For details, click individual lectures below:
The Arts Society
Royal Leamington Spa
Lecture Programme 2020-21
Our lecture programme at the Royal Spa Centre is on hold due to coronavirus restrictions but we are still presenting lectures online. The next online lecture will be on Wednesday 7th April 2021. Members will be invited by email to view this lecture.
Click here for details of our next lecture.
Our 2020-21 programme takes us on a journey from late nineteenth century Norway through early twentieth century Germany to a remote part of Uzbekistan.
Closer to home, we’ll look at The Day Parliament Burned Down and Coventry Cathedral: Icon and Inspiration. We’ll explore some of the world’s Great Railway Stations, hear about Outstanding Female Photographers, dip into Bach’s Glorious Christmas Oratorio, and even have a light-hearted look at Magic and the Life and Times of Giles. We very much hope you’ll enjoy what we have in store for you.
Although we are setting out here our plans for lectures for the 2020/21 year, some events may need to be changed or rescheduled depending on government regulations relating to the coronavirus. If this becomes necessary, we shall give members as much notice as possible of any changes.
Insiders/Outsiders: Refugees From Nazi Europe And Their Contribution To British Visual Culture
Wednesday 1st July 2020
Monica Bohm-Duchen
Despite the traumatic nature of their dislocation and the obstacles they often encountered on arrival in the UK, those who fled here from Nazi-dominated Europe in the 1930s and 1940s made a deep, pervasive and long-lasting contribution to British culture. Focussing on the visual arts, this new lecture will examine the nature of this contribution, embracing not only familiar names such as Gombrich, Kokoschka, Moholy-Nagy, Schwitters and Heartfield, but also lesser-known figures such as Albert Reuss, Josef Herman and Marie-Louise von Motesiczky.
At a time when the issue of immigration is much debated, this lecture serves as a reminder of the importance of cultural cross-fertilisation and of the deep, long-lasting and wide-ranging contribution that refugees make to British life.
Monica is an independent London-based writer and an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck College since 2005. She has lectured for institutions such as Tate, the National Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Open University, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is the initiator and Creative Director of the Insiders/ Outsiders arts festival, and as such she hosted a whole series of online events earlier this month to mark National Refugees’ Week. Among her many publications, her book “Art and the Second World War” was nominated for the William M. B. Berger Prize for Art History and the National Award for Arts Writing, USA.
This lecture was streamed online at 11:00am on Wednesday 1st July 2020.
Members received an invitation by email to join the lecture.The Good Life: Gimson and the Barnsleys – Inventing the Cotswold Style
Wednesday 5th August 2020
Anne Anderson
Cabinet at Rodmarton Manor
Image supplied by the lecturerDiscover the talents of Ernest Gimson and Ernest and Sidney Barnsley, influential figures of the Arts and Crafts movement. From setting up workshops to establishing ‘the Cotswold style’, these men have inspired generations of designers and makers.
Desiring to ‘live close to nature’, Gimson and the Barnsleys found Pinbury Park, near Cirencester. In 1900, Gimson and Ernest Barnsley set up a small furniture workshop in Cirencester, moving to larger premises at Daneway House, Sapperton, an idyllic medieval manor house. Although their partnership dissolved, Gimson and his skilled cabinet makers established a ‘Cotswold style’ while Sidney Barnsley designed and made his own furniture.
With a first degree in archaeology and a PhD in English, Anne was a senior lecturer in Art and Design History at Southampton Solent University for fourteen years.
She has held several prestigious fellowships and is currently a tutor for the V&A Learning Academy. A specialist in Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement, Anne’s book on The Perseus Series was published for the Edward Burne-Jones exhibition at Tate Britain in 2018.
Her career as an international speaker has taken her all over the world, including Spain, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Leamington Spa in November 2012. We are looking forward to her return, even if only in cyberspace.This lecture was streamed online on Wednesday 5th August 2020 at 11:00am.
The Old East End – A Virtual Tour
Tuesday 11th August 2020
Pepe Martinez
Kindertransport,
The Arrival Memorial
Liverpool Street Station
Image: Wjh31 Own Work
Used under Creative Commons licenceThe East End is one of London’s most fascinating and dynamic districts. It is essentially the story of immigration, wave after wave of people coming to London to seek refuge and look for a better life.
The Old East End Virtual tour tells their story. Using powerful images, video and Google street view, our journey takes us from the arrival of French Huguenots in the 1680s through to the more than 10,000 Jewish Kindertransport children who arrived at Liverpool Street station in 1939.
