Lectures

Between 1870 and 1914 hundreds of American heiresses flooded the shores of continental Europe, trading fortunes for titles. They were known as The Dollar Princesses and included Consuelo Vanderbilt at Blenheim and Mary Curzon at Kedleston. These marriages – dubbed by some as gilded prostitution – were usually hard-headed matches plotted by the parents. They may have kept many a grand estate from collapsing but few provided lasting happiness when the fairy tale was exposed. This lecture examines the clothes, the portraits, the jewels and the literature of The Dollar Princesses.

Eighteenth century Britain was an age of romanticised elegance captured politely in paint. In contrast, Sir Joshua Reynolds pushed the boundaries of composition and materials through endless experimentation. His constant attempts to replicate the painting techniques of the Old Masters resulted in some of the triumphs of Georgian British Art. Whilst much of his work survives, many of his experimentations with oils, waxes, pigments and other ingredients of painting alchemy are in poor condition and pose conservation conundrums. In addition to Reynolds’s development as a painter, this lecture will discuss the various scientific methods undertaken to revive, and in some cases resurrect, his valuable and important paintings.

The Guggenheim family managed to amass extraordinary art collections and design or acquire astounding buildings in which to display their art, their name even becoming a brand. This talk, based on the lecturer’s experience working at the Guggenheim in Venice, examines the celebrated museums in New York, Venice and Bilbao, as well as the stunning works they display.

This lecture looks at the life and work of Dame Paula Rego, a British artist of Portuguese origin best known for her depictions of folk tales and strikingly unusual images of women. Married to the British artist Victor Willing (1928-88), Rego settled in Britain in the 1970s but her career here began in the early 1960s, when she exhibited with artists like Frank Auerbach and David Hockney. Her reputation built steadily. She became the first Associate Artist at the National Gallery and has gone on to earn global recognition and many prestigious awards. The lecture will consider the complicated narratives of Rego’s work, which is full of psychological tension, drama and emotion together with her, occasionally controversial, depiction of women and girls in disturbing or ambiguous situations and poses and her refusal to idealise or revert to cliché.

Sir Christopher Wren wrote, ‘This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture. I think it should with more reason be called the Saracen style; for we borrowed from them, out of their Arabic books, what they with great diligence had translated from the Greeks’.
Part of Wren’s brilliance came from his wide-ranging knowledge of architectural styles and innovations. He wrote, without equivocation, that ‘Gothic’ architecture had nothing to do with the Goths but instead was clearly informed by its ‘Saracenic’ or mediaeval Middle Eastern origins. Wren showed admiration for those Saracenic architects not only in his writings but also in the very stones of his buildings, St Paul’s Cathedral among them. Highlighting these architectural links, this talk reveals familiar and much-loved buildings as you may have never seen them before.

The Camden Town Group was an innovative circle of painters united by the desire to paint works of a modern character. They combined the techniques and visions of European Post-Impressionism with the changing modernity of Edwardian London. This lecture introduces the core members of the group, led by Walter Richard Sickert and tells the story of their brief but significant association. Key themes addressed within their work will be examined: urban life, popular entertainment and the lower social classes, as well as Sickert’s infamous series of paintings inspired by the notorious Camden Town murder.

This lecture provides a colourful introduction to the secret world of our 2000-mile inland waterway network and looks at all aspects of their exceptional artistic, architectural and engineering vernacular. Features range from sweeping aqueducts to tiny bollards; from colourful historic narrowboats to ‘Roses and Castles’ artwork; from grand World Heritage Sites to quirky listed buildings. A well known architectural historian once described our canals as a ‘poor man’s art gallery’.

This lecture looks at how new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, 3D printing and Big Data, voice recognition and projection mapping are changing the way art is made and experienced and asks where technology will take artists and the art world in the next decade. These technologies are currently experimental – and have their limitations – but the lecture will explore how they are set to develop as technology becomes ever more integral to our daily lives. Don’t be put off if you think you are a technophobe: all these concepts will be explained and, along the way, you will discover some of the most powerful examples of immersive tech art.

This lecture traces the significance and use of beds from the medieval period through to the 18th century both in terms of their association with the highest level of society as expressed through the great ‘State Beds’ and also the history of their construction, decoration and the, often costly, textiles associated with them. The significance of beds through the ages can be judged by the prominence given to them in wills and inventories: Shakespeare, in his will, left his wife Anne ‘my second best bed’ and modern day audiences may be surprised to learn that in times gone by, married or single, rich or poor, one never slept alone … . Look out for a wintery twist and a hint of Christmas too.