VMFA Partnership & September Lecture Announcement

This spring, the Alliance Française of Richmond was honored to be selected as a Community Partner of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Through this statewide initiative, VMFA offers complimentary lectures to its partners, enriching cultural engagement across Virginia. We are delighted to announce that our inaugural program will take place on September 26th at 2 pm, featuring VMFA’s Trent Nichols and his talk, “The Lighter Side of Surrealism: Rousseau, Magritte, and Cornell.”

United through their art, this talk with images explores the connections between three vastly different artists: France’s Henri Rousseau, Belgium’s René Magritte, and the United States’ Joseph Cornell. Surrealism, a literary and visual movement which began in the 1920s, experimented with new modes of expression. Rousseau, pre-dating Surrealism, was a naive “involuntary” Surrealist and was adored by the Surrealist group of Paris. Magritte’s works, quintessentially Surreal, helped define that form. Cornell appreciated the Surrealist movement but then took it in his own unique direction.

Mr. Nichols holds an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University and a BFA from VCU. He currently serves as the Media Programs Coordinator at VMFA and teaches film history in the VCU Art History Department.

The presentation will be held at a local library, with the exact location to be announced in late July.

Following the lecture, the Alliance Française of Richmond will convene its annual meeting.

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