Past Events

"When Britain Clicked: Photography Of The Swinging Sixties"

16th June 2022 - 2.30pm

British photography enjoyed a golden age in the 1960s. Young, talented newcomers broke out of the conventional studio to revolutionise perceptions of fashion, portraiture and popular culture. This lecture looks at a range of superb images from photographers such as David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Lewis Morley, Tony Ray­Jones and Jane Bown.

Brian Stater is a Senior Teaching Fellow at University College London, where he has lectured since 1997. His principal academic interest lies in the appreciation of architecture, while a strong personal enthusiasm is for photography. He therefore explores both business and pleasure by offering lectures on each of these subjects.

He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs has been held at UCL. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

Brian is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience.

"The Art Of The Kimono: Japanese Signs, Symbols And Stories"

19th May 2022 - 2.30pm

The Kimono advertised your rank and status, wealth and taste, and complex symbols and stories abound in the lavish decoration of textiles and fabrics used for men’s and women’s clothing from 17th to 19th centuries.

An independent researcher and historian specialising in Japanese History, Art & Culture, and founded Japan Interlink in 1995 to promote the understanding of Japan in the UK. Suzanne studied Nihonga traditional Japanese painting at Nagoya University of Arts and gained a certificate there, and reached Level 3 in Japanese Language at the Japan Foundation in London.

Suzanne has lectured to a wide range of institutions including universities, museums and adult education groups in the UK and overseas. She taught Japanese History & Culture at Richmond American International University in London for over ten years, lectures for the Arts of Asia course at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, for the British Museum and London Institute Universities, the University of Cape Town, and University of Brighton Art & Design School; has given lecture tours for DARTS in South Africa, AADFAS in Australia and for The Arts Societies in Europe (Spain, Germany, Malta, Belgium). Suzanne has organized exhibitions of Japanese arts and crafts including Kimono exhibitions for demonstration and display.

Suzanne has published articles on Japanese culture and contemporary living for various magazines, and published her first book in 2016 titled: Bridges: Anglo-Japanese Cultural Pioneers 1945-2015. She is working on her second book on Japanese craftspeople in Kyoto, and visits Japan regularly to continue her research.

"Laura Knight: From Newlyn To Nuremberg"

21st April 2022 - 2.30pm

Dame Laura Knight, (née Johnson), DBE RA RWS (born 4 August 1877 – died 7 July 1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressionism. In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for women artists.

Bernard Allen has a BA (Hons) in History and an MA in History of Art. Having taken early retirement, he commenced a new career as an art history tutor for the WEA. He has taught French and British art of the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as women's art, for the past eight years, lectured to various societies, and guided parties around galleries in London and Paris. In addition to teaching, he is currently researching artists working in Sussex in the 19th century, with a view to publication.

"Creating The Golden Era Of Transatlantic Liners"

17th March 2022 - 2.30pm

At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was the domination of shipping routes to and from America that was the golden prize.

Here is the fascinating story of how each company positioned itself in the size of liners, the luxurious environments with posters, art, ephemera and the offerings across the Atlantic Ocean either side of the Great War. We look at the breathtaking interiors as portrayed in the Shipbuilder special supplements of the day and the Sales Brochures. What were the reasons for the tragedy of both the Lusitania and Titanic? What art was lost on Titanic? Was it just plain sailing on the Atlantic?

Howard Smith’s lectures have a reputation for stunning graphics - this lecture is no exception and also has vintage film of RMS Olympic with the building and launch as well as a glimpse of the First Class dining experience - these were floating luxury hotels for the seriously rich and below decks a cramped one-way ticket for the 12 million immigrants to the States.

...the big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh...

Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International advertising agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury. He was delighted to become an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society in 2017.

His lectures mainly cover an extraordinary fifty-year period which saw immense change, ingenuity and creativity and set the theme of 'Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century'.

"Urban Noir: Edward Hopper's "Night Hawks"

17th February 2022 - 2.30pm

Edward Hopper's paintings of urban life are typically characterized by a sense of loneliness and alienation. The most celebrated example is Nighthawks, a work of 1942, which depicts three men and a woman gathered in a brightly illuminated restaurant in downtown New York. We are given few clues as to the identity of these people, whether they know each other or are in any way related. It is in fact the inexplicable quality of this scene which has made it so intriguing to generations of viewers, and has turned Nighthawks into one of the iconic images of 20th century urban life.

