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March & April 2025 Public Talk Descriptions

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March Talk Descriptions

 

The Dreyfus Affair, Anti-Semitism, and Art in 19th Century Paris

In 1894 Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French army, was wrongly accused of passing military secrets to the Germans. He was convicted of high treason, court-martialed, and deported to solitary confinement on Devil’s Island. France was split into a fierce anti-Semitic, pro-military right-wing camp and a republican, liberal, left-wing camp. Shockwaves were felt in the circle of Parisian artists as well. The full story of this important, oft-neglected part of art history will be told in two illuminating parts. Part I (March 4) will discuss the Dreyfus Affair in detail, including what led up to virulent anti-Semitism in France during the latter part of the 19th Century and the role art and artist-activists played. In Part II (March 18) we will see how the circle of Parisian artists responded during the Dreyfus Affair and how their political views affected their art and their friendships. 

 

Georgia O’Keeffe: Speaking with Color and Shapes

Georgia O’Keeffe, one of the most important and fascinating artists of the Twentieth Century, has given us astonishing abstract images, radical depictions of giant flowers, dramatic cityscapes, glowing landscapes, and haunting representations of bones against the stark desert sky. This talk will examine how her strikingly inventive works conveyed a spirit of independence, adventure, and passion. Join us to learn why Georgia O’Keeffe and her works have become an indelible part of the mythology and iconography of the American artistic landscape.

 

Three Visionary Women / Three Great Art Museums

What does a woman do when she is born to great privilege, has enormous wealth, loves to travel to faraway places, and has a healthy dose of intellectual curiosity? Well, she collects art of course! And then she must envision a place to exhibit her treasures so that the world can appreciate her passion. This talk will examine the lives of three remarkable women who defied society’s expectations: Isabella Stewart Gardner, Helene Kröller-Müller, and Peggy Guggenheim. We will trace the steps each took to amass three of the most important collections of art in the world. And we will see some amazing paintings, too! Come along on the journey as we celebrate Women’s History Month.

 

 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:

    Painter & Printmaker of the Parisian Demi-Monde

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a post-Impressionist painter, printmaker, and illustrator who immersed himself in the colorful and sometimes decadent world of Paris’s circuses, theaters, cabarets, and brothels. Because he was an aristocrat born with a rare physical condition, he was more accepted by this cohort of outsiders than by the society of his peers. He recorded his experiences in enticing, elegant, and provocative images, which we will explore as we learn about his brief, extraordinary life.

 

Andy Warhol: One Singular Sensation

Few American artists are as celebrated and notorious as Andy Warhol. His iconic paintings, silk screens, photography, films, and sculptures have become indelible representations of the American aesthetic, exploring the relationship between artistic expression and celebrity culture. This presentation will examine Warhol’s life and art from his beginnings as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, to his iconic Pop masterpieces of the early 1960s, to the avant-garde films from the 1960s and '70s, to his innovative use of readymade abstractions in the 1980s.

 

Paul Cézanne: Father of Modern Art

Paul Cézanne worked alongside the Impressionists, but he was mostly interested in investigating the form, color and structure of objects and how they related to each other in a painting. He was a stubborn, cantankerous outsider who refused to conform to anyone else’s vision but his own. This talk will examine Cézanne’s life, his groundbreaking works, the important friendships and collaborations he had with other artists and will show how he paved the way for 20th Century Modernism.

 

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

John Singer Sargent was an American artist who spent most of his life in Europe. He painted two United States Presidents, the aristocracy of Europe, the uber-wealthy of America, and mythological heroes. But he also painted gypsies, tramps, street children, hard-working laborers, and the horrors of war. And he created dazzling landscapes—a visual chronicle of the places he visited. This talk requires two parts to adequately convey the breadth and depth of Sargent’s prodigious and masterful output. It will prepare you well to enjoy the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s blockbuster Sargent exhibition, opening on April 27.

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Marc Chagall: Painting Poetry

Marc Chagall lived a long and fruitful life, producing paintings, etchings, book illustrations, stained-glass windows, ceramics, tapestries, and stage sets and costumes—all infused with poetry. His works have a lyrical, emotional resonance informed by his love of humanity. Chagall does not belong to one art movement or style but incorporates elements of cubism, fauvism, symbolism, surrealism, and futurism into his work.  He was a pioneer of modernism, born in a shtetl, leaving us a rich legacy of unforgettable images.  

