Event: The Harry Ransom Center hosts free public programs
When: Various dates throughout November
Where: Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, 21st and Guadalupe streets, ATandT Conference Center at 1900 University Ave. and Jessen Auditorium at The University of Texas at Austin
Background: The Harry Ransom Center presents public programs related to its exhibitions “The Mystique of the Archive” and “A Cabinet of Drawings” and the Center’s holdings. The events are free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-serve, and doors open 30 minutes prior to the start of events.
Poetry on the Plaza: “Winners and Losers”
Wednesday, Nov. 5, noon, at the Ransom Center
University of Texas at Austin faculty member Stephen Marshall from the Department of American Studies will be joined by Matt Cohen, Harrington Fellow from Duke University, to read poetry related to politics and the American electoral process. This event is free, and refreshments will be served.
Artists’ Drawing as a Special Case: Picasso, Braque
Thursday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m at the Ransom Center
For the 2008 Amon G. Carter Lecture, Bernice Rose, chief curator of the Menil Drawing Institute and Study Center in Houston, presents “Artists’ Drawing as a Special Case: Picasso, Braque.” In the early 20th century, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque re-ordered academic drawing, aligning it with Impressionist innovations to use it as a tool for articulating a new aspect of visual reality: mechanical movement. Rose’s lecture explores the role that drawing played in structuring this new alignment of visual experience as it emerged to become Cubism, the movement that became fundamental to the art of the 20th century.
“Beckett’s Doodles”
Tuesday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m., at the Ransom Center
Bill Prosser of the University of Reading explores Samuel Beckett’s doodles and discusses doodling as an under-appreciated art form. Although doodling is everywhere, it is generally ignored in thoughts and writings about art, receiving less critical attention than its more public relative, graffiti. Prosser works to rectify this imbalance with his talk, which gives a history of spontaneous drawings, using the doodles of Beckett as an example.
“Writers on the Future of Reading”
Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m., at the ATandT Conference Center Ballroom at 1900 University Ave.
To open the 2008 Flair Symposium, writers Lee Blessing, Denis Johnson, Tim O’Brien and Amy Tan discuss their work and the future of reading with Jim Magnuson, director of the Michener Center for Writers.
“Music From the Collections”: Maurice Ravel’s “Trio”
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m. at Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall
In the second “Music From the Collections” event, pianist Richard Dowling discusses and performs French composer Maurice Ravel’s “Trio for piano, violin, and cello.” After the lecture, Dowling will perform a complete, newly restored version of the “Trio” for the first time with Miró String Quartet first violinist Daniel Ching and cellist Amy Levine of the Laurel Piano Trio. This event is co-sponsored by the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin.
“Signatures Series”: Jay Neugeboren
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m. at the Ransom Center
In this “Signatures Series” event, author Jay Neugeboren, whose archive is housed at the Harry Ransom Center, talks about his latest book, “1940.” The novel, Neugeboren’s first in more than 20 years, tells the story of Dr. Eduard Bloch, a Jewish Austrian doctor who was Adolf Hitler’s childhood physician and whom Hitler later helped evacuate to New York before World War II. A book signing follows. “Signatures Series” events highlight writers whose archives are at the Ransom Center.
Archives Film Series: “The Lost Moment”
Monday, Nov. 24, 7 p.m., at the Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center continues the Archives Film Series with Martin Gabel’s “The Lost Moment” (1947). Adapted from Henry James’s novel “The Aspern Papers,” the film stars Robert Cummings and Susan Hayward. The film follows a New York publisher who travels to Venice to track down lost love letters of an early 19th-century poet from the poet’s former lover. The film series is held in conjunction with the exhibition “The Mystique of the Archive.”
