Venue: The Trinity Arts Centre, Gainsborough

 

LECTURES

1.45 pm, first Thursday of the month  - February to June and September to December

Note: no meetings in January, July and August 

2024

Summary of lectures for 2024 - for fuller details see below

February 1 - Simon Whitehouse - Wilde about Oscar: famous for being famous & (IN)famous

March 7Lydia Bauman - Looking for Georgia - my travels in Mexico in the footsteps of Georgia O'Keeffe 

April 4Tim Stimson - Sun and Snow - Nordic Landscape Painting

May 2 Pamela Campbell-Johnston - From Claridge's Hotel to the London Underground: the life and work of textile designer, Marion Dorn

June 6 Barry Venning - Art after Windrush: Post-Colonial Artists in Britain since 1948

September 5Caroline Walker - The Gill Brothers

October 3 Brian Stater - World-Famous Photographs: Images that shaped our culture

November 7 Paula Nuttall - David: from Donatello to Michelangelo

December 5 Peter Medhurst - Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht: the story of the world-renowned carol

 

April 4, 2024

Tim Stimson

Tim's involvement in art began with the practical; for a number of years he was a professional painter and ceramicist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults. For the last 20 years he has been a freelance cultural art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society. He now lectures for the universities of Cambridge, Nottingham and Hull; the WEA, the Art Fund and presents residential study courses in Britain and Europe. He has recently completed a month long lecture tour of Western Australia.

Lecture Title

Sun and Snow - Nordic Landscape Painting

 In Northern Europe landscape painting has a powerful hold on our visual culture – and none more so than in Scandinavia, where far northerly folk have found a kinship with nature to be indispensable. The 19th century paintings of snow and sun, rock and forest, mountain and fjord helped confirm their difference from Mediterranean culture and shaped national identity. They are confident affirmations of Northerness.

 

May 2, 2024 

Pamela Campbell-Johnston

MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. Over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Adult Education Department's programme of events. Also conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art. Over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register, National Trust. Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer. Recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

Lecture Title

From Claridge's Hotel to the London Underground: the life and work of textile designer, Marion Dorn

This lecture will consider the artistic output of one of the leading textile designers of the 20th Century; Marion Dorn. Dorothy Todd, the influential journalist, but somewhat flawed Editor of the magazine British Vogue, first brought Dorn to the public attention in 1925 and christened Dorn the ‘architect of floors’. Renowned for her ’sculpted rugs’, this lecture will reveal Dorn’s various commissions from the 1920s to the 19060s, which included amongst others, designs for the Savoy Hotel Group in London, Eltham Palace (the former Tudor royal residence that was transformed by the millionaires Stephen and Virginia Courtauld), the London Underground and the White House in Washington DC. In addition to her designs of wall hangings, carpets and rugs, Dorn also produced wallpaper and graphics, having studied graphic design at Stanford University prior to coming to live and work in London. We will explore her extraordinary career and position her place as a designer whose name should be for ever enshrined in the history books of British 20th century Art Deco.

June 6, 2024

Barry Venning

Barry Venning is an art historian whose interests and teaching range from the art of late medieval Europe to global contemporary art. He has published books, articles and exhibition catalogue essays on Turner, Constable and European landscape painting, but also has an ongoing research interest in postcolonial art and British visual satire. He works as a consultant and associate lecturer for the Open University. His media work includes two BBC TV documentaries, radio appearances for BBC local radio and abc Australia, and a DVD on Turner for the Tate.

Lecture Title

Art after Windrush: Post-Colonial Artists in Britain since 1948

The lecture looks at the contributions made by artists of African, Caribbean or Asian origin to British art since the SS Empire Windrush arrived in Tilbury from the West Indies in 1948. It considers, among others, the work of Sir Frank Bowling, Francis Newton Souza, Eddie Chambers, Yinka Shonibare, Sonia Boyce, Rasheed Araeen, Lubaina Himid and the Singh Twins, all of whom have achieved international recognition and respect, their works collected by museums world-wide. They may not all be household names but their work is eye-catching and thought-provoking, and they have set much of the agenda for British art of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

 

September 5, 2024 

Caroline Walker

I've always been aware of my close family ties to the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill, a fascinating but controversial character. In 2006, however, a family history project drew me into an exploration of the life and work of his younger brother. MacDonald 'Max' Gill was an architect, mural painter and graphic artist, famed for his humorous pictorial map posters for London Underground and the alphabet he designed for the British military headstone. Although my main profession has been English teaching, I now spend much of my time researching the Gill brothers and championing the work of the lesser known of the pair. I've co-curated numerous exhibitions including Out of the Shadows: MacDonald Gill at the University of Brighton and Max Gill: Wonderground Man at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. In 2016 I co-organised a series of events in the capital to celebrate the centenary of the author Eleanor Farjeon's delightful collection of verses entitled Nursery Rhymes of London Town and illustrated by Max Gill. I've contributed articles to a range of publications such as Country Life, the TAS journal and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  I've given talks for organisations including the National Archives, the Art Workers' Guild, Christie's, Friends of Kettle's Yard and the National Trust and was thrilled in 2016 to become an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society. I run the MacDonald Gill website and am the author of MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life.

Lecture Title

The Gill Brothers

 

October 3, 2024 

Brian Stater

Brian Stater lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography. He therefore offers lectures to The Arts Society on each of these subjects. He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others. Brian is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience.

Lecture Title

World-Famous Photographs: Images that shaped our culture

This lecture examines a series of iconic photographs that are embedded in our collective memory. They range from records of historic events, to fabulous portraits and scenes of emotional release and joy. The talk analyses the power of these images, traces the fascinating stories of how they came to be produced, and places them in the context of our appreciation of art.

 

November 7, 2024 

Paula Nuttall

Specialist in Renaissance art, both Italian and northern European, on which she has published widely, notably From Flanders to Florence: the Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400-1500 (Yale, 2004). Has collaborated on major exhibitions including Jan van Eyck: an Optical Revolution (Ghent, 2020). Former Director of the V&A Medieval and Renaissance Year course, and lecturer at – among others – the Courtauld Institute and the British Institute of Florence.

Lecture Title

David: from Donatello to Michelangelo

From Donatello to Michelangelo the Davids by Donatello and Michelangelo are two of the most famous sculptures of the Florentine Renaissance, yet although they depict the same subject, they could scarcely be more different: one in delicate bronze, enigmatic and introspective; the other in marble, monumental and heroic. Looking at their groundbreaking style and treatment, patronage, and their historical and artistic context, this lecture offers insights into these Renaissance masterpieces. 

 

December 5, 2024 

Peter Medhurst

Peter appears in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Lecture Title

Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht: the story of the world-renowned carol