Ann Harris Davidson
August 9, 2020 (Sun), 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
UNM School of Architecture, George Pearl Hall Auditorium

Claude Monet, the first Impressionist? Yes, Monet’s 1873 “Impression, Sunrise” painting, now in Paris’s Musée Marmottan Monet, caused critic Louis Leroy to dub (pejoratively) Monet and his fellow artists at their 1874 exhibition as “The Impressionists”. The most accessible Impressionist? Yes, Monet’s paintings are now found in public and private collections on all continents except Antarctica, in national galleries around the world, and in at least 44 U.S. public collections, apart from the beautiful 1920s, room-sized waterlily paintings in Paris’s l’Orangerie.  This presentation will cover Monet’s extraordinary life; his development as a “plein air” artist (and as a gardener); the groundwork he laid for further abstraction in art; his four decades of living at Giverny; his death in 1926 and his legacy of Giverny and the saving of it, making Giverny now one of France’s most visited sites outside Paris. All to whet your appetites to visit Giverny!

Ann Harris Davidson is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, Regina, and the University of Sydney (MPH).  She has worked as a health researcher, lecturer, and administrator with universities and governments in Canada, Australia, France, Maryland, and Cameroon.  She is the also author of “Berwyn Heights: Then & Now”, the history of the town in Maryland where she lived for 20 years. Before Maryland, Ann spent seven years in France (working for the Australian government), a time which coincided with the public opening of Claude Monet’s home in Giverny. Those years in France gave Ann first-hand experiences of places where Monet had lived and worked, notably in Giverny in the 1920s, and where many of his iconic paintings are in French museum collections.

Lecture: $15/Albuquerque International Association (AIA) Members, $20/Non-Members; High School & College Students with ID – Free. Please address checks to AIA and mail to AIA, PO Box 92995, Albuquerque, NM 87199 by August 6, 2020. You can also pay on-line with credit card or at the door (cash and check only).

*Early Bird 20% Discount: $12/AIA Members, $16/Non-Members. Payment deadline is May 26, 2020.

Supported in part by Haverland-Carter Lifestyle Group, Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union
and the City of Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund