Urban landscape painter Nicholas Evans-Cato will present a slideshow talk on Monday, Oct. 25. Evans-Cato’s talk, “Brunelleschi’s Magic Bullet: On Painting the City with Perfect Projection,” will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Room 101 of the F. Ross Jones Building, Mattin Center, on the Homewood campus at 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore.
It is said that Filippo Brunelleschi’s now-lost 15th century painting of the Florence Baptistery was so realistic that viewers confused seeing it with seeing the actual building. Brooklyn-based artist and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) instructor Evans-Cato will discuss his own paintings in the context of this infamous anecdote, which is the foundational myth of Renaissance linear perspective.
Citing both historical sources and his own plein-air paintings as research, his lecture exposes the extent to which the legend of Brunelleschi’s invention of systematic perspective appears as surprisingly problematic, tacitly relying on both the misappraisal of fundamental geometric axioms and a literal reading of early, non-scientific accounts of his technique.
Evans-Cato, 38, has taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Princeton University and the Pratt Institute. Since 2005, he has been an instructor of drawing and painting at RISD. He is represented by the George Billis Gallery in New York. His paintings are in numerous permanent collections, including those of the Museum of the City of New York, the New York Historical Society and Time Warner Inc. His work has been featured and reviewed in many publications, including the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine and Art & Antiques.
To download images of Evans-Cato’s work, go to: http://www.jhu.edu/artwork/evans-cato.html
Evans-Cato’s talk is co-sponsored by Homewood Art Workshops and Homewood Arts Programs. Visitor parking on campus is available in the South Garage, 3101 Wyman Park Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21211. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410-516-6705.
