Mary Cassatt's Radical Monstrosities

June 2014 - Hollis Clayson, Samuel H. Kress Professor, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt's art is reexamined in this lecture recorded on May 14, 2014 at the National Gallery of Art. Professor Hollis Clayson argues for new approach to understanding Cassatt's signature mother-and-child paintings and her early black-and-white intaglio prints set in her Paris apartment library. The "monstrosities" in question arose from often overlooked aspects of the artist's radically inventive art. This program was held in conjunction with the Degas/Cassatt exhibition on view at the National Gallery of Art, the sole venue, from May 11 to October 5, 2014.