Lectures on American Art

Seen and Not Heard: Kerry James Marshall

November 21, 2012

Kerry James Marshall's Sob Sob Kerry James Marshall, whose work Sob Sob is on view in the museum's Lincoln Gallery on the third floor, chronicles the African American experience in his paintings. These themes include issues of race, identity, and...

Art Critic Adam Gopnik on What Makes American Art American

October 25, 2012

Taking a stab at what defines American art, Adam Gopnik, art critic at The New Yorker, spoke to a standing-room only crowd at the museum's McEvoy Auditorium, as the second (of three) speakers in this year's Clarice Smith Distinguished Lecture...

Edward Hopper: Mapping the Light

September 28, 2012

Edward Hopper's Ryder's House "Is there anything left to be said about Edward Hopper? Poet of light, documentarian of alienation, isolation, angst, stasis, human disconnection and impotence?" art historian Kevin Salatino asked at the start of his talk, Edward Hopper...

Nam June Paik: Birthdays Are Always Fun

July 5, 2012

Museum visitors looking at Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii July 20 would have been Nam June Paik's 80th birthday. To celebrate last year we enjoyed a cake inspired by Paik's work Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska,...

Getting Below the Surface: On American Painters and Their Paints

March 28, 2012

John Singleton Copley's Mrs. George Watson Somewhere between the letters PhD and CSI lives the amazing work of painting conservators. Part researcher and part detective, they study paintings with state-of-the-art tools that help them see through layers of paint and...