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Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis

Painting of a woman with red hair up in a bun and wearing a blue and white striped dress, washing a baby in a white gown
Washing the Baby, 1899. Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943). Oil on canvas; 65 x 45 cm. Private collection. Image © Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis. © 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Art Unbound
Art Unbound
Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis
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Co-curating an exhibition with another institution can be challenging, especially when a global pandemic prohibits travel, not only to other cities but even to your own Museum. It’s a little easier when you’ve known your co-curator for many decades. On this episode of Art Unbound, Mary Weaver Chapin, Portland Art Museum’s Curator of Prints and Drawings, discusses her upcoming exhibition, Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis with her Co-Curator, Heather Lemonedes Brown, the Virginia N. and Randall J. Barbato Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art. After an overview of their personal history, Mary and Heather highlight the high points of their co-curating experience, as well as the complications of co-curating from home, drawing similarities to the lives of the Nabi artists, as depicted in their work.

This episode of Art Unbound is part of a series produced with funds provided by FRAME, the French American Museum Exchange, of which both the Portland Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art are members. FRAME is a consortium of 32 major museums in France and North America that promotes cultural exchange in the context of museum collaborations. FRAME fosters partnerships among its member museums to develop innovative exhibitions, educational and public programs, and professional exchanges among museum staff, and maintains a website to reach global audiences. For more information, visit the newly re-designed framemuseums.org

Featured in this episode

Mary Weaver Chapin – Curator of Prints and Drawings, Portland Art Museum
Heather Lemonedes Brown –Virginia N. and Randall J. Barbato Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Cleveland Museum of Art

Mentioned in this episode

Produced by Jon Richardson
Music by Mark Orton

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