Martina Mrongovius captures urban environments in assembled photomontages she prints into holographic images. Her artworks investigate how perception shapes experience and are often installed in ways that provoke viewers to move. In this lecture Martina will discuss how her artworks were inspired by holographic imaging and navigating the urban landscape.
Damien Hirst is the most famous British artist since Henry Moore. Not even Francis Bacon had such a huge international presence. And yet in his home country he is often seen as a practical joker, pulling the wool over the eyes of the public, and not making proper art at all. This lecture aims to dispel this and show he is a deeply serious artist making work that is both significant and influential.
The ancient art of Southeast Asia took Hindu and Buddhist ideas from India and made them into something unique. Each of the major kingdoms of Southeast Asia evolved distinctive styles of temple building, sculpture and relief carving, from the vast cities of Pagan to monumental Angkor. The evolution of ancient Javanese art shows how styles developed from the Indian Gupta influences visible in Borobudur and Prambanan of Central Java, and transformed into the more Balinese-style temples of East Java.
Wine has sustained humanity for almost 10,000 years. While causing wars and riots, it’s also helped broker peace and more commonly served as an aphrodisiac. Wine has been personified in the form of Gods and been a catalyst in civilised entertaining and dining rituals. Bottom’s Up! traces the story of wine throughout the ages. It also examines the extraordinary art and artefacts created throughout history to enhance the pleasure of wine. The talk visits the ancient world, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and 18th century Britain, culminating today when more wine is being consumed than ever.
Japan has an extraordinary appreciation for art – with exhibitions drawing some of the world’s highest visitor numbers. Since the 20th century, government funding for acquisitions has continued to drop making private collections and corporate art museums ever more important. These include the extraordinary passion project at the Itchiku Kubota Kimono Museum, the refined tastes of gambling tycoon Kazuo Okada and the innovation and renewal of Naoshima’s Benesse Art Site.
The Maharajahs and Maharanis of India were semi-independent rulers, responsible for governing territories outside the direct control of the British Empire; seen by the British public, as powerful symbols of ‘exotic India’. This lecture draws on an extensive collection of portraits and photographs of Indian Maharanis – some of the earliest images of Indian women as powerful, dignified and educated. This lecture brings these beautiful portraits to life with insights into the lives and memoirs of the Maharanis themselves, and a view of the role they played in the British Empire.
Explores the work of an artist whose, inventiveness, and ability to catch the zeitgeist is still admired a century after her bold 'Bizarre' wares were launched in 1927. These Art Deco masterpieces are the products that most vividly signify Clarice Cliff's legacy. Cliff's talents were recognised when a teenager, and she went on to set the bar for ceramics as a commercial art form.
Portraits provide a fascinating insight into the changing styles of dress over the centuries. Follow the different fashions as revealed in paintings, looking at dress and accessories, and some of the more ridiculous styles of fashion from the 16th century to the 19th century – with a focus on fashion in England. When Sumptuary Laws prescribed what you could wear, according to your status in society, fashion was a reflection of social standing. Whilst working folk might have longed for a wardrobe of reds, purples and golds, their ‘superiors’ may have envied them their ability to move freely in their clothes without restrictions. Explore the wildest extremes of fashion through the ages.
The legendary Paris circus, from its beginning as the Cirque Fernando in 1875 (it was renamed Cirque Medrano in 1897) until its closure in 1963 was an integral part of Parisian cultural life. It attracted writers, painters and poets who created many works inspired by the Circus. Performers have been immortalised on canvas by Renoir, Degas, Lautrec, Seurat, Picasso and Leger among others. An intriguing look at the history of a circus through the eyes of the painters of the Montmartre.