Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile February 1 April 24, 2005

Transcription

1 Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile February 1 April 24, 2005 RELATED EVENTS AND PUBLICATIONS All events are free and are held in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium, unless otherwise noted. Seating reservations are required. For reservations and information, please call or visit Tickets are available on-site or by phone. ARTIST-AT-WORK DEMONSTRATIONS Drop by as artist Peter Zokosky demonstrates painting techniques used by Jacques- Louis David. Thursdays: March 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31, April 7 Sundays: March 6, 13, and 20, April 3 1:00 3:00 p.m. Museum Courtyard CURATORS GALLERY TALKS Curators Scott Schaefer, Jon Seydl, and Charlotte Eyerman from the department of paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum, will lead gallery talks on the exhibition Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile. No reservations required. Meet under the stairs in the Museum Entrance Hall. Thursdays: February 10, March 17, and April 21 1:30 p.m. Exhibitions Pavilion EXHIBITION TOURS One-hour exhibition overviews, led by gallery teachers and curators, are offered Tuesdays Sundays at 1:30 p.m. beginning February 8. Meet under the stairs in the Museum Entrance Hall. EXHIBITION VIDEOS Watch short videos about three of David s paintings and the stories behind them: a young woman s tragic relationship to her French Revolutionary father; the importance of fashion to Bonaparte s nieces as a statement of identity; and the psychology of a mythological romance. Visit the resource lounge at the end of the exhibition.

2 Page 2 FILM SERIES Napoleon Complex: Six Films in Search of an Emperor This six-part film series spans two weekends with films exploring the life and times of Napoleon Bonaparte. Presented in partnership with the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Reservations available beginning February 24 at 9:00 a.m. Napoleon (1927, Abel Gance) Friday, March 4, 7:00 p.m. Conquest (1937, Clarence Brown) Saturday, March 5, 7:30 p.m. Desiree (1954, Henry Koster) Sunday, March 6, 3:00 p.m. The Duellists (1977, Ridley Scott) Friday, March 11, 7:30 p.m. Waterloo (1970, Sergei Bondarchuk) Saturday, March 12, 7:30 p.m. The Emperor s New Clothes (2001, Alan Taylor) Sunday, March 13, 3:00 p.m. GALLERY COURSE Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile This two-part gallery course examines the career of Jacques-Louis David, from his beginnings as an insurgent artist bucking the ancien régime Academy system to his mature role as a major figure in the French Revolution, his resurgence as Napoleon s portraitist and, ultimately, his exile in Brussels. Each session includes a lecture by Jon Seydl, Assistant Curator of Paintings, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and gallery discussions of the paintings and drawings in the exhibition. Course fee $20. Limited to 40 participants. Reservations available beginning January 20 at 9:00 a.m. Saturdays, February 12 and 19, 10:30 a.m. 12:30 p.m. Museum galleries and studios

3 Page 3 GETTYGUIDE Take a self-guided audio tour. Learn from curators how David recast himself from French Revolutionary to Napoleon s key image-shaper, and continued his career even in exile. Pick up GettyGuide free in the Museum Entrance Hall or at the exhibition s start. LECTURES The Exhibitions Pavilion is open until 9:00 p.m. for these lectures. ARTIST SERIES PANEL Politics of Portraits Columnist and author Arianna Huffington, guerrilla poster artist Robbie Conal, and royal portrait painter Richard Stone discuss political portraiture in conjunction with the exhibition. Barry Munitz, President and CEO, J. Paul Getty Trust, moderates. Reservations available beginning January 20 at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, February 10, 7:00 p.m. The Anger of Achilles: How David Reinvented Tragic History Painting in Exile Thomas Crow, Director, the Getty Research Institute, discusses Jacques-Louis David, who had made his reputation as a painter of grand public canvases that dramatized tragic conflicts on a scale and in a mode of address that competed with the theatrical stage. In exile, his status in eclipse, he returned to tragedy, but now on an intimate scale, with a newly compressed tension that competed with the triumphs of his earlier life. Thursday, March 10, 7:00 p.m. Jacques-Louis David, Court Artist to Napoleon Philippe Bordes, Professor of History of Art, Université Lyon 2, and guest curator of the exhibition, discusses David, who although a staunch republican during the French Revolution, was appointed First Painter to Napoleon in How did this come about and how did he play out his role at court? A number of little-known decorative arts projects by David will be highlighted. Thursday, March 24, 7:00 p.m. The Power and the Glory: David and the Arts of Fashion from Empire to Exile Aileen Ribeiro, Professor in the History of Art at the University of London, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, examines how David uses fashion as display, propaganda, and nostalgia, in his work. It looks at the splendors of dress at court during the First Empire, and discusses the links between fashion and the historical past. Thursday, April 7, 7:00 p.m.

4 Page 4 POINT-OF-VIEW TALKS Talks are held at 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. in the Exhibitions Pavilion. Sign up at the Museum Information Desk beginning at 4:30 p.m. Leo Braudy, author of Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History and Bing Professor of English, University of Southern California, discusses heroes and fame in relation to the exhibition. Friday, March 4 Alex Donis, a Los-Angeles-based visual artist whose politically charged paintings have been the center of controversy and censorship, leads a witty discussion on David, desire, and the memory of the Parisian couture. Friday, April 15 PUBLICATIONS Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile by Philippe Bordes This 356-page catalogue of the exhibition is published by Yale University Press. Bordes offers a new understanding of David and his creative output while under Napoleon s favor through his exile in Brussels. (Cloth: $75; paper: $49.50) Available in the Getty Bookstore or by calling Jacques-Louis David: The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis by Dorothy Johnson, Getty Publications This 104-page book examines this painting in the Getty collection in the context of David's career and artistic achievements and against the broader background of the turmoil of the time. (Paper: $19.95) Available in the Getty Bookstore, by calling or , or online at RELATED EXHIBITIONS A Revolutionary Age: Drawing in Europe, January 18 May 1, 2005 This exhibition presents French, English, and Spanish drawings reflecting the social, political, and intellectual upheavals of the late 18 th century, when artists including Jacques-Louis David, his students, and his contemporaries sought to make a modern art out of a distant past. Classical subject matter, newly in vogue following archaeological discoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum, was interpreted in a variety of ways, from the spare and sculptural manner of Neoclassicism to the energetic drama of the Romantic Movement. A Revolutionary Age complements the Premiere Presentation exhibition Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile, and includes drawings from the Getty s collection by David, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, William Blake, and Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes.

5 Page 5 Drawn to Rome: French Neoclassical Sketchbooks and Prints February 1 April 24, 2005 Drawn from the special collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, this exhibition surveys sketchbooks and prints produced at the French Academy in Rome between 1750 and During this period, pensionnaires a select group of student painters and architects who studied in Rome were driven to improve their skills and refine their aesthetics by exploring the city and filling sketchbooks with ancient, Renaissance, and Baroque sculpture, architecture, and painting. The exhibition calls attention to these sketchbooks and a large group of related prints as a distinct body of work. It considers the methods by which architects and painters such as Marie-Joseph Peyre, Jacques-Louis David, Louis Gauffier, and Charles Percier extracted characteristics from their models and suppressed others in an attempt to generate a new classical aesthetic. VISIT Visit our special exhibition Web site to learn more about David s life and career. Zoom in on the artist s paintings, read excerpts from his letters and autobiography, and explore the tumultuous historical events of his lifetime. Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile has been organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Sterling Francine Clark Art Institute. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. # # # MEDIA CONTACT: Beth Brett Getty Communications Dept bbrett@getty.edu