During this lecture we explore the private thoughts of artists as they express themselves to/about the person they venerated.
Project Category: Art History Events
Navigating Pain and Pleasure in Art
In this session, we will look at works of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin to see how they frequently discussed the connections between pleasure and pain.
Word as Image in Contemporary Art
This talk explores how and why contemporary artists use language, sign and the signage of consumer culture. It will look at a range of examples, including Jenny Holzer and Ed Ruscha to understand what happens when word becomes image.
Exploring Signs and Symbols in the Art of the Surrealists
Looking at a range of Surrealist painters - from Salvador Dali to Frida Kahlo, we will dive into their dreamlike worlds filled with symbols and meaning.
Iconography: reading the symbols in paintings
This talk gives a brief history of how art historians began to study 'disguised symbols' in art and explains how viewers can develop their skills of art interpretation.
Religion & Spirituality in Contemporary Art
During this talk, looking at a selection of artists working across different mediums, we will explore how religion and spirituality have been addressed by contemporary artists between the 1950s and today.
Vanitas: a matter of life and death
This talk will look at the theme of ‘vanitas’ (the emptiness of the material world and the presence of death) in the history of art to better understand how past cultures have thought about the impermanence of life and how this type of thinking leads to a greater understanding of a life worth living.
Contemporary Artists Responding to a Changing World & New Technologies
In this session we will look at how artists since the 1960s until present day, have been exploring the changing world around them and specifically embracing or critiquing rising technologies.
Contemporary Expressions of Love and Loss
We will be exploring how the theme of Love and Loss comes to light in the works by two of the greatest British artists of the 20th century: Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
Sex in the Event of Happiness
What good is sex? This talk draws on the work of Lauren Berlant, a leading theorist of sexuality, politics, and culture, to think about the place of sex and the erotic in contemporary culture.