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On Nov. 19, a free Art Insights conversation brings scholars of German art, experimental cinema and visual culture together with curator Dr. Catherine Walworth to explore art and film in the postwar era.
All times are local to the venue · America/Chicago
Expressionist art and 1920s cinema offered different ways to make a period of upheaval visible: one through choices of line, color and form, the other through horror and science-fiction imagery. AMFA’s Art Insights conversation considers how artists and filmmakers used those approaches to reflect human experience and critique the conditions around them.
The conversation is part of AMFA’s The Age of Anxiety: German Expressionism in Art and Film. The exhibition frames its subject in the political and economic turmoil that followed World War I, when artists who had worked before the war found new subjects. Films of the 1920s developed their own visual response, including new forms of horror and science fiction.
Rather than treating painting and cinema as separate histories, the exhibition places paintings and graphic works alongside images from films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1921) and Metropolis (1927). That shared display gives context to the talk’s announced focus on how visual decisions can carry emotional force and respond to social conditions.
Further reading: The Age of Anxiety: German Expressionism in Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · Art Insights: The Intersection of Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
The exhibition offers examples in several media. Albert Bloch’s oil painting Duell (Duel) dates to 1912, before the war; Käthe Kollwitz’s 1920 In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht is a woodcut on paper; and Otto Dix’s Nebel am Abend (Fog in the Evening), from 1922, combines watercolor and gouache. These works provide points of comparison for the exhibition’s broader account of artistic responses to a turbulent period.
Other examples extend that range: Martel Schwichtenberg’s Frauenkopf (Head of a Woman), circa 1920, is oil on cardboard, while Hans-Siebert von Heister’s Zorn (Anger), also from 1920, is oil on canvas. The event description announces a conversation across paintings, prints, sculpture and film; it does not set out a work-by-work agenda.
Further reading: The Age of Anxiety: German Expressionism in Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · Art Insights: The Intersection of Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
AMFA lists screenings separately from this conversation. The exhibition calendar schedules Art on Film: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for Nov. 11, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., and Art on Film: Metropolis for Jan. 8, 2027, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.; both are listed as free screenings in the Performing Arts Theater.
The Metropolis program also connects to the film’s preservation history. AMFA credits the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, which has worked to preserve German film heritage since 1966 and helped restore an almost-complete original version of Metropolis after material was discovered in Buenos Aires.
Further reading: The Age of Anxiety: German Expressionism in Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · The Age of Anxiety – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · Art Insights: The Intersection of Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
The listing identifies the guests by their fields rather than by individual names: several scholars specializing in German art, experimental cinema and visual culture will be in conversation with Dr. Catherine Walworth, AMFA’s Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr. Curator of Drawings. The announced scope includes paintings, prints, sculpture and film.
The conversation runs from 6 to 7 p.m. Central.
Art Insights: The Intersection of Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
AMFA lists the conversation as free. Its event page links to a ticket page, but does not state whether advance reservations are required.
Art Insights: The Intersection of Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
The event is at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 East Ninth Street, Little Rock, AR 72202.
Art Insights: The Intersection of Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · Hours & Information – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
AMFA’s FAQ says seating for Artist Talks is general admission, with seats selected on arrival.
AMFA lists accessible entrances, elevators and restrooms. Wheelchairs are available from Guest Services on a first-come, first-served basis, and mobility aids are permitted throughout the museum. Contact Guest Services about event-specific needs.
Accessibility Accommodations – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · FAQ – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
AMFA lists free on-site parking and Little Rock METRO Route 6 service at Commerce Street. The museum’s address is 501 East Ninth Street; the event listing does not identify a separate event entrance. Use the museum map or directions links to calculate a route from your starting point.
Hours & Information – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · FAQ – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
The listing describes a scholars’ conversation, not a screening. AMFA lists film screenings separately in the exhibition calendar.
Art Insights: The Intersection of Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗ · The Age of Anxiety: German Expressionism in Art and Film – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
AMFA says live open captions are displayed on a large screen behind the presenter during Artist Talks.
Accessibility Accommodations – Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ↗
501 East Ninth Street, Little Rock, AR 72202
Map search by venue and address. Check the organiser’s entrance details before travelling.
Images from the linked sources. Each caption identifies the context of the image.
Event, planning and background information checked 2026-11-01 against the linked sources.