Lectures

Just three women worked as Official war Artists during World War Two – Nora Heysen, Stella Bowen and Sybil Craig. They each made a significant body of work, bringing a fresh vision to the official expression of Australia at War

In the two centuries since they were removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin, the meaning and significance of the ‘Elgin marbles’ has changed dramatically. From architectural decoration to disputed cultural objects this lecture looks at the response to them over their time in Britain, from the original controversy over their purchase to the current debate surrounding the restitution of the marbles to the new Acropolis Museum in Athens.

The triangular slave trade was seldom directly represented in art. However, many artists including Hogarth and Reynolds included slaves and slave owners in their portraits. This lecture will examine some of the complexities of this process. We will consider some of the abolitionist sympathies of artists such as Augustus Earle and Joshua Reynolds and the effect of the ‘turn’ against slavery and the abolition of the slave trade and the impact it had on the art of the period.

The nude is still seen in our modern age, and indeed has been seen for quite some time as the pinnacle of creative artistic perfection but, throughout the course of art history the notion of the perfect body and consequently gender has been constantly reshaped and redefined. This lecture will look at the continuing fascination with representation of the body in sculpture and in  painting across the ages.

This lecture will look into Hitler’s often overlooked artistic background; a frustrated artist in the traditional school, rejected due to the rise of Modern Art in the early 20^th Century. It will also analyse some of the most important artworks and artists lost in Hitler’s war on Modern Art, the Monuments Men and the search for the stolen art, and the aftermath and impact on Post Wat art, including the impact and influence of the Holocaust on past war and immigrant art in Australia.

Had his older brother Henry not died in 1612, Charles I would never have been King. Had Van Dyck not arrived at the Stuart Court the stiff body language of Jacobean portraiture may never have been enlivened by the introduction of Renaissance values, giving rise to the splendour of Baroque. Van Dyck transformed the awkward and ungainly Charles; through his portraits the tiny King (and his even tinier wife) seemed to grow in stature. Van Dyck’s male sitters exuded elegance, and with his depiction of sumptuous satins and shimmering silks he was hailed as ‘the first that ‘ere put ‘ladies’ dress into a careless romance’.

The ancient goldsmiths of Peru and Colombia produced some of the most spectacular treasures of South America. Adept at casting and hammering, they transformed this sacred metal into elaborate pendants and breastplates, ear-ornaments, musical instruments, flasks, human figures, funerary masks, and lifelike representations of birds and animals. Colour tones went from pale yellow to deepest red.

Looking back on his work towards the end of his life, Peder Severin Krøyer recalled his work at Skagen, the Danish artists’ colony at the northernmost tip of Denmark, and expressed his particular love for that time.  Krøyer was referring to the ‘blue hour’ of northern Scandinavian summer nights, when sea and sky appear to merge into a single luminous whole.  This lecture explores Krøyer’s life and work in Skagen, and evaluates the paintings that made him one of Europe’s most celebrated artists by the end of the 19th century.

This extremely popular virtual tour of the Ancient Mediterranean explores the distinctive civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean. Learn how they fitted together into a ‘big picture’. Discover how you can identify the special art/architecture of  each culture and what prompted them to create such features. Discover what to expect from each culture’s and how to find the  personal details that thrill archaeologists.