Crossing Frontiers: a Journey through Art
This series examines art from around the world and will show
that although art from different countries and periods varies,
there can be surprising similarities
Art Down Under: Australian Art from the convict years to the
modern era
Tuesday 21 September
Dreamtime, convicts and early settlers – artistic responses to
life in the strange new continent were seen initially through
European, and especially British, artistic traditions. In the 19th
century, Australian Impressionism and the ‘Heidelberg School’
challenged the dominance of the ‘Victorian’ style, with Tom
Roberts, Arthur Streeton and others producing works which became
Australian icons. The First World War was a watershed in Australian
and New Zealand history. No longer subservient to Europe, artists
now found their own language to depict the unique landscape and
culture of ‘Down Under’. At the same time, indigenous artists began
to respond to contemporary life, while retaining many of the
traditions of their ancestors.
Lecturer: Val Woodgate
Travellers’ Tales: Italian Art through the eyes of Victorian
Travellers
Tuesday 28 September
Italy in the mid-nineteenth century may have been a collection
of poor, fragmented states, but it was also the destination for
many English travellers. Byron, Ruskin, the Brownings and Dickens
all travelled there, along with many others, and wrote of the art
and culture they discovered. This talk will explore the history of
Italian painting through theeyes of such travellers, revealing how
they reacted to the early Renaissance beauty of Fra Angelico or the
turbulent exuberanceof Tintoretto. We shall hear also what they
thought of Italy at large, in an age when crossing the Alps was a
major – and possibly dangerous – undertaking. This sort of cultural
travel was not for the faint-hearted!
Lecturer: Jo Walton
Degenerates and others – German Art in the 20th Century
Tuesday 5 October
Many major German artists, along with others from elsewhere in
Europe, were reviled by the Nazis and included in the Entartete
Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition in Munich in 1937. However,
innovative and exciting German art started much earlier, with the
Expressionist Die Brücke group in 1905 and Der Blaue Reiter in
1911. This lecture examines these early modern movements, looks at
the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) of the 1920sand anti-Nazi
art, coming right up to date with controversialand imaginative
artists such as Joseph Beuys, Rebecca Horn and Anselm Kiefer.
Lecturer: Frank Woodgate
‘Constructing the Future’: Early 20th Century Russian Art
Tuesday 12 October
After the break-up of the Soviet Union and with the
re-invigoration of Russia as an economic and political force,
interest has grown in Russian art. Russian buyers have made great
efforts to ‘repatriate’ their artistic heritage. Moreover, recent
exhibitions in London have underlined the importance of the Russian
avant-garde in the development of modern art in the early 20th
century. This talk will explore the work of some of the key
figures, such as Kandinsky, Malevich and Goncharova, and will then
discuss how artists were required to use their talents in the
service of the Party and the State and in the dissemination of the
‘progressive ideas of socialist realism’.
Lecturer: Peter Scott
Futurism, ‘Poor Art’ and Provocation: Italian 20th and 21st
Century Art
Tuesday 19 October
Italian artists of the 20th century sought to break with the art
of the past, to provoke and challenge notions of what art should
be. At the beginning of the 20th century the Italian Futurists
celebrated industrialism, encouraged radicalism and later supported
Mussolini. It was a hugely influential movement. This talk will
look at other important and innovative Italian artists, including
Modigliani, Morandi and the ‘Arte Povera’ group who used
inexpensive, everyday materials to create their art works. It will
explore also how Italian artists are still continuing to shake
things up today.
Lecturer: Melanie Paice
A Highland Thing? 18th to 20th Century Scottish Art
Tuesday 26 October
For many years Scottish artists found it necessary to travel
south to make their names and careers in art, but with the
increasing importance of the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow from
the end of the 18th century, an independent Scottish art scene
emerged. These developments will be traced through individuals such
as Sir Henry Raeburn, the first artist to find success whilst
remaining in his native Scotland, and Sir David Wilkie, important
as one of the first to export Scottish art. This lecture will look
also at the parallels between Scottish and other European art, as
well as periods of divergence, touching on art movements such as
the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists.
Lecturer: Rosalind Whyte