FALL 1997 SEMINAR SERIES AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS SCHEDULE

For Immediate Release August 14, 1997

James Cuno, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director, and Art Museums' curators, conservators, and curatorial interns, are pleased to present this extensive calendar of public seminars and special programs. Aside from the participation of a number of Art Museums' staff members who will draw upon original works in the collections, several contemporary photographers will participate in an artist panel and conversational seminars in conjunction with the exhibition About Face: Artists' Portraits in Photography. All programs require a fee and most require advance registration; see each program for details. Discounts are available for Friend members of the Art Museums. For more information on how to become a Friend, please call (617) 495-4544.

Light Conversation: Seminars with Contemporary Photographers
Mondays, September 22, October 20, November 10, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; Lunch 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Agnes Mongan Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Fogg Art Museum
$100 for seminars and lunches; $60 for seminars only; advance registration is required, please call (617) 495-4544.

In celebration of the Fogg Art Museum's thirty-year commitment to contemporary photography through exhibitions, acquisitions, and programming, these seminars are conceived as a means of bringing studio visits into the museum. Each seminar will provide a lively forum in which an artist will discuss his or her own work with a small group. Following each session, participants are invited to join the artist for a light lunch and continued discussion in the Naumburg Room.

September 22 Abelardo Morell

October 20 Barbara Norfleet

November 10 David Levinthal 

Joseph Beuys and His Contemporaries

Monday, September 22, Tuesday, September 23, Wednesday, September 24, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Busch-Reisinger Museum

$75; advance registration is required, call (617) 495-4544.

With Peter Nisbet, Daimler-Benz Curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum

The Busch-Reisinger Museum now holds the world's most comprehensive collection of the multiples of Joseph Beuys. This three-part seminar will use the exhibition In/Tuition: A Seminar's Engagement with Joseph Beuys as the occasion to explore key themes in the artist's work. The seminars will focus less on the biography or the myth of the artist and more on the status of his objects and the modes of perception adequate to their complexity. Studying a wide variety of original works, both in the exhibition and in the Busch-Reisinger's study room, participants will have the opportunity to experience Beuys' radically diverse and still changing oeuvre. Comparisons with the work of some of Beuys' contemporaries will provide better understanding of the historicity and specificity of his achievements.

The Self Reflected: An Artist Panel on the Self-Portrait in Photography

Wednesday, October 8, 5:30-8:00 p.m.
Fogg Art Museum

$15; advance registration is required, call (617) 495-4544

In conjunction with the exhibition About Face: Artists' Portraits in Photography, a panel of artists including Judith Black, Elsa Dorfman, Nicholas Nixon, and Gary Schneider will discuss the breadth and meaning of self-portraiture in contemporary photography. This evening's event, which will be moderated by Deborah Martin Kao, Charles C. Cunningham, Sr. Associate Curator of Photographs, will include a reception with the artists and a private viewing of the exhibition.

Confronting Bernini

Wednesdays, October 8, 15, 22
Straus Center for Conservation, Fogg Art Museum 10:00-11:30 a.m.

$100; advance registration is required, call (617) 495-4544

With Ivan Gaskell, Margaret S. Winthrop Curator and Colette Czapski, Andrew W. Mellon Intern, Department of Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts. Henry Lie, Director of the Straus Center for Conservation, will also conduct the session on October 15.

1998 marks the quartercentenary of the birth of the greatest sculptor and architect of the Italian Baroque, Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). Among the various celebrations throughout Europe and America, the Fogg Art Museum will present an installation of its 29 clay sculptural sketches by the artist and his associates, the largest such group in existence. Participants in this seminar will enjoy an intimate encounter with a selection of these extraordinary works prior to their public display. The making and function of these sketches in terracotta will be discussed by Harvard University Art Museum scholars who are currently conducting a major collaborative research project. The three sessions will comprise a general introduction to Bernini's sketches in relation to museum issues, a consideration of the use of the clay sketch as part of a complex project (using the Ponte Sant' Angelo in Rome as a case study), an introduction to the detailed examination and technical analysis of the clay sketches, and a discussion of Bernini's work in Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Images of Alexander the Great

Thursdays, October 16, 30, November 6, 13, 20, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Arthur M. Sackler Museum

$100; advance registration is required, call (617) 495-4544.

With David Gordon Mitten, Curator of Ancient Art and James Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology

Alexander the Great was perhaps the most influential secular leader the world has ever known. Drawing upon original works in the Sackler collections, this series of seminars will examine the great conquerer himself, the Greek world that produced him, his influence on the vast lands he conquered from Thrace to India, and the legends that have gathered around his name, his personality, and his exploits from his time to ours, in Asian cultures as well as in the west. The seminars will also address how modern scholars continue to find in Alexander an advocate for their preconceptions and biases.

Representing the Body: The Figure in European Art from Dürer to Cubism

Mondays, October 27, November 3, 17, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Fogg Art Museum

$75; advance registration is required, call (617) 495-4544.

With Marjorie B. Cohn, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, William Robinson, Ian Woodner Curator of Drawings, and James Cuno, Elizabeth and James Moor Cabot Director

Through the examination of original works in the Fogg collections, these seminars will address the use of prints and drawings for the dissemination of information about the body-its anatomy, proportions, and kinetics-from the 15th through the 18th century, considering the role of the workshop and the art academy in codifying the representation of the figure, and the meaning of the body in paintings of the modern era, from the 19th to the early 20th century. Artists to be considered include Dürer, Rembrandt, Poussin, Tiepolo, Ingres, Géricault, Menzel, Degas, Cézanne, and Picasso. Relatively unknown printmakers and draughtsmen who formed the 'service industry,' providing models for emulation when the live model was unavailable or insufficient, will also be considered.

The Art of the Oriental Carpet

Saturday, November 15
Arthur M. Sackler and Fogg Art Museums, 10:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. (lunch included)

$100; advance registration is required, call (617) 495-4544.

With Walter Denny, Honorary Curator of Carpets and Textiles

This one-day seminar will examine the history and the social context of carpets as an art form in both the East and the West. A morning slide lecture will focus on the making of carpets in the Middle East and their collection and incorporation into the artistic traditions of Europe. In the afternoon session, Professor Denny will discuss the techniques and the functions of carpets, drawing upon actual examples from the collections of the Harvard University Art Museums. Lunch will be provided in the Naumburg Room between the morning and afternoon sessions.

The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

Tuesday, November 18, 6:00 p.m.
Arthur M. Sackler Museum

$25 at the door only

Neil Levine, Emmet Blakeney Gleason Professor of Fine Arts, will present this lecture to benefit the John Coolidge Educational Fund. A reception will follow the lecture.

Cosponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians, New England Chapter.

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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. 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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