Gallery director to discuss African American art in Walsh Art Gallery | Press Releases

Diana Mille, Ph.D., director of the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery at Fairfield University, will present "The Black Experience: African-American Art in the Twentieth Century" on Wednesday, Feb. 5 in the gallery located at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The 12:30 p.m. program is the third of four Director's Choice lectures on selected topics in modern and contemporary art scheduled for the 2002-03 season.

Dr. Mille will feature Romare Bearden, who is recognized as one of the most creative visual artists of the 20th century. When he wasn't earning his New York University degree, playing semi-professional baseball or publishing political cartoons, Bearden was working with the Harlem Artists Guild. A lifelong student of art, he is best known for his collages that bring to life scenes from his past in North Carolina, Harlem and Pittsburgh, as well as a host of literary, musical and historical references. Incorporating influences from Chinese landscape painting to cubism to the Italian Renaissance, his works hang in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and other important national and international galleries.

Those attending Dr. Mille's lecture can also view the gallery's exhibit, "Images from the 1960s - Photographs by James Hinton." The exhibit, which runs from Thursday, Jan. 23 through Sunday, March 23, weaves together the cultural, political and social life of African Americans during this turbulent decade as seen by photographer/filmmaker James Hinton.

Admission to the Director's Choice lecture is $5. Participants are invited to bring a brown bag lunch. For more information, call (203) 254-4000, ext. 2969.