This lecture considers the background to Hopper's masterpiece and offers possible reasons for its lasting fascination.

A lecturer specialising in 19th-century art history, Kathy is currently a course director at the Victoria & Albert Museum, organising courses and study days on the history of art and design. She teaches at several institutions, including Art Pursuits. She is a graduate of Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute, with a PhD on French 19th-century painters in Rome.

"Can Can: High Kicks And Frilly Knickers - A Cultural History Of The Dance Which Inspired Toulouse Lautrec, Seurat And Picasso"

20th January 2022 - 2.30pm.

The Cancan is the most famous dance in the world, as much an icon of French culture and identity as the baguette, playing boules, and the Eiffel Tower.

Hearing the first few bars of the galop from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld immediately conjures up the exhilarating days of 1890s Belle Epoque Paris, as a troupe of dancers run on stage squealing and yelping with wild abandon. The dance is at once physically demanding, glamorous and bawdy, and a performance of the Cancan still has the power to turn heads amidst a cascade of lifted skirts, frothy white petticoats, frilly bloomers and black stockings.

It is from the images of Henri Toulouse Lautrec particularly that we derive our ideal of the Cancan. His contemporaries and friends Georges Seurat, Tom Warrener, Louis Anquetin, and later members of the Fauvist, Cubist, and Futurist movements, also found inspiration from performances of the Cancan. In the early 1900s, the young Pablo Picasso was mesmerised by the dance whenever he could afford an entrance ticket to the most well-known venue the Moulin Rouge, which had opened in October 1889.

In the early 1890s Toulouse Lautrec immortalised the most famous and highly-paid dancers Jane Avril and Louise Weber, known as ‘La Goulue’, in paintings and posters. However, illustrations of famous dancers by the graphic artists Louis Legrand, Ferdinand Lunel and the designer of the Moulin Rouge, Adolphe Willette had frequently appeared before this in popular magazines and newspapers.

Using period photographs, paintings and graphic art this lecture covers the development of the Cancan within the context of popular entertainment and the art of the avant garde from the era of nineteenth through to early twentieth centuries.

Martin studied History of Art at Manchester University and afterwards spent three years in the editorial department of a fine art publishing company. His later career took detour into the world of information technology, during which time he had the opportunity to work and live for several years in both continental Europe and North America. Having 'retired' from this field of endeavour he now devotes his time to researching mainly English eighteenth and late nineteenth century French art and architecture.

"A Dickens of a Good Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!"

2nd December 2021 - 2.30pm.

Bertie has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. A member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star, his past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition,he has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard and has written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

Charles Dickens has often been proclaimed as “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and indeed on hearing that Dickens had died, a cockney barrow-girl said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?” Dickens revived the Christmas traditions with his warm portrayal of Christmas in the domestic setting; with plum pudding, piping hot turkey, games, dancing and family cheer by the hearth. Although he celebrated Christmas in numerous works it is his enduring master piece, ‘A Christmas Carol’ published on 19th December 1843 which immortalises the spirit of Christmas Cheer. Dickens was a man of extraordinary energy and talent: literary genius, reformer, public speaker, actor and amateur magician.

In his lecture Bertie Pearce reveals a Dickensian Christmas with readings, biographical details and conjuring tricks.

"Sumptuous Veronese" - The Depiction of Luxury Goods in 16th Century Venice

18th November 2021 - 2.30pm.

Venice: the Serenissma, but also the Luxurissima. Venice was the port for Europe through which all the glamorous and luxurious products of India, the Middle East and the Far East passed, and she certainly made sure that the best pieces remained in Venice. Indian jewellery, silks and porcelains were given a starring role in the paintings produced by any Venetian artist from the 15th of 16th century - Bellini and Cima through to the trio of great Venetian artists, Titian Tintoretto and Veronese. But of all of these, it is Veronese who delighted most in depicting the textures and colour effects of luxury goods.

This lecture explores how he deployed his luxury props, and what it was in his style of painting that makes them such a feast for the eye.

Chantal has an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh and a PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, Chantal has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989, and as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies in London, Italy and America. Having also trained as a paintings conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures and study sessions.

