Museum Masters | Bernadine Franco

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Bernadine Franco
Bernadine Franco

ABOUT THE EVENT

Museum Masters | Bernadine Franco

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The series of three "talks" explore the works and practice of American female artists. Themes include: "Capturing Nature through Abstraction," "The Female Reclining Nude Figure," "20th century women printmakers." The last talk will highlight the contributions by women of color. Each presentation draws heavily from the NBMAA collection.

February 11: "Capturing Nature: Abstraction and the Female Voice" In this talk, we will explore nature (trees, flowers, water, land, even the moon) through Abstraction; "representations pared down to the minimum." Female artists include Agnes Martin, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Helen Frankenthaler plus artists like Etel Adnan from the NBMAA collection. What we see in the natural world, these celebrated women artists distill into the essence of its shapes, forms, and colors.

February 18: "When Women Artists are the Image Maker of the Female Nude" We will contemplate the reclining, nude female figure in Western Art through the lens of artistic traditions (mostly male, white) and the response by female artists. Celebrated painters include Suzanne Valadon, Alice Neel, contemporary black artist Mickalene Thomas and the female nude figure from the NBMAA collection. (Polly Thayer, Lee Krasner, Isabel Bishop and more)

February 25: "Printmaking and the Black Female Experience" A celebration of black female printmakers in the NBMAA collection. Artists highlighted include Elizabeth Catlett, Faith Ringgold, and Kara Walker. Their visual representations, pictorial studies of black women, mirror their beauty, strength, dignity, and the black female experience.

About Bernadine Franco:

Bernadine Franco is an educator fascinated by the influence of women artists on the story of art. She engages the public with female visual artists defined through works that expose the astonishing beauty of women’s lives and empower the female perspective. Her media includes teaching, writing, speaking (in-person and through Beyond the Paint with Bernadine podcast) and designing tours at local museums.

Bernadine has received her BA in Art History, from Central Connecticut State University and her MA in American Studies with a concentration in Museums and Communities, from Trinity College, Hartford, CT

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