Art Lecture: Brian P. Kennedy

Tuesday evening I went to an artist lecture I knew nothing about. I was pleasantly surprised to see the place was packed which is good because not enough students make it to see our visiting lecturers. This talk was put on my Brian P. Kennedy, Director of the Toledo Museum of Art and had done lots of work at the Dublin Museum of Art in Dublin, Ireland. His talk was focused around painter Caravaggio and his "Lost Paintings." He was born to a well off family in Milan in 1571 but growing up many of his family members passed away due to the plague going around at the time. He spent much of his time in Rome, where the Catholic Clergy took notice of his work. It is said that he made anywhere from 60-80 paintings in his life time, so finding a Caravaggio is rare but not unheard of. There are some things I learned that I really enjoyed about his work, first was that he put himself in the crowds or backgrounds of his pictures. If I could pull that off with all my photography I would. It just shows me that even though he was painting pictures of Catholic scenes he was still constantly looking and observing himself. Another thing I liked was that he wasn't afraid to mock. He had pictures with butts right in the center of the frame or dirty servant feet showing. I find it kinda comical that he does this with pictures that could be seen as prayer pieces. Shows his personality. It amazed me that such great works started with no drawings underneath them. He said using red-beam (?) technology they were able to see that Caravaggio never did any preliminary drawings. I'm not a drawer or painter by nature so it amazes me he can create such amazing work with little to no planning. Finally I loved that Mr. Kennedy talked about how Caravaggio was often getting into trouble. Some of the best artist are mad, or weird, we all have our quirks. It's nice to know Caravaggio was somewhat of a rebel and always stirring things up. The biggest things I take away from the talk that I can apply to my life was his talk about how museums have changed over the past years. Mr. Kennedy talked about how the internet is playing a bigger role in how people view pieces of art since many museums have online databases. He said about half of people go to the museum and half don't. Which is upsetting up true. I really believe in going and seeing a work of art rather than view it online. There's a certain experience of being in the room and seeing the size and scale of the work as the painter or artist intended you see it.  Its becoming harder and harder to make museums free to the public but I feel thats important if museums want the public to view the works. Overall I really enjoyed the lecture. His Irish accent was so cool. I always enjoy when I'm taught about an artist and actually become a fan from learning about it. I wish I could have made it to his talk the following day on seeing. He was a great lecturer, different from what we've had at UNH so far.