School Notes: School of Art
November/December 2013

Celebrating Manet and Modernism

Edouard Manet’s two landmark works, Dejeuner Sur L’herbe and Olympia, both painted in 1863, were groundbreaking in their painting styles and scandalous in subject matter. But they were also said to have ushered in the movement known as Modernism. The School of Art, along with the Department of the History of Art, is honoring the 150th anniversary of these works with an exhibition at the 32 Edgewood Avenue Gallery. Lunch with Olympia features some 30 works that are based on or inspired by Manet’s two paintings, including Manet’s etching of Olympia and works by Paul Cezanne, Raymond Duchamp Villon, Stephen Prina, and Carrie Mae Weems, among others. It continues through November 21.

Two events at the school complement Lunch with Olympia. A concurrent show in Green Hall features works by students, alumni, faculty, and staff in response to Manet and the pieces in the Edgewood Gallery exhibition. For Ed:Splendor in the Grass with Olympic Lad and Lass, which will include an evening of performance art, is on view through November 22. And a conference held in September at the Loria Center brought speakers and panelists from around the world, including from the Musée d’Orsay where Olympia now hangs, to discuss the implications of the two Manet paintings.