NYC Summer Art Lecture Series Explores Medieval Masterpieces And More

NEW YORK, NY— 92NY’s Roundtable series returns this summer with a slate of art history programs exploring modernism, medieval art, Jewish history and the Italian Renaissance through live online lectures and in-person museum experiences.

Led by scholars, curators and historians, the courses examine artists including Paul Klee and Marc Chagall, alongside broader cultural movements spanning antiquity through the modern era. Programs range from single-session talks to multiweek seminars, with topics including exile and artistic reinvention, medieval symbolism and the rise of Italian Baroque art.

Here are the upcoming classes for spring and early summer:

Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds

Wednesday, May 27, 10:30-11:45 a.m.

In his final decade, as fascism closed in and illness overtook him, Paul Klee created some of the most haunting and visionary works of his career. Jewish Museum Senior Curator Emeritus Mason Klein explores how exile, political persecution and physical decline reshaped Klee’s late art and expanded modernism. Co-presented with The Jewish Museum in conjunction with the exhibition “Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds.”

Cost: $30 nonmembers; $21 members

The Art of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora at the Met

Thursday, May 28, 11 a.m.-noon

Karen Stern leads an in-person tour at The Metropolitan Museum of Art examining artifacts and artworks illuminating the history of the ancient Jewish diaspora throughout the Mediterranean, including communities in Egypt, Syria and Italy.

Cost: $75 nonmembers; $52.50 members

Art as a Window Into Medieval Culture: The Unicorn Tapestries and More

Monday, June 1-June 15, 2-3 p.m.

Medieval art expert Lauren Mancia explores the Unicorn Tapestries, the Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa cloister capitals and the Cloisters Cross, revealing how medieval objects illuminate broader themes in medieval culture and art.

Cost: $138 nonmembers; $96.60 members

From Duccio to Caravaggio: When Italian Art Ruled the World

Tuesday, June 9-June 23, 2-3 p.m.

Professor Jean-Pierre Isbouts traces the rise of Italian art from the Renaissance through the Baroque, examining the political, social and economic forces behind the artistic innovations of artists including Michelangelo and Filippo Brunelleschi.

Cost: $138 nonmembers; $96.60 members

Marc Chagall in America: Exile, Loss, and a New Dawn

Thursday, June 11-June 18, 6-7 p.m. ET

Katherine Tsan explores Marc Chagall’s years in America, examining his escape from Nazi-occupied France, his artistic response to war and grief, and his later rebirth through works including White Crucifixion and the Metropolitan Opera murals.

Cost: $92 nonmembers; $64.40 members