Baton Rouge, Louisiana—The LSU Museum of Art (LSU MOA) is pleased to announce Dr. Blaise Ducos, the Chief Curator of 17th- and 18th-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, will give a free lecture on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 6 P.M., as part of the museum’s annual Decorative Arts Lecture Series. LSU MOA created this series in 2021 to focus on Decorative Arts and to celebrate the museum’s permanent collection of decorative objects. This series invites experts and artists from the decorative arts field annually to the LSU Museum of Art to share their knowledge with the public.

This spring, Dr. Blaise Ducos will give a lecture at LSU MOA titled, Metal into Paint: The Many Lives of the Van Vianen Vase. The lecture will investigate this decorative object and its recurring appearance in Dutch paintings throughout history. This program will be held on the third floor of the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This lecture will be followed by a brief reception at the museum. Free to attend.

ABOUT THIS LECTURE:

Metal into Paint: The Many Lives of the Van Vianen Vase

One of the most remarkable and intriguing pieces of silverware designed in 17th century Holland is the Van Vianen vase, held at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. A technical prowess and feat of inventive craftsmanship, it wields inspiration after natural forms, as well as a taste for the slightly bizarre. As such, it is above the league of well-conceived, well executed silver. It catches the eye. It breathes life and a fluid rhythm into metal manipulated as molten wax would be. It comes therefore as no surprise to see the little ewer surfacing in paintings of the time as an object of fascination: the Van Vianen Vase became a motif, even a leitmotiv in Dutch painting. But how did painters use it? This lecture will explore the many pictorial lives of this strange, alluring object.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Blaise Ducos (pictured) is Chief Curator of 17th- and 18th-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. He holds the prestigious Conservateur du patrimoine qualification. Trained originally as a philosopher at the University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), he studied Art History at the Ecole du Louvre and completed a Ph.D. on Flemish-born painter Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569-1622) at the University of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens in 2008. Among his most important exhibitions organized and catalogues written or edited, one can cite: Frans Post. Brazil in the Court of Louis XIV (Musée du Louvre, 2005) with Pedro Correa do Lago, The Revolutions of the Classical Age (2009, Tokyo and Kyoto), and Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age (Musée du Louvre, Louvre Abu Dhabi, 2019). Along with George Keyes and Lloyd DeWitt, Ducos curated the Rembrandt et la figure du Christ (English: Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus) exhibition (Musée du Louvre, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Detroit Institute of Arts, 2011-2012). The Louvre’s Dutch and Flemish collection, for which Dr. Blaise Ducos is responsible, is one of the most varied outside of the Netherlands. It is testament to a French traditional taste for this type of painting as well as to the strength of relations between France and its immediate neighbors to the north since the Ancien Régime.

Dr. Blaise Ducos is the Paula G. Manship Endowed Lecturer at the LSU College of Art + Design.

Thank you to the following sponsors of the Decorative Arts Lecture Series: Beth and Butler Fuller; Carol Steinmuller; Susan and Carl Blyskal; Ann Wilkinson; Nedra and John Hains; Janie and Chet Coles; Linda and Robert Bowsher.

Visit LSU Museum of Art’s Facebook and Instagram pages @lsumoa regularly for program announcements and exhibition updates. For more information: www.lsumoa.org

ABOUT LSU MUSEUM OF ART

LSU Museum of Art seeks to enrich and inspire through collections, exhibitions, conservation, and education, serving as a cultural and intellectual resource for the University, Baton Rouge, and beyond.

LSU Museum of Art is supported in part by a grant from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, funded by the East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President and Metro Council. LSU Museum of Art is supported by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council. Funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. Support also provided by Art Bridges. Additional support is provided by generous donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund: Louisiana CAT; The Imo N. Brown Memorial Fund in memory of Heidel Brown and Mary Ann Brown; John G. Turner and Jerry G. Fischer; The Alma Lee, H. N., and Cary Saurage Fund; Charles “Chuck” Edward Schwing; Robert and Linda Bowsher; Becky and Warren Gottsegen; LSU College of Art + Design; Mr. and Mrs. Sanford A. Arst; and The Newton B. Thomas Family/Newtron Group Fund. Thank you to the following sponsors of Free Friday Nights and Free First Sundays. We appreciate the support of Louisiana Lottery Corporation for sponsoring free admission and Louisiana CAT for sponsoring programming. Thank you to LSU Auxiliary Services for providing water and sodas at all LSU MOA programs. LSU MOA educational programming is sponsored by Louisiana CAT and Junior League of Baton Rouge.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The museum is located in downtown Baton Rouge at 100 Lafayette Street on the Fifth Floor of the Shaw Center for the Arts. General admission is $5 each for adults and children age 13 and over. Admission is free to university faculty and students with ID, children age 12 and under, and museum members. Active duty military members, first responders, and their families receive free admission with ID as part of the Blue Star Museums program. Valid during normal operation hours, show your EBT card and photo ID at the admissions desk and receive free admission for up to 4 individuals. Come back anytime, there’s no limit to how often you can visit through Museums for All. Museum Hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday and Friday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday 1-5 p.m.; and closed on Mondays and major holidays. Free admission occurs on the first Sunday of each month and every Friday night from 5-8 p.m. For more information: visit www.lsumoa.org, call 225-389-7200, and follow the museum on social media @lsumoa for exhibition and program updates.

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