In the 2023-24 academic year, we will hold 2 arts masterclasses, one per semester. All masterclasses will be held on Thursdays from 1-2 pm, via Zoom. The Baruch community is welcome to attend.
November 16, 2023
1-2 pm, on Zoom
On the Art of Political Agency: Manet’s Execution of Emperor Maximilian in the Global Context
Dr. Olga Johnson, Queensborough Community College
On 1 July 1867, when the Exposition Universelle in Paris was in full swing, a scandal erupted with news from Mexico City that a revolutionary troop had executed Emperor Maximilian, an Austrian archduke appointed to rule by imperial France during the Franco-Mexican war. The painter, Édouard Manet, immediately recorded this event in a controversial realist style, which earned him notoriety for rebelling against the repressive standards of the French Royal Academy. Aided by news media, Manet created four versions of his painting that evoke Francisco Goya’s Third of May (1808), a visual indictment of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. However, Manet’s work lacks Goya’s romantic revolutionary zeal, and to understand this realist dissent, we will consider the legacy of the French Revolution in South America, Napoleon I’s sale of Louisiana lands to the United States, and his nephew, Napoleon III’s geopolitical fiasco against the Monroe Doctrine.
The Baruch community is invited to attend this free lecture.
