Watch, Read, Listen

David Pearson, former director of culture, heritage, and libraries for the City of London Corporation, looks afresh at the Bridgewater Library, informed by recent work on 17th-century private libraries more broadly, with a view to teasing out its cultural value today.

This is the Zeidberg Lecture in the History of the Book.

Lonnie G. Bunch III, 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, joins Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence and Huntington Governor Robert C. Davidson Jr. in a conversation about why museums and collecting institutions matter, what they have to offer to contemporary social and racial justice movements, and what it means to lead a museum in the current moment.

Celebrating The Huntington’s unparalleled opportunities for cross-disciplinary exploration of human culture and history, the Why It Matters series features Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence in conversation with distinguished guests about the enduring relevance of the humanities.

Chinese American composer Nathan Wang, the 2022-23 Cheng Family Foundation Visiting Artist in the Chinese Garden, will introduce his remarkable career and the development of the opera “On Gold Mountain” in collaboration with renowned author Lisa See. The evening will feature highlights from the upcoming performance of “On Gold Mountain” by LA Opera at The Huntington.

Robert Flynn Johnson, curator emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, discusses how Don Bachardy was one of the most insightful draftsmen of his era.

Most artists work in isolation, inventing their art from pure imagination or being inspired by landscapes or inanimate objects. If they derive their art from human beings, it is often from numerous sessions with live models when they have the luxury of time. Not so with Don Bachardy, who always created his works from life in single intense sessions of between two to three hours. This method meant that each drawing was a true collaboration between artist and subject. Unlike other artists, this demanded not just skill but the necessary elements of diplomacy in making willing subjects comfortable while, at the same time, putting himself, by choice, into the pressure of completing the work with the extreme economy of time.

This is the Isherwood-Bachardy Lecture.