Constructing Identity: Architects of Being Art Talk

Discover the creative worlds of Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina with Dr. Catherine Walworth, the Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr. Curator of Drawings at AMFA, as she explores how these groundbreaking artists challenged conventions of art, design, and identity.

Set against the backdrop of AMFA’s exhibition Architects of Being, this talk delves into themes of artistic bravery, material innovation, and the powerful ways Nevelson and Slobodkina navigated the New York art world at midcentury.

After the lecture, enjoy dinner at AMFA’s Park Grill. Call 501.396.0390 or email parkgrill@arkmfa.org for reservations.

About Dr. Catherine Walworth

Catherine Walworth is a modern art specialist whose curatorial work fuses political history, fashion, dance, and early film. Since joining the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in 2022, she has organized exhibitions such as Path to Abstraction: Picasso, Braque, and Cubism’s Impact on Modern Art and Kwame Brathwaite: The 1970s, while stewarding acquisitions for the AMFA Foundation Collection. Her upcoming national touring exhibition Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina (2025–2026) will be accompanied by a catalog featuring original scholarship.

Before AMFA, Walworth curated major modern and contemporary shows at Columbia Museum of Art, including Jackson Pollock: Mural and The Ironic Curtain: Art from the Soviet Underground. Her earlier work supported landmark traveling exhibitions at institutions such as Carnegie Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

She holds a PhD in art history from The Ohio State University, and her book Soviet Salvage was short-listed for the Modernist Studies Association’s First Book Prize. Her recent writing explores fashion and visual culture in classic film, including a 2024 chapter on MGM’s Ninotchka.

Constructing Identity: Architects of Being Art Talk is supported in part by the Alice L. Walton Foundation.

Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina is supported in part by the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Alan Dubois Fund for Contemporary Craft, Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, Anita Davis, and the Jewish Federation of Arkansas.

The catalog for Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina is supported in part by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

This exhibition is organized by the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.

Image courtesy of Jason Masters.