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September Public Talk Descriptions​​​​​​​

 

Vincent van Gogh: Color, Passion, and Pain

Throughout his life, Vincent van Gogh was poor, often hungry and ill.  When he died at 37 virtually unknown, it seemed that his work would be forgotten. All that has changed, and Vincent is now perhaps the most famous painter of all. The blockbuster exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers at the National Gallery of Art in London is on view now, as is a Van Gogh -themed exhibition at the NY Botanical Gardens. So this seems to be a good time to take a look at Vincent’s life through his colorful, bold and passionate paintings. Although his works were created many years ago, Vincent’s remarkable images capture the world in a modern and exciting way.

 

Winslow Homer: American Vision, Close to Nature

Winslow Homer’s illustrations, watercolors, and oil paintings are among the most powerful and expressive of late 19th-century American art. He depicted happy scenes of fashionable ladies promenading along the seashore and children frolicking in a meadow after school. But he also gave us disquieting images of isolation and danger. His marine paintings illustrating the untamed, elemental forces of nature are some of the most intense and affecting images he created. This talk will acquaint you with this extraordinary American artist and many of his astonishing works.  

 

John Singer Sargent: Romance, Drama, and the Visual World

John Singer Sargent was an American artist of great renown, who spent most of his life in Europe. This talk will feature many works from Sargent’s early career—portraits that depicted the avatars of modern culture, images of everyday people, and dazzling landscapes that provide a visual chronicle of the places he visited for inspiration. The presentation will begin with paintings that the precocious 18-year-old art student created when he arrived in Paris in 1874 and will continue through the mid-1880s, when his infamous portrait Madame X was a scandalous success at the Paris Salon.

 

Pablo Picasso: Painter, Sculptor, Poet

This presentation introduces the life and art of Pablo Picasso, a towering figure who changed the course of modern art. From his childhood in Spain to his rise as a young prodigy in Paris, we’ll follow Picasso’s remarkable journey through the Blue and Rose periods, the invention of Cubism, and his bold experiments in painting, sculpture, and ceramics. We will discover how Picasso continually reinvented his art, challenging conventions and producing work that continues to inspire and provoke art lovers today.

 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Painting the Joys of Life

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's philosophy can be summed up in this quote: "A picture must be an amiable thing, joyous and pretty-- yes, pretty!  There are enough troublesome things in life without inventing others." Renoir's joie de vivre made him one of the most beloved Impressionist painters, although he harbored a dark side to his veneer of amiability. This talk will examine his long and productive life with all its contradictions and survey his voluptuous nudes, luxurious flowers, pretty children, bustling Parisian streets, and sunny outdoor scenes that are full of people and fun.

 

Diego Rivera: Mexican Murals and Much More

Born in 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico, Diego Rivera was of Spanish, Amerindian, African, Italian, Jewish, Russian, and Portuguese descent. An avant-garde easel painter, his works are in museums around the world. But his most celebrated achievements are his murals. He stands out as one of the giants of Mexican Muralism, a state-sponsored movement aimed at celebrating the nation’s history, indigenous culture, and post-Revolutionary ideals. Besides decorating government buildings in Mexico, Rivera’s monumental murals are found in museums in Detroit and San Francisco. However, in popular culture today, he is famous for being the husband of Frida Kahlo!