Lunchtime Talk Explores French Art
Laurie Monahan, associate professor of history of art and architecture at UC Santa Barbara, discusses landscape in French 19th-century art in a lecture Tuesday, March 1, at 12 p.m. in Founders Room at Westmont. The talk, “Moving through the Landscape: Sites and Sights in French 19th-century Art,” is free and open to the public. Bring a brown-bag lunch, or come at 11:45 a.m. to purchase lunch for $10 in the Dining Commons.
“Dr. Monahan comes highly recommended as a popular lecturer at UCSB,” says Judy Larson, director of the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. “At Westmont, she will speak about the varied subjects that caught the attention of French 19th-century artists and the new and modern approaches that Barbizon, realist and impressionist artists brought to these subjects.”
Monahan specializes in surrealism, French art, European 20th-century art, American Post-World War II art, visual culture and critical theory. She has written essays on Andre Masson, Henri Matisse and photographers Lee Miller and Claude Cahun. She is currently finishing a book, “A Knife into Dreams: Andre Masson, Massacres, and Surrealism of the 1930s.”
She earned her master’s at the University of British Columbia and her doctorate from Harvard University. Her work on issues of violence, identity and cultural relations between Europe and the United States has been recognized internationally and is widely cited.
Westmont offers the lecture in conjunction with an exhibition, “Barbizon, Realism, and Impressionism in France,” which is on display through March 19 at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The exhibition features prominent artists associated with the famed Barbizon, realism and impressionism schools, including Eugène Boudin, Gustave Caillebotte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Charles-François Daubigny, Narcisse Virgile Díaz de la Peña, Jules Dupré, Henri-Joseph Harpignies, Charles-Emile Jacque, Henri Matisse, Jean-François Millet, Théodore Rousseau and Constant Troyon.