The public is invited to join the Muscatine Art Center in welcoming Carol Ehlers, art history speaker, as she presents a 45 minute lecture on French Cubist painter Marie Laurencin. The lecture will take place Thursday, August 22 at 5:30 pm in the Muscatine Art Center's Music Room. Admission is free.
Marie Laurencin was born in Paris in 1883 and was an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde scene during the early years of the 20th century. She had close friendships with many fellow Cubists, including Pablo Picasso, George Braque, and Juan Gris and exhibited with them in 1910 and 1911. She became romantically involved with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and is often identified as his muse.
When Laurencin divorced from her German-born husband in 1920, she returned to Paris from Germany. There she achieved financial success as an artist until the depression of the 1930's. During the Depression she worked as an art instructor at a private school. She taught and continued to paint until her death in 1956.
Marie Laurencin is admired first and foremost for her charming sense of color and style which makes her paintings immediately recognizable. Her works, which included oil paintings and pastels, watercolors, drawings, and prints, remained remarkably consistent throughout her career. She is known as one of the few female Cubists and although she worked closely with other members of the movement, she developed a unique approach to the subject of abstraction. Her use of pastels and curved, feminine forms kept her body of work outside the norms of Cubism.
In 1992 the Muscatine Art Center's collections were significantly enriched by a gift of twenty-seven works of art by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Degas, Boudin, Chagall, Renoir, and other European artists. The collection was a gift from the estate of Mary Musser Gilmore in honor of her parents, Richard Drew Musser and Sarah Walker Musser. The paintings are on permanent display in the Laura Musser Mansion.
EVENT DETAILS:
Lecture: French Cubist Marie Laurencin
Who: Carol Ehlers
When: Thursday, August 22, 2013
Time: 5:30 PM
Where: The Muscatine Art Center's Music Room
Admission to this program is FREE.
Please contact Katy Loos, Program Coordinator, with any questions or concerns at
563-263-8282 or by email at kloos@muscatineiowa.gov.
The Muscatine Art Center is located at 1314 Mulberry Avenue in Muscatine, Iowa. Hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Thursday evenings until 7:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated. Visit www.muscatineartcenter.org for more information about programs and events and to download a class brochure.