Pepe Martinez is an award winning London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. He was born in the East End and has lived there all his life. He is an accredited Institute of Tourist Guiding Trainer and is currently tutoring on the London Blue Badge training course.
This “virtual tour” was streamed online on Tuesday 11th August 2020 at 2:00pm.
Banned: Savitsky and the Secret Hoard of Avant-Garde Art
Savitsky Karakalpakstan Art Museum at Nukus, Uzbekistan
Author: ChanOJ Own work
Used under Creative Commons LicenceWednesday 2nd September 2020
Chris Aslan Alexander
Russian Avant-Garde Art flourished during the first thirty years of the 20th Century, but as Stalin rose to power all but Socialist Realist expressions of art were banned. To own anything else was dangerous, and to start collecting it was unthinkable; yet that is exactly what Igor Savitsky did: he amassed the world’s second largest collection of Russian Avant-Garde art.
The remote location of the State Museum of Karakalpakstan, near the south shores of the Aral Sea, meant that Savitsky was able to get away with such subversive activity because even the authorities in Moscow were a little hazy as to where exactly Karakalpakstan was. Savitsky promoted Russian artists sent to Central Asia in exile as well as the first Central Asian artists to paint their own people and landscapes.
Chris spent his childhood in Turkey and in war-torn Beirut. After school he spent two years at sea before studying media and journalism at Leicester. After university he moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan, where he established a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries.
After a year in the UK writing A Carpet Ride to Khiva, he spent three years in the Pamirs in Tajikistan, training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down. Next came two years in Kyrgyzstan, living in the world’s largest natural walnut forest and establishing a wood-carving workshop. Chris has recently finished rowing and studying at Oxford, and a curacy at St. Barnabas in North Finchley. He is now taking two years out to focus on writing fiction. As well as lecturing for the Arts Society he leads tours to Central Asia, where a large part of his heart remains.
This lecture was streamed online on Wednesday 2nd September 2020 at 11:00am.
Just before the coronavirus lockdown in March, Chris recorded a YouTube lecture on Soviet Propaganda in Central Asian Monumental Art. This can be viewed by clicking on the following link:
Great Railway Stations: Evoking the Spirit of Romance and Adventure
La Gare Saint Lazare
Claude Monet
Public domain imageWednesday 7th October 2020
Ian Swankie
When we think of St Pancras International or New York Grand Central, we imagine long romantic journeys. They are special places promising excitement and adventure. But there are dozens of other glorious stations in the UK and abroad.
In this lecture we will take a journey around some of the most evocative and splendid of them, looking not only at the magnificence of the architecture and the brilliance of the engineering, but discovering numerous artworks within the stations and examining many depictions of stations in art. These include Claude Monet’s Gare St Lazare and William Powell Frith’s Paddington.
Ian Swankie is a Londoner with a passion for art and architecture. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, an official guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and an active freelance London guide.
This lecture was streamed online on Wednesday 7th October 2020 at 11:00am.
The Day Parliament Burned Down
The Burning of the Houses of Parliament c1834-35
J M W Turner
Image © Tate
Used under Creative Commons LicenceWednesday 4th November 2020
Caroline Shenton
In the early evening of 16th October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, the great conflagration destroyed Parliament’s glorious old buildings and their contents. No one who witnessed the disaster would ever forget it.
This lecture will take us through the gripping hour-by-hour story of the fire through contemporary depictions of the disaster by Turner, William Heath and others.
Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that a senior archivist at the National Archives.
Her book, The Day Parliament Burned Down, won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013. Its sequel, Mr Barry’s War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine.
This lecture was streamed online on Wednesday 4th November 2020 at 11:00am.
Click here for our December lecture
“Celebrate, Rejoice, Rise Up!” – Johann Sebastian Bach’s Glorious Christmas Oratorio
J S Bach
Elias Gottlob Haussmann
Public domain imageWednesday 2nd December 2020
Sandy Burnett
Sandy Burnett’s close relationship with Bach’s music stretches back for decades. Between 1997 and 2010 he directed a complete cycle of Bach’s sacred cantatas in West London.
In this illustrated lecture, he will explore how Bach brings the Christmas story alive in his Weihnachtsoratorium or Christmas Oratorio, written for Lutheran congregations in 1730s Leipzig. An overview of Bach’s life and achievement will precede a close look at this magnificent work which draws on various forms ranging from recitative, arioso, aria, chorale, and instrumental sinfonia through to full-blown choruses infused with the joyous spirit of the dance.
