VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach Museum of Art is pleased to announce the line-up for its 2011 International Lecture Series. For over 20 years, this premier arts lecture series has featured some of the most prominent speakers in the arts and humanities, and this year is no exception. This season, all presentations will be hosted in the Leonhardt Auditorium, with two presentations by the same speaker – one at 4 pm and, a second at 6 pm. A light wine reception with an opportunity to meet the speaker will bridge both presentations beginning at 5 pm in the newly enclosed Wahlstrom Sculpture Garden/Laura and Bill Buck Atrium.
Presentations include:
Monday, February 21- Late Monet: Finding Meaning in the Mundane, presented by art historian and educator Paul Hayes Tucker.
In the last twenty-six years of his long, productive life, Claude Monet trained his extraordinarily sensitive eyes on the water garden he created on his Giverny property. Between 1900 and his death in 1926 at age eighty-six, the last surviving French Impressionist painted more than 200 views of this aquatic paradise, making it the single most important motif of his entire career. This presentation examines these dazzling “Water Landscapes,” as Monet called them, setting them in the context of his achievements of the nineteenth century while illuminating their connections to their moment. They emerge not only as staggering examples of Monet’s virtuosity but also as bearers of deep personal and historic meaning.
Hailed by Time Magazine as one of America’s foremost authorities on Claude Monet and Impressionism, Tucker holds The Paul Hayes Tucker Distinguished Professor of Art Chair, established in his name at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Monday, February 28 – Adventures in Film Making: Life at 24 Frames a Second presented by actor Michael York.
Join the celebrated actor for a light-hearted look at his extensive 40-year career. Working with Laurence Olivier at his new National Theatre in the distinguished company of such luminaries as Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Ian McKellen proved to be a vigorous environment in which to perfect his craft. As his skills and acclaim grew to encompass the cinema, he worked under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli in The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet and Jesus of Nazareth. Among his many films are Cabaret, The Three Musketeers, Logan’s Run, Murder on the Orient Express, all three “Austin Powers” movies, and the two Omega Code films.
York’s adventures have spanned the most dynamic period of film history: he was one of the last Hollywood studio contract players, worked in Europe’s New Wave, and saw the advent of the current digital era. Always a maverick, his life has been guided by whatever interested him the most.
Monday, March 7 – An Evening with Billy Collins, presented by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. His last three collections have broken sales records for poetry. He has published nine collections of poetry, edited four anthologies, and has appeared in a variety of periodicals including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The American Scholar. He considers humor “a door into the serious” – a door thousands of readers have opened with amazement and delight.
Collins was appointed United States Poet Laureate 2001-03, and was named New York State Poet Laureate 2004-06. In 2004 he was the inaugural recipient of the Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry. He is a Guggenheim fellow and a New York Public Library “Literary Lion,” a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York, as well as a Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute at Rollins College.
Monday, March 21 – Hollywood 1939: The Greatest Year, presented by columnist, film historian, and host of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Robert Osborne.
Over seventy years ago, an astonishing mix of forceful personalities, creative talents, and artistic genius converged for one golden year in cinema, unlike any before or since. 1939 saw the release of Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Wuthering Heights, Gunga Din, Ninotchka, and Dark Victory among many others that stand as a high point in American film.
Robert Osborne, with his background as a columnist and critic for The Hollywood Reporter (one of the industry’s most important daily papers), author of over ten books about the Academy Awards and host of the Turner Classic Movies television network, will discuss the reasons why 1939 produced more classic movies than any other. He will also draw comparisons between the film industry that existed then and now, how and why the star system has changed, and why it is unlikely another Gone with the Wind or The Wizard of Oz could be made today.
The Series cost (4-lectures) is $240 for the general public; $200 for Museum Members. Individual tickets are $65 for the general public; $55 for Museum Members.
Register in-person at the Museum, by phone at (772) 231-0707, or online at www.verobeachmuseum.org.