One of our greatest composers, Edward Elgar was an extraordinary man. Completely self-taught, evidence of the strong determination behind this unique genius.

NOTE Change of venue - Beaconside Conference Centre.

For over a century Heath Robinson has been famous for drawing rickety devices that carry out the simplest of tasks, like potato peeling and pancake making etc..

Click here for a map

The religious art of the Eastern Church has become beloved as objects of veneration by people of faith, as well as being admired as fine works of art.

Medieval bestiaries are wondrously colourful worlds, blending fact with fiction, morality with mythology. They represent an understanding of the physical world.

In an era when married women’s property automatically belonged to their husbands, could women still play a role as patrons of the arts? Female patronage has often been hidden within historical record but new research has shown the underestimation of their patronage.

The remarkable untold story of Carry On actor Peter Butterworth and his wife Janet Brown. Using classic film and TV clips, personal momentos, rare photos and letters from his family’s unseen collection, Tyler reveals the private story behind his parents’ public lives.

Famous for its annual open Summer Exhibition the Royal Academy has been a pillar of British art over 250 years. This lecture deals with its history from its modest beginnings to its current home in Burlington House and explores the world of the Royal Academicians.

Why is it that so many icons appear so similar, so dark, so primitive even? It takes a trained eye to reveal the fascinating language of icons. This lecture will help de-mysticise these intriguing art works.

Change of Lecture for November

Advance notice that there will be a change of topic for the November lecture because of the illness of Brian Healey who was going to deliver a lecture on Icons. It has not been possible to find another lecturer on Icons at such short notice. Instead we will be having Anthony Peers telling us about "Birmingham Town Hall: the pride of Birmingham and an Ornament to England."

This lecture explores gender in modern British Sculpture through the lives and times of Barbara Hepworth and Elizabeth Frink. Hepworth is often overshadowed by Henry Moore. Born a generation later, Frink ranks alongside Hepworth as a great British sculptor of the 20th Century.

Helen Allingham painted idyllic images of cottage gardens using mothers and children to add scale and sentiment. During the Edwardian period interest shifted away to the restoration garden and the arts and crafts garden. Lutyens and Jekyll blended aspects of both.

Wine merchants, poisoners, mine owners and creators of afternoon tea - the colourful history of one of England’s oldest aristocratic families and the fascinating art that surrounds them.

What was the public reaction to jazz when it first appeared in Britain? How did British musicians learn to play the style? The lecture is illustrated with pieces of visual art and recorded music examples.

The history of art is peppered with first rate bust ups: between the early Renaissance artists, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. Later between Dali and Breton and many more throughout history.

In every age there have been artists whose fascination with these ancient stories has produced some beautiful and memorable works of art, ever created in the Western world.

Catalonia always emphasises its separate culture and language. Its medieval architecture and art reflect this search for a distinct identity. We will explore this theme in Catalan Romanesque architecture in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona.

Originally created as two companies in the 1200s to protect their respective trades, the Paynters and Steyners came together in 1502. For centuries the Painters-Stainers decorated Royal palaces, coaches, barges, churches and theatres.

Keith is not an art historian but was inspired to pursue an interest in Caravaggio completely by chance. Extensive research and travelling throughout Europe has created a lecture that combines personal experiences with Caravaggio’s life and paintings.

L S Lowry is one of Britain’s most popular artists and yet our very familiarity with his work has stopped us looking as closely as we should at this extraordinary artist. He was really a painter of the human condition.

How do dealers, auctioneers and museum staff determine whether a piece is by one painter or another? What are the key clues to look for when deciding who painted the picture? In this lecture we learn some of the tricks of the connoisseur

A colourful introduction to the secret world of our two thousand mile inland waterway network. Looking at all aspects of canal’s exceptional artistic, architectural and engineering vernacular. Local and regional examples will be included.

Post war, the world of fashion, interior and modern art fused with dynamic results. This lecture considers the role fashion and textiles played in democratising modern art.

From July to September 2024 Paris will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Art and design will play a part, as they have since the games began at Olympia nearly 3000 years ago. From nudity to Nike, from sand to synthetics, the Olympic story offers art lovers pure gold.

