Calendar

Art à la Carte is a series of informative programs focusing on the arts. It is offered free of charge on Wednesdays at 12:15p. Participants are encouraged to bring lunch or pick up something from The Palette Café. Coffee, tea, and cookies are provided. All programs are held in the FIA’s Isabel Hall unless otherwise noted.

This series of 10 half-hour programs shows how a painted image echos the spirit of its time and relates to a particular historic event. It reveals the poetic, sociological and political potential of the picture by penetrating inside the painting and examine the underlining details, thanks to work of computer graphics which livens up characters, objects and sets. Each film tells a fascinating story of a creator and the painting process.

Women of Algiers in Their Apartment by Eugène Delazrois

27 min

As the war of colonization raged in Algeria, Eugène Delacroix was the first French artist to cross the Mediterranean. The naturalism of “Women of Algiers in Their Apartment,” painted in 1834, takes us into the calm and simplicity of a harem as Delacroix saw it with his own eyes.  This documentary looks at his attempts to counter Orientalist fantasies of Middle Eastern women held by European society and discusses his admiration of Lord Byron. It also details his journey through Morocco and Algeria as part of a French diplomatic mission, during which he witnessed the realities of North African culture that inspired him to document and recreate the scene of three sisters in their private quarters.

A Lady in Her Bath by François Clouet

27 min

A Lady in Her Bath (circa 1571), by François Clouet, bears witness to a period in which the pleasure of the senses and the spirit were caught up in religious conflict. It gave rise to the despotic canons of beauty. This film examines the painting's composition and symbolism.