Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson on "The Woman With Fifty Faces", 26 July | Event in Kinderhook

Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson on "The Woman With Fifty Faces"

Kinderhook Books

Highlights

Sat, 26 Jul, 2025 at 02:00 pm

1 hour

Kinderhook Memorial Library

Free Tickets Available

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Date & Location

Sat, 26 Jul, 2025 at 02:00 pm to 03:00 pm (GMT-04:00)

Kinderhook Memorial Library

18 Hudson Street, Kinderhook, United States

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About the event

Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson on "The Woman With Fifty Faces"
Join us for a talk between author and illustrator of the new non-fiction graphic biography, "The Woman With Fifty Faces"

About this Event

Author Jonathan Lackman and illustrator Zachary J. Pinson will discuss their new non-fiction graphic biography, The Woman With Fifty Faces: Maria Lani & The Greatest Art Heist That Never Was.


ABOUT THE BOOK

On April 7, 1928, Maria Lani blew into Paris claiming to be a famous German actress and proceeded to seduce the cultural elite with her undeniable charisma and strangely enticing enigmatic aura. She persuaded fifty artists—Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Georges-Henri Rouault, Fernand Léger and Suzanne Valadon among them—to immortalize her in paintings and sculptures, which would appear as an important plot device in a forthcoming film. Unveiled as an exhibition in New York, the art works traveled to Chicago, London, Berlin, Rotterdam, and Paris. But, in 1931, as legend eventually had it, she and her husband Max Abramowicz vanished without a trace, and so did the art. The film was never made.

The Woman With Fifty Faces is about uncovering as much of the truth about Maria Lani as possible. The images that cascade through the book are stunningly beautiful, deeply compassionate, and farcically grotesque, capturing the essence of Lani's life. From Poland's antisemitic pogroms to the vulgar glamour and decadence of 1920s Paris to the Nazi occupation of France in the '40s, the tumultuous Europe Lani traverses becomes nearly as much of a character as Lani herself. Jonathan Lackman spent two decades researching Lani's life and Zachary J. Pinson spent 5,000 hours putting pen to paper. The result is a masterful collaboration about identity and the power and limits of reinvention.


ABOUT THE AUTHORS


Jonathan Lackman first wrote about Maria Lani for Art in America and has written for The New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker, Slate, ARTnews, and Wired. He has completed a PhD in art history from NYU and a fiction fellowship at the MacDowell Colony.


Zachary J. Pinson has spent the last two decades weaving in and out of comics, painting, and underground music. His paintings have been shown in galleries in New York, New England, and Paris.



Also check out other Arts events in Kinderhook, Literary Art events in Kinderhook, Entertainment events in Kinderhook.

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Ticket Info

Tickets for Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson on "The Woman With Fifty Faces" can be booked here.

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General Admission Free
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Kinderhook Memorial Library, 18 Hudson Street, Kinderhook, United States
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Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson on "The Woman With Fifty Faces", 26 July | Event in Kinderhook
Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson on "The Woman With Fifty Faces"
Sat, 26 Jul, 2025 at 02:00 pm
Free