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LECTURES & EVENTS
UPCOMING LECTURES & EVENTS
Mon, 02 DecWidcombe Social Club02 Dec 2024, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKThe Christmas story is told through a selection of well-loved paintings and illuminated manuscripts by Italian and Flemish artists, including Botticelli, Fra Angelico and Jan van Eyck, together with many less well- known images. This lecture explores the rich symbolism of Christmas imagery.
Mon, 06 JanWidcombe Social Club06 Jan 2025, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKAfter the Spanish conquest of 1521, the raw materials, techniques and art styles of Europe merged with those of the New World. Drawing on skills inherited from Aztec, Maya and Spanish predecessors, makers bring a modern vision to ancient traditions: exquisite textiles, silver jewellery, and more.
Mon, 03 FebWidcombe Social Club03 Feb 2025, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKWhat is ‘surrealism’, where did it come from, and how did it influence 20th century British art? Looking at artists as diverse as William Blake, Francis Bacon, Henry Moore and Paul Nash - as well as writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Lewis Carroll - this lecture answers all those questions.
Mon, 03 MarWidcombe Social Club03 Mar 2025, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKDutch art in the 17th Century dealt with the lives of real people: at times ordered, at others bawdy or self-important, and occasionally tragic. The new Protestant mentality allowed astonishing advances in society as shown by Rembrandt, Vermeer and more.
Wed, 19 MarWidcombe Social Club19 Mar 2025, 10:30 – 15:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKThis Special Interest Day will consist of three talks about the Silk Road, a melting pot of religions, science and the creative arts for over 3,000 years.
Mon, 07 AprWidcombe Social Club07 Apr 2025, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKFrom cathedrals to churches, cottages to coastlines, we are never very far from a place John Piper has painted, written about or for which he had undertaken a commission. One of the most versatile British artists of the 20th Century - painter, designer, stained glass artist, photographer and writer.
Mon, 12 MayWidcombe Social Club12 May 2025, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKThe lecturer offers a deeper understanding of the minds, lives and challenges of offenders.
Mon, 02 JunWidcombe Social Club02 Jun 2025, 11:30 – 12:30Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UKThis lecture describes traditional portrait painting materials and techniques, beginning with Tudor and Jacobean workshop practices of the 16th and early 17th Centuries.
Lectures
PAST LECTURES & EVENTS
Wed, 13 Nov13 Nov 2024, 10:30 – 15:30
04 Nov 2024, 11:30 – 12:30Following the trauma of the English Civil War came the Restoration, a period of loucheness and scandal. With the return of a King and the arrival of the first English actresses, the foundations were set for a more modern theatre to emerge under the influence of the greatest actor/manager of the age.
13 May 2024, 11:30 – 12:30Sir 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.
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
Events
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