"Art Crime in Cinema"

21st October 2021

Whenever a major museum is robbed of its treasures, the BBC website reports the event under the heading ‘Entertainment’. The implications of this are more interesting than they at first seem. Art thefts have been a constant presence in the news media since the early decades of the twentieth century and Hollywood and international cinema were never slow to catch on to the general public's fascination with these dark developments.

This talk seeks to draw connections between three strands — the rise of the international art market from 1900, the theft of major works of art from museums and private houses in the twentieth century, and the emergence of cinema as an art form in the early twentieth century. All three can be seen to feed off one another. Criminals noticed the extraordinary prices being paid for masterpieces and responded accordingly, while cinema latched on to these real-life thriller crime narratives, turning art thieves into glamorous anti-heroes such as Thomas Crown. More recently, art collectors have sought ever more secure locations in which to store their art, with ‘freeport’ warehouses now holding billions of dollars of the world’s masterpieces. This talk traces the connections between some of the most popular art heist movies and the reality of the art market and reveals one or two little-known examples of early ‘art crime cinema’.

Dr Tom Flynn is a UK-based art historian, writer and art consultant. He holds a First Class Honours degree in Art History from the University of Sussex, a Masters in Design History from the Royal College of Art and a doctorate from the University of Sussex. His interests include contemporary art; sculpture history; museology and the history of museums; art crime; issues in cultural heritage; and the historical development and professional practice of the European art markets.

He is Senior Lecturer at Christie’s Education, Adjunct Professor at Richmond, the American International University in London, visiting Senior Lecturer at Kingston School of Art, and teaches at a number of other UK and European universities. He has taught for many years on the summer Post-Graduate Certificate in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection Studies at the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA) in Amelia, Umbria, Italy. A former Henry Moore Foundation post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex, he has written for numerous international art publications and is the author of The Body in Sculpture (Everyman Art Library, 1998), and co-editor (with Dr Tim Barringer) of Colonialism and the Object: Empire, Material Culture and the Museum (Routledge, 1997). He has written monographs on a number of British contemporary sculptors, including Sean Henry, Terence Coventry and Charlotte Meyer. His most recent book, The A to Z of the International Art Market was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2016 and published in a Chinese edition in 2019

"Paradise Lost and Restored" - 400 Years of Garden Design in Oxfordshire

16th September 2021 - 2.30pm

The history of English garden design can be told in different ways, but rarely can it be told "through the lens" of one garden. The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and its design bears all the hallmarks of 17th century design. Through the next 400 years successive Horti Praefecti (head gardeners) changed the features reflecting the art of gardening, and very occasionally the science of botany. This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed, or perhaps has not, in four centuries in Oxfordshire and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century. The title of the talk refers to the fact that one of the motivations for garden design remains the desire to create paradise on Earth. The meaning of paradise may now be less rooted in the Biblical account of the rise and fall of man, but there is still a clear vision of what we would like the world to resemble.

Since 1986 Tim has given 1,500 public lectures. This was originally part of his work as director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden from 1988 to 2014. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Since 2014 Tim has been a college lecturer and tutor at Somerville College Oxford. Gardens are often thought of a place where science and art meet on equal terms. His lectures investigate this relationship.

"The Art of the Steal" - Nazi Looting during WWII

17th June 2021 - 2.30pm

The Nazis looted over 20% of Western Art during World War II, confiscating art from Jewish families and emptying museums throughout Europe. This lecture will provide an overview of Nazi looting by setting the scene in Nazi Germany, discussing Hitler’s obsession with art and how the Monuments Men recovered art after the war. Several landmark cases will be discussed in detail, including Gustav Klimt’s celebrated Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer and the stash of over 1200 artworks found in possession of the son of a notorious Nazi dealer.

Shauna Isaac has been active in World War II art restitution for several years and has worked with families and government organisations to recover Nazi looted art. She set up the Central Registry on Looted Cultural Property and served as a member of the Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague. Shauna studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in the UK and Smith College in the USA. She is a regular lecturer at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Her publications include articles for The Art Newspaper, The Times Literary Supplement and Art Quarterly. She is a contributor to the book Insiders/Outsiders: Refuges from Nazi Europe and their contribution to British Visual Culture

"Fashionable Kent" - Life at the Victorian Seaside

20th May 2021 - 2.30pm

Jacqui read History of Art and Theory at the University of Essex before going on to gain an MA in History of Dress from the Courtauld Institute. Formerly an Education Officer at the National Gallery, London, and a tutor and writer for the Open University, she has a wide range of teaching experience. She continues to lecture regularly on the public programmes of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery and to publish on court dress, Grand Tour portraiture and Welsh Costume as well as dress as a cultural marker and indicator of class, gender, national and professional identity.