Worshipped by Aesthetes and cultivated by Impressionists the sunflower casts its golden rays across art and culture. We trace its history from classical myth to 20th Century painting.

Monica will alert us to the huge contribution refugees from conflict zones, past and present, make to the culture of the country that takes them in. She will celebrate the achievements of artists as diverse as miniaturist Isaac Oliver to Lucien Freud.

Slight change of lecture this month. Rosamund Bartlett is unable to attend.

A similar topic has been substituted.

Dickens brought into the world a staggering array of wonderful characters with Mr Mcawber, Fagin and Abel Magwitch among them. Bertie looks at the life and places of Dickens while reading extracts from his works

From the late 1850s to the mid-1870s a new craze gripped the world. Photography had just begun to be popularised, and suddenly nearly everyone could afford a portrait of themselves to share with others. These small photographic portraits mounted on card were shot professionally in studios and handed out like business or greetings cards – just like we share ‘selfies’ on today’s social media.

Welcome to the Victorian carte de visite.

This talk takes you on a journey from the gory overfull churchyards of the century's early years to the glory of the city's later garden cemeteries.

One of Britain's most influential art movements, with its emphasis on traditional crafts and the simple life. The Cotswolds became the main rural centre, with craft communities developing around Ernest Gimson and Sidney and Ernest Barnsley, who moved to the south Cotswolds in 1893. Around Chipping Campden C R Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft moved from London's East End in 1902. This talk charts the development of the movement in the area that lasts to this day.

Around 80% of paintings in our museums and galleries are hidden away in archives. Hear how a small arts charity set about bringing these works to light, with some surprising rediscoveries being made.

Image: Mabel Frances Laying (1881-1937), The Omnibus,1920s, Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford

The man who came from a family of strict Quakers became a key figure in Modern Art in the 20th century, responsible for bringing Surrealism to Britain in 1936 and Picasso to Britain in 1960. He was a Surrealist artist in Paris, a friend of Breton and Eluard and later the close friend and biographer of Max Ernest, Picasso, Miro, Man Ray and Tapies.

The history, design and music of this unique instrument.
A jam packed hour of information and entertainment on the evolution of the harp over the last 5000 years.

The most recognisable work of art from the Middle Ages has lived a colourful life, facing destruction on numerous occasions. It has fuelled innumerable theories from scholars, inspired homages from cartoonists, filmmakers and armies of needlewomen, and continues to make headlines today.

Western European painting is not lacking in celebrated women artists who managed to break the norm of western European society by making a name and a living for themselves in a world of men, yet these have been for the most part forgotten. This lecture will reintroduce these artists, asking why and how their own paintings and self- portraits were already - in their own time - engaged with the problem of recognition.

A whistle stop tour of the very best colonial buildings in Chennia(Madras), Kolkata(Calcutta), Mumbai(Bombay), Delhi and elsewhere.

Starting in 1607 with Monteverdi’s astonishing opera Orfeo, and ending in 1759 with the death of that great “English” composer George Frideric Handel, the Baroque era produced music of great brilliance and emotional depth. Sandy’s exploration of this fascinating period of Classical music draws on hand-picked images, autograph scores and recorded musical illustrations, with a special focus on the work of Johann Sebastian Bach.

SIckert, Jack the Ripper? 

You are the jury: could England’s greatest painter of the first half of the twentieth century also have been the most famous murderer of the modern era? In setting out the evidence, Michael will also explore the unique art not only of Sickert himself, but also of his master, James McNeill Whistler.

Early Christians celebrated Christmas at the same time as the ancient Romans were feasting and partying for their pagan Saturnalia festival. Many of the pagan habits were therefore absorbed into our Christmas traditions.

As New York boomed at the end of the 19th century, a new generation of artists found inspiration not just in the bright lights and landscape of the metropolis, but in the challenging and impoverished lives of the people who sought to build a new life there.

The spectacular and glittering mosaics that adorn the former Imperial capital of Ravenna (now a UNESCO world heritage site) are renowned for the evidence they provide of the tumultuous and fascinating shifts of ecclesiastical and political power in the city. This talk looks closer at the stories held in some of these tesserae, to think about the materials, meaning and symbolic significance of these incredible artworks.

