Talks

Fri, Nov 2, 5 - 7 pm | Evans Court Galleries

Create your own artwork inspired by the artist Howardena Pindell, using a material that the artist is still using today in her contemporary work- chads, or the small, circles leftover from a three-hole punch.

Free, no tickets required.

Tue, Oct 2, 11–11:30 am & Thu, Oct 4, 6:30–7 pm | Meet at Visitor Services

Join Ashley Duhrkoop, Curatorial Associate, African Art & Mellon Grant Project Administrator, for a closer look at three objects of Congelese art in the permanent collection of the VMFA. This program is inspired by the special exhibition, Congo Masks: Masterpieces from Central Africa.

Tue, Nov 6, 11–11:30 am & Thu, Nov 8, 6:30–7 pm | Meet at Visitor Services

Join Karen Getty, VMFA Coordinator of Tour Services, as she explores three works in the special exhibition, Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen.

Thu, Oct 11, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm | Cheek Theater
with Valerie Cassel Oliver, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, VMFA in conversation with Chioke l’Anson, Assistant Professor, Department of African American Studies, VCU and faculty-in-residence, ICA

Join Valerie Cassel Oliver and Chioke I’Anson for a discussion on the groundbreaking, multidisciplinary artist Howardena Pindell. The conversation will explore how Pindell has moved between figurative and abstract painting in an effort to assert her place as an African American woman in the field of contemporary art. The conversation will also explore Pindell's work as a curator, educator, and activist, who has sought to challenge traditions of the art world and its barriers to artists of color.

For the Love of Art is a series created by the Institute for Contemporary Art, which features artists and curators discussing big ideas that drive their favorite art movements. This program is co-presented with the VMFA in conjunction with their special exhibition, Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen.

Free, tickets required.

Thu, Nov 8, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm | Cheek Theater
with Dr. David Binkley, Art Historian

Join us for a talk that explores the importance of initiation rites and masks for the Southern Kuba from three perspectives: the significance of the forest as the place where male initiation rites take place; the importance of male authority; and the acquisition of secret knowledge, including mask making. 

$8 (VMFA members $5)

Thu, Nov 15, 6:30 – 7:30 pm | Leslie Cheek Theater
with Dr. John Davis, noted Eastman Johnson scholar & former Alice Pratt Brown Professor, Smith College

The American Civil War was precipitated by the issue of slavery, and the industrial-level
slaughter made it the bloodiest war ever fought by the United States. Why, then, was there so
little painting during the Civil War depicting race, slavery, and the battlefield? Taking Johnson’s
painting in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as its starting point, this lecture will
explore the climate for treating these subjects during the conflict and will show how during the
post-Reconstruction years, a different set of national priorities made it possible, and even
necessary, to represent the Civil War battlefield.

Free, tickets required.