 

Florine Stettheimer: Icon of Jazz Age New York

One of New York’s most unconventional painters, Florine Stettheimer was a keen and opinionated observer of the people and rapidly changing world around her. Her famous salon, attended by New York’s avant-garde during the 1920s through the early ’40s, was legendary. She prophetically chose to portray subjects considered controversial even today, such as race, sexual orientation, gender, and religion. Come and hear about the unique life of this German-Jewish artist and see some of her most celebrated works. It is time to recognize Florine Stettheimer as one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, whose work remains as modern and relevant today as it was a century ago.

 

Documentary film: The Spoils

The ongoing dilemmas around the reclamation, ownership, and exhibition of art looted by the Nazis during WWII are the focus of Canadian filmmaker Jamie Kastner’s absorbing documentary. At the center of the film is the case of Max Stern, a German Jewish art dealer who escaped to Canada in 1937 after he was forced by the Nazis to liquidate his gallery. In Montreal, Stern became a successful collector, dealer, and gallerist renowned for his generosity. Kastner’s film shows how a series of failed attempts by the city of Düsseldorf to honor Stern opens up many issues around the restitution of Nazi-looted art. Filmed across four years, featuring contemporary and archival footage, The Spoils marks the urgency of this moment in the art world, which will have lasting historical consequences for the future as many try to right the wrongs of the past.

 

Holocaust Art: This Happened

After the end of World War II, writers and philosophers maintained that the Nazi death camps defied representation; no art could ever do justice to the barbarity. Yet survivors have forced themselves to try to make sense of the horrors they endured— in literature, in music, and in visual art. And now, as Auschwitz recedes into the historical distance and the last survivors disappear, the world cannot afford to forget the legacy these artists have left. This presentation will examine the remarkable work of several painters, some who survived and some who did not.

                                                                

                                                            Jaune Quick-to-See Smith:

                                      The Sacred and the Profane, the Divine and the Witty

Born in 1940, and raised on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s work addresses the myths of her ancestors in the context of current issues facing Native Americans. Her inspiration also stems from the work of Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Robert Rauschenberg. She uses paint, collage, and found objects to produce both representational and abstract images. Smith has had more than eighty solo exhibits over the past thirty years, organized and curated scores of Native exhibitions, and lectured at almost 200 universities, museums, and conferences.  Jaune Quick-to-See Smith creates a unique, intimate, and insightful visual language grounded in themes of personal and political identity. This presentation is timely; Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith passed away in January of 2024 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

 

Frida Kahlo: Dreams, Demons, and Devotion

Frida Kahlo’s paintings illustrate the anguish and passion of a fascinating, complicated personal and artistic life. The astonishing works of this Mexican and feminist icon will be looked at through the lens of her ethnicity, disabilities, and political activism, especially emphasizing her engagement with the natural world. 

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April 2025 Public Talk Descriptions

 

Who are The Nabis, and Why Don’t I Know These Amazing Artists?

The Nabis, whose name means prophet in Hebrew, were a group of artists whose spiritual, emotional and aesthetic inspiration came from Paul Gauguin and the Symbolist poets. They had one foot in the 19th Century and one foot in the 20th. Although they are not as famous as the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, the work of Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, Vallotton, and their compatriots was just as innovative and original. Come explore what stirred The Nabis to create works with expressive and transcendent connections to the divine in nature.

 

Frida Kahlo: Dreams, Demons, and Devotion

Frida Kahlo’s paintings illustrate the anguish and passion of a fascinating, complicated personal and artistic life. The astonishing works of this Mexican and feminist icon will be looked at through the lens of her ethnicity, disabilities, and political activism, especially emphasizing her engagement with the natural world. 

 

Claude Monet: Obsessed with the Natural World

Indisputably, Claude Monet is one of the most recognizable and celebrated figures in art history. Everyone loves his beautiful landscapes, colorful and dynamic depictions of modern life, and monumental garden scenes. This talk will tell you all about how this revered figure went from being an impoverished, rejected outsider to becoming a ground-breaking icon of Modernism.

 

Johannes Vermeer: The Sphinx of Delft

The Seventeenth Century in Holland witnessed extraordinary innovation in science, commerce and artistic expression, and Johannes Vermeer was arguably one of the most significant painters of this Dutch Golden Age. This talk will illustrate the life of beloved painter Johannes Vermeer through examination of some of his most important and iconic works.

 

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.