Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 21, 2005|Volume 34, Number 8

"A Country School" (1890) by Edward Lamson Henry is on view at the Yale Art Gallery as part of the exhibit "Historical Fictions."

Talk, symposium examine
how artists 'remade the past'

The revisionist visions of pre-Civil War America that were created by artists after the conflict will be the focus of a lecture and symposium being presented Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28 and 29, by the Yale University Art Gallery.

The Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque Memorial Lecture and Symposium are being held in conjunction with the museum's exhibition "Historical Fictions: Edward Lamson Henry's Paintings of Past and Present," on view through Dec 30.

"In the aftermath of the Civil War," write the event organizers, "painters, photographers, decorative artists and authors dedicated themselves to exploring America's past. The 'historical fictions' that they created remade the past, constructing memory to suit contemporary needs."

The lecture, "Fictions and Realities in American Visual Culture," will be presented at 5:30 p.m. on Friday by Michael Kammen, the Newton C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture at Cornell University and the Cardozo Visiting Professor of History at Yale.

The symposium, titled "Constructing the Past in Gilded-Age America," will be held
9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday. Speakers will discuss notions of time, permanence, progress, nostalgia and authenticity in the works of the American genre painter Edward Lamson Henry (18411919) and his artistic and literary contemporaries, including Thomas Eakins, James Wells Champney, the Allen sisters, Wallace Nutting, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Sarah Orne Jewett.

Both events will be held in the Yale Center for British Art lecture hall, 1080 Chapel St. The lecture is free. The fee for the symposium is $20 per person; $10 for members; free to students with valid ID. Registration is required. For a complete schedule or to register, call (203) 432-0615 or visit http://artgallery.yale.edu.

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