Symposium, Artists Talks, Music, and Lectures
This autumn, in conjunction with the exhibitions Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future and R. H. Quaytman: + x, Chapter 34, the Guggenheim presents specialty tours, a symposium on spirituality and abstraction, and concerts of new music by John Zorn. The season also features a talk with esteemed artist and influential scholar of Palestinian art Samia Halaby, and an exploration of how religion and colonialism influenced the work of Vincent van Gogh, Henry van de Velde, and Gustav Klimt.
Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future programs
Visionary: On Hilma af Klint and the Spirit of Her Time
Friday, October 12, 2–6 pm
This symposium explores how Theosophy and other esoteric belief systems that emerged at the turn of the 20th century impacted the development of abstraction in the United States and Europe. Speakers include Kurt Almqvist, Tracey Bashkoff, Patricia Berman, Daniel Birnbaum, Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Isaac Lubelsky, Marco Pasi, R. H. Quaytman, and Julia Voss. The program is followed by an exhibition viewing of Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future with a cash bar.
Music for the Temple: A Tribute to Hilma af Klint by John Zorn
Thursday and Friday, November 29 and 30, 7 pm
Composer John Zorn presents a suite of new music in response to af Klint’s visionary paintings. The program includes a private, after-hours viewing of the exhibition.
Artist talks and lectures
The Elaine Terner Cooper Education Fund Conversations with Contemporary Artists: Samia Halaby
Tuesday, October 23, 6:30 pm
Samia Halby’s practice is rooted in the conviction that abstract painting reflects the principles of motion in nature and has the power to inspire technology with new visual insights. In this program, Halaby will describe her creative process, followed by a conversation between the artist and Sasha Kalter-Wasserman, Associate Curator, Abu Dhabi Project, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Thirty-First Annual Hilla Rebay Lecture: “God, Ivory, and Gold: Vincent van Gogh, Henry van de Velde, and Gustav Klimt at the Cusp of Abstraction” by Debora Silverman
Tuesday, November 6, 6:30 pm
This lecture examines experiments in early abstraction by three modern masters and the religious and imperialist contexts that shaped them. Van Gogh defined painting as a form of “sacred realism,” embedding divinity in the stuffs of matter, rural and craft labor, and the faces of ordinary people. Van de Velde embraced abstraction during King Leopold II’s Congo Free State (1885–1908), inventing a “whiplash” style of Art Nouveau which employed Congolese raw materials and motifs. Klimt designed a frieze of gold and bejeweled mosaics for the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, a project whose stylistic forms, physical materials, and figural compositions were influenced by the patron’s connections to the Congo and Egypt.
Credits
For Sackler Center for Arts Education supporters, please visit our website.
Visionary: On Hilma af Klint and the Spirit of Her Time is copresented by Ax:son Johnson Foundation together with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
The Elaine Terner Cooper Education Fund Conversations with Contemporary Artists: Samia Halaby is part of the Arab Art and Education Initiative, a yearlong collaboration between more than 15 leading New York and Arab world cultural institutions seeking to build greater understanding between the United States and the Arab world.
The Annual Hilla Rebay Lecture is made possible by the Hilla von Rebay Foundation.
