Talks on art, design and craft
Celtic Art of the Middle Ages.
The coming of Christianity to Ireland led directly to a renaissance in Irish Celtic art. This talk will explore the elements and symbolism of this art form, particularly in the tradition of illuminated manuscripts, such as the magnificent Book of Kells and the extraordinary ecclesiastical metalwork of the 7th–11th Centuries in Ireland and Northern Britain.
Colour in Medieval Art and Experience
Artists of the Middle Ages demonstrated an unbridled delight in using colour, notably in stained glass, heraldry, manuscripts, vestments and jewels. This talk discusses the meaning and symbolism of their work and also looks at the appearance of colour in the visionary and mystical experiences of the period.
The Colourful History of Watercolour Painting
An appraisal of a painting tradition that spans the chronicles of history, from the work of the Chinese masters, to the ‘Golden Age’ of watercolour landscapes in Britain from the 1750s to the 1850s.
Notable Water-colourists of the 20th Century
This century produced a number of important artists working in diverse styles and taking this challenging meaning in new directions. Some of the artists discussed include: Philip Wilson Steer, Frank Brangwyn, Cecil Hunt, James Dickson Innes, Charles Mackintosh, Paul Nash and Eric Ravillious.
19th and 20th Century Landscape Painting
Landscape painting became a distinct genre in European art from the 17th Century to the mid-20th Century. This presentation explores the different ways artists have looked at, and understood landscape, through the paintings of the Romantics, British Orientalists, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and the early Modernists.
Edward Lear the artist
Lear is perhaps better known for his ‘nonsense verse’, but he was also an outstanding landscape painter. This talk examines the life, drawings and paintings of this prolific and well-travelled artist, described by one of his contemporaries as a ‘man of versatile and original genius’.
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement
Celebrating the life and work of this illustrious poet, artist and social reformer, who pioneered a movement that reacted against the soulless machine production of the Industrial Revolution and attempted to promote joyful labour, the enjoyment of fine craftsmanship and simplicity of expression.
The World of Art Nouveau
This radical new style of art and architecture developed in Europe at the end of the 19th Century and was characterised by a spectrum of contradictory images and ideas that embraced the spirit world, fantasy and myth. The talk explains its origins, the key exponents of the movement and its eventual demise.
The World of Art Deco
A celebration of this highly influential and design style that first appeared in France after World War I and flourished internationally from the 1920s to the 1940s. Characterised by bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation, Art Deco came to represent luxury and glamour in a technologically progressive world.
Stanley Spencer – A Visionary for our Time.
Spencer was one of Britain’s most renowned and eccentric 20th Century painters. This is a presentation of his life and work, particularly his time as a WW2 war artist and his extraordinary paintings that envision the Christian Gospels played out by the people in his beloved home town of Cookham.
The Life and Work of Graham Sutherland.
An artist notable for glass, fabrics, prints, landscape and portrait painting. He designed the tapestry in the new Coventry Cathedral. Sutherland evolved a unique vision of landscape and was also an official war artist in WW2.
The Art of John Piper
A prolific and versatile English painter and printmaker, with a unique vision. The talk also examines his work as a designer for the theatre and of stained-glass windows, as a writer on the arts, and war artist in WW2.
The Landscape Vision of the Neo-Romantic Painters
This group of 20th Century painters were partly inspired by the visionary landscapes of Samuel Palmer and ‘The Shoreham Ancients’, but also by a more general emotional response to the British landscape and its history. The talk explores the work of Michael Ayrton, John Craxton, Ivon Hitchens, John Minton, Paul Nash, John Piper, Graham Sutherland and Keith Vaughan.
The Bauhaus
A talk examining the philosophy and work of the school founded in 1919, which proposed that all arts would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus became one of the most profound and influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design.
London through Artists’ Eyes
The story of London’s life, landscape and social manners, explored through the work of artists down the centuries to the present day. The talk aims to show the continually changing visions of Britain’s capital city.