Barack Obama, Jane Goodall, and the Dalai Lama. Paintings by Robert McCurdy.
Please join painter, Robert McCurdy for a discussion on his artistic process and intent.
McCurdy’s meticulously realistic paintings, including, among others, primatologist Jane Goodall, the Dalai Lama, writers Toni Morrison and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and former President Barack Obama’s White House portrait.
McCurdy’s practice is conceptual, even minimalist. McCurdy states, “I look for a sustainable moment…It is why there is no movement, no expression or gesture… The image is reported rather than interpreted.” McCurdy studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and received a fellowship from Yale University. He resides in New York City.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A led by Annette Cumming, who, with her husband Ian Cumming, commissioned these portraits, which were presented at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in 2021.
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Robert McCurdy
Robert McCurdy received his BFA and honorary Doctorate from Maryland Institute College of Art, as well as a fellowship from Yale University. His roots are in the mid-Atlantic region, but he has lived in New York City for decades.
Best known as a painter of meticulously realistic portraits of famous subjects, McCurdy’s artistic practice is conceptual, even minimalist. His paintings are of people, but not about them. Explaining what he seeks during his portrait sittings, the artist writes, “I look for a sustainable moment: one where there is no before or after. It is why there is no movement, no expression or gesture… The image is reported rather than interpreted.” The resulting work, therefore, simultaneously denies and engages with celebrity.
Photo courtesy of Robert McCurdy.
Sponsors
Guild Hall’s Learning + New Works programs are made possible through The Patti Kenner Arts Education Fellowship, Vital Projects Fund, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
Additional support provided by Friends of Learning + New Works: Julie Raynor Gross, Stephanie Joyce and Jim Vos, S. Kutler Foundation, N. Glickberg, D. Glickberg, and J. Abrahams, Andrea and Jeffrey Lomasky, Peter Marino, Stephen Meringoff, and Eva Sandler.
Performing Arts programming is supported in part by funding from The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and Monica and Peter Tessler. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: John and Joan D’Addario, Christine and Bill Campbell, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Michèle and Steve Pesner, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Leila Straus, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.