FREE LECTURES AND SYMPOSIUM TO BE PRESENTED BY THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUMS
The lectures and symposium listed below are free and open to the public. Complimentary parking is available at the Broadway Garage on Felton Street, between Cambridge Street and Broadway.
For more information, please call (617) 495-4544. To request a sign language interpreter, the public should call (617) 495-2397 using Massachusetts Telephone Relay Service 1-800-439-2370 three weeks in advance of the event.
Paintings, Poetics and Performance in South Asian Visual Culture
Saturday, September 20, 9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Arthur M. Sackler Museum lecture hall
This one-day symposium, presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gods,
Kings, and Tigers: The Art of Kotah, will address aspects of Indian
art and culture as expressed in Hindu ritual and worship, the production
and use of religious art, ancient and contemporary traditions of narrative
painting, and concepts of kingship and their representations in Indian
art. Speakers and topics include:
Diana Eck, professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Harvard University "Darshan: The Sight and Sense of Krishna"
Vidya Dehejia, curator for South and Southeast Asian Art, Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: "Once Upon A Time: Narrative in Indian Paintings"
Woodman Taylor, assistant professor, Department of Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago: "Picture Theory/Picture Practice: Agency of Paintings at Kotah"
Joseph Miller, Department of Folklore, University of Pennsylvania: "Use and Interpretation of Narrative Cloth Paintings of Rajasthan"
Norbert Peabody, Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and Holder of the Graduate Office in Research at the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, England: "The King is Dead, Long Live the King!: Karmic Kin(g)ship in Kotah"
Refiguring Abstraction
Thursdays, October 2, November 6, November 20, December 4
Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, 6:00 p.m.
In conjunction with a course devoted to issues concerning figuration and representations of the body in contemporary art, the Harvard University Art Museums and the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts will present a series of slide lectures by artists discussing their personal evolutions from abstraction or minimalism towards figural representation and references to the body in their present work. This series will continue in the spring.
Thursday, October 2 Joan Jonas
Thursday, November 6 Kiki Smith
Thursday, November 20 Bill Viola
Thursday, December 4 Joel Shapiro
M. Victor Leventritt Lectures
Image and Essence: Indian Paintings from the 16th to the 19th Century
Wednesday, October 22 and Thursday, October 23, 6:00 p.m.
Arthur M. Sackler Museum lecture hall, 485 Broadway, Cambridge
In conjunction with the exhibition Gods, Kings, and Tigers: The Art of Kotah, this series of four lectures, paired on two consecutive evenings, will examine facets of the great legacy of Indian painting from the 16th to the 19th century, revealing links between the poetic and visual traditions, and discussing continuity and change within the rich legacy of Rajput painting which reflected interactions with the Mughal courts and, later, with the British Raj. Speakers and topics include:
Kapila Vatsyayan, founding director, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi: "Paintings and Poetry in Jayadeva's Gitagovinda"
Robert Skelton, former keeper of the Indian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, England: "Painting in Rajasthan"
Milo C. Beach, director, Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: "Maharajas and the Grand Mughal: The Relationship of Rajput and Mughal Painting"
Joanna Williams, professor, History of Art, University of California, Berkeley: "Two or Three Ways of Looking at Delhi in 1842"
The M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Fund was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and greater Boston communities.
Free Day
As part of its celebration of the 50th anniversary of India's
independence, the Harvard University Art Museums will be open free-of-charge
for the entire day on Saturday, September 20, 1997.
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For general information on the Harvard University Art Museums, please call (617) 495-9400. For press information or photographs, please contact Kate McShea at (617) 495-2397. For more information on events please contact the Friends, Fellows, and Special Programs Office at (617) 495-4544. World Wide Web: www.artmuseums.harvard.edu
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The Harvard University Art Museums comprise three museums (Busch-Reisinger Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum), all located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, MA, at the intersection of Quincy Street and Broadway, adjacent to Harvard Yard. The Harvard University Art Museums are open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed holidays. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for senior citizens; $3.00 for students; free under 18 and on Saturday mornings. Harvard University Art Museums' facilities are wheelchair accessible. For special tour reservations, please call (617) 496-8576.
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During the months of July and August general tours of the Harvard University Art Museums will be offered on Wednesdays only. The Fogg tour is at 11:00 a.m.; the Sackler tour is at 12:00 p.m.; and the Busch-Reisinger tour is at 2:00 p.m.
Editors please note: Beginning on September 8, 1997 the days and times of general tours will change. General tours will be offered Monday through Friday from September through June. The Fogg tour will be at 11:00 a.m.; the Busch-Reisinger tour will be at 1:00 p.m.; and the Sackler tour will be at 2:00 p.m.
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