Columbia Museum of Art hosts Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Naifeh   

for champagne reception, lecture and book signing featuring the acclaimed  

best-seller Van Gogh: The Life

Columbia, S.C. - The Columbia Museum of Art welcomes Pulitzer Prize winner and Museum member Steven Naifeh for a champagne reception, lecture and book signing on Friday, January 20 at 6:00 p.m. Naifeh and Gregory White Smith uncovered a big discovery revealed in their new biography, Van Gogh: The Life, which was recently featured on CBS 60 Minutes. The book is featured on several best book lists for 2011 in The New York Times, The Economist, The Washington Post and is the Sunday Times of London's Best Art Book of the Year.

6:00 p.m. Champagne Reception featuring Moet and Chandon Imperial champagne

7:00 p.m. Lecture

8:00 p.m. Book Signing and Reception with cash bar

Naifeh lectures on the revelations that emerged during 10 years of research and the profound ways in which Van Gogh's turbulent personal life, as well as his deep immersion in the art and literature of his era, helped shape one of the signature imaginations in Western art.

Leo Jansen, editor of Vincent van Gogh: The Complete Letters, has called Naifeh's book the "definitive biography for decades to come."

The authors have written many books on art and other subjects, including four New York Times best-sellers. Their biography, Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, won the Pulitzer Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It was made into the Academy Award-winning 2000 film, Pollock. Naifeh and Smith have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, USA Today and CBS 60 Minutes. They live in Aiken, SC, where they serve as chairmen of the Juilliard in Aiken Festival, which they helped found in 2009.

Tickets available at columbiamuseum.org.

$75 couple / $50 individual for champagne reception, preferred seating, lecture and book signing.

$35 individual nonmember / $25 individual member for lecture and book signing.

To watch the CBS 60 Minutes special, click here.  

The book, Van Gogh: The Life, is available in the Museum Shop.  

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Museum Information  
The Columbia Museum of Art is South Carolina's premier international art museum and houses a world-class collection of European and American art. Founded in 1950, the Museum opened its new building on Main Street in 1998 with 25 galleries. The collection includes masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, porcelain and works by significant furniture and silver makers, as well as American, Asian, and modern and contemporary art. In recent years the Museum's collection of Asian art and Antiquities has grown through generous gifts to the collection. Of particular interest are Sandro Botticelli's Nativity, Claude Monet's The Seine at Giverny, Canaletto's View of the Molo, and art glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Contemporaries, an affiliate membership group, recently completed an Art Acquisition Fund project with the installation of the Dale Chihuly chandelier, which is now on view in the Museum's David Wallace Robinson, Jr. Atrium. The Museum offers changing exhibitions from renowned museums as well as educational programs for all ages that include art classes, art camps, lectures, films and concerts. It is the recipient of a National Art Education Association award for its contributions to arts education and an Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts for outstanding contributions to the arts in South Carolina. Generous support to the Museum is provided by the City of Columbia, Richland County, the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties.

                                            

General Info:
803.799.2810  / Group Tours: 803.343.2163   
www.columbiamuseum.org

Location:
1515 Main Street in the heart of downtown Columbia

General Admission: 

$10 or less everyday!    

Always FREE for members  

*Nature and the Grand American Vision tickets are $12 and include admission to the Museum's Collection.

Museum Shop:

803.343.2159