Climb aboard the charabanc and join curator and art historian James Russell on a fantastic trip to the seaside!

The image is The Seaside by William Roberts (1966)

John Betjeman was the great London poet of the 20th century. No writer better captured the world of railway sidings, abandoned churchyards, bicycles, bells and bishops, obscure suburbs and forgotten heroes. Ed Glinert, author of Penguin's Literary Guide to London hosts this talk on the late Poet Laureate's London.

Evening Standard says this is sculpture from which fathers should shield their daughters!
Image attached caption, detail of Maternity, British Medical Association, Strand, London 1908.

A look at the contributions made by artists of African, Caribbean or Asian origin to British art since the SS Empire Windrush arrived in Tilbury from the West Indies in 1948. “Including Sir Frank Bowling, Sonia Boyce, Lubaina Himid, John Akomfrah and the Singh Twins”.

An armchair tour around the world, exploring the evocative art, architecture and engineering of these cathedrals of the modern age.

Opinions are divided about what would have become of Amedeo Modigliani, had he not died of tuberculosis (and excess) at the age of only 35. Some critics claim that he would have gone on to be a modern master, while many feel that he had already produced his greatest and most powerful works of both painting and sculpture before his untimely death.

It wasn’t just L S Lowry who was inspired to paint Manchester, the northern powerhouse that burst onto the world stage as Cottonopolis during the Industrial Revolution. This lecture explores the history of the city as seen through the eyes of artists, from George Cruikshank, a Londoner who was moved to put pen to paper by a great event which unfolded here-the Peterloo Massacre – to the Frenchman Adolphe Valette, the Manchester Impressionist, and ending with Halima Cassell, a contemporary sculptor whose fascination with the buildings began in childhood and inspired her later work. 

Chris Aslan spent 15 years living in Central Asia, the heart of the Silk Road and explores the interplay of silk, wool and cotton on the history, politics, lifestyles and economics of the region. Expect some pretty amazing robes!

The 14th century artist Cennino Cennini recommended using “the chicken bones that you will find under the dining table” for making charcoaled bone black to paint with. His treatise, The Artists’ handbook, describes some of the surprising materials artists had to master, such as the tail of a squirrel to make paintbrushes. These difficult materials influenced the appearance of paintings long before industrial processes changed the artist’s world. This lecture will explain why 15th and 16th century paintings may seem odd to our modern eyes.

The lecture explores the passion for the exotic and beautiful tulip flower which reached its height in Amsterdam in the 1630s. The coveted tulip featured as a motif on still-life flower paintings and on many different works of art from furniture to embroideries, ceramics and silver.

The art and architecture of Britain's historic swimming pools and lidos. Swimming is Britain’s second favourite form of physical recreation (after walking). Almost everyone has memories of visiting their local baths. But whilst not all these memories might be positive – drooping knitted cozzies anyone? – for many swimmers the baths themselves are cherished. Some, particularly those built in the late Victorian and Edwardian years are rich

with decorative tile work, stained glass, polished wood and terracotta detailing. This sense of municipal pride continued into the 1920s and ’30s, when Art Deco and Modernist lidos became the urban beaches of their day. In this lecture Simon highlights the treasures of aquatic art that survived and considers how the pools of today compare.

Peter Medhurst examines Beethoven’s genius as a composer and shows that no matter what impacted on him in his daily life his music was always crafted to the highest level.

From the late 1850s to the mid-1870s a new craze gripped the world. Photography had just begun to be popularised, and suddenly nearly everyone could afford a portrait of themselves to share with others. These small photographic portraits mounted on card were shot professionally in studios and handed out like business or greetings cards – just like we share ‘selfies’ on today’s social media. Across nearly two decades, over 400 million cards were estimated to have been printed and shared with friends, family, and fans. We think we invented the ‘selfie’, but we didn’t – welcome to the Victorian carte de visite.

In this highly visual and relevant lecture, we’ll look at the rise and fall of the fashion, learn how these cards were used, and find ways of dating cards from clothing and hairstyles. We’ll examine in detail the hidden meanings behind the poses, facial expressions, backgrounds, and choice of clothes to reveal the fascinating histories behind these cards that were used by everyone from royalty to the man in the street.

