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Lecture One: Introduction.  Oscar Wilde: Famous for Being Famous: Oscar's early years, artistic circle & rising celebrity.

Lecture Two:  A Handbaaag! The Importance of Being Oscar (and Earnest!): the height of his success, the publication of his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a special focus on his final and most brilliant play, the Importance of Being Earnest.

Lecture Three:   The Trials of Oscar Wilde: Famous for Being Infamous: at the peak of his success, disaster struck, leading to the criminal trial of the century, prison & exile. We conclude the day with an appreciation of Oscar's enduring legacy and how he continues to inspire and entertain us today.

Speaker:  Simon Whitehouse is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique & voice teacher, and award-winning London Blue Badge Guide. He regularly guides for Arts Society groups on their Visits Programmes in addition to his lecture offerings. He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC & the National Gallery, guiding public & private tours. He lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts & English literature modules. 

When we look at a painting, how much are we really noticing? How closely do we observe it? How can experts tell the difference between one artist and another? Or between an artist and a copyist?

Through the day of three lectures, Chantal will train our eyes: connoisseurial tricks to help us observe and understand paintings better and begin to discern betweeen the hand of different artists.  

How did the British view themselves and their subjects in the era of imperialism? How did imperial subjects view the British? This Study Day considers these questions by exploring a range of images, buildings, objects and art forms across the British Empire.  

The three lectures of the day will be: 

1) Images of the British Empire  

2) Imperial Calcutta  

3) The art of Rabindranath Tagore

Dr John Stevens gained his PhD in history from UCL, University of London. He teaches Imperial history, Indian history and Bengali language at SAOS, University of London. He is a published author and a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh and has lectured at numerous Indian universities. 

Art deco, as one of the most popular art form of our recent history, is still playing an important role in contemporary life. 

The day will start with ‘The Art of Art Deco’, an overview of the movement. Its genesis and its influence across all art forms. Famous artists such as Marion Dorn with her well known design of textiles and Tamara de Lempicka with her iconic portraiture.  Pamela will bring in original Art Deco objects d’art for members to handle- ie silver, jewellery glass, etc etc. It will be an additional fun for this SID! 

Pamela Campbell-Johnston has an MA Hons Art History from St Andrew's University. She has been lecturing to the university students, Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts and others for over 30 years. Pamela will bring us back to the height of the art deco period: 1920-1930's to unveil the grandeur.

Spend a Study Day travelling along the Spanish Coast, examining the works and legacies of three Spanish artists.  Joaquin Sorolla caught the fabulous light of Valencia, his beloved hometown but he also travelled the length and breadth of Spain exploring its rituals, music, and dance in mountain top towns and near the seaside.  Barcelona grew exponentially in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and Antoni Gaudi’s commissions enhanced this seaside city and left an indelible architectural mark on its streets. Finally, we turn our minds to the great Pablo Picasso, who grew up in the Andalucian town of Málaga, once famous for its wines. His own journey by boat first to the windy northern town of La Coruña with its wild coastal beaches and then on to Barcelona will be uncovered during this light-filled Study Day as we look forward to the Summer.

Jacqueline is an art historian and linguist. After a career in academic teaching at Birkbeck college, University of London, and Westminster School, she is now a freelance lecturer. She is course director and lecturer at the V & A, and lectures at The Royal Academy and a number of private institutions. Jacqueline is Managing Director of Art and Culture Andalucía running residential courses in Andalucía, Southern Spain in the art and culture of the region. She has recently published ‘A Taste of Art, London’ (Unicorn Press 2019).

Three textile roads tangle their way through Central Asia. The famous Silk Road united east and west through trade. Older still was the Wool Road, of critical importance when houses made from wool enabled nomads to traverse the inhospitable winter steppes. Then there was the Cotton Road, marked by greed, colonialism and environmental disaster.

At this intersection of human history, fortunes were made and lost through shimmering silks, life-giving felts and gossamer cottons. Chris Aslan, who has spent fifteen years living and working in the region, expertly unravels the strands of this tangled history and embroiders them with his own experiences of life in the heart of Asia.

This event is now full, for details of waiting list contact Judy Halls 01494 673381

Venue: The Fitzwilliam Centre HP9 2JW  10.00-3.00p.m

London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores “Cathedrals of Desire” changed the capital This varied and fascinating day will be led by Tessa Boase, social historian, investigative journalist and lively speaker who brings to life untold stories behind objects and institutions and “invisible women” of the Victorian and Edwardian era. You will learn about::

·       Department stores and the rise of consumption (See article in the Arts Soc Review)

·       The cautionary tale of Heather Firbank (her whole wardrobe ended up in the V & A)

·       The plumage industry and the women who pushed back by founding the RSPB

FORM NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD IN DOCUMENTS

An Introduction to Sculpture - Major Figures, Problems, Possibilities

Lecturer - David Worthington

10.00am prompt - 3.00pm

David will cover three topics. 

