Michael Ann Holly: "Painted Presence" Samuel H. Kress Lecture

Much of art history and art education has been devoted to discovering meaning in historical works of art. Holly discusses an alternative critical path, wherein scholars need not always talk about what an artwork represents as much as what it presents. Works of art are about something far more magical, mysterious, and poetic than the transmittal of subject matter. The presence of an historical work of art in our contemporary visual world momentarily shifts the magnetic poles of what is seen and known. This is the sixth annual Samuel H. Kress Lecture in Museum Education, which is intended to further the study, understanding, and practice of museum education in the twenty-first century.