Denison's art department will welcome a guest lecturer to Department Chair Joy Sperling's American Art Class to discuss the "truths" about a famous art exhibition at 10 a.m. on Thursday (Oct. 11) in room 104 of the Cleveland Art Annex building. Laurette E. McCarthy, an independent scholar and curator whose primary current project is the research and writing of a biography on American artist/critic Walter Pach, will visit Denison to talk about "The 'Truths' About the Armory Show: Walter Pach's Side of the Story." The lecture is free and open to the public.

The Armory Show, an exhibition of the works of modern artists mounted in 1913, is recognized as an event that was a turning point in the history of modern art and the wider acceptance in America of the work of such modern painters as Matisse, Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, whose work,Dances at the Spring, became one of the sensations of the exhibition. The exhibit opened in New York and traveled to Chicago and Boston. Walter Pach's role in the mounting of the exhibition and the loan of art works from the group of artists working in Europe has often been ignored or downplayed in published accounts. He, says McCarthy, was the person responsible for procuring Marcel Duchamp'sNude Descending a Staircase, a work responsible for making the Armory Show a popular cultural event. McCarthy sets the record straight and describes Pach's crucial role in bringing this exhibition to fruition.

McCarthy has previously served as curator of American art at the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, Ind. and as a research assistant at The Museums at Stony Brook (N.Y.) and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She has published "Modernists on Tour: A New Look at a Historic Show" in the American Art Journal as well as several articles in exhibition catalogues. She earned her bachelor's degree at Tufts University (Mass.), a master's at George Washington University (D.C.) and her doctorate at the University of Delaware.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575