The Jamestown Arts Center will host the third annual Mark S. Weil Art History Lecture on Sunday, May 3, featuring art historian Elizabeth C. Childs of Washington University in St. Louis.
The lecture, titled “Why Gauguin Matters: Artistic Response from Matisse to Global Contemporary Art,” will run from 4 to 6 p.m. at the arts center, 18 Valley St. Admission is free, and advance RSVPs are encouraged at jamestownartcenter.org/events.
Childs will examine the influence of Paul Gauguin, the French Post-Impressionist painter who died in 1903, tracing how his work has shaped artists from early admirers such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse to contemporary global artists including Paula Modersohn-Becker, Amrita Sher-Gil and Pacific Islander artists Yuki Kihara, Tyla Vaeau and Kay George. The talk will also engage the philosophical questions raised in Gauguin’s monumental painting “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?,” held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Childs is the Etta and Mark Steinberg Professor of Modern Art at Washington University and a scholar of European avant-garde modernism. Her research focuses on the intersections of art with colonialism, global exchange, gender and race, with particular attention to Gauguin’s engagement with Tahitian and Marquesan culture. She is currently completing a monograph on Gauguin’s late work and writings.
The annual lecture series honors the legacy of Mark S. Weil, a Jamestown resident and longtime art history professor at Washington University, who died in 2021. The program was established by his wife, artist Joan Hall, and brings scholars to Jamestown each year. Weil was an avid collector of Old Master prints and drawings and was known for sharing his collection directly with students so they could examine original works rather than reproductions.
“It’s an honor to bring leading voices in art history to Jamestown in Mark Weil’s memory and to offer this community direct access to rigorous, thought-provoking scholarship typically experienced in major academic or museum settings,” Christine Cocca, the arts center’s executive director, said in a statement.