·        The contentious subject of Public Art, the most visible Art form therefore an easy target.

·        Rodin, one of the heroic figures of the 19th century who  was internationally celebrated during his life.

·        Lastly, Damien Hirst the most famous British artist since Henry Moore. Hirst is often seen as a practical joker but this lecture aims to dispel this and show that he is deeply serious, making work that is significant and influential. 

 VENUE : THE FITZWILLIAMS CENTRE, BEACONSFIELD

 COST :     £45 including 2 course lunch with wine.

Booking Form in Documents section

Contact: Judy Halls jehalls@btconnect.com

The Man with the Pitchfork: Paintings from 20th Century America

        10.00am prompt - 3.00pm

 The people, the landscape and the culture of America as seen through the eyes of 20th century artists. We will explore works by Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell as well as lesser known artists belonging to the Ashcan School and Regionalism.

This study day will explore the most iconic images to come out of America, all of which are firmly etched in the public consciousness.

VENUE : THE FITZWILLIAMS CENTRE, BEACONSFIELD

COST :     £35 including 2 course lunch with wine.

Organiser Judy Halls

Before returning your application, please note!

1. If immediate confirmation is required please give e-mail address or include S A E

2. A list of attendees will appear on the Arts Society notice board at future monthly lectures, including those members on the waiting list.

3. If you have any doubt shortly before the event as to whether you have a place, then please phone or e-mail the organiser using the contact details above.

4. If, on the day of the event, you have a problem attending please e-mail the organiser.

5. Cancellations less than three weeks before the event will only receive a refund if the place can be filled from the waiting list.

This Study Day at the Fitzwilliam Centre will be in 3 parts:

How art of the Roman period enabled discovery of its culture and history

How the personalities of the day influenced the path of history

How Roman art inspired 17th-20th century artists.

The day will include the usual 2-course meal with wine and costs £35.

The day will run between 10a.m  (prompt)and 3 p.m .

Organiser: Sheila McKenna, the booking form was in the winter mailing.

There are still spaces available on this Study Day

This Study Day will look at the relationship between Picasso and Matisse - how they met, their rivalry and friendship throughout their lives and their impact on art and artists in the UK. The three lectures will cover:

An overview of their friendship and rivalry

Matisse's Chapel at Venice and Picasso's Temple of Peace at Vallauris

The enduring legacy of Matiess and Picasso on art in the UK and beyond

The day will run from 10 a.m to 3 p.m and as always the day will include a delicious 2-course meal with wine.

Organiser: Sheila McKenna

This Study Day will look at the work of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957), two of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. It will chronicle their flamboyant lives and turbulent marriage; it will also examine their role in Mexican history.

Key figures in the Mexican cultural renaissance of the 1930s, Kahlo and Rivera gave new value to the ancient cultures of the New World. After the Revolution of 1910, at a critical time in Mexico’s turbulent history, they helped Mexico to explore its identity as a post-Colonial nation and made it a magnet for the rest of the world.

The Mexican mural movement, born during the 1920s, was destined to produce some of the greatest public art of the last century. Diego Rivera's intricate visual narratives, rich with allegory and symbolism, adorn the walls of public buildings. Inspired by Aztec and Maya imagery, and by early Italian fresco painting, his vast murals combine social criticism with faith in human progress.

Kahlo's work, unlike Rivera's, is small in format. Arguably Mexico’s most original painter, she made herself the principal theme of her art. Her paintings reflect her experiences and dreams. Photographs and self-portraits show Kahlo flamboyantly dressed in traditional clothing, much of it hand-woven and richly embroidered. In 2005 an estimated 340,000 visitors saw her retrospective at Tate Modern. In 2018, an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum will show her clothing and some of her work.

The art of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera was shaped by their ideals and by their passion for Mexico. This Study Day will provide an introduction to Mexico itself, to the ancient civilizations and the contemporary peasant cultures that both painters admired so greatly, and also to the artistic mood of the period.

Arrangements
Cost: £35 includes 2 course lunch with wine
Start time: 10am prompt
Finish time: 3pm

Organiser: Sheila McKenna

 Chloë Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Her many books include MEXICAN TEXTILES (British Museum Press, 1990), THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF MEXICO (Thames & Hudson, 1990), FOCUS ON AZTECS AND INCAS (Watts Books, 1995), THE INCAS (Wayland, 1998), and FIESTA: DAYS OF THE DEAD AND OTHER MEXICAN FESTIVALS (British Museum Press, 2009). She co-wrote OF GODS AND MEN: MEXICO AND THE MEXICAN INDIAN (BBC Publications, 1980) and TRADITIONAL MEXICAN ARCHITECTURE (Thames & Hudson, 1993).