Discover through striking artworks more about Britain's greatest admiral who loved his country, the Royal Navy and Lady Emma Hamilton.

In 2014 our speaker was awarded an artistic residency in the Houses of Parliament in order to create a memorial for the women’s suffrage movement. This talk is the story of her research, the people she met (and had to win over), how the sculpture was built and hopes for its legacy.

“The last thing most passengers notice when they use the Tube is what it looks like. But every aspect from the famous diagram of lines to the lettering of the signs...is the product of intense thought. Our speaker is fascinated by the effort that has been made to produce stunning station architecture, easy-to-use wayfinding, beautiful ceramic tiling, durable seat covers (moquette), and clever marketing... all of which are so fit for its purpose they work almost effortlessly. You’ll never see the London Underground In the same light after this surprisingly gripping lecture”

This lecture demonstrates that at times of conflict, needlecrafts have become important as a means of ‘therapy’ not just for servicemen returning disabled/ injured from war but also as a means of therapy for family and loved ones at home with the need to occupy themselves with something of worth on the home front. Conflict also cover areas where there is any restriction of movement of the human form, prisons, workhouses, internment camps, hospitals and asylums. There has been a longstanding affiliation between confinement and creativity.

This lecture will attempt to unravel the myth and the iconography behind the proliferation of the Christian story of the adoration of the magi. To aid his examination of this story, and to trace the changes in iconography and depictions of the kings themselves, he will be illustrating it with many references to the story as depicted in examples from Western European art spanning the Byzantine period (330 – 1453) through to and including the Renaissance period (ending approximately 1590’s).

Fake news has been around since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and art has always been one of its favourite media.

In this talk our speaker will be uncovering the subtle art of spin and propaganda in art from the glories of Ancient Mesopotamia to the Norman Conquest and then onto Elizabethan England and the dark days of Nazi Germany. Every picture tells a story, whether it is true or not is an entirely different matter.

Over the course of a long and multifaceted life, John Ruskin took the skills and passions he first devoted to art and architecture - to see clearly and say what he saw plainly - and applied them to the analysis and condemnation of the ills of contemporary industrial capitalist society. In so doing, as a way of improving the lives of the working poor, he formed an art collection for the people of Sheffield that continues to inspire and instruct in equal measure. This lecture explains and celebrates that gift.

Modern art is often considered difficult, but it is much less so when seen through the eyes of some of the greatest cartoonists of the last one hundred and fifty years, who provide a humorous and sceptical but instructive guide to modern art from Courbet to the Britart of the 1990s. A chance to enjoy the insights and cartoons of (among others) Daumier, Larry, Thelwell, Matt, the wise guys at the New Yorker magazine and, of course, the immortal Giles. Collectively, they provide an absorbing, illuminating and, above all, a funny, revealing and sidelong view of 150 years of modern art. 

Art, inscriptions and architecture were commissioned by Maya kings from Central America to memorialise themselves and ensure their place in history. This lecture will look at images that describe the transformation of a human being into a king, the wielder of sacred authority and the rituals that were carried out to re-establish their connections with the cycles of time and their ancestors. The purpose of art itself, was to document the bloodlines of kings and so various examples will be given, including the spectacular murals of San Bartolo, Guatemala, where the presenter carried out her research. 

Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor are amongst the most well known sculptors working in Britain today and have both had major commissions for public works of art.  With a wide range of inspirations and motifs, the work of these two artists provides an interesting insight into contemporary views and preoccupations in Britain.  This lecture will look at examples of both artists’ work, exploring the common ground between them, and the differences in style, technique and themes.

According to one leading architect, “the modern architectural drawing is interesting, the photograph is magnificent, the building is an unfortunate but necessary stage between the two.” 

Architecture + Photography = Art introduces photographers who crystallised the architects’ vision in images that are both works of art in their own right and shape our opinion of the buildings they depict. These photographers include Dell and Wainwright from Britain, Julius Shulman in the United States and Lucien Hervé in France.

