Panel discussion with speakers Dr. Matthew Baigell, James M. Wechsler, and Harvey M. Ross.

The Queens Museum is pleased to present a conversation about the work of William Gropper in celebration of the exhibition, Bearing Witness: Drawings by William Gropper. Participants include Dr. Matthew Baigell, Professor Emeritus, Art History, Rutgers University; James Wechsler, art historian and Harvey M. Ross, collector. Discussion moderated by Louise Weinberg, exhibition curator.

Matthew Baigell is professor emeritus in art history at Rutgers University. He has written many books and articles on American and Jewish American art, including American Art, Jewish Images (2006), Jewish Art in America: An Introduction (2007), Social Concern and Left Politics in Jewish American Art, 1880-1940 (2015) and the forthcoming The Implacable Urge to Defame: Cartoon Jews in the American Press, 1877-1935.

James Wechsler is an art historian specializing in modern art and the visual culture of the revolutionary left in The United States and Mexico. His publications include: “History as a Weapon: Diego Rivera’s Portrait of America,” in Luis-Martín Lozano and Juan Coronel Rivera, eds., Diego Rivera: Complete Murals, Köln: Taschen, 2007 and “Propaganda Gráfica: Leftist Politics and Mexican Printmaking, 1920-1950,” in John Ittmann, ed., Mexico & Modern Printmaking: A Revolution in the Graphic Arts, 1920-1950, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2006.

The works in the exhibition, Bearing Witness: Drawings by William Gropper, have been selected from the collection of Harvey M. and Harvey-Ann Ross, whose collection encompasses American social realist works by Gropper, Philip Evergood, Jacob Lawrence, George Grosz and others.

This conversation about the work of William Gropper is part of a series of programs associated with the exhibition, Bearing Witness: Drawings by William Gropper, currently on display at the Queens Museum until November 6, 2016.

Join us afterwards for coffee and cookies.

Image: William Gropper, Hunger March (detail), 1932. Ink on tinted paper. From the collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross