Help us celebrate the opening of Sargent and Spain with a performance of live flamenco music and dance, and a panel discussion offering an overview of the exhibition.

Schedule

Sargent and Spain: Curators in Conversation
11 – 12 pm, Gunn Theater

Emma Acker, associate curator of American art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will lead a conversation with Sarah Cash, associate curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of Art, along with Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, exhibition co-curators and co-authors of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné.  

Dance and music performance by Caminos Flamencos
12 – 2 pm, Court of Honor

About the speakers

Emma Acker is associate curator of American art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the coordinating curator for the Museums’ presentation of Sargent and Spain. Among several exhibitions she has organized at the Museums, Cult of the Machine was identified by the Washington Post as one of the top two surveys of American art in 2018. Acker, who worked previously at the Getty Research Institute and the National Gallery of Art, has authored numerous publications and is the recipient of fellowships from Brown University, the University of Southern California, the National Gallery of Art, the English Speaking Union, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and the University of St Andrews. 

Sarah Cash is associate curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of Art. Until its closure in September 2014, she served as Bechhoefer Curator of American Art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In 2011, she completed the first modern scholarly catalogue of the Corcoran’s American paintings collection: Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Her many publications include Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture (1996), Ominous Hush: The Thunderstorm Paintings of Martin Johnson Heade (1994), American Art: Paintings from the Amon Carter Museum (1992), and numerous catalogue entries and articles. She has lectured widely on American art.

Elaine Kilmurray is research director of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné, and co-author of the nine published volumes of the catalogue (Yale University Press 1998 – 2016). She has co-curated exhibitions of Sargent’s work in London, the United States and Italy, and has written and lectured internationally on the artist and related subjects.

Richard Ormond, is co-author of the nine published volumes of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné. He is currently working on a complete catalogue of Sargent’s 750 portrait drawings in charcoal and on a selection of his letters. Co-curator of the current exhibition of Sargent in Spain (2022) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, he is also a great-nephew of the artist. He is the former director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London (1986 – 2000), and chairman of the Watts Gallery in Compton, UK (1987 – 2019).

About Caminos Flamencos 

The mission of Caminos Flamencos is to enrich and educate the community by presenting innovative contemporary and traditional works which reflect the “nuevo flamenco” movement in Spain today. Since 1993, artistic director Yaelisa has collaborated with artists in other mediums, incorporating top musicians in the field of jazz, Latin, and Afro-Cuban music, and her choreographies have been commissioned by Collage Dance Theatre, Malashock Dance Company, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Stanford Danza Española and the Internacional Certamen de Coreografia (International Choreography Contest) in Madrid, Spain.

Ticket info

Free. Seating is limited and unassigned for the panel discussion and tickets are distributed on a first-come first-served basis in front of the Gunn Theater an hour before the conversation begins. This does not include admission to the exhibition. 

Contact info

Public Programs
publicprograms@famsf.org
415.750.7694