ArtyFacts @ Blackheath

Live Zoom lectures will continue towards the end of 2024, with topics mainly based on exhibitions that are on in London over the period.  The talks will take place on Friday mornings, from 10.00 until 11.30, with a lecture of 60-75 minutes, followed by Q&A and discussion.  All sessions are now £13 per person per session, whether via Zoom or if you prefer to receive the recording afterwards.

Talks for November/December

The next series of talks is underway.  As is generally the case, they are based on exhibitions that are currently on in London.

8 November – Francis Bacon: Human Presence

(National Portrait Gallery exhibition until 19 January 2025)

Jonathan Jones, Guardian: ‘This whirligig of horrors is the best Bacon show I’ve ever seen’ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Featuring more than 50 works from the 1940s onwards, including self-portraits, and portraits of Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne and lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer, this exhibition explores Bacon’s deep connection to portraiture and how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre. 

https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2024/francis-bacon-portraits

 

22 November – Discover Constable and the Hay Wain

(National Gallery until 2 February 2025)

This exhibition explores what lies behind the making of ‘The Hay Wain’ and its iconic status in British art, including sketches made more than twenty years before the finished work was produced.  Also bringing together works Constable himself admired and images by artists responding to his painting, it explores why what we see today as a traditional image of the English countryside was seen by many early 19th-century visitors as quite radical.

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/discover-constable-and-the-hay-wain

 

28 November – Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers

(The National Gallery until 19 January 2025)

Focusing on the two years in the south of France that proved to be a decisive period in Van Gogh’s career, the National Gallery’s ‘once-in-a-century exhibition’, brings together 61 works from across the globe, including some of his best loved paintings, which are rarely seen in public.  Pairing them with his extraordinary drawings, the exhibition highlights the artist’s landscape of poetic imagination and romantic love.

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/van-gogh-poets-and-lovers

 

6 December – Monet and London. Views of the Thames

(Courtauld Gallery until 19 January 2025)

During three stays in London between 1899 and 1901 Monet painted a series of colourful and evocative views of the Thames.  Shown in Paris in 1904, he hoped to exhibit the series in London the following year.  Now, nearly 120 years later, the Courtauld Gallery, realises that unfulfilled ambition, presenting paintings that he himself had selected, just metres from the Savoy Hotel, where many of them were painted.

https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/exh-monet-and-london-views-of-the-thames/

 

13 December – Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael – Florence c.1504

(Royal Academy 9 November 2024 to 16 February 2025)

At the turn of the 16th century, three titans of the Italian Renaissance – Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael – briefly crossed paths, competing for the attention of the most powerful patrons in Florence.  Starting with the Royal Academy’s own Taddei Tondo by Michelangelo, this exhibition explores the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo and the influence both had on the young Raphael.

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/michelangelo-leonardo-raphael

 

If you are interested in any of these talks, or any of the recordings of past subjects, please contact us.

…………….

“A lovely way to spend a Friday morning.” Helma. 

Further feedback

…………..

ALSO AVAILABLE …. Recordings

Digital recordings of past virtual talks are available on the following topics (sent via WeTransfer and easy to access):

David Hockney: Drawing from Life

Portraying Pregnancy‘, a look at the exhibition that was on at the Foundling Museum.

Aubrey Beardsley‘, focusing on Tate Britain’s exhibition.

Antony Gormley‘, a look at the work and career of one of Britain’s most well-known artists.

Picasso and Paper‘, looking at the Royal Academy’s exhibition.

‘Dulwich Picture Gallery’ Parts 1 and 2: Exploring the history and some of the highlights of the collection of this little gem in South London.

‘British Surrealism’ exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

‘Angelica Kauffman’  Unfortunately the proposed Angelica Kauffman exhibition at the RA was cancelled due to the current pandemic.  In order to give her a small slot in the spotlight, this talk covers general aspects of her life and work.

‘Titian: Love, Desire, Death’ at the National Gallery

‘Andy Warhol’ at Tate Modern 

The Queen’s House, Greenwich

The History of Greenwich

Nothing to Declare: Art Seized at Customs’

William Hogarth

Spirituality in 20th and 21st Century Art

Barbizon School of French Landscape Painters

The Impressionists  

Gauguin and the Impressionists : Masterpieces from the Ordrupgaard Collection

Danish Galleries – An exploration of works in three major Danish collections

Danish Art – Examining some key figures and themes from Danish art

Among the Trees – Hayward Gallery 

Developments in British Landscape Painting

‘A Walk on the Wild Side’ – The Landscapes of John Constable 

JMW Turner, ‘Painter of Light’

Turner’s Modern World – Tate Britain

‘Sin’ – Based on the National Gallery’s 2020 exhibition

Women Artists in the National Gallery’s Collection

Artemisia Gentileschi – based on the National Gallery’s 2020 exhibition

Representations of Women in Victorian Paintings

Nativity Scenes and Christmas Traditions

Norwegian Art

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch : The Loneliness of the Soul 

Dame Laura Knight

Dame Barbara Hepworth

Bridget Riley

Cornelia Parker

Spirituality in Art

Fashion in Art (Parts 1 and 2)

Animals in Art

Scottish Art (Parts 1 and 2)

Kandinsky

Mondrian

Modigliani

Marc Chagall

Georgia O’Keeffe

Frida Kahlo

‘Hans Holbein the Younger’

‘Sir Anthony Van Dyck’

Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace

‘David Hockney’

‘Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Zanele Muholi’

Public Art in London

The Making of Rodin

Constantin Brâncuși

An Overview of British Sculpture

Sir Joshua Reynolds

The Courtauld Gallery, its history, collection and recent refurbishment

Van Gogh’s Self-portraits

Van Gogh, Gauguin and The Yellow House

Francis Bacon

Lubaina Himid

Kehinde Wiley

Gainsborough’s ‘Blue Boy’

Durer’s Journey

Late Constable

Poussin and Dance

Helen Frankenthaler

Mixing it Up : Painting Now

Isamu Noguchi

Life Between Islands – British and Caribbean Art

Hogarth and Europe

Joseph Beuys

Edward Burra

Paula Rego

Stolen Art

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child

Whistler’s Woman in White

Cornelia Parker

A Century of the Artist’s Studio

‘Alberto Giacometti and Isabel Rawsthorne, A Conversation’ and Hew Locke’s ‘The Procession’ 

After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art Parts 1 and 2* (National Gallery exhibition)

Tate Britain rehang Parts 1-4

The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea (Royal Museums Greenwich exhibition 2023) 

Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 

Travels with My Art – France.

Impressionists on Paper (Royal Academy exhibition 2024).

Entangled Pasts, 1768 to Now (Royal Academy exhibition February to April 2024) 

John Singer Sargent   

Sargent and Fashion (Tate Britain exhibition 2024)

Angelica Kauffman

Caravaggio

Kandinsky and Münter

Vanessa Bell

Now You See Us – Women Artists 1620-1920 (Tate Britain exhibition)

…………………………

All these recordings are available now.   The charge is £10 per viewer per session.  If you are interested please contact us and we can arrange to send you the recording.