Programme for 2021 membership year
Membership Year 2021 (runs from January – June with a reduced
subscription)
Programme for 2021 Further information on the lectures to follow and all subject to
change
January 14th 2021 7:30
Ian Swankie
Great Railway Stations-Evoking the Spirit of
Romance & Adventure.
If you think of St Pancras International or New York Grand
Central you imagine long romantic journeys. You know
they are special places promising excitement and
adventure. But there are dozens of other glorious stations
in the UK and abroad. We will take a journey around some
of the most evocative and splendid stations in the world.
We will look not only at the magnificence of the
architecture and the brilliant engineering but will discover
numerous artworks within the stations and examine many
depictions of stations in art – like Claude Monet’s Gare St
Lazare or William Powell Frith’s Paddington. It may sound
a bit anoraky, but it’s definitely not. It’s lavish, colourful
and fun.
Clock Tower St.Pancras Railway Station 1867
Sir George Gilbert Scott
Feburary 11th 2021 7:30
Monica Bohm-Duchen
Insiders/Outsiders: Refugees from Nazi Europe & British visual culture.
Despite the traumatic nature of their dislocation
and the obstacles they often encountered on
arrival in the UK, those who fled here from Nazi-
dominated Europe in the 1930s and 1940s made a
deep, pervasive and long-lasting contribution to
British culture.
Focussing on the visual arts, this lecture will
examine the nature of this contribution, embracing
not only familiar names such as Gombrich,
Kokoschka, Moholy-Nagy, Schwitters and
Heartfield, but also lesser-known figures such as
Albert Reuss, Josef Herman and Marie-Louise von
Motesiczky.
Albert Reuss in his studio, 1918
March 11th 2021 7:30
Lars Tharp
to be confirmed and topic agreed.
April 8th 2021 7:30
Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes
The Art of Dance
Since the birth of the earliest human civilisations, dance has been an important part of
ceremony, rituals, celebrations, a method of healing and a means of expression and
entertainment.
Using stills and video clips we take a look at dance as an art form from its earliest
beginnings; through the birth and rapid development of ballet throughout Europe, the
explosion of modern dance in the early 20th century a time of unprecedented creative
growth for dancers and choreographers and with the growth of post-modernism from
the 1960s the expansion of street dance, hip-hop, break dancing and rock dance.
May13th 2021 7:30
Geri Parlby
The Subtle Art of Fake News
Fake News has been around since the time of the
Egyptian Pharaohs and art has always been one of its
favourite media.
In this talk I will be uncovering the subtle art of spin
and propaganda in art from the glories of Ancient
Mesopotamia to the Norman Conquest and then onto
Elizabethan England and the dark days of Nazi
Germany.
Every picture tells a story—whether it is true or not is
an entirely different matter.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International license.
*June 10th 2021 7:30
Tony Faber
The Imperial Easter Eggs of Carl Faberge - Before the Revolution
Between 1885 and 1916, Carl Fabergé made fifty jewelled eggs –
Easter presents from Russia’s last two emperors to their wives.
They have become the most famous surviving symbols of the
Romanov Empire: both supreme examples of the jeweller’s art
and the vulgar playthings of a decadent court.
Given almost total artistic freedom, Fabergé and his designers
had to conform to only three rules: that each year’s Easter
present should be egg-shaped, that it should contain some
surprise to amuse or delight its recipient, and that it should be
different from any predecessor. Their maker’s relentless search for
novelty also means that they provide a fabulously quirky
illustrated history of the decline of the Romanovs. The lecture is
illustrated with pictures of the Romanovs and their palaces, and,
of course, with photographs of the eggs themselves.
James Petts. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
*September 9th 2021 7:30
Howard Smith
Eagle & Dan Dare – The Art of Frank Hampson OR Alternative
*October 14th 2021 7:30
Roger Butler
Canal History & Heritage
This lecture provides a colourful introduction to the
secret world of our 2000-mile inland waterway network
and looks at all aspects of their exceptional artistic,
architectural and engineering vernacular with special
reference to our local canals. He will range from
sweeping aqueducts to tiny bollards; from colourful
historic narrowboats to 'Roses and Castles' artwork;
from grand World Heritage Sites to quirky listed
buildings.
A well-known architectural historian once described our
canals as a 'poor man's art gallery'.
Canal Art Traditional decorated canalware at the Boat Gathering, Guildford 2009.
Photo copyright: Colin Smith / Canal Art /
November 11th 2021 7:30
Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe
Historical Painting Materials & Techniques 15th - 18th Centuries
The 14th century artist Cennino Cennini recommended using “the chicken bones that
you will find under the dining table” for making charcoaled bone black to paint with.
His treatise, The Artists’ handbook, gives us an understanding of some of the surprising
materials which any artist had to master before he could begin to paint, such as the tail
of a squirrel to make his paintbrushes. But many of these materials were difficult to use
and have an effect on the finished look of paintings from the centuries before industrial
processes changed the artist’s world. This lecture will explain the techniques and the
reasons for some of the features of 15th and 16th century paintings which may seem
odd to our modern eyes.
December 9th 2021 7:30
Roger Askew
A Right Royal Christmas: How our Royal Families have celebrated Christmas
through the ages.
*Postponed from 2020
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