Hasta La Ideas

Tomorrow evening will see Sotheby’s find lucky new owners for such works as a ginormous Warhol self-portrait, Anish Kapoor‘s fun-house-mirrored panic button, and a radiant Rothko whose fiery hues will forever haunt our dreams. Those not busy bidding on Pollocks, de Koonings, and the mesmerizing graphite mist of Agnes Martin can still spend an evening contemplating beauty, which Martin once described as “awareness in the mind.” Beginning at 8:30 p.m. (Eastern) tomorrow, the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will host “A Deeper Look at Surface Beauty,” a free online colloquium open to anyone who registers here. Inspired by the Freer’s ongoing exhibition exploring the visual philosophy of its neurasthenic founder, the event promises stimulating discussion of “the complicated narratives of cultural transmission and translation that lie beneath the surface harmonies of collector Charles Lang Freer‘s aesthetic vision.” Curators and scholars will weigh in on everything from capturing aestheticism through photography to the musical dimensions of surface beauty. We advise taking in the colloquium whilst sipping a refreshing beverage from a Pewabic Pottery mug.

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