La Maison Française of New York University, located at 16 Washington Mews (at University Place), will host two special events in January. Both events are free and open to the public. For further information, call 212.998.8750 or visit www.nyu.edu/maisonfrancaise.
On Thursday, January 29, at 7 p.m., University of North Carolina professor E. Jane Burns will discuss Womens Silk Work: A Textile Geography of Old French Literature. Burns is the author of Sea of Silk: A Textile Geography of Womens Work in Medieval French Literature and Courtly Love Undressed. This event takes place at La Maison Française.
On Friday, January 30, at 6 p.m., La Maison Française, the AIA-New York, and the American Society of Landscape Architects will present Lascaux Cave: The Complex Story of an Ice Age Sanctuary with NYU Professor of Anthropology Randall White; and painter Simon Carr. This event takes place at The Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place (between 3rd and Bleecker Streets). For reservations, email rsvp@aiany.org.
Since its discovery in France in September of 1940, Lascaux Cave has had a long and tortured history of interpretation and conservation. White will document that history and will provide a richly illustrated description of the paintings and engravings themselves, emphasizing remarkable aspects of technique and appropriation of the complex cave architecture by the Paleolithic painters. He will also discuss the conservation problems that have plagued the cave since 2001.