Jacqui is a senior lecturer at Christie's Education, London.

Giles - His Life, Times and Cartoons

15th April 2021 - 2.30pm

The cartoonist, Carl Giles, once said that he loved his creation, Grandma Giles – that fearsome, black-clad, gambling, drinking battleaxe – because she allowed him to say things through his cartoons that he was too polite to say in person. She helped him to poke fun at authority in all its forms, from Hitler to traffic wardens and even his employers at the Daily Express, who didn’t trust him and had sub-editors scouring his cartoons for subversive background details. His admirers included Prince Charles, Sir Malcolm Sargent and Tommy Cooper, and it was no surprise when he was voted Britain’s best-loved cartoonist in 2000. Few people realise, however, that this likeable and humane satirist was also a war correspondent who witnessed the horrors of Belsen, where he found that the camp commandant, Josef Kramer, was also a great fan of his work. Giles gave us a remarkable picture of a half-century of British life. He was also, as his editor John Gordon put it “a spreader of happiness’ and ‘a genius…with the common touch’.

An historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely, including the volume on Turner in Phaidon's Art & Ideas series, and several catalogue essays for exhibitions in the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland. He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and has recently taken part (2013) in a BBC documentary called The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution. He has also published a study of John Constable's paintings. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art. He is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for The Arts Society, Christie's Education and other organisations.

Nigel Bates - Tantrums and Tiaras

18th March 2021 - 2.30pm

This lecture is a look at backstage life at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the pressures faced by performers, be they singer, dancer, conductor or musician. We see how the building copes with the demands of modern productions and examine audience expectations both inside the theatre and out. We also look at some of the highs and try to understand some of the lows that have been the fortune of this world-class performing venue over the years. Includes several performance video clips.

Nigel Bates has been a performer for more than forty years in and out of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, including seventeen years as Principal Percussionist with the Orchestra and eight years as the Music Administrator of The Royal Ballet.

He has worked with many of the leading figures in the classical music industry and was also a producer for both the BBC's Maestro at the Opera and Pappano's Classical Voices documentary series. He is a regular contributor to the printed and online content of the ROH.

He has given lectures for over thirty years, including many arts societies and conservatoires in the UK and across Australia.

Turner vs Constable - the Great British Paint-Off!

18th February 2021 - 2.30pm

This is the story of the epic rivalry between the two giants of British art, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. As unlike in background and temperament as their paintings were in style, these two creative geniuses transformed the art of landscape. This lecture/study day sets them head-to-head and examines their differences, their similarities, their battles and their shared triumphs. But who will ultimately be crowned star painter? As well as giving an overview of Turner and Constable, the subject provides an enjoyable overview of the British art world during the nineteenth century.

An independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Nicola studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner, including contributions to the forthcoming online catalogue of the Turner Bequest. She is also co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010). In addition, she has published on Walter Richard Sickert and is co-author of Tate's catalogue of works by the Camden Town Group.

The Studio-Houses of the Holland Park Circle

21st January 2021 - 2.30pm

In the second half of the nineteenth-century an extraordinary group of purpose-built studio-houses were built on the edge of London’s Holland Park. At their centre was the house built by Frederic Leighton from the mid-1860s. With its vast studio and exotic Arab Hall it provided an inspiration to other artists who commissioned houses of their own. Combining domestic accommodation with studio space and space in which to entertain, these houses provide fascinating insights into the wealth, status and taste of successful artists of the period. The lecture explores the houses of the Holland Park Circle to determine why these artists invested so much in the creation of their homes and the uses they then put them to.

Daniel Robbins is Senior Curator, Museums with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is responsible for two of London’s most significant house museums: Leighton House Museum and 18 Stafford Terrace. Formerly with Glasgow Museums, he has organised many exhibitions and contributed to numerous catalogues and publications around nineteenth-century art, architecture and design, including the authorship of the companion guide to Leighton House Museum published in 2011. He was responsible for leading the award-winning project to restore the historic interiors of the house completed between 2008 and 2010 and is now leading an £7 million refurbishment project addressing the additions made to the building in the twentieth century.