Simon Schama at the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Simon Schama starts the Fifty-fifth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts 2006 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. today on Really Old Masters: Age, Infirmity, and Reinvention

Lectures are:

• held in the East Building Auditorium (eba) at 2:00 p.m.
  
• free and open to the public.
  
• Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
  
• Registration is not required.

November 12
To Start with: Finito?

November 19
The Elixir? Jacques-Louis David and Revolutionary Rejuvenation; Goya and Infirmity

December 3
Indistinct Vision: Turner and Monet

December 10
Picasso and Matisse: The Endgames of the Avant-Garde

December 17
Losing It: The Case of Willem de Kooning

I'm currently watching Simon Schama deliver "The Power of Art" on BBC2 on Friday nights. It covers a similar group of artists (Caravaggio, Benini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, Rothko) and focuses on turning points in the artists' life. Besides being a great story teller, Schama is the University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University in New York. Since 1995, he has been art and culture critic for The New Yorker and essayist for the Guardian.

Links:

• Wikipedia: Simon Schama
• The National Gallery of Art, Washington: Mellon Lectures
  
• BBC and Simon Schama -"The Power of Art"

Technorati tags: art, art history, painting