You are invited to participate
Do you have a favourite portrait that you would like to introduce to fellow TASC members in September’s Talking about Art?
In May, we tried a new format with eight members, each nominating a favourite painting. It was a success but eight was too many for one hour.
This time, we are trying a hybrid between the nominating and presenting formats. We are looking for four nominators. Each will have up to six minutes to introduce their choice. To provide context, I suggest that this begins with the portrait, then the painter, another example of their work and a further look at the portrait. I’m happy to fashion a slideshow out of these elements which I will play at your direction during the event. No slide or Zoom expertise needed! Of course if you prefer, you can create your slides and I’ll import them into the show.
Depending on numbers, there will be up to nine minutes for reaction to each choice. Should members wish to read up on the portraits beforehand, internet links will be provided.
Do volunteer to share your choice of portrait.
Contact me on talkingart@theartssocietycotswolds.org.uk or 07742 600327
And book your place via Bookwhen
This month, we present a complement to the October 23 Study Day on The Seine: River of Light and Artists’ Delight. Brian Etheridge will talk about the life and work of Pissarro, regarded by many as the father figure of Impressionism. Over a long painting life, Pissarro also recognised the raw talent of Cézanne and Gauguin.
During the Franco-Prussian War, Pissarro moved to London with his family and where Monet, his family and other impressionists were seeing out the war. Importantly, they made friends with the art dealer Durand-Ruel.
Pissarro painted everyday life around his home in the Sydenham and Norwoods of South London, an area for which Brian, and, for that matter Mark Aveline, have special affection as the place where the former lived for six years and the latter grew up. A curator once wrote of Pissarro “He paints the smell of the earth”.
After the War, he returned to his home at Louveciennes outside Paris where he continued to paint, innovate and promote the work of new artists till his death in 1903.
Book your place: Bookwhen
Mark Aveline, Organiser
Illustration: The Crystal Palace, 1871. Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)
Art Institute of Chicago. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Bensinger
Creative Commons Zero Public Domain Designation
William de Morgan, master ceramicist
&
The Franco-Prussian War: revolutionaries, politicians and war
Book your place now on this TASC members-only Zoomed event
William de Morgan was a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement and designed for William Morris. His technical innovations in glazing resulted in the most outstanding pottery of his generation. Presented by Brian Etheridge
In Part 1 of February’s event, I told the story of how over the harsh winter of 1870-71, France lost the Franco-Prussian War and how its artists and writers were shaped by the war, the Siege of Paris and the rise and fall of the Commune. Some fled, some fought.
In Part 2, I broaden the focus to consider a revolutionary and two politicians, Karl Marx, Otto von Bismarck and Georges Clemenceau, whose beliefs were sharpened by the conflict and still influential 40 years later in the genesis and outcome of WW1. Plus an opportunistic revolt in Algeria.
When the world is so fragmented and full of hazard, are there lessons to be learnt from history? As Santayana argued “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
Despite the serious theme, I promise you many fascinating images and paintings
After this TaA, we will take a summer break and resume in the autumn. As usual, suggestions for topics and offers to present are most welcome.
Organised by Mark Aveline (talkingart@theartssocietycotswolds.org.uk)
The Field of the Cloth of Gold, oil painting of circa 1545 in the Royal Collection at Hampton Court. Public domain.
Our next Talking about Art will have a different form. The topic is one we have had before “A Favourite Painting” but this time we intend to have eight presenters, each briefly introducing a single favourite. We hope this format will draw in new presenters who may have been put off by the practicalities of creating a slideshow and presenting or just not got round to doing it.
To make it easier, presenters can have between one and four slides depending on how much background they want to introduce. Carolyn and Mark can help you find copyright-free images.Then either send the chosen images and desired captions to Mark or a slideshow if you have created one in PowerPoint or Keynote. Mark will put the segments into a single Keynote which he will play at your command during the TaA hour. This means you don’t have to worry about the technicalities of screen sharing.
Having eight presenters means four minutes to say why the painting is a favourite and two for discussion plus a little extra if there is time,
So far, we have the amazing Field of the Cloth of Gold which depicts the grand meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of Franc, trials and tribulations of doing a jigsaw puzzle of a wonderful Vermeer, an unexpected war artist and a sunny Mediterranean seascape.
Do put on your sharing hat and volunteer.
Organised by Carolyn Walton (chairman@theartssocietycotswolds.org.uk) and Mark Aveline (talkingart@theartssocietycotswolds.org.uk)
Talking about Art: Wednesday April 17, 1100-1200
A Favourite Building
This month, we visit a Chateau in France, a venerable and much-loved building in London, a stunning place in the Himalayas and take a walk through history in rural Spain. You will see places and constructions that intrigue and please our presenters and which we hope you will like too.
Lisa Etheridge, Carolyn and John Walton and Anna and Mark Aveline will presents their choices.
How did Paris over a few months go from being a capital renowned for its planned elegance and cultural life to one of starvation, bombardment and, with the formation of the Commune, open rebellion against the State?
It is a story of hubris, vaunting ambition and military incompetence with a long tail of social injustice
Writers such as Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant portrayed the lives and loves of citizens and drew attention to social ills. Some were part of a thriving artistic Parisian community that in the 1860’s were experimenting with new ways of painting. Their numbers included Pissarro, Manet, Monet, Gonzales, Cézanne, Sisley and Morisot and which culminated in the Paris exhibition of 1874. The Impressionists were launched. During the Siege, some fled, some stayed and some fought. Did the Siege affect their art and the prominence of their vision and that of writers?
Presented by Mark Aveline
Illustration: Braun, Adolphe (1811-1877) Paris, 1871 St Cloud, La place
Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris at the Holbourne Museum, Bath to April 14 and Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec at the Royal Academy, London to March 10
Perhaps you’ve already visited and would like to share reactions. Or are curious and would like a preview. Or want to spend an hour with us enjoying some fabulous works of art.
Gwen John presented by Brian Etheridge
Gwen John spent most of her life in France where initially, almost like a recluse, she painted her portraits and interiors. That changed dramatically when she had a long affair with Rodin. One debate has always persisted - was she a better painter than her brother Augustus?
Impressionists on Paper: presented by Anna Aveline
In late 19th-century France, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists transformed the future direction of art. But it wasn’t just through their paintings. In a subtle shift, they lifted the status of works on paper – drawings, pastels, watercolours, temperas, gouaches – from something preparatory that you left in a studio, to artworks in their own right
Picture shows detail from Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Two Dancers Resting, c. 1880
Charcoal and pastel on green paper, 48.3 x 63.5 cm
Collection of David Lachenmann. Royal Academy exhibition 2023/4
