The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce a series of Zoom webinars presented by PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s Scholarly Center, which promotes the study of American portraiture and visual biography. Its symposia, fellowships, meetings, and research situate American portraiture and visual biography within larger social, historical, economic, and political frameworks.
The first panel, taking place in late June, covers the watershed exhibition Hide/Seek while the second, occurring in early July, is a conversation with artists María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Jeffrey Gibson on identity and reinserting BIPOC histories into museum spaces.
Pre-registration is required for both webinars, which are free to attend.
* * *
Hide/Seek: Portraits for LGBTQ+ Pride Month
Join curators Jonathan Katz and David Ward, along with the Portrait Gallery’s Senior Historian Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, for a discussion on the landmark exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture (2010).
When Hide/Seek premiered ten years ago, it became the first major museum show to take on the issue of LGBTQ+ subjectivity in portraiture. It also spawned a censorship controversy when central Smithsonian leadership chose to remove one of the works from the exhibition. The panelists will examine the intent behind the exhibition and discuss the process of bringing it to the public, the controversy that surrounded it, and its legacy. They will also talk about some of the art that made this exhibition so remarkable.
When: Tuesday, June 23, at 5pm (EDT)
Where: Online via Zoom
Registration Required: bit.ly/hideseekNPG
This program is part of the Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia Conversation Series on LGBTQ+ portraiture.
* * *
IDENTIFY: Jeffrey Gibson and María Magdalena Campos Pons with Dorothy Moss
Join Portrait Gallery curator Dorothy Moss for a conversation with artists María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Jeffrey Gibson about issues of identity and strategies for reinserting BIPOC histories into museum spaces through live performance and object making. Campos-Pons developed a piece for the Portrait Gallery’s IDENTIFY performance art series in 2016 and Gibson created one in 2019.
When: Tuesday, July 7, at 5pm (EDT)
Where: Online via Zoom
Registration Required: bit.ly/identifyNPG
This program is part of the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture Conversation Series.
The Latest
Three Looted Antiquities at the Met Repatriated to Turkey
Nine other repatriated works were seized from Met Trustee Shelby White, whose collection was subject to a criminal investigation.
Required Reading
This week, the world’s lightest paint, Pakistan’s feminist movement, World Puppy Day, and were some of Vermeer’s paintings created by his daughter?
The Wider World and Scrimshaw
On March 28, join the New Bedford Whaling Museum online and in-person for a symposium on global carving traditions from across the Pacific Rim.
Who Will Decide on the Future of a Miami Native Burial Ground?
Native activists say sacred remains and objects dug up from a Brickell construction site should remain there, but mega-developer Jorge Pérez is pushing back.
How Can a Curator Approach South Asian Futurisms?
How do I acknowledge my shortcomings while reckoning with obscured histories and the exclusion of subaltern narratives in the fine art landscape? A working checklist for curators.
MCA Chicago Presents On Stage: Frictions
Will Rawls, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, and Barak adé Soleil explore Blackness, queerness, movement, and dance in performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
The Complicated Legacy of Camilo Egas
The Ecuadorian painter, a leading figure of Latin America’s Indigenismo art movement, has been both praised and scorned for his representation of Indigenous peoples.
Tom Jones Zeroes in on Ho-Chunk Visibility
“I think about the young kids, the teenagers, and I think being able to see yourself represented in art is so powerful,” says the artist.
Haggerty Museum of Art Presents Tomás Saraceno in Dialogue With Dr. Somesh Roy
The artist and researcher will explore soot’s effects on climate change and public health in this online conversation.
Hundreds of Artworks by NYC Teenagers Go on View at the Met
The talented seventh through twelfth-grade students are recipients of the 2023 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
NYC’s Flatiron Building Sells for a Whopping $190M
The sale to outsider bidder Jacob Garlick puts an end to the protracted legal battle between the iconic skyscraper’s five former owners.
McKnight Visual Artist Fellows Discussion Series at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
The series features 2021 Fellows David Bowen, Mara Duvra, Rotem Tamir, Ben Moren, and Dyani White Hawk in conversation with renowned curators and critics.
The Best Memes Roasting the “We ❤️ NYC” Campaign
A graphic designer on Twitter created a hilarious send-up of the universally reviled logo, and the rest is history.
Did You Know These Museums Were Free for New Yorkers?
The “Free Admission” campaign is advocating to make ticket pricing information more transparent to visitors, who may be confused or misled by institutions’ language.