top of page
LECTURES & EVENTS
UPCOMING LECTURES & EVENTS
Mon, 13 MayWidcombe Social Club13 May 2024, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKSir Anthony van Dyck was the principal painter at the court of King Charles I and is regarded as the greatest painter in 17th century Britain. This lecture will examine the ‘Flemishness’ of his art and trace how it altered subtly to fit in with British tastes and expectations.
Mon, 03 JunWidcombe Social Club03 Jun 2024, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKThe Elizabethan era saw the transformation of Britain’s medieval dwellings into the basis of modern houses. Underpinning the story is the social change wrought by the end of the monasteries, the growth of cities and the discovery of a world beyond our shores.
Lectures
PAST LECTURES & EVENTS
15 Apr 2024, 11:30 – 12:30James McNeill Whistler was a witty, irascible dandy who took pains to display his art in exactly the way he wanted. The lecture examines Whistler’s painting techniques from early ‘Rembrandtesque’ portraits of his youth, to his experiments with colour, form and texture.
04 Mar 2024, 11:30 – 12:30The Studio Glass Movement dates from 1962, with its emphasis on the aesthetics of form and colour. Dale Chihuly became one of the foremost American Studio glass artists, and this talk considers his individual works and large-scale exhibitions, such as that in Kew Gardens in 2005 and 2019.
08 Jan 2024, 11:30 – 12:30Impressionist Berthe Morisot is known for her light-filled canvases of modern life: after- noons boating on a lake, young women in ballgowns. This lecture traces Morisot’s engagement with 18th century culture, and highlights what set her apart from her predecessors and contemporaries.
04 Dec 2023, 11:30 – 12:30These two very different men, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, came together under the guiding hand of the impresario, Richard D’Oyly Carte. The Savoy operas, with their gentle satire, celebrate the quirks and foibles of the British nation, and are as alive today as in the 1880’s.
14 Nov 2023, 10:30 – 15:30Featuring three fascinating talks with Marc Allum (Miscellaneous Specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow): "The Anatomy of Collecting" on the historical origins of why we collect, "An Object Talk" on objects brought by attendees on the day, and "Fakes & Forgeries" looking at the history of fakery.
06 Nov 2023, 11:30 – 12:30On Ernest Shackleton’s third Antarctic expedition in 1914, his ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed in the pack ice. Frank Hurley's photographs are a visual narrative of an epic journey which capture the amazing landscapes, as a remarkable human drama is played out.
05 Jun 2023, 11:30 – 12:30This lecture explores the contribution of Josiah Wedgwood to the history of world ceramics: beginning with his early career as a potter; the development and marketing of cream-coloured earthenware; the opening of the Etruria factory and the development of encaustic painting.
Wed, 17 May17 May 2023, 10:30 – 15:3017 May 2023, 10:30 – 15:30Featuring 3 fascinating talks on the legacy of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald, The Glasgow Boys and their triumph over the Edinburgh ‘Glue-Pots’ and The Scottish Colourists - on four Scottish artists who brought Post Impressionism to Scotland.
15 May 2023, 11:30 – 12:30Contemporary sculptor and installation artist Cornelia Parker is best known for her large-scale installations like Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View where she took a typical garden shed, had it blown up then installed the debris around a light bulb creating the effect of an explosion frozen in time
Mon, 03 Apr03 Apr 2023, 11:30 – 12:30
Mon, 06 Mar06 Mar 2023, 11:30 – 12:3006 Mar 2023, 11:30 – 12:30The poverty, crowds, artists and performers of Paris transformed Picasso from a precocious, talented teenager into a charismatic leader of the young Turks. Together with his intensely disturbing “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, he almost single-handedly unleashed the 20th century's cultural revolution.
Mon, 06 Feb06 Feb 2023, 11:30 – 12:30
09 Jan 2023, 11:30 – 12:30President of the new Royal Academy, Joshua Reynolds, wanted to establish a new golden age for British art in the grand style of Italian History painting, but his clients wanted flattering portraits so he developed a clever compromise and raised portraiture to the top rank of art.
Mon, 07 Nov07 Nov 2022, 11:30 – 12:30
Events
bottom of page