Archived Lectures. Some no longer available. Please visit the Statewide Faculty page for up-to-date listings.
VMFA Speakers on the Arts lectures are an excellent complement to programming at partner sites. They can also introduce new areas of art to Partner audiences and enhance community events and celebrations. A wide selection of topics and speakers is available for VMFA Statewide Partners. See Booking Speakers on the Arts for information about requesting a lecture.
Briefly explore the life and reign of one of Rome’s most notorious emperors, Caligula! This talk will focus on new insights gleaned from a recent international symposium and research conducted on ancient coloration and the sculptural technique of a 1st-century sculpture of Caligula in the VMFA collection.
Available Feb 2013 – Jul 2014
Request ProgramFew artists are as closely associated with the American West as Frederic Remington (1861 – 1909). Best known for his illustrations, bronze sculptures, and paintings of cowboys, he also found a favorite subject in U.S. Cavalrymen, especially the hard-riding soldiers of the 9th and 10th Regiments, known also as Buffalo Soldiers. This lecture explores Remington’s images of these renowned African American regiments and, in particular, his striking canvas, The Pursuit (1896 – 98) in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ collection.
Request ProgramThis lecture explores the different ways American painters — from New York-based Winslow Homer to Richmond-based William D. Washington — responded to the divisive violence and moral discord of this country’s Civil War. It also addresses their career shifts in the immediate aftermath of war as its lingering effects led to different kinds of reconstruction.
Request ProgramExperience the culture, art, and fashion of this sumptuous era as you take a journey on both sides of the Atlantic — from the castles and manors of landed lords in England to the estates and mansions of wealthy tycoons in America — to see how the “other half” lived.
Request ProgramHenry Brown escaped from slavery by shipping himself in a box from Richmond to Philadelphia. This bold feat was only the first act of a remarkable career. “Resurrected” from the box as Henry Box Brown, he appeared at antislavery meetings as a singer and speaker. In 1850, Brown produced a moving panorama, a kind of giant painted scroll presented in a theater, called Mirror of Slavery and toured it around New England and then across the Atlantic. Trace this remarkable journey with Jeffrey Ruggles, former Curator of Prints and Photographs, Virginia Historical Society, and author of The Unboxing of Henry Brown, Library of Virginia, 2003.
Request ProgramTravel down the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road on a cultural heritage discovery trip through Southwest Virginia & Northeast Tennessee. During this illustrated PowerPoint lecture, encounter the friendly country forms of pie safes and crazy quilts, colorful pottery decorated with dabs, splashes or cobalt blue flowers, high-style furniture made by a Philadelphia-trained cabinetmaker and beautiful wool…
Request ProgramThe photographer Walker Evans and painter Edward Hopper were part of the generation of American artists who tore themselves away from European ideals at the start of the 20th century. Join Jeffrey Allison as he explores these artists who celebrated America without filter focusing on common people in common lives and places. Within those scenes lie a powerful silence in which directness creates a visual anxiety as we wonder what has just happened and what will happen next.
Request ProgramIn this discussion of late 20th- through 21st-century African American art from the VMFA’s permanent collection, learn what it means to view art and how can we discover new things when properly looking at a work of art. Our discussion begins with simply looking. Then we will explore influences, such as race, gender, or context, as well as technique and subject matter in the work of Kehinde Wiley, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, Allison Saar, Renée Stout, and Robert Pruitt.
Request ProgramExpand your knowledge of African American culture by examining art in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ collection. This lecture will observe many works by artists who deal with African American life and history as well as art that ranges in time period, style, and subject matter. Gain an understanding of and appreciation for the discipline of African American art.
Request ProgramOften thought of as a “verbal mirage” meaning the farthest place imaginable, Timbuktu was essential to the economy of broad stretches of West Africa for many centuries as well as a noted center of learning where books and manuscripts were valued as much as gold. Today, the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been thrust into a dramatically pivotal role in Mali’s sudden struggle with democracy and partition. This talk will survey the stunning history of art and culture in Mali and Timbuktu from the earliest times to today.
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