Lectures (Videos)

In this opening lecture, photographer Richard Misrach provides an overview about the artistic process of the exhibition, Border Cantos, and the collaboration with artist Guillermo Galindo. The lecture features commentary on his photography while discussing inspirations found on the Mexican-American border, the stories he collected from migrating peoples, and the role of art in political discourse.

Elliot Davis, Curator of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, organized the Jamie Wyeth retrospective. Join Davis as she conducts a lively onstage conversation with Wyeth about his career, his art, and his fascination with gulls and chickens.

U of A Professor Daniel Sutherland has published Whistler: A Life for Art’s Sake. It's the first biography of artist James McNeill Whistler in more than 20 years, and the first to use Whistler’s private correspondence to tell the story of his life & work.

Author William Souder has written for some of the nation’s largest newspapers. His second book, Under a Wild Sky, focuses on the early development of John James Audubon as a superb introduction to the artist and the man.

Alice Aycock’s sculptures explore paradigms, cybernetics, physics, post-structuralism, information overload, outdated scientific thinking, and computer programming to create a “complex” that is architectural and sculptural as well as mental and emotional.

Joachim Pissarro, author of Wild Art, examines the question of what constitutes ‘art’ by celebrating the artists and art forms that are usually ignored by the art establishment.

Kerry James Marshall, one of the most widely known and respected American artists of the twenty-first century, uses painting, sculptural installations, collage, video, and photography to comment on the history of black identity both in the United States and in Western art. He is well known for paintings that focus on African American subjects and has explored issues of race and history through imagery ranging from abstraction to comics. Marshall talks about art and community, and about playing an important role as a mentor to the next generation of artists

Renowned sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard discusses her unique art-making process using cedar beams that she and her studio assistants painstakingly cut and assemble, finishing them by rubbing powdered graphite into the work's textured surfaces.

University of Arkansas Art History Professor Leo Mazow presents new research on America’s great artist Edward Hopper for his “book-in-progress”, Hopper’s Hotels: Edward Hopper and the Promise of American Mobility.

Internationally recognized artist Jeff Koons, whose stainless steel sculpture Hanging Heart (Gold/Magenta) is on view in the Museum’s restaurant, Eleven, discusses his ironically monumental reimaginings of everyday subjects.

Artist Bo Bartlett and his wife, Betsy Eby discuss the making of the film, SEE: An Art Road Trip, and share his working process on large-scale paintings, such as Lobster Wars in Crystal Bridges’ collection.

In celebration of the artist Carroll Cloar’s centennial year and the special exhibition on Cloar at the Arkansas Arts Center, enjoy a panel discussion featuring outstanding Cloar scholars. Cloar’s paintings represent a unique style in the Crystal Bridges’ collection of Regionalist painters, expressing a Southern narrative and our region’s cultural heritage with a surrealist edge. The panelists include: Rick Gruber, former Director of Odgen Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans and leading scholar on Cloar; Patty Bladon, Assistant Director and Curator of Collections and Education at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, who developed a close relationship with the artist spanning over 20 years; and David Lusk of the David Lusk Gallery in Memphis , which holds a considerable collection of Cloar’s work. Moderating the panel is Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Art at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and curator of the exhibition, The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South, at the Arkansas Arts Center, February 28 through June 1.

Arkansas native artist Robyn Horn has been working with wood for 25 years. During this time she has created several different series that all relate to the shapes of stones: geodes, millstones, standing stones, slipping stones, and architectural elements. Working within these different series has enabled her to develop various elements within the forms of abstract sculpture. Horn discusses her processes in working with wood as well as an overview of her works on exhibit around the world. She also gives specific inspiration for Already Set in Motion and shares documentary video on her work in progress.

Adiosokewini, the Ojibwe word for Tale-Teller, is a concept that has been resonant to artist Tom Uttech. In the tradition of the Tale-Teller, Uttech talks about his career as an artist and teacher through stories, images, and the study of Native American culture. Uttech shares life experiences and his close observations of the wildlife of northern Wisconsin and Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada—both of which have inspired his work over the years. His painting Enassamishhinjijweian is a popular favorite in the Crystal Bridges collection.

A behind-the-scenes exploration of Modernism in New York during its formative years in the 1920s with author Sally Pemberton and her book, The Portrait of Murdock Pemberton. Sally unfolds an enchanting story about her grandfather, Murdock Pemberton, who was named the first art critic for the New Yorker. Although at the time he had no formal training in art or connoisseurship, he was a practiced newspaper reporter, Broadway publicist, playwright, and poet. Murdock’s keen eye, adventurous taste, crusading spirit, and irreverent wit as expressed in his columns soon made him a conquering hero of the avant-garde. Modernists as diverse as Arthur Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe, Isamu Noguchi, and Alexander Calder cherished Murdock’s friendship and support; so did cutting-edge art dealers and pioneers of industrial design.

