LECTURES SUMMARY
FORTHCOMING LECTURE DETAILS 2011 - 2012
Tuesday 24th January 2012
Laura Knight and the Wild North Sea
Tim Stimson
Laura Knight is probably the only truly popular British painter of the early 20th century. Once renowned for her spirited depictions of gypsies and circus folk, she began her career at the Staithes and Newlyn artists’ colonies, where she developed her typically vigorous and colourful style. This lecture includes works by her husband Harold and other Staithes painters during this fascinating period of British art.
Suggested Reading
Caroline Fox, Dame Laura Knight (1985)
L. Knight, Oil Paint and Grease Paint (1936)
York City Art Gallery, The Staithes Group (1993)
Biographical notes
Tim made his living as a painter/ceramicist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults. For the past fifteen years he has been a freelance art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society.
Tuesday 28th February 2012
Krakow “The City of the Dragon”
Douglas Skeggs
Founded back in a time when history is indivisible from legend, Krakow was the ancient capital of Poland until the 17th century. Its great market square, the web of medieval streets, the curiously irregular towers of St Mary’s with its magnificent carved altarpiece, the university where Copernicus first studied the stars, and, above all the majestic cathedral over-looking the Vistula, where the kings of Poland are buried, tell the story of this turbulent country. This lecture is a brief and personal tour of Krakow in search of the gems of art and architecture.
Biographical notes
Douglas read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. He is a writer, artist, TV presenter and lecturer to many London art courses. He is also Directory of the New Academy of Arts and author of six novels.
Tuesday 27th March 2012
Members’ Day
Dr Gillian White
11am-12 noon The Elizabethan Country House
This talk examines one of the most lively and creative periods of English country house building. Elizabethan patrons created great mansions to display their wealth, status and discernment. The results have a uniquely English style, mixing medieval gothic traditions and European renaissance motifs which will be seen in examples such as Hardwick Hall, Kirby Hall and the Earl of Leicester’s theatrical alterations to Kenilworth Castle.
2pm-3.30pm Embroidered with Woodbine and Eglantine: Elizabethan Textile Furnishings
Textiles provided the interiors of Elizabethan aristocratic houses with colour, glamour, texture and symbolism. Now only a fraction survives of the huge collections of textiles that once graced and invigorated Elizabethan mansions and palaces. In this talk we will look at designs, techniques and uses, as well as subject matter and the Elizabethans’ fondness for decoding hidden messages and devices.
Biographical notes
Gillian has a PhD in Renaissance Studies from Warwick University and an MA in Medieval Studies from York. She has worked for the National Trust as Curator & Collections Manager at Hardwick Hall and gives presentations to various groups, including the Embroiderer’s Guild.
Tuesday 24th April 2012
An Ideal Partnership: Lutyens & Jekyll
James Bolton
The partnership of Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens resolved the ongoing contemporary row as to the pre-eminence in the garden of the architect or the gardener. Their partnership thrived in the brash, new-moneyed Edwardian era. However, with the onset of the First World War, Lutyens became distracted by the creation of New Delhi and Miss Jekyll, almost blind, became more and more reluctant to leave Munstead Wood, so the gardens they designed together were fewer and further between.
Biographical notes
James studied at the Inchbald School of Design where he later became Faculty Director of Design History. He is a Garden Designer and lecturer and lecturers on NADFAS garden study days.
Tuesday 22nd May 2012
Bernini’s Sculpture in the Villa Borghese, Rome
Hilary Williams
The young and precocious Bernini (1598-1680) created some of the most stunning sculptures that define the Baroque. A choice group of his sensational Apollo and Daphne, the spiralling Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius, the Rape of Persephone, David and Truth revealed by Time, in the Villa Borghese, show his amazing skill and the development of his illustrious career. But how do they interpret the stories and show his skill with cold, white, hard Carrara marble which he makes to look like flesh?
Biographical notes
Hilary was formerly Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, and is now their Art History Education Officer. She lectures for the British Museum, London Borough of Bexley and Wallace Collection.
