Calendar of Events

Vincent van Gogh’s 1887 Self-Portrait recently returned to the Wadsworth after joining fifteen of the artist’s self-portraits from collections around the world in a landmark exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London. For more than a century, these works have played a key role in our perception of the famous post-impressionist, his life, and his art. This special lunchtime presentation by Dr. Karen Serres, Curator of Paintings at the Courtauld, gives Wadsworth members the chance to look anew at this beloved painting in our collection. Virtual program. Email invitations will be sent with registration links.

Hear about newly discovered early photographs from the collection from the 1840s through the 1940s in a conversation between Allen Phillips, Collection Imaging and Publications Manager, and Director Dr. Matthew Hargraves. Virtual program. Email invitations will be sent with registration links.

Artists Stephanie Syjuco (MATRIX 190) and Byron Kim (MATRIX 125) discuss their respective MATRIX exhibitions, their creative practices, and how they approach themes of identity, representation, and history in their work. MATRIX Past and Present is an ongoing series of conversations leading up to the 50th Anniversary of the MATRIX exhibitions program at the Wadsworth in 2025. Virtual program. Free with required registration. 
 

Balthus (1908–2001) is one of the most controversial European painters of the twentieth century. Little known during the 1930s, his status as a leading modern artist advanced with the Wadsworth’s crucial help. Join curator Oliver Tostmann as he explores the fascinating story behind the artist’s career and his reception on both sides of the Atlantic. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email invitation and registration link. 

Get an inside look at the Wadsworth’s newest Spotlight exhibition featuring Alexander Calder textiles from the collection, the first project formed by the Art Bridges Cohort Program. During this virtual program exhibition cocurators Erin Monroe and Laura Leonard discuss how these rarely seen textiles expand the story of modern design and reveal a range of influences on Calder’s materials and motifs, from early New England textiles to Latin and South American designs.

Keep an eye on your inbox for an email invitation and Zoom registration link. Not a member? Join today!

Image: Inge Morath, Calder Painting Gouaches, Roxbury (detail), 1964. Photograph. Gift of the Estate of Inge Morath, 2002.12.1

Join Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Jared Quinton for a discussion about Justine Kurland’s iconic photographic series, Girl Pictures (1997–2002), recently acquired by the Wadsworth and currently on view in Avery Court. Quinton discusses the work’s Connecticut origins and artful interweaving of cinematic narratives and feminist politics. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email invitation and link to register.

Justine Kurland, Toys R Us, 1998, from Girl Pictures, printed 1997–2002. 69 unique C-prints. Purchased through the gift of Robinson A. and Nancy D. Grover and the Alexander A. Goldfarb Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund, 2022.2.5

Elizabeth Burgess, director of collections and research at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, discusses three letters connected to Frederick Douglass and held at the Center as well as his interactions with Stowe beginning in the 1850s. These powerful examples of celebrity abolitionist interplay illuminate central themes in the Wadsworth’s exhibition  I Am Seen… Keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation and link to register.

Image: Harriet Beecher Stowe letter to Frederick Douglass, July 9, 1851. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, CT

Get an inside look at the Wadsworth’s newest Spotlight exhibition featuring an 1855 bureau on loan from the Columbia (SC) Museum of Art. Join Glenna Barlow, curator of education, for an introduction to Thomas Day, a master craftsman and free person of color in the pre-Civil War South. Hear how this exceptional bureau expands our understanding of cabinetry and culture in North Carolina. This Spotlight is the second in a series of exhibitions funded by the Art Bridges Cohort Program that expands the narrative of American art and material culture through multi-institutional exhibitions on display at the Wadsworth through 2025. 

Image: Sign outside Thomas Day’s studio. Photo by Jim Lamb

Special guest Jennifer Tonkovich, curator of drawings and prints at the Morgan Library & Museum, joins Linda Roth, Wadsworth curator of European decorative arts, in a conversation about the new book Morgan the Collector (2023).

The publication offers a series of essays illustrating a multifaceted portrait of J. Pierpont Morgan as a collector and pays tribute to Roth, who has dedicated much of her career to researching Morgan and the over 1,500 works from his collection now in the Wadsworth’s collection. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email invitation and registration link.

New England Ballet Theatre’s contemporary interpretation of the story inspired by the 1948 film is set in Hartford in 1954 where young dancers yearn to become prima ballerinas amidst a flourishing arts scene. A pair of blood-red ballet shoes promises unparalleled dance prowess, but the Shoemaker’s dark price taints their ambitions. As Karen rises to prominence after acquiring these enchanted shoes, her relationships falter and her longing for stardom isolates and consumes her. In the aftermath, she discovers that success emerges from within, yet the Shoemaker’s sinister influence continues to lurk, tempting new hopefuls to tread his treacherous path. Visit neballettheatre.com for tickets.

Directed and choreographed by Rachael Gnatowski.