Bard Graduate Center Research Scholar and Visiting Professor Ulrich Leben hosts this special four-part seminar series on Charles Percier and the Empire Style. Conducted after-hours in the Gallery, these seminars will introduce guests to the intimate, behind-the-scenes world of the exhibition while exploring Percier’s innovative approaches to object design and architecture in the period following the French Revolution. Leben will illuminate the many sides of Percier and his particular style that would long outlive the Napoleanic age and could, perhaps, be recognized as a forerunner of industrial design.

Classes will take place in the gallery at 18 West 86th Street followed by a visit of the exhibition.