Lecture by Dr. Barbara Zabel

Wired: Calder and Portraiture Get to know Alexander Calder again, this time through the lens of portraiture, an often overlooked aspect of his career. Barbara Zabel will talk about an exhibition she curated for the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, Calder’s Portraits, the first to focus on the artist as a prolific portraitist.

After arriving in Paris in 1926, Calder started bending wire into portrait likenesses of such public figures as Babe Ruth and Calvin Coolidge, entertainers Josephine Baker and Jimmy Durante, and art world figures and friends. In portraiture, Calder found a way of showcasing facial features in flux, identity itself in flux. Barbara has written a book on the subject, copies of which will be available at the lecture.

For more information on Calder’s Portraits, see http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/calder/index.html

Reservations required.

Barbara Zabel, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Connecticut College, continues to teach courses at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum and to lecture at other venues. Since her retirement she has also curated several exhibitions at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum; at present she is working on the upcoming Memorial Exhibition of sculptor David Smalley, who was a great admirer of Calder’s sculpture. That exhibition opens at the Lyman Allyn on June 3, 2017.