Art History Mornings at The Beecroft (14th Dec. 2019): The Art of Laura Knight

Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) was one of the most extraordinary artists of the 20th century. She achieved huge fame and yet, whilst we might perhaps know her name, most of her paintings are now surprisingly unknown. So, today, we will raid books, articles, films and archives in order to tell her story: from the early years learning her craft in the coastal art colonies of Staithes and then Newlyn, to her behind-the-scenes pictures at the ballet and the circus; and then of course her war art. Along the way we’ll meet her husband Harold and friends such as Alfred Munnings and Dod Proctor; and we’ll find the artist Laura Knight blazing with vision year after year.

Laura Knight: The Cornish Coast

[1917; National Museum of Wales; artuk.org]

All welcome!

Meetings are held 10.30am – 12.30pm in the Beecroft Gallery lecture theatre.
Each talk costs £10 and includes tea/coffee (biscuits!)

For further information please contact Mark Banting by email chasingtales@rocketmail.com or via twitter @TheCommonViewer

These monthly Saturday morning art history talks are educational yet informal and open to anyone with an interest in art.

The Words & Pictures Book Club (Dec. 2019): Dorothy L Sayers’ “Five Red Herrings”

Monday 9th December, 2-4pm

The Gleneagles

Join us for the Words & Pictures book club where we will be reading and discussing novels in which visual art and artists are relevant to the narrative.

This month we’re looking at Dorothy L Sayers’ detective novel “Five Red Herrings” (originally published in 1931) which takes us – along with Lord Peter Wimsey – to Scotland and the artists’ colony near Kirkcudbright, made particularly famous by the painters now known as The Glasgow Boys.

“If one lives in Galloway, one either fishes or paints. ‘Either’ is perhaps misleading, for most of the painters are fishers also in their space time. To be neither of these things is considered odd and almost eccentric.”

Salmon Fishers on the Dee at Kirkcudbright

by William MacGeorge [Aberdeen Art Gallery; artuk.org]

Words & Pictures meets monthly 2-4pm in the glorious surrounds of the Gleneagles Tea Rooms – where there is tea and cake a-plenty!

All welcome but please email me to reserve your place: chasingtales@rocketmail.com

Gleneagles Guesthouse
5-6 Clifftown Parade
Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1DP

 

 

 

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft (Nov. 2019): Art in Europe 1914-1918

Saturday 30th November

Art

1914-1918

War & Revolution

London – Moscow – Zurich

With the benefit of a century’s hindsight we can see the complexities of the European cultural landscape during The Great War, 1914-1918.

In this month’s discussion we’ll look at the war from London through the art of CRW Nevinson, who used Futurist techniques to bring home the horror of the frontlines. Then, in Moscow, we’ll see how Cubism and Futurism were reconfigured by Malevich in the ‘new art’ of Suprematism which established a revolutionary Russian art. And in Zurich we’ll meet the artists, poets and performers who created Dada in opposition to the war and the culture that led to it.

Kazimir Malevich

Composition with Mona Lisa

[1914; Russian Museum, St Petersburg]

Meetings are held 10.30am – 12.30pm in the Beecroft Gallery lecture theatre.
Each talk costs £10 and includes tea/coffee (biscuits!)

For further information please contact Mark Banting by email chasingtales@rocketmail.com or via twitter @TheCommonViewer

These monthly Saturday morning art history talks are educational yet informal and open to anyone with an interest in art.

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Art History Mornings at The Beecroft (Nov. 2019): Art in Europe, 1914-18

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft Gallery
Saturday 30th November, 10.30am-12.30pm
with Dr ML Banting

Art
Europe
1914-1918
War & Revolution
London, Zurich, Moscow

Join us at The Beecroft Art Gallery to discuss the art that was made during the tumultuous and tragic years of The Great War.
We’ll cross Europe: from war artists working in London, to the Dada group and the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, then on to Moscow and the avant-garde artists of the Russian Revolution.

Hugo Ball performing at The Cabaret Voltaire, 1916.

Meetings are held 10.30am – 12.30pm in the Beecroft Gallery lecture theatre.

Each talk costs £10 and includes tea/coffee (biscuits!)
For further information please contact Mark Banting by email chasingtales@rocketmail.com or via twitter @TheCommonViewer

 

These monthly Saturday morning art history talks are educational yet informal and open to anyone with an interest in art.

Words & Pictures Book Club (Nov 2019) – A.S. Byatt’s “The Children’s Book” (part ii)

Join us for the Words & Pictures book club where we will be reading and discussing novels in which visual art and artists are relevant to the narrative.

Monday 11th November
2-4pm
The Gleneagles Tea Room

At our November meeting we’ll discuss the second half of AS Byatt’s “The Children’s Book”. Set in the Edwardian era, we follow the lives of numerous characters that surround the famous author Olive Wellwood and explore the cultural make-up of Europe before the impending horrors of the Great War.

