Programme 2016/2017
September 28th
The Lure of Ivory
Ivory has been carved for 40,000 years. It has been used by cultures worldwide, funded wars and been connected to the slave trade. Today most ivory-bearing animals are threatened by extinction.
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October 26th
The Founders and Treasures of the Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection, a national museum containing an outstanding array of paintings, furniture, porcelain, arms and armour, and other works of art, was brought together by five generations of one family between about 1780 and 1880.
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November 23rd
The Genius of Robert Adam
An examination of neo-classic furniture in the context of the Grand Houses and rooms for which it was intended.
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December 14th
Riviera Paradise: the fusion of art, design, and pleasure on the Côte D’Azur in the 1920’s and 30’s
Since the 19th century English high society had 'wintered over' on the Côte d'Azur, but in the early 1920's an intoxicating mix of artists, writers, musicians and international visitors, created a new summer season inspired by a mythological seascape of luminous colours.
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January 25th
The Horse and Modern Art from George Stubbs to Mark Wallinger
The horse is so rooted within the psyche of the Western imagination that it has maintained its expressive power, as the current production of War Horse so eloquently testifies.
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February 22nd
Women behind the Lens
The work of women photographers has often been unfairly neglected. This lecture seeks to correct that by examining the contribution of three outstanding British Practitioners: Julia Margaret Cameron, a Victorian pioneer; Jane Bown, a brilliant portraitist; and Fay Godwin, who excelled in landscape photography.
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March 29th
The Bronzes of Ife & Benin and an Historical Review of the Art & Sculpture of Nigeria
Africa is not generally associated with great art but Nigeria is the home of three major artistic traditions; the 2,000 year old Nok terracottas of the north, the Bronzes of Ife from the 12th-15th centuries, and the later Benin Bronzes.
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April 26th
Posters of the Belle Époque
This is the keystone lecture of the Poster Series relating the technical innovation combined with creative genius and remarkable craftsmanship that enabled the Poster to become the world’s first effective method of mass communication.
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May 24th
Portmeirion: Italianate Fantasy Village in Wales
Portmeirion is an extraordinary surprise; a colourful and delightful fantasy village on the coast of north Wales. Created from the 1920s by the remarkable architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, Portmeirion was his personal defiance against the advance of modernism and what he saw as the despoilment of Britain.
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