FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 24, 2000 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 ART EXPERT TO GIVE LECTURE AT DRAKE THURSDAY Barbara F. Freed, author of "Artists and Their Museums on the Riviera," will give a lecture at Drake University before she speaks at the Des Moines Art Center on Thursday, March 30. The lecture, which is titled "In the Footsteps of Artists on La Cote d'Azur," will start at 4 p.m. Thursday in room 336 of the Harmon Fine Arts Center, 25th Street and Carpenter Avenue. She will repeat the lecture at 7 p.m. at the Des Moines Art Center. Freed will discuss artists such as Chagall, Matisse, Picasso and Renoir who made the Riviera their home for important periods of their lives. Her lecture will provide a richly illustrated and carefully documented chronological journey through the region as the artists discovered it, and often each other. Emphasizing the artists' individual work as well as their friendships and competitions, Freed will focus on the many personal stories to be told, and significant moments in history before, during and after World War II. Freed has spent extensive periods of time in France, in Venice, Italy, where she lived with her family, in Aixen-Provence where she studied, in Tours and several spots on the Cote d'Azur where she taught and conducted research on modern art. She was the founding head of the Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is now professor of French. Freed's visit to Des Moines is sponsored by the Alliance Française of Central Iowa with assistance from the Friends of Drake Arts, the Drake Art Department and Des Moines Area Community College. For more information, call (515) 271-3120.