An Evening with Classically Inspired Artist Darryl Babatunde Smith
Please note: This virtual program is free and open to ICAA Members and the General Public.
In Neoplatonist texts from Ancient Greece and the Renaissance mentions of the body abound, with these texts purposefully noting the plethora of ways in which the human body was represented in art from antiquity. The specificity given to the description of ancient art is also present in the same language used in ekphrastic poetry, hymns and myths from Ancient Greece. After finding parallels in language and figurative representation, artist Darryl Babatunde Smith started to study ways in which the body in Ancient Greek art was used as its own visual language.
In this artist's talk, accompanying his exhibition Ad Manum, Ad Dorsum, on view in the ICAA's Cast Hall from March 30th-April 28th, 2022, Smith will discuss the subjects of sculptures in the historic cast collection at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, examining his drawings and the ICAA's casts in comparison and conversation with their literary counterparts. Depictions of similar scenes in vase paintings will also show this consistency in this language of bodies, and how narrative scenes were constructed solely using the composition of the human body.
Philadelphia-based artist Darryl Babatunde Smith started making art as a way of interpreting foreign languages as opposed to translating them in English. He studied French, German, and Latin in high school and later began to learn Ancient and Modern Greek on his own. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he completed his BFA in Painting, and at the New York Academy of Art where he obtained his MFA in Drawing an Anatomy. Through Darryl's knowledge of Latin and Greek he immerses himself in antiquity. He uses Greco-Roman symbols and traditional Renaissance techniques such as silverpoint drawing and egg tempera painting to connect personal narratives with Greco-Roman ideologies and philosophies.His works have been exhibited nationally (Philadelphia, Hillsdale, New York City) and internationally in Reykjavík, Iceland and Athens, Greece.
Lead Cast Hall Exhibition Sponsor: Jared Goss
Lead Annual Public Programs Sponsor: RINCK
Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Dell Mitchell Architects
Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Hyde Park Mouldings
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