The lecture also examines photographers who recorded rural churches, barns and cottages to create a lyrical vision of Britain. Prominent in this group are Edwin Smith, Frederick Evans and Eric de Maré, a friend and drinking companion of John Betjeman and widely considered to have been the poet’s favourite photographer.

All three individuals were drawn to New Mexico where they could distance themselves from civilization after the Great War. Invited by Mable Dodge, they formed the core of her Taos utopia albeit over the span of 15-odd years. Great letter-writers, they exchanged views, which nourished each other’s works. For example, Laurence declared, “the human race … a great uprooted tree… cut off from the earth and sun and stars.” O’Keeffe depicted the tall pine near his cabin from below with its branches fanning out against a starry night. O’Keeffe’s erotic flowers inspired Lady Chatterley’s Lover’s nude scene’s floral adornment. Huxley sought, ironically, to repress such passion in Brave New World with electric shock conditioning to develop a hatred of roses. However, his Doors of Perception promised mystical passages, as did O’Keeffe’s series of Patio Doors.

You might think it's easy to spot the difference between contemporary and historical art, but how about what they have in common? Can old masters help us understand works such as 'the pile of bricks' and 'the unmade bed'? This lecture explores whether the old masters can help us understand modern works, and whether artists' intentions and strategies have really changed across the centuries.

Oriental influences on English garden making can be traced from the eighteenth through to the present century. The emergence of chinoiserie, as initially evidenced in ceramics, furniture and interior design, also found its place in the garden or landscape, through the layout, plants and ornamentation. This talk continues the story in the twentieth century, which saw a developing interest in the culture of Japan, expressed in the fashion for the ‘Japonaise’ in many forms of art, including garden design. Western designers embraced, and took inspiration from, the sensitive use of materials, and minimalistic expression of Japan’s temple and stroll gardens, and sought to emulate something of their spirit - a style still popular today.

Years of working as an artist within the Criminal Justice System in England and Germany have given Angela unique insights into the destructive and costly cycle of crime, prisons and re-offending. In this thought-provoking talk she offers a deeper understanding of the minds, lives and challenges of offenders. And, with extraordinary slides of art projects and prisoner’s art, she demonstrates how within the process of creating art of any discipline, there are vital opportunities for offenders to confront their crimes and develop the key life skills so essential in leading a positive and productive life.

Theatre has always been known for its capacity for creating illusion and suspending disbelief. Simon Rees draws on centuries of disguises, masks, make-up, ingenious apparatuses, trick trapdoors, smoke, mirrors and bungee-jumping Rhinemaidens, bringing his entertaining account of theatre illusion up to the present day. The tricks of the 18th and 19th century theatres are exposed in all their working machinery, including the celebrated Pepper’s Ghost, and modern theatre’s copious use of illusion, developed in competition with that of the cinema, is explored in artistic and technical detail.

Trained to be a potter in Japan, and with a deep intellectual desire to bring East and West together, the forms and glazes often reflect his love of Asia. However his research into British ceramics was evident, particularly in the early years at St. Ives. The importance of craftsmanship, and the individual was vital to his teaching and his students and family continued spreading the word. His hectic exhibition schedule in the 1950s and 60s was enormously important to the development of the ‘Studio Potter’.

‘The utmost fulfilment of Leonardo the scientist is seen in his artistic creations. These reveal the most amazing and inseparable affinity of his scientific and artistic concepts’ - Ludwig Heidenreich 1958. Leonardo would say nature must be his guide and that art was based on a scientific understanding of everything depicted. He used his powers of draughtsmanship and astute sense of observation in his scientific drawings making an incredible contribution to our early understanding of anatomy, aeronautics, warfare, cartography and water engineering to name but a few. It would take centuries of science and technology to catch up with his thoughts. This talk follows Leonardo’s pursuit of these investigations whether they be on his own initiative, his pursuit of remunerative
employment or in response to a particular set of circumstances in his life.

Who does the housework? Who gets the glory? Successful artists tend to be driven and, dare one say it, egotistical, so what happens when two of them set up home together? Focusing on 20th century British art, this colourful lecture explores the lives and careers of notable artist couples, including Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, and Julian Trevelyan and Mary Fedden. It will quickly become clear that, where artists are concerned, there are few rules. Love inspires creativity but so, sometimes, does the fading of love. One artist may begin in the ascendant only to see the other achieve greater success. The private lives of artist couples are often startling and never dull, and the paintings and sculpture on show here are glorious.

