October 2023
Art in the Afternoon: Here’s Lookin’ at You Kid: The Self-Portrait
Art in the Afternoon is a four-part lecture series presented by Muscarelle Docents. Join us Wednesdays in October for these illuminated art history presentations. Today, anyone with a cell phone can capture a “self-portrait” – or so it seems. But what do artists hope to achieve when they create images of themselves? How do they want to be seen and understood? And how do they do it? Although appearing in Western art from antiquity, self-portraits don’t become fashionable until the mid-15th century. With technological developments, changing views of the individual, and an increasing interest in the inner self in Western…
Find out more »Forward Vision: The Future of the Muscarelle Museum of Art
This semester, our Muscarelle Explorations lecture series will dive into the people, the art and the stories that have defined the Muscarelle over the past 40 years — and into the future. One of the great privileges of being the Director of an art museum is the opportunity to guide the expansion of the permanent collection and chart its direction. The Muscarelle is currently focused on expanding the representation in our collection, with a special emphasis on adding works by women and artists of color. Join Director David Brashear as he surveys the progress the Muscarelle team is making toward…
Find out more »Art in the Afternoon: Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: Cats in Art
Art in the Afternoon is a four-part lecture series presented by Muscarelle Docents. Join us Wednesdays in October for these illuminated art history presentations. Herding cats? Puss in boots on canvas? A purring pun or two. Ver- Meerkat? We’ve got it all in this lighthearted survey of artists’ representations of cats in various artistic roles presented by Docent Lisa Smith. They’re everywhere. All we’ve got to do is look for them. This familiar yet inscrutable animal is an ideal instrument in domesticity, black magic, and other untamed chaos. We’ll unleash these creatures with minds of their own on the big screen.…
Find out more »Georgia O’Keeffe: Deconstructing a Myth; Offering a New Perspective
This semester, our Muscarelle Explorations lecture series will dive into the people, the art and the stories that have defined the Muscarelle over the past 40 years. In the 1930s, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller donated what is possibly the most famous work in the Museum's collection, White Flower, by Georgia O'Keeffe. She hoped her gift would be seen "not only as an aesthetic gesture but also as an inspiration to the young women who are students at William & Mary." Barbara Buhler Lynes, the preeminent scholar on O'Keeffe, will visit campus to discuss the life and work of the artist. Since 1946, the…
Find out more »Art in the Afternoon: Social Justice: Artists Take Aim
Art in the Afternoon is a four-part lecture series presented by Muscarelle Docents. Join us Wednesdays in October for these illuminated art history presentations. Francisco de Goya is at once regarded as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. In 1814, Goya broke with the conventions of Christian art and traditional depictions of war. In two magnificent paintings, he documented the raw depredations of power over political dissent. Through Goya, we open the door to contemporary artists in the permanent collection of the Muscarelle Museum of Art. This survey by Docent Harry Chancey will cover the…
Find out more »Art in the Afternoon: Beyond the Tombstones
Art in the Afternoon is a four-part lecture series presented by Muscarelle Docents. Join us Wednesdays in October for these illuminated art history presentations. Our bodies are hardwired to the human form and the space it inhabits. And yet, we look, but don’t see. This presentation, by Docents Sandra Stephan and Harry Chancey, is designed to comfortably move us from looking to seeing. Tombstones are the plaques mounted on the wall next to works of art. They tell us the Who? What? When? Where? and How? of art. This presentation explores the “Why?” We’ll explore the mysteries of art and search…
Find out more »December 2023
Voice of the Artist: Nell Painter
Leading American historian Nell Irvin Painter is the author of many books, including Sojourner Truth, Creating Black Americans and The History of White People. In her 2018 book, Old in Art School, Painter recounts her journey from scholar to artist including her enrollment in the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. There, she became a student again in her 60s and continues as a working, professional artist in her 80s. Painter will discuss the struggles in making a late-life pivot and the obstacles and biases she was up against as she pursued her dream of becoming an artist. Further, she…
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