VISUAL ARTS

The Masterpiece Lectures will reconnect audiences with the Museum’s collection through talks that both celebrate and question the concept of the “masterpiece.” The series is conceived by new Curator of the Collection Oliver Tostmann, in collaboration with Curator of Contemporary Art Pieranna Cavalchini and Esther Stiles Eastman Curator of Education and Public Programs Margaret Burchenal.

“The word ‘masterpiece’ has different meanings across mediums and culture,” said Tostmann. “It is exciting to create opportunities for dialogue about the role that influential artists and collectors have played in assigning celebrity to certain works of art, and the changing idea of a masterwork over time.”

The series will begin on February 23 with a lecture by Glenn Lowry, director of The Museum of Modern Art, examining the changing nature of the masterpiece in modern art, beginning with Pablo Picasso’s celebrated 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and concluding with Pipilotti Rist’s monumental 2008 installation, Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters), at The Museum of Modern Art. Following Lowry, seven other scholars will explore the topic of “masterpiece,” including Richard Ormond, Jas’ Elsner, Vittoria Di Palma, Robert Mowry, Katy Siegel, and David Alan Brown.