This lecture is based on Colin Davies’s book ‘A New History of Modern Architecture’ published in August 2017. Major themes in 20th and 21st century architecture, such as the rise of Modernism, the Postmodernist reaction, the survival of Classicism, and the effects of digital culture on the architecture of the new century, are introduced and explained in jargon-free terms. The aim is to foster a fuller understanding Modern architecture and thereby encourage the enjoyment of its rich variety.

A discovery that brought about a revolution in Western Art. The reception given to the Japanese woodblock print in the second half of the 19th century changed Western art more dramatically than any other event since the Renaissance. With its emphasis on sinuous lines, lack of perspective and minimalism, Japanese graphic art still has a resonance for design today and affects all of our lives. This lecture investigates the effect of these prints on European painting and graphic art with specific reference to the works of James Whistler, Degas, and van Gogh. This topic explains so much about the development of modern art and how centuries of tradition were swept aside in just a few decades as European painters found inspiration through the creations of artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige.

 Experience the story of gold and its significance and symbolism within the history of art - as the colour of the sun; the colour of divinity; the colour of status and the colour of love. From creations ancient and contemporary, sacred and profane - all that glitters is certainly gold...

What is silverpoint drawing? How can you tell the difference between a quill and a reed pen? This lecture looks in detail at the materials and techniques used by some of the greatest masters, including Leonardo, Raphael, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. It also explores innovative contemporary drawings made by laser cutting, pricking, rubbing and tearing.

 
These sumptuous paintings are now among the highlights of nineteenth century British art, but in their day they caused public outrage. In 1848 seven young artists, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, formed a secret society, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Taking their inspiration from early Renaissance painting, they set out to challenge the artistic establishment with a heady mix that combined rebellion, beauty, scientific precision and imaginative grandeur and constituted Britain’s first modern art movement. The Pre-Raphaelite environment was broad, stretching across the fine and decorative arts, responding to a fast-changing religious and political climate, and in its relationship to women practitioners.

The Nazis looted over 20% of Western Art during World War II and the effects of Nazi looting are still evident. This lecture will cover the following topics: why the Nazis looted Art, how the Nazis looted Art and how the looted Art was returned after the war. There are several landmark cases that will be discussed in detail, including Gutav Klimt’s celebrated ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer’ and the stash of over1200 artworks found in the possession of the son of a notorious Nazi dealer.

Handel and Rembrandt are wonderful examples of that comparative rarity, the Baroque protestant. Both artists were reared in a religious tradition of deep involvement with stories from the bible and were able to translate that involvement into works of art which, by sheer bravura and narrative drive, made them live for their contemporaries. I look at the bible stories such as Belshazzar’s Feast which inspired both artists and show how, astonishingly – given their very different media, paint and music, the two artists seem to bounce off each other.

From safe, traditional, beginnings in East Sussex, Edward Burra's life and art sallied forth, encountering Parisian night life, the jazz clubs of prohibition-era New York and the war torn landscapes of the Spanish Civil war. His paintings have been described as 'vividly idiosyncratic and memorable' and became increasingly disturbing and surreal. This lecture looks at the life and work of this highly unusual British artist and the reasons his art took the form it did.

This lecture has been commissioned by our society in response to the family connection between one of our long standing members, Margaret Burra, and the artist in question. 

Bosch’s world of devils, demons and deadly sins are truly unforgettable. At the same time, his extraordinary treatment of religious themes can be deeply moving. His works are among the most mysterious in the whole of European art, yet if we examine them in the context of contemporary politics and cultural sources we find that not only are they perfectly understandable, but they also provide an amazing insight into the society in which the artist lived. 

The Emperor Qianlong was arguably the greatest of all Qing Emperors as he guided China through a period of unquestionable political, economic and cultural prosperity which rivalled any comparable period of high achievement in Chinese history. He was passionate about preserving Manchu culture whilst respecting and nurturing other ethnic Chinese cultures. Qianlong was a noted scholar who during his lifetime wrote and published over 43,000 poems, painted on virtually a daily basis and was accomplished in the art of calligraphy. He amassed a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of works of art from previous dynasties or which represented the finest current workmanship. His collection spanned all genres of the arts including paintings, porcelain, jade, textiles, enamelling, ivory carvings and snuff bottles. 

