Stephen F. Austin State University

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art will present an afternoon of lectures to accompany the "Picturing Pollock: Photographs by Hans Namuth and Martha Holmes" exhibition now on display at The Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches. The free event begins at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 3, and is open to the public.

Dr. Ellen Landau, author of "Jackson Pollock" (Harry N. Abrams, 1989), will speak about Pollock's technique, and Helen Harrison, director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, will discuss the appearance of Pollock in popular magazines.

Dr. Bradley Bailey, SFA assistant professor of art history and curator of the Pollock exhibition, will discuss the impact Pollock had on the artists included in the A.G. Edwards exhibition currently on display in the first floor gallery of The Art Center.

The afternoon will also include screenings of two rarely seen short films that Namuth made of Pollock painting in 1950. Additionally, the SFA Repertory Dance Company will present of an improvisational work choreographed by guest artist Rashana Smith who took her inspiration from the Pollock exhibition.

"We are very fortunate to be hosting two of the foremost authorities on the life and work of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century," said Bailey. "Having the opportunity to spend an afternoon learning from and interacting with such distinguished scholars is rare in smaller communities like this one. Normally, one would have to travel to Dallas or Houston to attend an event like this."

Landau, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Humanities at Case Western Reserve University, has written several books and exhibition catalogue essays on the subject of abstract expressionism, including the recent anthology "Reading Abstract Expressionism: Context and Critique " (Yale University Press, 2005).

She was co-curator of a Krasner/Pollock joint retrospective held at the Kunstmuseum Bern in 1989-90, the first Krasner and Pollock show produced in Europe. Currently, she is acting curator for "Pollock Matters," an exhibition that focuses on the artistic and personal interrelationships of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner with painter Mercedes Matter and the noted photographer and graphic designer Herbert Matter.

Harrison is the editor of "Such Desperate Joy: Imagining Jackson Pollock" (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2001), a collection of writings, interviews, never-before published art, creative responses and personal revelations that examine the multiple dimensions of Pollock's impact and influence.

Harrison has also been an art reviewer and featured writer for the Long Island section of The New York Times since 1978.

Bailey joined the SFA faculty in 2004, where he teaches courses in modern, contemporary and American art history. In 2001, he was an invited speaker in the Round Table Lecture Series at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.

The entire afternoon's activities will last approximately two and a half hours, and refreshments will be served. The Art Center @ The Old Opera House is located at 329 E. Main Street.

The symposium is sponsored in part by Texas Commission on the Arts, Nacogdoches Junior Forum and SFA Friends of the Visual Arts. "Picturing Pollock: Photographs by Hans Namuth and Martha Holmes" is sponsored in part by Cataract, Glaucoma & Retina Consultants of East Texas, founded by Shannon L. Smith, M.D.

For more information, please call (936) 468-1131.