She has made ethnographic collections and carried out fieldwork in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum. In 1991 she co-curated the exhibition THE SKELETON AT THE FEAST: THE MEXICAN DAY OF THE DEAD at the Museum of Mankind. She has curated several other exhibitions of Mexican folk art. In 2010 and 2012 she was the Gervers Research Fellow in Textiles and Costume History at the Royal Ontario Museum, and is a Research Associate with the Department for World Cultures. In 2015, she curated the exhibition ¡VIVA MEXICO! CLOTHING & CULTURE (May 2015 to May 2016) and wrote the accompanying book. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican governnment, in recognition of her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture.

Chloë Sayer has lectured for galleries, museums and cultural institutions in Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Mexico. Between 1992 and 2000 she was a visiting tutor at the University of the Arts in London (Central Saint Martins, Department of Cultural Studies). She has been a lecturer with NADFAS since 2004, and has been the NADFAS guest-speaker on cruises for Voyages of Discovery and Swan Hellenic. She has also worked on a number of television documentaries about Mexico and Peru for the BBC and Channel 4.

Session One:  1850-1900

The day begins with an account of developments in British art from the days of the Pre-Raphaelites to the turn of the century, when controversial artistic trends like Impressionism, Symbolism and Aestheticism began to have their effect.  These ideas contributed to a move away from closely-observed detail, moralising narrative and anecdotal subject matter, towards an art of sweeping brushstrokes, emotional colour, sexual allure and moral ambiguity. 

Session Two:  1900-1945

The early part of this period saw a great deal of division in the British art world, as painters and sculptors got to grips with shocking new developments in style and technique, only to have their modernist attitudes seriously challenged by the trauma of the First World War.  Between the wars, British art struggled to find its way amid the bewildering radicalism of the European avant-garde, but was beginning to find its feet with such things as Surrealism and Abstraction when war once again changed everything.

Session Three:  British Art since 1945

This session tracks key moments in British art decade by decade, through the curious mixture of modernism and pastoralism which is associated with the Festival of Britain; to the explosion of Pop Art and Conceptualism in the 1960s and 70s, through to the 1980s and 90s, which gave us the notorious Sensation exhibition and the Turner Prize, and up to the present day. 

Linda Smith is a well qualified art historian with a broad range of knowledge and a special interest in British art and the art of the twentieth century.  She works as a guide and lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London.

Arrangements
Cost: £35 includes 2 course lunch with wine
Start time: 10am prompt
Finish time: 3pm

Organiser: Heather Thomas

The day wil begin with a general introduction to Scandinavian Art, followed by delving into the art of Christen Kobke - Danish Master of Light, and arguably one of the greatest talents of Denmark's Golden Age.  An exploration into the art of Edvard Munch, the Norwegian painer and printmaker, will follow.

Professor Neil Kent Formerly consultant with Christie’s on nineteenth-century painting. Author of several books on the history and culture of Scandinavia and St Petersburg. Currently lecturing, teaching and researching at Cambridge University and St Petersburg’s Academy of Art, Architecture and Culture.

Arrangements
Cost: £35 includes 2 course lunch with wine
Start time: 10am prompt
Finish time: 3pm

Organiser: Heather Thomas

This special interest day deals with the history and development of contemporary Iran, the product of the revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. It covers also the monumental architecture and reliefs of the ancient palace at Persepolis together with the brilliant architecture and tilework of the mosques and palaces of the Islamic period.

Contemporary Iran, the product of the revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini; the monumental architecture and reliefs of the ancient palace at Persepolis; the brilliant architecture and tilework of the mosques and palaces of the Islamic period.

The first part of this study day introduces the geographical, political and religious background, and explains how the Shi'a form of Islam originated and became the ruling creed in the late 20th century Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini. It especially looks at how visible aspects of traditional Persian culture have been changing over the last half century. 

The second part illustrates the rich and mighty Persian Empire that was contemporary with Classical Greece and ruled by Great Kings such as Darius and Xerxes. Their royal palace at Persepolis, destroyed (allegedly deliberately) by Alexander the Great, has monumental architectural remains and a wealth of relief sculpture which reveals the ethos of the Persian empire and the symbolism of kingship. There is a mention of Zoroastrianism, which was the official religion of the Iranians before the Islamic conquest.