Modern design is at the cutting edge of contemporary collecting and is growing in popularity around the world as collectors and museums recognise the importance of key designers of the 20th century. This lecture provides an introduction to 20th century modern design. It considers the key styles and movements in design from circa 1925 onwards focusing on designers from the UK, Europe and the USA such as Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, Robin and Lucienne Day, Eileen Gray and Ettore Sottsass. It is illustrated throughout with examples of furniture, ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles and the graphic arts, as well as architecture. 

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is acknowledged by many people as America's greatest architect. The lecture examines his long career, sampling the sheer variety of his work and versatility of his designs. It is astonishing to note that he was trained in the Arts & Crafts tradition in the late 19th century, and yet by the end of his career in the 1950s he was able to envisage a One-Mile-High skyscraper. Such was the breadth of his work. Wright’s greatest achievement was to “break the box”, supporting the roof with cantilevered beams at a certain distance from the corner of a building. This system of blurring the distinction between the inside and outside gave his work a highly modern appearance and was influential on European architects in the second decade of the 20th century. 

An autobiographical journey from rural beat officer in the late 1970’s culminating as a specialist art and antiques detective. Full of interesting tales of the criminal art underworld, their origins, methods and corrupt dealers in the trade. Including Bill, a handler of stolen antiques, a likeable rogue who provided invaluable information on other villains. We considered him to be a success story, as he turned his back on the antiques trade to become a professional chef. Nearly two decades later he was revealed as a prolific art forger. He was convicted along with his kitchen staff! An entertaining, informative and revealing 60 minutes.

Gibbons (1648-1721) came to England from the Netherlands, and developed a virtuoso style of carving, well suited to the Baroque interiors of late 17th century England. His limewood carvings with their festoons of fruit, flowers, fish and game embellished Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, and Kensington Palace, as well as country houses such as Petworth and Belton. His work was commissioned for public buildings and churches, and he also worked in marble, making church monuments. Two superb wood carvings are in the Victoria & Albert Museum: his Lace Cravat and the relief panel of The Stoning of Stephen.

An introduction to the earliest art known in the world, primarily the artworks from western Europe and dating to c. 40,000 to 12,000 years ago - it takes the form of portable art objects, and also engravings, drawings and paintings on cave walls and in the open air. The story of the art’s discovery and authentication will be followed by a presentation of the main techniques employed (including experimental reconstructions), the pigments, the lighting methods, and some of the many reasons why this art corpus comprises some of the greatest imagery ever produced. A brief survey of the main theories about its meaning and purpose will also be given. 

Widely known for his appearances dressed as his feminine alter ego, Claire, Grayson Perry RA is now a core part of the art establishment. Ten years after winning the Turner Prize he gave the brilliant BBC Reith Lecture in 2013. His works of ceramics, textiles and prints are highly sought after. Often controversial, he is able to tackle difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty way. This talk will examine Grayson Perry’s works, his exciting and thought provoking exhibitions, and we’ll look at the character inside the flamboyant frocks. 

The story of the development of the rare Imperial porcelains dates back to the 13th century when the Yuan Emperors ordered porcelain for their tables. By the 15th century Imperial private kilns in the porcelain city of Jungdezhan produced porcelains of such beauty, fragility and rarity that they became – even in their own time – collectors’ items. These fragile porcelains were decorated with colourful flowers and birds and were perfect. They were called famile rose, famile verte and blue and white. Their fame spread to Europe, where royalty and aristocracy started to collect ‘China’. A delightful lecture filled with exquisite colourful artefacts. 

Artists have always commented on the social issues of the day and there is no lack of subject matter in the 20th and 21st Century.  We start with two World Wars, where the horror of war rather than the glory is addressed.  We look at other social issues such as the rise of communism (Branson), the Spanish Civil War (Dali, Picasso), and the debate about Nuclear Energy (Moore).   We confront British and Irish views of Northern Ireland (Hamilton, Donagh), Racism in Britain (Offili) and South Africa (Kentridge) and the Aids epidemic (Derek Jarman), bringing us up to Human rights in China (Ai WeiWei). Whatever one’s point of view these are all issues where the art is powerful and the subject matter challenging. 

