NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt professors from varied disciplines
offer their informed opinions on specific masterpieces in The Phillips
Collection during a new luncheon series at the Frist Center for the
Visual Arts. "Off the Wall: Conversations on The Phillips Collection"
happens the second Wednesday of each month starting at noon through May.
This new series is part of a vibrant, ongoing relationship between
Vanderbilt and the Frist Center and continues the University’s creative
engagement with the downtown community, according to David Wood, a
professor of philosophy who organized the series and serves as
moderator.
"It is not enough to look at paintings," Wood said. "Our eyes are
informed by our imagination and by conversation with others. These
lunchtime speakers are all people who live and breathe art, and they
will enrich our shared experience of the paintings in this wonderful
collection."
Featuring more than 50 of the best-loved paintings and sculptures
from The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., "From El Greco to
Picasso: European Masterworks from the Phillips Collection" includes
the work of such masters as EugÈne Delacroix and El Greco,
Impressionist painters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Edgar
Degas, and Modern masters Pablo Piccaso, Henri Matisse, Wassily
Kandinsky and Paul Klee. The Frist Center is the only venue in the
Southeast slated to host this exceptional collection of Romantic,
Impressionist and Modern works.
"The Phillips Collection presents a rare and exciting opportunity to
study some of the most influential artists of the 19th and 20th
centuries," said Michael Christiano, Frist education programs manager.
"The art portrays a variety of subject matter, from the psychology of
the human condition to the role of beauty and leisure in visual art, to
landscape and still life painting, to abstraction. We are truly excited
to work with Vanderbilt as we present new perspectives on these
landmark works of art."
The following lecturers are scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. in the Frist Center auditorium:
*
March 10 – Adrienne Outlaw, a Nashville artist whose collaborative work
Vessels of Grace is on view at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
will present a talk titled "Behind the Scenes: Women in the Phillips
Collection."
* April 14 – Gregg Horowitz, a professor of philosophy,
will give a talk titled "Fruit and Meat." Horowitz will discuss
Jean-SimÈon Chardin’s A Bowl of Plums and Paul Gauguin’s The Ham.
Horowitz specializes in philosophy of art and art history, political
theory and psychoanalysis.
* May 12 – Leonard Folgarait, a professor
of art history, will focus on CÈzanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire. He has a
strong interest in Latin American art and European and American
modernism.
The "Off the Wall" lecture series is free and open to the public. For more information, call 615-744-3342.
Media contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, (615) 322-NEWS
Annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu