is created.
Enrollment limit: 20
Stranger than Fiction: Great Art Heists in History
Discover what Japanese gangsters, bear spray and daring boat getaways have in common with noteworthy art thefts. In this lecture, you will travel the globe learning why museums from Amsterdam to Zimbabwe have been targets for thieves and what tools they used to elude detection. Find out who got caught…and who did not
Art Looted in the Nazi Era: An Opening Journey to Resolution
Issues of looted art and restitution, particularly of art misappropriated during the World War II era, continue to be very prevalent topics in art news coverage and remain important concerns for museums worldwide. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Karen Daly provides a historical overview of art looting in the Nazi era and the subsequent response of the museum community. Furthermore, she considers how recovery and restitution efforts have evolved to the present day including a discussion of VMFA’s experiences in resolving two art restitution claims.
Faking it – a Look at the History of Art Forgery
The motives behind forging art are simple. Art objects are often worth a great deal of money, and those who want to buy them can’t always recognize the difference between an original and an imitation. Some of the most interesting and outrageous episodes in the history of collecting art have been instigated by forgers and their victims. This lecture outlines forgery from ancient Rome until modern times. Recounted are scandals involving artists as famous as Michelangelo, and stories of forgers who bested some of the great collectors and museums of modern times.
Collecting Photography for Beginners
Photography is one of the most popular art forms today making it easy and rewarding to collect. Learn about the various formats of photography and how to source photographs for your own collection. The speaker will bring examples from his own collection to share, give you tips on how the photo market works, and discuss methods of caring and displaying photographs. Whether you spend a few dollars, or a million, there are photographs waiting to be found that can beautify your home.
Careers in Art
Identify various careers in the art world. Achieve a better understanding of a specific profession’s job duties. Learn the necessary academic paths and experience needed to earn a career of your interest. Get a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of the inner workings of a fine arts museum.
(This lecture is intended for high school and college level participants)
A Collector’s Guide to Prints
This lecture provides a brief history of the development of several widely used printmaking techniques and a detailed explanation of each process. A more thorough understanding of just how complex and difficult printmaking is allows the audience to appreciate more fully this often-underestimated form of art.
Symbols!
What do our symbols tell us? How did they evolve? Are they the same in every culture? Do they change over time? Using images from the VMFA collection, investigate symbols and signs in art ranging from Egyptian murals to 21st century installations. This presentation and its accompanying discussion generate ideas for artwork inspired by the personal symbols of participants.
Look at That! Critical Thinking + Art = Knowledge Retention
What in the world can you learn from just looking at pictures? This workshop provides resources for constructing new understandings of our cultural, social, and political history by discovering clues in works of art! After all, every work of art is a primary source from the era in which it was made. (Adaptable to a variety of subjects and grade levels.)