Tuesday 24th January 2012
Laura Knight and the Wild North Sea
Tim Stimson
Laura Knight is probably the only truly popular British painter of the early 20th century. Once renowned for her spirited depictions of gypsies and circus folk, she began her career at the Staithes and Newlyn artists’ colonies, where she developed her typically vigorous and colourful style. This lecture includes works by her husband Harold and other Staithes painters during this fascinating period of British art.
Suggested Reading
Caroline Fox, Dame Laura Knight (1985)
L. Knight, Oil Paint and Grease Paint (1936)
York City Art Gallery, The Staithes Group (1993)
Biographical notes
Tim made his living as a painter/ceramicist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults. For the past fifteen years he has been a freelance art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society.
Tuesday 28th February 2012
Krakow “The City of the Dragon”
Douglas Skeggs
Founded back in a time when history is indivisible from legend, Krakow was the ancient capital of Poland until the 17th century. Its great market square, the web of medieval streets, the curiously irregular towers of St Mary’s with its magnificent carved altarpiece, the university where Copernicus first studied the stars, and, above all the majestic cathedral over-looking the Vistula, where the kings of Poland are buried, tell the story of this turbulent country. This lecture is a brief and personal tour of Krakow in search of the gems of art and architecture.
Biographical notes
Douglas read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. He is a writer, artist, TV presenter and lecturer to many London art courses. He is also Directory of the New Academy of Arts and author of six novels.
Tuesday 27th March 2012
Members’ Day
Dr Gillian White
11am-12 noon The Elizabethan Country House
This talk examines one of the most lively and creative periods of English country house building. Elizabethan patrons created great mansions to display their wealth, status and discernment. The results have a uniquely English style, mixing medieval gothic traditions and European renaissance motifs which will be seen in examples such as Hardwick Hall, Kirby Hall and the Earl of Leicester’s theatrical alterations to Kenilworth Castle.
2pm-3.30pm Embroidered with Woodbine and Eglantine: Elizabethan Textile Furnishings
Textiles provided the interiors of Elizabethan aristocratic houses with colour, glamour, texture and symbolism. Now only a fraction survives of the huge collections of textiles that once graced and invigorated Elizabethan mansions and palaces. In this talk we will look at designs, techniques and uses, as well as subject matter and the Elizabethans’ fondness for decoding hidden messages and devices.
Biographical notes
Gillian has a PhD in Renaissance Studies from Warwick University and an MA in Medieval Studies from York. She has worked for the National Trust as Curator & Collections Manager at Hardwick Hall and gives presentations to various groups, including the Embroiderer’s Guild.
Tuesday 24th April 2012
An Ideal Partnership: Lutyens & Jekyll
James Bolton
The partnership of Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens resolved the ongoing contemporary row as to the pre-eminence in the garden of the architect or the gardener. Their partnership thrived in the brash, new-moneyed Edwardian era. However, with the onset of the First World War, Lutyens became distracted by the creation of New Delhi and Miss Jekyll, almost blind, became more and more reluctant to leave Munstead Wood, so the gardens they designed together were fewer and further between.
Biographical notes
James studied at the Inchbald School of Design where he later became Faculty Director of Design History. He is a Garden Designer and lecturer and lecturers on NADFAS garden study days.
Tuesday 22nd May 2012
Bernini’s Sculpture in the Villa Borghese, Rome
Hilary Williams
The young and precocious Bernini (1598-1680) created some of the most stunning sculptures that define the Baroque. A choice group of his sensational Apollo and Daphne, the spiralling Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius, the Rape of Persephone, David and Truth revealed by Time, in the Villa Borghese, show his amazing skill and the development of his illustrious career. But how do they interpret the stories and show his skill with cold, white, hard Carrara marble which he makes to look like flesh?
Biographical notes
Hilary was formerly Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, and is now their Art History Education Officer. She lectures for the British Museum, London Borough of Bexley and Wallace Collection.