Emerson Bowyer

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plaster sculpted bust of man, with brow furrowed and head turned
David d'Angers: Making the Modern Monument
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Lauded by Victor Hugo as the Michelangelo of Paris, French sculptor Pierre-Jean David d’Angers (1788–1856) produced many of the most iconic portraits and ambitious public monuments of the Romantic era. An experimental writer, outspoken Republican, and teacher to some of the greatest sculptors of the nineteenth century, David d’Angers cultivated friendships with an array of contemporary artists, writers, scientists, and politicians — from Honoré de Balzac and Niccolò Paganini to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Eugène Delacroix. This exhibition included forty-eight works by David on paper and in wax, terracotta, marble, bronze, and plaster, as well as rare nineteenth-century reproductions of his work in photographs and engravings.

video still of two Aimee Ng and Emerson Boyer speaking over painting
Frick Five: Emerson Bowyer

In the fifth episode of “Frick Five,” Curator Aimee Ng interviews Emerson Bowyer, Searle Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago. Emerson answers our five questions, expressing his admiration for the early twentieth-century French sculptor Camille Claudel. “This is, for me, sculpture at its limit, sculpture on the edge.”

Link to video of Emerson Bowyer lecture
Emerson Bowyer: "History in Relief"

Emerson Bowyer, Searle Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago presents his lecture History in Relief. This video is one of a series of lectures from the symposium Full Circle: The Medal in Art History, presented by The Frick Collection in honor of Stephen K. Scher on Friday, September 8, 2017.

Link to video of Emerson Bowyer lecture
Emerson Bowyer: "Sculpting History: David d'Angers and the Romantic Monument"

In a celebrated passage from his Histoire de la Révolution Française, historian Jules Michelet (1833–1867) asserted that the French Revolution left no lasting monuments, only empty space. Pierre-Jean David d’Angers (1788–1856), perhaps the greatest sculptor of the early nineteenth century, made it his life’s work to fill that void. This lecture follows David’s attempts to reinvigorate and adapt the notion of a historical monument to the new social and political landscape of modernity.