Join us for a lecture at the DIA and post-lecture reception and tours at the Charles Lang Freer House, WSU.

TWO LOCATIONS:

2:00 Lecture at Detroit Insitute of Arts, Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall
Free with museum admission

Guest lecture by
Massumeh Farhad, Freer Gallery of Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian

3:30 - 5:30  Freer House Reception and Tours ($15)
FREER HOUSE (One block north of the DIA)
71 East Ferry Street, Detroit
RSVP FOR RECEPTION HERE $15 per person, register below

DETAILS:
Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, today’s National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, is largely known for his collection of James McNeill Whistler’s etchings, ancient Chinese jades and bronzes, and Japanese paintings. His fascination with Middle Eastern ceramics and manuscripts, which began around 1902, has received relatively little scholarly attention. Although small in number at the time of Freer’s death, these works laid the foundation for one of the finest collections of their kind in the West. 

This presentation from Dr, Massumeh Farhad will explore Charles Lang Freer’s travels and interest in the arts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, offering a deeper understanding of his overall vision for his Asian art holdings and his museum on the National Mall.

Massumeh Farhad is the Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art, Senior Associate Director for Research, and Director of the Freer Research Center at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian. A specialist in the arts of the book from Safavid Iran, she is also the editor of Ars Orientalis, one of the oldest journals in the United States dedicated to the arts of Asia.

Image: Tile, Iran, Seljuq period, early 13th century, stone-paste painted over glaze with luster,
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1909.118