The revolution in glass art.

American glass artist Dale Chihuly (born 1941) is the super-star of the glass world. His glass magic has transformed the studio glass movement and altered our visual perceptions of this extraordinary material forever.

Architecture and sculpture do homage to the fallen.

Britain has over 60,000 war memorials, each with their own sad and moving story to tell. They also represent our largest collection of public art- 1, 300 are listed. We will explore a few of such masterpieces.

The impact of mass production prints to the Arts.

With Gutenberg’s printing press, the world of painting changed overnight. The single, precious, image rapidly gave way to the multiple image, the edition, the illustration, seen by an ever widening audience. From the early political prints of Albrecht Durer, and the ground breaking innovations of Rembrandt’s etchings, through to the Modernism of Picasso and Matisse, this lecture draws the line.

Who has influenced whom?

Rather than learning from the art of the aborigines - the longest surviving art form in the world - European painters imposed their own colonial vision onto the new land and exploited the indigenous artists for their own commercial gains. We will look at the uneasy relationship between the Europeans and their adopted land in a survey of 200 years of art in Australia.

A unique insight into Wedgwood’s ceramics.

Josiah Wedgwood was born into an exciting era of English history, a period of change and development dominated by the industrial revolution. This lecture will explore fashion, taste, commerce and culture on Wedgwood ceramics in the 18th. Century.

How one company influenced the world of Art and Design.

Drawing on the unique reservoir of artists, composers and writers Paris had on offer, Diaghilev took them to task and wedded them all to his venture, making the Ballets Russes a team project of ‘total art’, embodying the very spirit of modernity.

Textile Artists Today

An introduction to the variety of textile work being made in the UK today showing in detail the work of leading textile artists. This ranges from the domestic scale of Mary Restieaux’s fine ikat weave to the site specific commissioned work by Sally Freshwater who works with architects and engineers to produce stretched fabric panels on aluminium frames.

Twenty first century sculpture in landscape settings.

David Nash is a contemporary artist, working mainly in wood. His large wood sculptures are sometimes carved or burned to produce blackening, his tools include chainsaws, axes, fire blowtorch, and yet his work shows an extraordinary knowledge of and sensitivity to the wood that he works with.

Bold and Brilliant sculpture by two controversial artists

The lecturer, a professional stone carver, describes the ancient and Romanesque carving techniques and the Beaux Arts tradition and, using archive photographs, reveals Gill and Epstein’s methods. Examples of today’s direct carving in stone (of which the lecturer is an exponent) are shown.

Towards Style and Aspiration in the garden.

‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton were the two most important designers of the English school of landscaping, a movement which developed during the uncertain times following the Hanoverian Succession, times that required a new definition of ‘Englishness’.

Oscar Niemeyer, dapper in his “razor-creased slacks, crisp white shirt and scrupulously pulled up socks rising from beautifully made Cuban-heeled loafers” (thus he was aged 96), designed and built from the 1930s almost to the last. Brasilia, created when he was in his 80’s is ‘stamped’ in his image and was made a World Heritage Site.

The production of vedute or views of Venice had become a major industry in the 1700s and Canaletto very much held the monopoly on this lucrative market. His evocative and often meticulously topographical records of the city and her canals, palaces and churches were highly popular with British Grand Tourists who came to dominate the market for Canaletto’s paintings.

So why in 1746 did Canaletto choose to leave for London and grace us with his views of England?

Jon Cannon presents a picture of the religious spaces around the world. These were buildings brought alive by the messages encoded in their sculpture - and the miraculous events that were believed to occur within them.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Hockney is now probably England’s favourite artist. Since his friendship with Hockney began in 1970, Dr Webb has been in a position to give an insightful account of the way this artist’s work has related to his life. This unique personal approach highlights in particular Hockney’s 1960s and 1970s work and notes how more recent work demonstrates ‘his rich store of intellectual knowledge about the nature of art’.