Lectures

 
Featured
New Perspectives into Ancient Greek Culture: Hairstyles | Katherine Schwab Art History Lecture
Feb 26
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
New Perspectives into Ancient Greek Culture: Hairstyles | Katherine Schwab Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

NEW DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 2025
7:30 PM

As an example of experimental archaeology, in 2009, Dr. Schwab and six students collaborated with a professional hairstylist to test whether or not the six Caryatids’ hairstyles could be recreated with a positive result. Tools and hair products, just like today, were important in the domestic sphere. The arrangement of hair became a clear signal of rites of passage and status within the community. Locks of hair were often dedicated in temples or cut before warriors left for battle. Together we will explore a range of ancient Greek hairstyles and their meanings for both individual and society.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Julian Tan: End Trances | Artist Talk
Feb 27
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Artist Talk
Julian Tan: End Trances | Artist Talk
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Artist Talk

Thursday, February 27, 2025
5:30–6 PM members-only reception; 6 PM general reception; 6:30 PM lecture

Please join us for an artist talk with Julian Tan. He will share a special presentation on his Athenaeum show, End Trances, and how it connects to his career and process. A members-only reception will take place from 5:30–6:00 p.m. The reception for all ticketholders will take place at 6:00 p.m., followed by a lecture at 6:30 p.m.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Artist Talk
Ana María Herrera | Artist Talk
Mar 1
Athenaeum Art Center
Artist Talk
Ana María Herrera | Artist Talk
Athenaeum Art Center
Artist Talk

Saturday, March 1, 2025
5:30–6 PM members-only reception; 6 PM general reception; 6:30 PM lecture

Experience an intimate evening with Ana María Herrera, the renowned multidisciplinary artist behind Layered Memories, currently on exhibit at the Athenaeum Art Center. In her artist talk, Herrera will discuss her history and creative process, sharing how her identity as a Mexican-born American artist and community advocate informs her assemblages and creative process.  

Athenaeum Art Center
Artist Talk
Art of Wine and Eternal Rome | Barbara Baxter Special Lecture
Mar 13
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture
Art of Wine and Eternal Rome | Barbara Baxter Special Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture

Thursday, March 13, 2025
7:30 PM

Savor the Eternal City’s history and culture paired with Italian wines. We hear tales of good and evil set among Rome’s monuments, fountains, aqueducts, and sculpture—heroes and villains paired with vino Italiano.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture
Art of Wine | Special Lecture Series Presented by Barbara Baxter
Mar 13
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture Series
Art of Wine | Special Lecture Series Presented by Barbara Baxter
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture Series

Thursdays, March 13, 20 & 27, 2025
7:30 PM

Join wine whiz Barbara Baxter, who trained at Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Napa and studied in Italy and France, on a delightful romp through cultural history paired with harmonious wines. The Art of Wine will focus on three iconic winemaking regions which also emerged as cultural epicenters throughout history: the city of Rome, pairing outstanding Italian wines with architecture from the classical epoch; wines of Provence paired with the Impressionist artists; and the arrival of both the wine world and art world in innovative postwar Southern California. An entertaining dive: culture and viniculture!

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture Series
Provence & Impressionism | Barbara Baxter Special Lecture
Mar 20
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture
Provence & Impressionism | Barbara Baxter Special Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture

Thursday, March 20, 2025
7:30 PM

Light and love are served up in the art and wines of Southern France. Rounded and golden, soft and opulent—are we talking about wines from Provence or Impressionist art? We will explore this rewarding land and its culture.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture
Southern California | Barbara Baxter Special Lecture
Mar 27
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture
Southern California | Barbara Baxter Special Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture

Thursday, March 27, 2025
7:30 PM

Southern California’s outrageous and fun art scene exploded in the postwar years parallel with California’s wine-world arrival. Join us for a dive into the era when Southern California art and wine became oh so cool.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Special Lecture
Art Nouveau Origins: Brussels | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Mar 31
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Art Nouveau Origins: Brussels | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Monday, March 31, 2025
7:30 PM

Meet Victor Horta, Paul Hankar, and Henri van de Velde who originated the Art Nouveau style in Brussels. The movement elevated “craft” to an “art” and unified all art forms. In using modern materials and construction techniques, it eliminated historicism while emphasizing nature and movement through use of the whiplash line. Open floor plans and expansive use of glass, mirrors, and electricity brought transparency and spatial fluidity to once dark and constricted interiors. 

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Art Nouveau, 1890–1915 | Art History Lecture Series Presented by Diane Kane
Mar 31
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Series
Art Nouveau, 1890–1915 | Art History Lecture Series Presented by Diane Kane
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Series

Monday, March 31, April 7, 14 & 21, 2025
7:30 PM

The international art movement known as Art Nouveau flourished from the early 1890s to 1914. Rejecting historical references and traditional geometric forms, it featured florid vegetation, sinuous lines, and asymmetry. Although the design approach encompassed all visual art forms, it was most prevalent in architecture and the decorative arts. Furniture, mirrors, metalwork, art glass, carved plaster, and intricate paneling all featured the signature “whiplash” lines of Art Nouveau. Originating in Brussels, and highlighted in the Exposition Universelle of 1900 (better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition), the style is strongly associated with the wealthy and fashionable.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Series
The Belle Époque: Paris | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Apr 7
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
The Belle Époque: Paris | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Monday, April 7, 2025
7:30 PM

The style gained popularity through exposure at the Paris Exposition. French architects Hector Guimard, Jules Lavirotte, and Frantz Jourdain experimented with optics, transparency, motion, and point of view. Decorative artists, like Louis Majorelle, Emile Gallé, and Georges de Feure, contributed furniture, glass, and metalwork that integrated into the overall design, while jewelry, paintings, and poster design continued to use Art Nouveau techniques independent of architecture. 

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Austrian Art Nouveau: Vienna | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Apr 14
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Austrian Art Nouveau: Vienna | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Monday, April 14, 2025
7:30 PM

The waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire coincided with a flourishing of Belle Époque artistic expressions in Eastern Europe. By the mid-1890s, the experimental Vienna Secession advocated for integrated design, while the “Wagner School” (named after Otto Koloman Wagner) supported a modern architecture where form followed function. Rebuilding, due to modernization, of Vienna led to entire sections of the city built in the Art Nouveau style.  Artisans of the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops) influenced the later Bauhaus, American Art Deco, Scandinavian Modernism, and Italian Craft and Design.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Catalan Gothic Art Nouveau: Barcelona | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Apr 21
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Catalan Gothic Art Nouveau: Barcelona | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Monday, April 21, 2025
7:30 PM

Architect Antonio Gaudí was the greatest exponent of Catalan modernism. Influenced by neo-Gothic techniques and orientalism, he forged a unique organic style inspired by the complex geometry of natural forms. Although his very long career predates and postdates Art Nouveau’s heyday, his most original works coincide with the 1890–1915 period of this lecture series. His experimental work with hyperboloid and paraboloid arches influenced mid-century modernism, High Tech, postmodernism, and Deconstructivism.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture