Why Paris?
Mary Alexander
DISCOVERY DAY
Why Paris?
Thursday 14th November 2024 10:00 to 15:00
Budleigh Salterton Football Club, Greenway Lane, Budleigh Salterton EX9 6SG
A unique day exploring how and why the city of Paris has acted as both a magnet and a cauldron of talent for aspiring artists and designers. Join Mary Alexander to discover more about the key events and personalities shaping the 'City of Light' during the first half of the twentieth century. We will venture beyond the 'mainstream' to identify the creative individuals who shaped the Parisian concept of 'modernity' (including the many female innovators described as 'wife/ sister/ muse/ assistant of ....!)
The international exhibitions of 1900, 1925 and 1937 will be used as focal points in each of the sessions to identify shifting patterns of emphasis and inter-connections between various arts and design media, including interiors, graphics, fashion, photography. Whether strolling along the new boulevards, calling into a favourite cafe, nightclub or gallery, the descriptions of Zola, Stein, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald will accompany the imagery and recreate the sense of 'being there'. In particular, the significant role of Parisian couture and fashion within French culture will be examined as a response to the rise of German industrial and military ambitions.
Session One: The Belle Époque: the City as Spectacle
Session Two: 1920s - Partying into a new Future
Session Three: The 1937 Paris Exposition, Occupation and Defiance
Lecturer: Mary Alexander
Mary will be bringing a selection of historic artefacts from her personal vintage postcard collection, advertisements, magazine covers, fashion plates, and official exhibition catalogues (1925 and 1937) for you to enjoy.