The European Paintings Council (EPC) will host a lecture with special guest Dr. Diane Bodart. Dr. Bodart is the David Rosand Associate Professor of Italian Renaissance Art History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Columbia University.

Join Dr. Frank Feltens to learn about a celebrated pair of Japanese painted folding screens, their Detroit history, and the innovative technology now making them accessible to new audiences. In 1906, industrialist and collector Charles Lang Freer acquired Waves at Matsushima by Tawaraya Sotatsu (active ca. 1600–43) and displayed them in his Detroit home.

After his death in 1919, his collection traveled to Washington, DC, to form the Freer Gallery of Art (now part of the National Museum of Asian Art, NMAA), the Smithsonian’s first art museum. Recently, Canon, Inc., the Kyoto Culture Association, and NMAA have created stunning high-resolution reproductions of these screens, using a combination of advanced technology and traditional craft.

These facsimiles, created by the Tsuzuri Project, can travel to locations in Japan and beyond, fulfilling Freer’s and the museum’s goal of cross-cultural understanding between Asia and America through the arts.

Frank Feltens is Curator of Japanese Art at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution. A native of Germany, he received his PhD in art history from Columbia University. He is a specialist in Japanese painting with a particular focus on the late medieval and early modern eras. 

This lecture is sponsored by the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures, the Freer House, and the Japan-America Society of Michigan and Southwestern Ontario. Additional support comes from Wayne State University, the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, the National Association of Japan-America Societies, the United States-Japan Foundation, and the US-Japan Foundation Curators’ Perspective. 

Join us for a day-long celebration of the transformative bequest from the Sidney R. Knafel Collection of French Faience with special guest Camille LePrince, expert in French and Italian ceramics.

• 10:30 a.m. Seminar with Camille LePrince
• 12:15 a.m. 2-course French inspired meal with wine service
• 2:00 p.m. Public Lecture with Camille LePrince

Celebrate the DIA donation of the Sidney R. Knafel Collection of French Faience with special guest Camille LePrince, expert and dealer specializing in French and Italian ceramics. This public lecture is open to all DIA members and museum visitors.

This lecture is hosted by the Visiting Committee of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Auxiliary group.

Join us for a public lecture and book signing with Los Angeles–based artist Awol Erizku. Born in Gondar, Ethiopia, in 1988, Erizku attended Cooper Union before receiving his MFA from Yale. He developed a multi-disciplinary practice encompassing photography, sculpture, painting, installation, film, and sound.

Referring to and reimagining African and Black American cultures from Nefertiti to hip-hop vernacular, Erizku rejects Eurocentric notions of art and beauty in favor of building his singular Afrocentric aesthetic, something he refers to as “Afro-esotericism.”

Following the lecture, Erizku will sign copies of his most recent publication Awol Erizku: Mystic Parallax, the first comprehensive monograph of his career to date.

This program is sponsored by Lisa Applebaum and the Friends of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs auxiliary group.

Cézanne's Other: Hortense Fiquet Cézanne, as Painted by Her Husband, Paul

Speaker: Susan Sidlauskas, Distinguished Professor of the History and Theory of Modern Art at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 
 
Paul Cézanne painted more portraits of his wife, Hortense, than any other sitter—the Detroit Institute of Arts boasts one in its collection. But these paintings have not often received attention. Compared to the sensual appeal and beauty of his apples in his still lifes and his landscapes, the portraits were viewed as “unattractive” or “uninteresting.”

Cézanne produced most of the paintings of Hortense during his period of greatest experimentation, allowing us to track the ways in which he remade the modern portrait. Indeed, this lecture will demonstrate audience that Hortense was Cézanne’s most significant “other.” 

This event is part of the DIA's Bonnie Ann Larson Modern European Artists Series.

Join artist Preston Singletary for the Native American Art Collection’s Inaugural Lecture, Eagle’s Journey with Raven.

Renowned glass artist Preston Singletary’s unique creativity draw on his Tlingit heritage but with influences of contemporary art. His works are collected by museums around the world, and on display through public commissions around the country.

Learn more about Singletary’s artistic journey and how he connects to Tlingit culture through art and music at this inaugural lecture.

Event is free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

Download the event flyer

Please come to a live, on-screen event with Pulitzer Prize-winning and international best-selling author Noah Charney and DIA Deputy Director of Art, Education, and Programs Judith Dolkart.

They will be discussing Charney’s latest book, Brushed Aside, a deep and focused look at the history of women in the art world that celebrates great women artists and influencers whose work has been overlooked far too long.

Following the talk, join a DIA docent-led tour of women artists highlighted by Charney.
 

Bobbye Tigerman, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will look at the design exchanges between the US and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) during the 20th century, featuring accounts of Scandinavian designers who immigrated to the United States; Americans who studied or worked in Nordic countries; the ambitious campaigns to market and export Scandinavian design to American consumers, and the American and Nordic figures who championed sustainable and accessible design practice.

• 5:30 p.m. Reception, Great Hall
• 6:30 p.m. Public lecture, Lecture Hall
• 7:30 p.m. Members-only Dinner, Rivera Court

Sponsored by the Ida and Conrad H. Smith Fund.

In her decades as executive fashion director of Vogue, Phyllis Posnick worked with some of the world's greatest photographers and created unforgettable images referred to as "stoppers," because they caused the reader to stop flipping and take in the image.

Her creative collaborations with Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Steven Klein, and other major names are unequaled.

This event is hosted by Ivan Shaw, director of the Conde Nast archive and former Vogue photography director.

Space is limited. Attendance is free, but advance registration is required.

Image: Irving Penn, “John Galliano Silk Wool Jacquard Jacket with Red Feather Headpiece,” New York, 2007, ©Condé Nast