Guggenheim: Public Programs for Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918-1936

A full schedule of educational programs is being presented in conjunction with Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918–1936, the first exhibition in the United States to focus on the vast transformation in European culture between the world wars and to examine its manifestations in all media. On view through January 9, 2011, the exhibition features work by artists including Balthus, Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Cocteau, Otto Dix, Hannah Höch, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Pablo Picasso, and August Sander.


ON VIEW AT THE SACKLER CENTER FOR ARTS EDUCATION
Vox Populi: Posters of the Interwar Years
Through January 9, 2011
The 1920s and 1930s were among the greatest years in the history of poster design. The popular voice of manufacturers, political movements, and the travel and entertainment industries, the poster was an immensely refined art created for a vast public. Vox Populi: Posters of the Interwar Years presents a selection of six posters from France, Italy, and Germany.


FILM SCREENINGS
The Blood of a Poet (Le sang d’un poète), 1930
Directed by Jean Cocteau
Fridays, October 29, November 5, 12, and 19, 1 and 2:30 pm
The first installment in the Orphic Trilogy—a series of three films by acclaimed French avant-garde director Jean Cocteau—the groundbreaking film The Blood of a Poet is one of cinema’s great experiments. A portrait of the plight of the artist, the film uses surrealist imagery to explore the poet’s obsessions with the relationships between art and dreams, metaphor and reality, and life and death.

Free with museum admission.
Films are shown in the New Media Theater, lower level.


FILM SCREENINGS
Metropolis, 1927
Directed by Fritz Lang
Fridays, December 3 and 10, 12 and 3 pm
Perhaps one of the most famous and influential of all silent films, Metropolis takes place in 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor. In this new digital restoration, the tense balance between these two societies is realized through elaborate sets and modern science fiction.

Free with museum admission.
Films are shown in the New Media Theater, lower level.


FILM SCREENINGS
The Architecture of Doom, 1991
Directed by Peter Cohen
Fridays, December 17 and 24, 12 and 3 pm
Featuring newly researched footage of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, The Architecture of Doom captures the inner workings of the Third Reich and illuminates the Nazi aesthetic in art, architecture, and popular culture. Hitler worshipped ancient Rome and Greece and dreamed of a new golden age of classical art and monumental architecture populated by beautiful, patriotic Aryans. There was no place for so-called degenerate artists like Pablo Picasso and other modernists or for “inferior” races like Jews in his lurid fantasy. This riveting documentary shows how Hitler rose from failed artist to creator of a world of ponderous kitsch and horrifying terror.

FREE with museum admission.
Films are shown in the New Media Theater, lower level.


LECTURES
Scultura Lingua Morta:
Sculpture’s Forbidden Languages
Wednesday, November 10, 6:30 pm
Penelope Curtis
Director, Tate Britain
Penelope Curtis, a noted scholar of modern sculpture from Fascist Italy and the Third Reich, shares new thoughts in the context of Chaos and Classicism.

Tickets are $10, $7 for members and students, and are available at guggenheim.org/publicprograms.


LECTURES
23rd Annual Hilla Rebay Lecture: Objects as Sculpture
Tuesday, November 16, 6:30 pm
Elizabeth Cowling
Honorary Fellow, History of Art, University of Edinburgh
Shortly before World War I, when Umberto Boccioni, Georges Braque, and Pablo Picasso began to sculpt objects and still-life compositions, they set in motion a revolution, the repercussions of which can still be felt in the work of many of today’s leading sculptors. Soon afterward, Marcel Duchamp launched his assault on the very foundations of art with his found-object readymades. In this year’s Hilla Rebay Lecture, Elizabeth Cowling focuses on a pivotal period in the history of modern sculpture when the object, rather than the human form, assumed the role of agent provocateur. The Hilla Rebay Lecture brings distinguished scholars to the Guggenheim Museum to examine significant issues in the theory, criticism, and history of art. This annual program is supported by the Hilla von Rebay Foundation. Free admission (no advance ticket registration).


LECTURES
Constructing Classicism in Fashion
Tuesday, December 7, 6:30 pm
Patricia Mears
Deputy Director, The Museum at FIT
Between the world wars, women such as Madeleine Vionnet dominated fashion design in Paris and New York. Charting the embrace of classicism, Patricia Mears, a renowned costume historian and style expert, discusses clothing innovations that defined fashion in the 1930s, changed the course of modern dress, and continue to influence couture today.

Tickets are $10, $7 for members and students, and are available at guggenheim.org/publicprograms.


TOURS
Mind’s Eye
Monday, November 8, 6:30 pm
As part of the museum’s free programs for partially sighted, blind, and deaf visitors, Guggenheim museum educators, led by Georgia Krantz, guide an interactive tour and discussion focusing on Chaos and Classicism followed by a private reception.

Free admission with advance RSVP required at access@guggenheim.org.


Curator’s Eye Tours
The exhibition’s curators lead tours of Chaos and Classicism.
Helen Hsu: Friday, November 12, 2 pm
Kenneth E. Silver: Friday, December 3, 2 pm

Free with museum admission.


FAMILY PROGRAMS
Fall Family Day
Sunday, November 14, 2–5 pm
The public is invited to celebrate the museum’s architecture and fall exhibitions, including Chaos and Classicism. Families can learn about the artworks on view by meeting different characters and personalities in the paintings, photographs, and sculptures in the rotunda and galleries. Participants can investigate the ways artists tell us about characters depicted in their works and experiment with materials, shapes, and colors for their own portraits. Everyone is encouraged to play a character and try on costumes. Other activities include readings, performances, much more. Recommended for families with children ages 4–10.

$15 per family; $10 for members; cash only. Free for Family members, Cool Culture families, and Guggenheim partner schools. No registration needed.


INTERACT
Guggenheim Online Forum
Mon, November 15–Fri, November 19
Guggenheim Forum presents an installment titled “Satire, Critique, Provocation, Propaganda” to accompany the Chaos and Classicism exhibition. A new, diverse group of panelists including novelist and journalist Francisco Goldman and art historian Jennie Hirsh will discuss the various ways artists address politics in their work.

Visit guggenheim.org/forum for complete information and to join the conversation.


CALL FOR PAPERS
Emerging Scholars Symposium:
Is Returning to the Past Modern?
Wednesday, January 5, 1 pm
In the spirit of Chaos and Classicism, the Sackler Center for Arts Education is sponsoring a program showcasing emerging scholars. Through new research, this series of focused presentations grapples with the long-standing questions of whether artists, architects, and designers can look to the past for inspiration and still be considered modern.

To register and review the call for papers, visit guggenheim.org/publicprograms.


For updated information regarding programs, contact the Box Office at 212 423 3587 or visit guggenheim.org/publicprograms.