Associates Advisory

Women, Power and Portraiture Lecture Series by National Portrait Gallery

by Kiren Jahangeer, Guest Blogger

Many Associates volunteers love art and art history. Here's a wonderful opportunity to attend the Edgar P. Richardson Lecture Series presented by the National Portrait Gallery this fall. The free zoom webinars explore this year’s theme of Women, Power, and Portraiture. Guest scholars will deliver the following lectures between September 29 and November 10. Details here:  https://npg.si.edu/edgar-p-richardson-symposium

Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain: Power, Femininity, and Portraiture in the Court of Felipe III
Presented by Ross Karlan, World Languages Educator at the Geffen Academy at UCLA
Tuesday, September 29, 5:00 p.m. Eastern

The elaborate portraits of Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain (1584–1611), by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and Andrés López Polanco, depict the crown jewels and elegant clothing in a manner characteristic of Hapsburg portraiture. Yet this series, painted between 1605 and 1610, also presents Queen Margaret as a strong female ruler. Pantoja de la Cruz and Polanco portray the queen as both virtuous and feminine as well as politically cunning. This balance was particularly delicate within the contexts of dynastic factions, political alliances, and the rebirth of Spain’s royal portrait collection after it was destroyed in the 1604 fire at the Royal Palace. 
Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DHLyKoRmRVGShmENm8_urg  

Marking the Middle: Loïs Mailou Jones's Mid-Century Portrait Practice
Presented by Rebecca VanDiver, Assistant Professor of African American Art at Vanderbilt University
Tuesday, October 13, 5:00 p.m. Eastern 

During her lengthy career, African American painter Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998) created work in a variety of genres. Portraiture played a pivotal role in her artistic practice, from her days as an art student in 1920s Boston and her time in late 1930s Paris to her forty-five-year tenure at Howard University, and beyond. In this talk, Professor Rebecca VanDiver will examine the ways in which Jones's mid-century portrait practice enabled the artist to mark her place in the middle of the increasingly Afro-Diasporic cultural and social scenes of Paris, Washington, D.C., and Port-au-Prince.

Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eyp-leAmTdeY2cZvHufktQ

Suzanne Valadon: An Artist on View
Presented by Nancy Ireson, Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions & Gund Family Chief Curator at the Barnes Foundation
Tuesday, October 20, 5:00 p.m. Eastern

Marie-Clémentine Valadon (1865–1938), who began her career as a popular artist’s model after a difficult childhood, defied the odds to become a successful painter. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec even gave her the nickname “Suzanne,” after the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders, in which two old men prey on a beautiful bathing woman. Valadon began exhibiting her prints and drawings in the 1880s, and in the twentieth century enjoyed considerable commercial success. Reactions to her bohemian lifestyle, however, marred her critical reception. Thus, this lecture will explore how Valadon effectively exchanged one kind of scrutiny for another.

Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G-YfCNVwTGukO2bVlFNJtg

The Veil and the Rebozo: Fashioning Identity in the Self-Portraits of María Izquierdo
Mark A. Castro, Jorge Baldor Curator of Latin American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art
Tuesday, October 27, 5:00 p.m. Eastern 

In her self-portraits, the painter María Izquierdo boldly proclaimed herself a member of the new generation of women artists that shaped Mexican culture after the revolution of 1910–20. By wearing clothing associated with Mexico’s Indigenous communities, Izquierdo joined her contemporaries in asserting the integral role of these Native cultures in Mexico’s new national identity. At the same time, her interest in portraiture and the utilization of her own, often ambiguous, visual language, set Izquierdo apart from the cultural production of the wider Mexican art world, which was driven by nationalist interests.

Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_B6WoGrZeRrCMWi5UnKFdQg  

Combating Racism: Betsy Graves Reyneau, Laura Wheeler Waring, and Representation of Black Achievement
Steven Nelson, Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art
Tuesday, November 10, 5:00 p.m. Eastern

In the 1943, the Harmon Foundation commissioned artists Betsy Graves Reyneau and Laura Wheeler Waring to make portraits of eminent Black Americans capable of highlighting Black achievement and fighting white prejudice. These 42 paintings were first shown at the Smithsonian in 1944. This discussion will revisit this exhibition, exploring the intersection of gender, philanthropy, Black history, and African American art during and just after World War II to show the exhibition's complex formation. It will also seek to understand the work within the broader context of Americanness during the Second World War.

Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dgnsXMZeSN2ZYjTDiFkyvw

Video Feasts for the Mind

by Joann Stevens, Guest Blogger

Did you know about the treasure trove of Smithsonian Associates events broadcast over C-SPAN  and available free-of-charge, on demand? It’s amazing!

Maybe you’re a history lover, a C-SPAN Book TV junkie, or a political sleuth seeking background information about a topic or bill.  Thanks to this educational partnership you don’t have to stay up until 1 am to catch a segment or set your DVR to collect hours of programming. C-SPAN and Smithsonian Associates have done it for you, offering some 80 programs that run about two-hours each. Plus, the Associates is adding more to the collection all the time.  

Programs feature book discussions with noted authors and interviewer, as well as history and current events. Some include national leaders or panelists discussing a range of intriguing topics. Whether you want to take a second look at a Smithsonian Associates program you attended years ago, or discover a program for the first time, the collection offers an intellectual buffet to suit the tastes of many. Here’s a small sampling:

Spoken From the Heart aired May 6, 2010.  First Lady Laura Bush reads an excerpt from her memoir and is interviewed by journalist Cokie Roberts.  The program highlights her life pre-and-post White House and what it was like being first lady during war time.

The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr aired May 10, 2012.  Historian H.W. Brands has something for you Hamilton fans, a presentation of letters between Burr and his daughter Theodosia recounting his political rise and fall. Burr, Vice President to Thomas Jefferson, is best remembered for killing Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a duel on July 11, 1804.

Sex and KGB Spies in the 1970s aired February 4, 2015.  Jonna Mendez, the former Chief of Disguise at the CIA, discusses how husband and wife, Czech KGB spies Karl and Hana Koecher used sex to infiltrate the CIA and gather top-secret information.

Classical Music and Politics in 20^th Century America  aired December 10, 2019.  Author, historian, and former classical musician Jonathan Rosenberg discusses his book “Dangerous Melodies: Classical Music in America from the Great War through the Cold War” exploring how the political climate and era can use music as a tool of outreach or propaganda.

Suffrage and American Women in Politics  aired September 27, 2017.  Historian Elizabeth Griffith examines the legacy of the 19^th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, and asks, “Did suffrage matter?”

Voting Rights Then and Now aired July 21, 2015.  A panel examines the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its impact on the past and present.