NOVEMBER 10 : CONNECTIONS - AN INAUGURAL EXHIBITION OF CHINESE CERAMICS AND ASIAN EXPORT ART AT THE ALBUQUERQUE COLLECTION

Monday NOVEMBER 10, 2025

2:00pm - 3:30pm


The Bruce Museum
1 Museum Drive
Greenwich, CT 06830

Bonus lecture courtesy of the CT Ceramics Circle

Image courtesy of Becky Mac Guire. Chinese porcelain jar with Franciscan emblem, hard paste porcelain, Qianlong period, circa 1740, H. 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm). Albuquerque Foundation, Sintra, Portugal.

speaker : BECKY mACgUIRE

  Becky MacGuire retired from Christie’s after a 30-year career as the firm’s senior specialist in Chinese export art. A senior vice president of the firm, Becky was also Director of the New York Exceptional Sale. After graduation from the University of California at Berkeley with honors in art history, Becky completed the program of the Study Centre for the Fine and Decorative Arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was an original appraiser on the American Antiques Roadshow and among the earliest members of The Chinese Porcelain Company staff. Author of Four Centuries of Blue and White: The Frelinghuysen Collection of Chinese & Japanese Export Porcelain (Ad Illisum 2023), MacGuire has most recently been guest curator for the inaugural exhibition of the Albuquerque Foundation in Portugal. Her forthcoming book will cover the much overlooked and intriguing Chinese export enameled wares made in the first decades of the 19th century, the sunset years of the classic export trade.

 The Albuquerque Foundation opened its doors in late February 2025 with an exhibition celebrating the stories of cross-cultural encounter that are reflected in its magnificent collection. Known to many from its publication in six large volumes (The RA Collection, vols. I-VI, by M.A. de Matos et al, 2011-2022), the collection formed by Renato de Albuquerque over six decades focuses on Chinese ceramics, but also includes Japanese ceramics, paintings and lacquer; Chinese painted enamel, carvings and bronzes; China trade painting and works of Anglo-Portuguese art. 

 

       In this talk Connections guest curator Becky MacGuire will discuss how she drew from the more than 2500 diverse works of art in the collection for this inaugural exhibition. Aiming to introduce the collection to visitors both new to the field and experienced, the exhibition explores the many ways in which these objects speak to us of networks of influence – and of human commonality – in the early modern world.

 

       A virtual tour of the exhibition will include views of the Foundation's home in Sintra, Portugal, where it is housed in an historic quinta with expansive gardens, now joined by state-of-the-art galleries and storage. 

 

       The talk will also make note of the contemporary ceramics program, which is an integral part of the Foundation's mission. Housed in a stand-alone gallery on the Foundation grounds, its opening exhibition is The Ever-Present Hand by Theaster Gates, in which the artist has incorporated a small number of pieces from the historic collection.

 

     
Admission is free. Register at: www.cceramicsc.org   

 

NOVEMBER 12, 2025 : 40th ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON! GEORGIA O'KEEFE, AMERICAN MODERNIST : FROM LUSH FLOWERS TO THE NEW MEXICO DESERT

Wednesday November 12, 2025

11:30am - 3:00pm

RIVERSIDE YACHT CLUB
102 CLUB ROAD 
RIVERSIDE, CONNECTICUT


Image Courtesy of Dr. Janetta Rebold Benton


speaker : JANETTA REBOLD BENTON Ph.D.

Image Courtesy of Dr. Janetta Rebold Benton

Distinguished Professor of Art History, Pace University , NY.

Dr. Benton is the recipient of two Fulbright Scholar Awards: She was visiting professor in the graduate school of Art History, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, in 2018, and in the graduate school of Art History, European University, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2012. A former resident of Paris, she taught art history courses at the American Embassy. She is the author of 10 art history books (an 11th is forthcoming) and 21 scholarly articles and entries. Dr. Benton regularly presents subscription seminars for the Smithsonian Associates, Washington, DC, and the 92NY, Manhattan, NY, and also presented subscription lecture series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, every season 1988-2011. She has lectured at The Cloisters, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and elsewhere in America and abroad. She holds degrees/diploma from Harvard, Brown, George Washington, and Cornell Universities.

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE (1887-1986) AND 20TH- CENTURY MODERNISM

Born in a farmhouse in Wisconsin, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe is celebrated for her paintings of flowers –although factually recorded, they are so large, seen so close up, and so sumptuously colored that they verge on abstraction. She loved the vast American Southwest region where she found solitude as well as inspiration for the colors and picturesque shapes of the rocky landscape depicted in her paintings. Visit the two adobe homes in New Mexico of an artist described as a “loner.” Join Dr. Janetta Rebold Benton for this richly illustrated PowerPoint lecture tracing O’Keeffe’s life story, examining her creative process and sources of inspiration, as well as her complicated relationship with the gallerist and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.


Tickets will be available for purchase at our first meeting on October 6.

Online registration and mail-in check payments will open following the event.

 

 

LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT : PROGRAM YEAR 2025-2026

2025-2026 promises to be another exciting year, with an eclectic range of programs featuring eminent speakers:  programs on modern French tapestry from the Mobilier national, 75 years of collecting at Winterthur, the renovation of the Frick, and how the French Revolution changed women’s fashion.  One London-based speaker is an internationally recognized tenth-generation jeweler from Jaipur, India.  In November, there will be 40th anniversary luncheon at the Riverside Yacht Club, with the speaker focusing on Georgia O’Keeffe.  Once again, in addition to the eight regularly scheduled GDAS lectures, there will be two additional bonus lectures at The Bruce, courtesy of the Connecticut Ceramics Circle. Meetings at the  Bruce will continue to be on Mondays – when the Museum is closed to the public. Our “Tea” will follow each presentation, and the museum store will be open. 

 

Although costs have risen steadily, we are keeping the membership fee at $200.  However, if possible, members are encouraged to join at the Benefactor level ($500), which includes two guest passes and lunch with a speaker, or as a Contributor ($300), with one guess pass, or as a Friend ($250).  Payments may be made online or by credit card or check.  Guests are charged a $30 fee per lecture; however, a person may attend as a guest on two occasions before they must become a member. 

 

We very much look forward to seeing you in season 2025-2026.  What a better way to jumpstart each month than with fascinating lectures that give us a glimpse into the rich and complex world of decorative arts! 

 Click here to be taken to the Program Page

Ellen Brennan-Galvin

President, Greenwich Decorative Arts Society

Disclaimer: All lectures are the property of the speaker and may not be disseminated, shared, recorded or distributed, in print or digitally, without the lecturer's express written permission. Your attendance at any Greenwich Decorative Arts lecture is not permission to disseminate, share, record or distribute.

TRIPS AND TOURS : THE SEVEN BRIDGES FOUNDATION

Seven Bridges Foundation is a nonprofit established in 1993 by Richard McKenzie supporting established and emerging living artists.  Located on 80 acres in backcountry Greenwich we were wowed by the paintings, glass art, sculptures and photography.  The outdoor sculpture collection, sited to take advantage of the natural surroundings ,were a visual pleasure.