Simmons’s talk tells the story behind Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1949 gift of the Stieglitz collection of Modern art to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and the significant impact this gift had upon the university. He explores how O’Keeffe’s gift helped to bring Aaron Douglas to become the Director of Fisk’s art program in the mid-twentieth century, and how the collection became a springboard for Fisk as a center for American art, helping to bring additions of other notable art collections to Fisk as well.

Tom Otterness is known internationally for his whimsical, often playful public sculptures, which are installed in cities around the world, including New York City, NY; Toronto, Canada; Seoul, South Korea; Scheveningen, the Netherlands; and Münster, Germany. The work often features cartoon-like characters and combines a feeling of playfulness with a more serious undercurrent of political and social commentary. In this presentation, Otterness will talk about his beginnings and influences as an artist growing up in Kansas, and will discuss several of his well-known public installations, including his “Playground” sculptures, and Makin’ Hay, the three-piece installation recently sited on Crystal Bridges’ grounds.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Curator of the royal Collection; and Anna Somer Cocks, longtime editor of Art Newspaper, address art collecting from a public versus private perspective and its impacts nationally and globally.

Follow in the virtual footsteps of the acclaimed naturalist and champion of the Buffalo River, Dr. Neil Compton. Scott Eccleston, Director of Facilities and Grounds at Crystal Bridges, and Corrin Troutman, Director of Facilities and Grounds at Compton Gardens/Peel Mansion, shed light on Dr. Compton’s dream of bringing the essence of his beloved Buffalo River to his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. While Compton continued to fight his drawn-out battle for the Buffalo in state and national arenas, he was also deeply engaged in smaller-scale local projects that shed light on the inner life of this small-town obstetrician and nature enthusiast. Among these local projects was a nursery for native plants on a small plot of land near Crystal Spring—a labor of love which led him to develop a special friendship with Sam and Helen Walton. Eccleston and Troutman lead you through the fascinating story of Dr. Compton’s passionate dedication and spiritual connection to the land in a tale that leads ultimately to the native landscapes we know today as Compton Gardens and Crystal Bridges.

Historian William Pencak brings to life Crystal Bridges’ oldest collection of paintings—the Levy-Franks family portraits—in an exploration of America’s rich Jewish history based on his book Jews and Gentiles in Early America: 1654-1800. Pencak, who serves as the Bert and Fanny Meisler Visiting Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of South Alabama, discusses the life lived by the Levy-Franks family; as well as dramatic and visual depictions of early American life to tell the story of the five communities where most of colonial America's small Jewish population lived: New York, Newport, Charleston, Savannah, and Philadelphia. Pencak poses several questions for the audience through his abundantly detailed community studies: How did these communities rise and fall? What anti-Semitic prejudices were carried over from traditional European society to colonial America that continue to this day?

Author & assoc. prof. of American art history, Leo Mazow, examines Benton’s most important paintings that depict musical performance and passages taken from folk songs. Joined by local musician Adam Posnak, Mazow punctuates his lecture with live music.

Board Chair Alice Walton and John Wilmerding, a member of the Museum's board of directors and an advisor to the development of the collection, discuss the challenges and decisions with which they were faced in the early days of building Crystal Bridges' collection.

Holly Connor, the curator of Angels & Tomboys, reveals the deeper significance of the paintings, prints, photographs, and sculpture in the exhibition, situating them in a rich artistic and social context.  Connor explores such relevant themes as the impact of the Civil War on families, the new feminine types of the late nineteenth century and Victorian child-rearing practices.

Trace the evolution of American genre painting with Peter John Brownlee, associate curator for the Terra Foundation of Art, and curator of American Encounters. This lecture examines key works in light of the cultural contexts in which they were produced.

Get to know artists in our collection, Louise Nevelson and Robert Indiana, through the documentary films of Dale Shierholt. Shierholt will share his process of developing relationships with artists in their studios, and with their family and colleagues.

One of the many gems to explore at Crystal Bridges is the Museum Library. Meet our Library staff, who will take you on a behind-the-scenes tour through the Library and Special Collections.

Cora Gilroy-Ware, PhD candidate at London's Tate Britain Gallery & the University of York, looks at West's aesthetic experimentations and political transgressions during the Napoleonic era, and confronts the mystery surrounding Cupid and Psyche.