Arts Society

FRIENDS OR RIVALS?

From an early age we’re told to be nice, play well with others, color inside the lines, and be cooperative and respectful to those around us. Yet it doesn’t take too long—high school or one’s first job—to realize that this ideal state of social harmony rarely exists in the world. The art world is highly competitive. There were both friendships and rivalries, this series gives a taste of some of them.

TIME:

10:30am – Light Brunch Served

11am – Lecture Begins

COST:

$165 – Museum Members

$230 – Future Members (includes a museum membership)

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September 16
Clashes

From the early Renaissance where artists competed for commissions from popes, to the 20 century when the words of critics could make or break an artist, this opening overview of some historic clashes includes Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, Renaissance artists whose architecture transformed Rome; Caravaggio and Giovanni Baglione, whose work embodied the clash between old and new; Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who were at one time “roped together like mountain climbers;”  and Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, who were breaking all the rules.

October 28
Michelangelo and Raphael

Michelangelo and Rapheal were a pair of incredible Renaissance artists who experienced a particularly epic rivalry. Both vied for the same patrons, and both often worked on the same large-scale projects, so their professional contempt quickly became ultra-personal.

December 9
Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres and Eugène Delacroix

Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres and Eugene Delacroix were two prominent French painters in the 19 century. In the public imagination, they were often pitted against each other.

As one critic said, their work was  “the battle between antique and modern genius.”

2026

January 13
James Mallord William Turner and John Constable

Whether Turner and Constable were friends or rivals, they both claimed new dignity for the landscape genre, making it a hallmark of 19 century painting.

February 10
Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas

Manet and Degas were both rebellious sons from bourgeois families and both broke new ground in art.  Manet was an established artist when they met, and their relationship was full of jealous tiffs.  But they pushed each other to take risks, and those came to define their careers.

March 10
Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso

In the early 20th century, Paris became a crucible of artistic experimentation, where Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse forged a dynamic friendship amidst the burgeoning avant-garde movement.  They weren’t close friends, but there was an element of pure artistic competition as the younger Picasso sought to assimilate the lessons of Matisse and then surpass him.

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