The third part traces the development of architecture in the mosques and palaces of Iran, with an emphasis on their brilliant tilework and painting, through the Islamic period until the end of the 19th century. There is a section, for example, on the splendid buildings of Shah Abbas' early 17th century Isfahan, the subject of the British Museum exhibition in Spring 2009. There are mentions of some of Persia’s classic gardens, and the art of book illustration is also included, with beautiful examples from the classic period of Persian miniature painting and literature.

Start Time: 10am prompt
Finish Time: 3pm
Venue: Fitzwilliams Centre
Cost: £35 includes 2 course lunch with wine

The day is organised as three one hour lectures. 

• 10am - 11am
• Refreshment break
• 11.30am - 12.30pm
• Lunch - 2 course with wine
• 2pm - 3pm

Organised by: Heather Thomas

It has long been recognised that the worlds of visual and aural arts link with extraordinary power when one medium inspires the other. This SID, which spans over 600 years of the arts, analyses and discusses a range of related works and will include music by Liszt, Rachmaninov and Beethoven and paintings by Kandinsky, Botticelli  and Piero della Francesca.

Peter Medhurst will present with digital images, video, recorded music and live examples sung and played at the keyboard. He has worked all over the world as a singer, pianist, and lecturer-recitalist including giving recitals in major European cities.

Start Time: 10am

Finish Time: 3pm

Venue: Fitzwilliams Centre

Cost: £35 includes 2 course lunch with wine

The day is organised as three one hour lectures. 

• 10am - 11am
• Refreshment break
• 11.30am - 12.30pm
• Lunch - 2 course with wine
• 2pm - 3pm

Organised by James Astbury

Contrasting images:  Hokusai's famous print of the Wave 1830s and a Turner  watercolour of the Bell Rock lighthouse dates of the 1820s.  2 bathers,  Woman entering a cold bath, a print by Utamaro c1800 and a Bather by Ingres, oil 1808

The Arts of Japan and Europe: Fascinating parallels and contrasts throughout history.  Japanese approaches to painting, architecture and crafts, as well as the influence of society, environment and materials, are explored in comparison with contemporary European examples.

Start Time: 10am

Finish Time: 3pm

Venue: Fitzwilliams Centre

Cost: £35 includes 2 course lunch with wine

The day is organised as three one hour lectures. 

• 10am - 11am
• Refreshment break
• 11.30am - 12.30pm
• Lunch - 2 course with wine
• 2pm - 3pm

Organised by Heather Thomas and James Astbury

The art of the three main 'Bloomsbury' artists (Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry) cannot be separated from their astonishing lives and those of their companions, including Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes.

In this study day we shall look at their works and relationships, and what many consider their most important contribution to the visual arts in Britain, the ‘Art-quake of 1910’, when Fry and Virginia’s husband, Clive Bell, mounted the Manet and the Post-Impressionists exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London.

The art of the three main 'Bloomsbury' artists (Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry) cannot be separated from their astonishing lives and those of their companions, including Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes.

In this study day we shall look at their works and relationships, and what many consider their most important contribution to the visual arts in Britain, the ‘Art-quake of 1910’, when Fry and Virginia’s husband, Clive Bell, mounted the Manet and the Post-Impressionists exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London.

Frank Woodgate is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and for Dulwich Picture Gallery.  He also lectures for Tate on cruises and is a scriptwriter for the Living Paintings Trust (art for the blind and partially-sighted).

Theodora Clarke is an expert and lecturer on Russian art and twentieth century modernism. She founded and currently edits the online arts magazine ‘Russian Art and Culture’, and founded Russian Art week in London. Cost £35.00 includes 2 course lunch with wine Start time 10am Finish time 3pm Organiser James Astbury

Dr Paul Roberts has been curator of Roman Archaeology in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum since 1994, and in 2008 became senior curator. He was recently curator of the Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition at the British Museum. He has excavated in Libya, Turkey, Greece and Italy, has degrees in Classics (from Cambridge), and in Classical Archaeology (from Sheffield), and has written books on Roman daily life Roman Emperors, mummy portraits and Roman cameo glass.

Arrangements Cost: £35 includes 2 course lunch with wine Start time: 10am Finish time: 3pm

The Royal Collection contains over 485,000 objects collected by the Royal Family from King Henry VIII to the present Queen. The lecture selects about 45 of the finest items in the collection to demonstrate its range and magnificence, as well as showing the varying collecting interests of individual monarchs and other members of the Royal Family.

Following service in the Foreign Office, including postings in India and Spain, Oliver Everett was Assistant Private Secretary to the Princess of Wales 1978-80, and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales 1981-83. He was Librarian in the Royal Windsor Castle 1984-2002. He is now Librarian Emeritus following his retirement in 2002.