Words & Pictures meets monthly 2-4pm in the glorious surrounds of the Gleneagles Tea Rooms – where there is tea and cake a-plenty!

All welcome but please email me to reserve your place: chasingtales@rocketmail.com
Gleneagles Guesthouse
5-6 Clifftown Parade
Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1DP

 

The Words & Pictures Book Group: October 2019 – AS Byatt’s “The Children’s Book” (part one).

The Words & Pictures Book Club

Monday 14^th October 2019, 2-4pm

Gleneagles Tea Rooms

Join us for the Words & Pictures book club where we will be reading and discussing novels in which visual art and artists are relevant to the narrative.

At our October meeting we’ll discuss AS Byatt’s “The Children’s Book”. Set in the Edwardian era, we follow the lives of numerous characters that surround the famous author Olive Wellwood and explore the cultural make-up of Europe before the impending horrors of the Great War.

We will study the book across two meetings: in October we will reach Chapter 27 or thereabouts; then take the second half of the novel into our November book club.

Words & Pictures meets monthly 2-4pm in the glorious surrounds of the Gleneagles Tea Rooms – where there is tea and cake a-plenty!

All welcome but please email me to reserve your place: chasingtales@rocketmail.com

Gleneagles Guesthouse
5-6 Clifftown Parade
Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1DP

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft: October 2019 – The Vorticists

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft Gallery

Saturday 26^th October, 10.30am-12.30pm

with Dr ML Banting

 The Vorticists

Our explorations of Post-Impressionist and the waves of Cubism / Futurism that extended across Europe in the years just prior to the Great War now come to London and The Vorticist group – perhaps one of the most radical art movements in British Art History. Led by Wyndham Lewis who set up the Rebel Art Centre and launched Blast magazine, the group’s paintings are near-abstract in seeking to represent the speed and movement of urban modernity.

Image: The Dancers (Study for Kermesse) by Wyndham Lewis

[1912; Manchester Art Gallery; c/o artuk.org]

 Meetings are held 10.30am – 12.30pm in the Beecroft Gallery lecture theatre.

Each talk costs £10 and includes tea/coffee (biscuits!)

For further information please contact Mark Banting by email chasingtales@rocketmail.com or via twitter @TheCommonViewer

These monthly Saturday morning art history talks are educational yet informal and open to anyone with an interest in art.

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft Gallery (September 2019): The Futurists

thecommonviewer

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft Gallery
Saturday 28th September 10.30am-12.30pm
with Dr ML Banting

The Futurists

Our explorations of Post-Impressionist art continue as we enter the whirl of Futurism led by the poet Marinetti and extending from Milan to Paris, London to Moscow. Its dramatic visual effect was challenging, but it inspired a wave of radical experimentation across Europe on the eve of the Great War.

Gino Severini: The Boulevard (1910; The Estorick Collecton; artuk.org

Meetings are held 10.30am – 12.30pm in the Beecroft Gallery lecture theatre.
Each talk costs £10 and includes tea/coffee (biscuits!)
For further information please contact Mark Banting by email chasingtales@rocketmail.com or via twitter @TheCommonViewer

These monthly Saturday morning art history talks are educational yet informal and open to anyone with an interest in art.

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The Words & Pictures book club (16th Sept. 2019) – “Carrington’s Letters” ed. Anne Chisholm

Monday 16th September 2019, 2-4pm

The Gleneagles Tea Rooms

Join us for the our monthly Words & Pictures book club meeting when we will be reading and discussing books (fiction and non-fiction) in which art and artists are either the subject or the inspiration.

This month: “Carrington’s Letters” edited by Anne Chisholm, which reveal the truly extraordinary – experimental, often tumultuous and ultimately tragic – life of the artist Dora Carrington who was so closely associated with the Bloomsbury group.

Along the way we’ll view some of her art – paintings, prints and decorations.

Words & Pictures meets monthly 2-4pm in the glorious surrounds of

The Gleneagles Tea Rooms

– where there is tea and cake a-plenty!

All welcome but please email me to reserve your place: chasingtales@rocketmail.com
Gleneagles Guesthouse
5-6 Clifftown Parade
Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1DP

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft Gallery (September 2019): The Futurists

Art History Mornings at The Beecroft Gallery
Saturday 28th September 10.30am-12.30pm
with Dr ML Banting

The Futurists

Our explorations of Post-Impressionist art continue as we enter the whirl of Futurism led by the poet Marinetti and extending from Milan to Paris, London to Moscow. Its dramatic visual effect was challenging, but it inspired a wave of radical experimentation across Europe on the eve of the Great War.

 

Gino Severini: The Boulevard (1910; The Estorick Collecton; artuk.org

Meetings are held 10.30am – 12.30pm in the Beecroft Gallery lecture theatre.
Each talk costs £10 and includes tea/coffee (biscuits!)
For further information please contact Mark Banting by email chasingtales@rocketmail.com or via twitter @TheCommonViewer

These monthly Saturday morning art history talks are educational yet informal and open to anyone with an interest in art.