Sandy Burnett has combined a career as a broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and as music director for the RSC and the National Theatre with lecturing and performing as a double bassist on the London jazz scene.
This lecture was streamed online on Wednesday 2nd December 2020 at 11:00am.
Giles: His Life, Times and Cartoons
The Giles Grandma Statue, Ipswich
© Jim Linwood on Flickr
Used under Creative Commons LicenceWednesday 6th January 2021
Barry Venning
The cartoonist Carl Giles once said that he loved his creation Grandma Giles – that fearsome, black-clad, gambling, drinking battleaxe – because she allowed him to say things through his cartoons that he was too polite to say in person. She helped him to poke fun at authority in all its forms, from Hitler to traffic wardens and even his employers at the Daily Express, who didn’t trust him and had sub-editors scouring his cartoons for subversive background details.
His admirers included Prince Charles, Sir Malcolm Sargent and Tommy Cooper, and it was no surprise when he was voted Britain’s best-loved cartoonist in 2000.
Giles gave us a remarkable picture of a half-century of British life. He was also, as his editor John Gordon put it, ‘a spreader of happiness’ and ‘a genius…with the common touch’.
Barry Venning is an art historian with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art. He is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for The Arts Society and Christie’s Education.
This lecture was streamed online on Wednesday 6th January 2021 at 11:00am.
Coventry Cathedral: Icon and Inspiration
Stained Glass, Coventry Cathedral
Image by Julia Schwab from PixabayWednesday 3rd February 2021
Alexandra Epps
Ahead of Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture, this lecture will tell the extraordinary story of the rebuilding of the Cathedral as a symbol of peace and reconciliation and its inspiring commitment to the modern.
We’ll experience the work of many of the world class artists associated with its treasures, including Jacob Epstein, Elizabeth Frink, John Piper and Graham Sutherland.
Alexandra Epps’ background is in design, having practised as a graphic designer running her own business for many years. She now works as a guide to the City of London, and as a guide and lecturer to Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Guildhall Art Gallery and Pallant House Gallery.
This lecture will be streamed online on Wednesday 3rd February 2021 at 11:00am. TAS RLS members will be invited by email to join the lecture.
The Sphinx of Delft: Vermeer’s Masterpieces
The Girl with the Pearl Earring
Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675)
Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague
Image in the Public Domain, via Wikimedia CommonsWednesday 3rd March 2021
Stella Grace Lyons
Johannes Vermeer is today regarded as one of the most important painters in art history. Yet this wasn’t always the case. He was almost entirely forgotten for two centuries after his death, only to be rediscovered in the 1800s.
Vermeer’s works are revered for their rich colours, quality of light and for his ability to imbue everyday scenes with poetry and serenity.
Vermeer is a highly mysterious figure; there is very little historical documentation about him in existence, and fewer than forty works are attributed to him. As a result, he’s earned the nickname ‘the Sphinx of Delft’.
This lecture will explore his masterpieces, including ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’.
Stella Grace Lyons is a freelance lecturer in art history. After gaining her BA in the History of Art with a 1st class in her dissertation from the University of Bristol and her MA in History of Art from the University of Warwick, Stella spent a year studying Renaissance art in Italy at the British Institute of Florence, and three months studying Venetian art in Venice.
Stella is also a part-time lecturer for the University of South Wales.This lecture will be streamed online via YouTube on Wednesday 3rd March 2021 at 11:00am. TAS RLS members will be invited by email to join the lecture.
Please note that this is a change to our published Programme for copyright and intellectual property reasons. We hope that Stella will present her original lecture on Norwegian art in February 2022.
Women Behind the Lens: Outstanding Female Photographers and Their Contribution to the Art of Photography
Migrant Mother (1936)
Dorothea Lange
Image in the public domainWednesday 7th April 2021
Brian Stater
The work of women photographers has often been unfairly neglected. This lecture seeks to correct that by examining the contribution of three outstanding British practitioners; Victorian pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron, portraitist Jane Bown and landscape photographer Fay Godwin – and that of two influential Americans – Dorothea Lange, with her documentary images, and contemporary photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Brian Stater is a Senior Teaching Fellow at University College London. His principal academic interest lies in the appreciation of architecture, while a strong personal enthusiasm is for photography. An exhibition of his own photographs has been held at University College London. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and works with a pre-war Leica camera, as used by his great hero Henri Cartier-Bresson and many others.
