Brenda Edgar: Art Historian

The whole planet teems with indigenous petroglyphs and pictographs. Join me for a tour of the enigmatic rock art of our own continent, including the desert Southwest, where the climate has helped many of these ancient images to endure. In this richly illustrated talk, we'll discover what these mysterious pictures might mean, who made them, and why they were made. What do they teach us about our nature and history as a species?

Join me for a look at industrial landscape paintings, by English Enlightenment painters like Joseph Wright of Derby; Romantics like JMW Turner;  and Realists like Honore Daumier. The Impressionists, better known for their happy revelers and bucolic haystacks, also turned their attention to factory smokestacks and train stations. We'll follow the thread through the 20th century and into the 21st. Along the way, you’ll see the Industrial Age in all its promise, peril, and power. 

Bosch’s inventive landscapes startle and amuse, populated as they are with fantastical and grotesque hybrid figures . His art is truly exceptional; his ability to generate alternate universes through his painting was unmatched until the 20th century. In this enchantingly illustrated talk, we'll take a close look at Bosch’s painted visions of Earth, Heaven and Hell, and consider his influence on artists of future decades, and even future centuries, especially the Surrealists of the 1930s and 40s.

Let’s hit the road! I’ll be your guide as we look closely at these precious and exotic works of art from the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Along the way, we’ll explore the Art Histories of India, China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and more. One special area of inquiry will be the thorny issues of appropriation and repatriation.