Julia Bloch Frey, Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado and an expert of late 19th- and early 20th-century France, will discuss the life and work of legendary designer Henri de Toulouse L'Autrec on Thursday, Sept. 9 at 8:30 p.m. in 209 McEwen Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
 
This lecture presentation is supported by the Williams Visiting Professor Program and the Carnahan-Jackson Fund for the Humanities of the Fredonia College Foundation and is held in conjunction with the exhibition "Homage to Toulouse-Lautrec: 100 Designers 100 Posters," which is on display at the Rockefeller Arts Center Art Gallery from Wednesday, Sept 1 through Saturday, Sept. 25. The Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
 
Dr. Frey earned her Ph.D. in French literature from Yale University and studied painting and printmaking in Paris. She is the author of "Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life," which was a finalist for the 1994 National Book Critics Award in Biography and won the 1995 Pen West Literary Award in Nonfiction. "Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life" was chosen one of the Best Books of 1994 by Publisher's Weekly in the United States and by the London Spectator in Great Britain. Apollo, the English art magazine, selected "Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life" as the Best Art Biography of 1994 and the New York Times included the book in its Notable Books of 1995 compilation.
 
Since leaving her career as Professor of French Literature and Art History at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Dr. Frey lives in Paris and New York and lectures in universities and art museums around the world. She served as curator for "Toulouse-Lautrec from the Metropolitan Museum of Art" at the Denver Art Museum in 1999 and "Toulouse-Lautrec: Looking Into Life" at the Museo Vittoriano in Rome in 2003.
 
Dr. Frey has written essays for the catalogues of Toulouse-Lautrec exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Diego Museum of Art and the Denver Art Museum, among others. She has also published work on Gustave Flaubert, George Sand and other French cultural icons.
 
For more information on the Rockefeller Arts Center Art Gallery, call (716) 673.4897 or check the webpage.