Blinding or Beautiful? Modern Art and Artificial Illumination

• Lecture

DATE:

Friday, October 11, 2024

TIME:

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Speaker:

Hollis Clayson, Professor Emerita of Art History and Bergen Evans Professor Emerita in the Humanities, Northwestern University

Interest in the aesthetics of light shaped the work of countless visual artists on both sides of the Atlantic in the modern era. The bond between innovative art and light was especially pronounced in France starting in the mid- to late 1800s, when different kinds of lighting (oil, gas and then electric) competed in Paris, the so-called “City of Light.” In this lecture, Clayson looks closely at paintings and graphic works by both European and American artists that grappled with the effects of both natural light and artificial illumination in surprising ways. Were the new lights beautiful or blinding? Did they belong in art or not?

This lecture serves as the keynote address for a two-day symposium co-organized by the Museum and the California Institute of Technology in conjunction with the exhibition Plugged In: Art and Electric Light. Taking place on October 11 (at the Museum) and 12 (at Caltech's Baxter Lecture Hall), the symposium will be organized into four thematic sessions featuring talks by a distinguished group of international scholars.

Details, including the list of panel topics, speakers, and timing can be found here.

Advance registration is now closed. A limited number of tickets will be available starting at 4:00 p.m.