The History Center will host “Folk and Self-Taught Artists: Redefining American Art” with American Folk Art Museum curators, historian and curator Louise Lippincott, and contemporary artist Christine Bethea, Thursday, Nov. 10, from 6:30-8 p.m.
(Image: Touching Up, by John Kane, courtesy Carnegie Museum of Art, gift of Thomas Mellon Evans, 72.58).
The Senator John Heinz History Center – the Smithsonian’s home in Pittsburgh – will host a panel discussion, “Folk and Self-Taught Artists: Redefining American Art,” with American Folk Art Museum curators, historian and curator Louise Lippincott, and contemporary artist Christine Bethea, Thursday, Nov. 10, from 6:30-8 p.m.
Moderated by American Folk Art Museum Director and CEO Jason T. Busch, the panel will explore the evolution of folk and self-taught artists and how their lived experience affects their creative expression.
The discussion coincides with the History Center’s new exhibition, Pittsburgh’s John Kane: The Life & Art of an American Workman, which features 37 original works of art by John Kane – the first self-taught artist to be recognized in a museum exhibition (Carnegie International, 1927).
The panel will discuss the barriers and challenges artists like Kane faced during the past 100 years and how these artists reflect American social, cultural, and political life in their work.
Panelists include:
Christine Bethea, multi-media artist, arts administrator, educator.
Emelie Gevalt, curatorial chair for collections and curator of Folk Art at the American Folk Art Museum, New York.
Louise Lippincott, Ph.D., art historian, guest curator for Pittsburgh’s John Kane exhibit at the History Center.
Valérie Rousseau, Ph.D., curatorial chair for exhibitions and senior curator at the American Folk Art Museum, New York.
This lively one-hour discussion will conclude with a Q&A with the audience.
Tickets are $20 for general admission. Admission includes one complimentary drink ticket. Please register in advance.
History Center exhibitions, including Pittsburgh’s John Kane, will open from 5:30-6:30 p.m. prior to the event.