Albany Museum of Art series continues with lecture, music

ALBANY — In a cultural double feature of sight and sound, art historian Grace Harpster’s lecture on Renaissance and Baroque art on Oct. 21 at the Albany Museum of Art will be immediately followed by a performance of music from the periods by the Albany Chorale.

Harpster’s lecture on “Material and Meaning in the European Splendors Exhibition” begins at 5:30 p.m. It will be followed at 7 p.m. by European Splendors Exhibition, a program of Renaissance and Baroque choral music, including British symphonist Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “Dona Nobis Pacem,” performed by the Albany Chorale.

Both the lecture and concert are inspired by “European Splendors: Old Master Paintings from the Kress Collection,” which is on view in the AMA’s Haley Gallery through Dec. 23. The lecture and concert are free and open to the public. The Albany Chorale will accept donations at the concert to support its programming season.

“The AMA thrives on creative collaborations with universities and fellow arts organizations,” AMA Executive Director Andrew J. Wulf said. “It is thrilling to welcome Dr. Harpster from Georgia State University as well as our own Albany Chorale for an evening of insight and inspiration.”

Harpster’s lecture, the third in the European Splendors Lecture Series funded by a grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts, is designed to share information on Renaissance and Baroque works of art and to provide context. Twenty-nine paintings from the two periods are in the “European Splendors: Old Master Paintings from the Kress Collection” exhibition on loan from the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina.

The lectures in the series are aimed at high school students in southwest Georgia, but are open to everyone. The AMA asks those who visit the museum to wear masks and observe social distancing.

Harpster, an assistant professor of art history in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University in Atlanta, received her doctorate in 2018 from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the art of early modern Italy and the Catholic missionary world.

“We are so thrilled to welcome Dr. Harpster from Georgia State University to Albany,” AMA Director of Education and Public Programming Annie Vanoteghem said. “She has a wealth of knowledge to share with our community that is sure to make ‘European Splendors’ come alive. The AMA is quite fortunate to host these lectures for the community, thanks to Georgia Council for the Arts. This is a wonderful example of the many opportunities we have to make art accessible to everyone in our community.”

Harpster is at work on a book project that follows the 16th-century pilgrimages of archbishop Carlo Borromeo, examining his interactions with sacred images to demonstrate that the period’s religious reforms paradoxically increased the authority of art.

Her publications include an exploration of color theory in the early Jesuit missions and its implications for the representation of black African salvation in printed media, and a recent essay on the cult statue of the Madonna of Loreto and its 16th-century “smoky” accretions.

Harpster also has a forthcoming article in the Oxford Art Journal titled “Figino’s Efficacy: Portraits, Votives, and their Makers after Trent,” which examines how Carlo Borromeo’s posthumous likenesses were caught between a discourse of portraiture and the new legal processes of achieving sainthood.

Her other interests include the history of restoration, early modern understandings of medium and material, and anthropological interventions into art history. Her work has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University, the Getty Scholar’s Program, and the Fulbright Foundation, among other institutions.

“European Splendors” is organized by the Columbia Museum of Art of South Carolina, with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation of New York. Its exhibition at the AMA was made possible by the Walter and Frances Bunzl Family Foundation.

There is no charge to attend the lectures, but the AMA is asking those interested in coming to register online. A link for each lecture may be found at www.albanymuseum.com/european-splendors-lectures.

Art professors scheduled to take part in the lecture series, and the dates and subject matter for their lectures, are:

♦ Nov. 18: Elissa Auerbach; professor of art history; Georgia College & State University; “Art for Faith’s Sake! How Religious Art Divided Europe in Early Modernity”;

♦ Dec. 9: Joyce de Vries; professor and Department of Art & History chair; Auburn University; “Living with Art: Paintings from the European Splendors Exhibition in the Renaissance Household.”

The lecture series launched Sept. 30 with a presentation on “Spiritual Realities within the Immanent Frame” by Keaton Wynn, professor of art history and ceramics at Georgia Southwestern State University. Wynn’s lecture was followed Oct. 7 with Charles Williams, professor of art at Albany State University, presenting “Multi-culturalism and the Artist Perspective in Renaissance Art.”

Wynn and Williams’ lectures are available for viewing on the AMA’s Facebook page and the museum’s YouTube Channel. Links to the lecture videos can be found on the AMA website at www.albanymuseum.com/european-lecture-series.

Special Photo