DESIGNING FOR LEONARDO: EXHIBITION DESIGN AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
with Speaker DONNA KIRK, SENIOR ARCHITECT OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
November 17 th at the ICS Headquarters
2019 was a “Year of Leonardo” celebrating the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The National Gallery offered an exhibition of Verrocchio entitled “Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence”. It was the first-ever monographic exhibition in the United States on Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488), the innovative artist, painter, sculptor, and teacher whose pupils included, in addition to Leonardo, Pietro Perugino and likely Sandro Botticelli as well.
Ms. Kirk showed photos of the appearance of the Leonardo’s Mona Lisa at the National Gallery in one of the few times this masterpiece has ever left the Louvre. She offered insights into the process of designing an exhibition and showed how the design changes in a series of photos of exhibitions ranging from Joan Miro and Mark Rothko to Gauguin and recently Verrochio. She explained that Leonardo may in fact have been the model for the great “David” of Verrocchio and how it was that Leonardo may have helped finish some of Verrocchio’s better known paintings. She finally offered a look at the Verrocchio exhibition.
Leonardo Exibit 1
Leonardo exibit 2
Leonardo exibit 3
