Friends of the Institute Announce Lecture Series 2014 – 2015

Minneapolis, MN, September 2, 2014—The Friends of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) announced today the Mary and Mark Fiterman Lecture Series for 2014 – 2015. This year’s series offers a rich line-up of national and international notables including author Diana Picasso, granddaughter of the famous artist; Géza von Habsburg an heir to the dynasty and art expert; arts presenter, James Fox, star of the BBC’s art series; artist Maya Lin who has expanded her oeuvre since designing the Vietnam War Memorial; and others.

All lectures begin at 11 a.m. in the musuem’s Pillsbury Auditorium and are free and open to the public, but due to the popularity of the series, tickets are required. They can be obtained by calling the museum at 612-870-3000. Limited seating; maximum two tickets per person.

In anticipation of the MIA’s upcoming Habsburg exhibition, Sabine Haag, PhD, director of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, kicks off the series on September 11 with “Magic, Radiance & Imperial Splendor: Masterpieces of the Kunstkammer Vienna.” During her talk, Dr. Haag will share stories of Habsburg emperors, queens, and their emissaries, and will reveal how their collecting obsessions grew into the world-renowned Kunstkammer Vienna. The Kunstkammers were cabinets of art and curiosities containing objects ranging from jumbles of rock crystal, ivory, bronze, armament, coins, books, paintings, even animals, plants, and minerals from around the world before they morphed into the modern museum.

The complete schedule is as follows:
September 11, 2014
Sabine Haag, PhD: “Magic Radiance and Imperial Splendor: Masterpieces of the Kunsthammer Vienna”

October 9, 2014
Adam Gopnik: “On the Brink: 1914 a Century Later”
New Yorker writer, art critic, and book author Adam Gopnik examines ways in which the modernist movement – at its culmination of innovation in literature, visual arts, and music – was reshaped and destroyed by The Great War.

November 13, 2014
Mark Burry: “Meeting the Challenges of Completing Gaudí’s Sagrada Família Basilica”
Australian architect Mark Burry discusses how a project using software designed for the aerospace industry is used to untangle the mysteries left in Antoni Gaudi’s masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and the cultural enrichment that comes as a result.

December 11, 2014
Annie Griffiths: “A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel”
National Geographic photographer and author Annie Griffiths discusses her photo memoir “A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel,” which is about balance and the joy of creating a meaningful life.

January 8, 2015
Géza von Habsburg: “Early Habsburg Collectors (1500-1650): The Birth of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum”
Internationally renowned art expert and heir to the Habsburg dynasty, Géza von Habsburg will talk about the legendary collecting obsession of his famous forebearers and how it lead to the creation of one of the world’s most astonishing collections.

February 12, 2015
Diana Picasso: “Pablo Picasso in Vallauris: The Artist and the Artisans, 1954-1964”
Granddaughter of the famous artist and author Diana Picasso discusses the decade Picasso spent in Vallauris, France, a time period filled with bullfights, exhibitions, and visits by other artists who were drawn to see him.

March 12, 2015
Maya Lin: “The Intersection of Art, Architecture, and Memorial”
Artist May Lin, whose large-scale environmental artworks range from the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial to a recent eleven-acre environmental reclamation project, explores how people experience and relate to the landscape.

April 9, 2015
James Fox: “Bolts from the Blue”
British art historian and BBC arts presenter James Fox examines the vast and fascinating history of the color blue and its impact on the art world – from the discovery of lapis lazuli, to the great Renaissance painters, to Cezanne and Picasso’s use of blue to shake up the arts establishment, to the tragic story of Yves Klein.

May 14, 2015 Glenn Lowry: “In Between Places: Contemporary Art and the Middle East”
Glenn Lowry, the director of The Museum of Modern Art, explores how a number of artists from the Middle East navigate through complicated and highly charged issues through their varied practices that range from film-making and photography, to painting and animation.

The Friends Lecture Series in underwritten by the Mary and Mark Fiterman Fund.

About the Mary and Mark Fiterman Lecture Series
The Mary and Mark Fiterman Lecture series was established by long-time benefactor Mary Fiterman and the Friends in the early 1990s with a mission to bring exciting, unusual, and eclectic celebrity speakers with a focus on art to the MIA. Over the years, Fiterman lectures have included princesses, film stars, entertainers, internationally acclaimed designers, artists, art historians, collectors, and cultural icons.

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Press Contacts: Tammy Pleshek, (612) 870-3171; tpleshek@artsmia.org
Emma Bauer, (612) 870-6364; ebauer@artsmia.org