This lecture will be streamed online on Wednesday 7th April 2021 at 11:00am. TAS RLS members will be invited by email to join the lecture.
Cultural Experiments in the Weimar Republic
Poster for the Bauhaus Austellung (1923)
Joost Schmidt
Image in the public domainWednesday 5th May 2021
Gavin Plumley
After World War I, with Europe reeling from the worst conflict ever known, artists and architects were in a state of flux; yet out of crisis came a truly stimulating period of artistic endeavour.
Contemplating painters such as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and Christian Schad alongside the experiments of the Bauhaus, new film technologies and the sultry stylings of Marlene Dietrich, this lecture will look at the culture of German-speaking Europe during the interwar years.
Gavin Plumley lectures widely on the culture of Central Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4, and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide.
This lecture will be streamed online on Wednesday 5th May 2021 at 11:00am. TAS RLS members will be invited by email to join the lecture.
David Bomberg’s Lost Legacy: A Master Painter and His Students
Sappers at work – Canadian Tunnelling Company, R14, St Eloi
David Bomberg, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsWednesday 2nd June 2021
Kate Aspinall
In this lecture we’ll discover the power of one of the most passionate, pugnacious and underappreciated painters in twentieth-century Britain.
Neglected for much of his lifetime, David Bomberg has only recently been rightfully celebrated with exhibitions across the country.
We’ll explore what it is in his painting that touches a nerve today as much as it did for the talented group of artists who studied with him. From Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff to Dennis Creffield, David Bomberg’s passion and craft revived the British tradition of expressive naturalism and created a visual language that remains very much alive today.
Dr Kate Aspinall is an independent historian, writer, and artist. Based in London, she focuses her art historical work on British visual culture in the 20th century. She teaches for the Courtauld and Yale in London and has spoken at a range of galleries and public institutions, including Tate, the Towner and Pallant House.
In addition to her art practice, which recently won a grant from the European Commission, she was a long-term consultant for the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and until recently she served as a Trustee of the Association for Art History, representing freelance and independent art historians. She has degrees from the University of St Andrews, the Courtauld Institute and the University of East Anglia.
This lecture will be streamed online on Wednesday 2nd June 2021 at 11:00am. TAS RLS members will be invited by email to join the lecture.
Wonder Workers and the Art of Illusion:
The History of Magic Through Art and Pictures
Photo by Julius Drost on UnsplashWednesday 7th July 2021
Bertie Pearce
From the beginning of time the fascination with magic has been widespread. Sorcerer Priests used scientific principles to create illusions for the edification of worship and to hold power over the people.
In the age of the Music Hall, audiences flocked in their thousands to watch the extraordinary feats of The Great Illusionists. Even today, with the craze for Harry Potter, the wonder and surprise of magic are as popular as ever. This lecture will be a whistle stop tour of the history of magic from 3000 BC to the present day.
Bertie Pearce is a member of the Inner Magic Circle. He has toured the world with his one-man cabaret show All Aboard, performed on cruise ships, and lectured to a wide range of art and history societies.
This lecture will follow the AGM
Paula Rego: Painting Women on the Edge, and Telling Tales of the Unexpected
Wednesday 1st September 2021
Image from Wikipedia, used under the Creative Commons AttributionLinda Smith
This lecture looks at the life and work of Paula Rego, who is 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), Paula Rego settled in this country permanently in the 1970s, but her career in Britain had effectively begun in the early 1960s, when she exhibited with artists like Frank Auerbach and David Hockney. Over the following twenty years her career and reputation built steadily, and in 1990 she was invited to become the first Associate Artist at the National Gallery. Her well-known series of paintings and prints based on nursery rhymes emerged from this residency, as did another series of large-scale paintings which is currently displayed in the National Gallery restaurant.
In her early days, Paula Rego experimented with many different styles, including abstraction, and was very much influenced by Surrealism, but her mature style places a strong emphasis on clear draughtsmanship and the human figure. She produces works which suggest complicated narratives full of psychological tension, drama, and emotion. Frequently she depicts women and girls in disturbing or ambiguous situations and poses, which has occasionally caused some controversy, but her insistence on the physicality of her female figures, and her refusal to idealise or revert to cliché, has earned her global recognition and many prestigious awards. She was made a DBE in 2010.
Linda Smith holds two first-class degrees in Art History and specialises in British and twentieth century art. She is an experienced lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and has lectured widely to schools, university students, and arts societies in the UK and abroad.
This is the first lecture of our 2021/ 22 season.
For details of reading lists for these lectures please contact
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