Video Podcast
National Gallery of Art Video Podcasts
Stay up to date with video podcasts from the National Gallery of Art, which include documentary excerpts, lectures, and other films about the Gallery's history, exhibitions, and collections.
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The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works Opening Preview Highlights
Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, Brice Marden, and Ellsworth Kelly—four of the American masters whose art is on view in this landmark exhibition—speak with collector Robert Meyerhoff, curator Harry Cooper, and Gallery director Earl A. Powell III. The artists discuss their work, the collection itself, and the show while strolling through this innovative thematic installation prior to its opening in September 2009. Speakers at the podium include Powell, Meyerhoff, and Victoria P. Sant, president, National Gallery of Art.
The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850–1900 The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850–1900
Late 19th–century art is usually identified with airy and colorful impressionist paintings and the radiant atmosphere of Paris. But in the shadowy recesses an art of a very different kind thrived. Prints, drawings, and small sculpture from the period present an alternative vision in depictions of the inner worlds of emotions, anxieties, and fantasies. Mainly stored away rather than openly displayed by their owners, the works in this exhibition appealed to artists and audiences devoted to a private aesthetic experience. Peter Parshall, the Gallery's curator of old master prints, talks about the works in the exhibition and their subtle and complex depictions of human psychology decades before the publication of Sigmund Freud's theories on the unconscious.
Arshile Gorky: Ararat (Excerpts)
Years after campaigns against minority Armenians in Turkey caused his family to disperse and his mother to die before his eyes, Gorky found a 1912 photograph taken in the city of Van upon which he based drawings and paintings entitled The Artist and His Mother. The video Ararat (Excerpts) investigates the fraught history of Gorky's lost childhood through his protracted work on the image of himself at age 12, standing beside his mother Shushan. Derived from the feature-length film Ararat written and directed by Academy Award®-nominated director Atom Egoyan.
The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain The Iconography of Power
The armor, paintings, and tapestries in the exhibition were made for the Spanish royal family—the nobles, kings, and Holy Roman Emperors who expanded Spain's influence throughout Europe and the New World. These objects reveal the exquisite work of artists and craftsmen who served the Spanish ruling class from the 15th to the 18th century. In the intricate and finely wrought details on shields, portraits, and tapestries, something quite different is also revealed: an attempt to link the Spanish monarchy with the pieties of the Catholic Church, the power of the ancient Roman empire, and the cultural glories of ancient Greece. David Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish paintings at the National Gallery of Art, describes this subtle advertising campaign waged by the Spanish throne to advance its goals and reputation.
New Video Podcast: LOOK!
Join area students on a field trip to the National Gallery of Art and discover the museum through their eyes and voices. This film was made to prepare students for a visit to the museum. Teachers of grades 2 through 6 are encouraged to view the film with their students prior to their visit.
Rachel Whiteread: "Ghost"
In her breakthrough 1990 work Ghost, Rachel Whiteread created a positive from a negative, making a plaster cast of the interior "void" of a Victorian parlor measuring approximately 9 feet wide, 11 1/2 feet high, and 10 feet deep. Whiteread has said of this sculpture that she was trying to "mummify the air in the room," hence the title. Whiteread created Ghost over a period of three months in an abandoned building at 486 Archway Road, North London, covering the interior walls with multiple plaster molds, each about five inches thick.
The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain Press Conference Highlights
The dramatic installation of rare suits of armor worn by Spanish kings, royal portraits, and magnificent tapestries from the Renaissance are accompanied by music and brief remarks from the press preview on June 23, 2009, for this stunning and historic exhibition. Speakers include Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art; His Excellency D. Jorge Dezcallar, ambassador of Spain; Yago Pico de Coaña, president, Patrimonio Nacional; Charo Otegui Pascual, executive president, SEACEX; Alvaro Soler del Campo, director, Spanish Royal Armory, and chief curator, Patrimonio Nacional; and José Andrés, chef and owner, Jaleo and THINKfoodGROUP.
Talk About Art
Talk About Art is a six-minute documentary film that highlights visitors to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Among the visitors who share their thoughts on art are people from all walks of life—including students, a taxi driver, an architect, a security guard, and a hairdresser. These are not art historians, but art is a common bond for them, and definitely a force in their lives. For some art is a way to connect to the past; for others it is a way to see the world around them in a different way. Listening to their side of the museum experience may get you talking about art as well.