Member Events

Thu, May 29, 6 pm | Leslie Cheek Theater
Taste and the Antique: An Art History Classic Forty Years On
with Dr. Adriano Aymonino, Director of the MA in Art Market, Provenance, and the History of Collecting at the University of Buckingham, and Dr. Sylvain Cordier, VMFA’s Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art 

Originally published in 1981, Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the
Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900 offered the first accessible
introduction to the enormous impact of ancient sculpture on Western visual arts
and culture. Join Dr. Adriano Aymonino and Dr. Sylvain Cordier for a presentation
and discussion of Dr. Aymonino’s revised and expanded edition of this art history
classic, published in three volumes in December 2024 with support from VMFA
and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. Following the program, join Dr. Aymonino for an exclusive book signing of Taste and the Antique.

The VMFA Circle Lecture Series is open to all members beginning at the Friends Circle level. This program will be offered in person and virtually, via Zoom. Click here to register for the livestream.

Thu, Jun 12, 6 pm | Leslie Cheek Theater
Tracing the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection
with Dr. Meike Hoffmann, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany 

Dr. Meike Hoffmann has written widely on the fate of modern art under the National Socialist regime, including Hitler’s Art Dealer: Hildebrand Gurlitt. At Freie Universität, she leads a provenance research program that engages students in ambitious projects such as contributing to an extensive database of art confiscated from German museums in the 1930s as part of the “Degenerate Art” campaign. Hoffmann recently collaborated with VMFA’s Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, to teach a seminar focused on finding lost works from the original Ludwig and Rosy Fischer collection of German Expressionist art, of which VMFA’s extraordinary portion of 200+ works comprises less than half.

The VMFA Circle Lecture Series is open to all members beginning at the Friends Circle level. This program will be offered in person and virtually, via Zoom. Click here to register for the livestream.