Dr. Susanne Anderson-Riedel, Associate Professor, UNM
September 9, 2018

On August 10, 1793, commemorating the fall of the French monarchy, the first public museum opened its doors at the Louvre Palace in Paris.  The vast art collections, once proud royal possessions, now defined the cultural pride of the citizens of France.  For the past 200 years, the collections continued to change: artworks were added and taken out due to political and cultural conditions.  Emperors, kings, and presidents have all left their mark on the museum; and the galleries, once restricted to just a small part of the royal palace, now occupy the entirety of the structure. The Louvre Museum not only houses some of the most celebrated works of art, but those tell an intriguing story of the intersection of art and politics in France and her standing in the world.

The Louvre – one of the most widely visited museums in the world -holds a dazzling collection of art from the past, while it is a continuously changing and vibrant civic institution. Dr. Susanne Anderson-Riedel will present the cultural and political history of the Louvre Museum by focusing on selected masterpieces from the collections.

Dr. Susanne Anderson-Riedel is Associate Professor of European Art and Assistant Chair at the Department of Art at UNM.  She received her M.A. from Freiburg, Germany, and her Ph.D. from UCLA concentrating her research on French art of the 18th and 19th centuries.  Dr. Anderson-Riedel has extensive international experience, studying and working in Germany, France, and Italy, as well as publishing and presenting her research in the US and abroad.  She has been awarded several research scholarships including a Mellon Fellowship.  Dr. Anderson-Riedel’s book, Creativity and Reproduction: Nineteenth Century Engraving and the Academy, tells the story of printmakers at the French Academy to be accepted as fine artists and supported by the state.

Supported by Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, Haverland Carter Lifestyle Group
and Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union