Class details
Join Nick Pearson on 16 February for a new series of art history lectures. We’ve taken a lucky-dip, cherry-picking attitude to art & design history and related subjects, including:
- Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printing and its influence on modern art
- the histories of architecture and photography
- a detailed look at artists’ notebooks
- looking at art and illusion and how artists have used that over the centuries
- following David Hockney’s investigations on artists of the past have used lenses to help create their masterpieces
- reflecting the mirror and its importance to artists from Rembrandt to Picasso and from Norman Rockwell to Anish Kapoor
For want of a better title, we’ve called it ‘Nick’s Pic[k]s – because artist and university lecturer, Nick Pearson has picked ‘em! Together they will provide a well-rounded art education; technique, perception, art history, appreciation and fun.
Monday
10am – 12pm
16 February – 18 May
(NO session on 6 April as it is Easter, nor on May Bank Holiday 4 May)
Fee : £10 per session
Notes only : £5 per set
Topics we cover
16 Feb
Ukiyo-e woodblock printing – its development in Japan as a popular art form and its massive affect on modern artists including Manet, Monet, van Gogh and Toulouse Lautrec.
23 Feb
The Ballets Russes – Twenty years that changed the worlds of music and ballet and influenced the luxurious colours and forms of Art Deco on the way.
2 March
A History of Collage – tracing how various artists and art movements have created formal, poetic works and powerful messages with the technique.
9 March
‘Je Suis Le Cahier’: Artists’ Sketchbooks – to delve inside the covers of an artist’s sketchbook is like opening the door to the studio, or even entering the mind of the artist themselves. Come with Nick on this voyage between the sketchbook covers of da Vinci, Turner, Picasso, Grayson Perry and many more (including Nick’s own!)
16 March
A History of Photography Part I – Early beginnings, from the camera obscura in the ancient world and the daguerreotype in 19th century France to early 20th century ‘black and white’ portraiture.
23 March
A History of Photography Part II – The great days of early modern, monochrome photography, from the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Man Ray, Lee Miller and Eve Arnold.
30 March
A History of Photography Part III – From Black and White to Colour: How colour photography – once called ‘vulgar’ by the famous American photographer Walker Evans, was eventually used by some of photography’s greatest artists.
13 April
Art and Illusion – the title of a very famous book by Professor E.H. Gombrich. If you’ve read it you’ll recognise a lot of the examples we’ll be using (although Nick added a lot of his own too) from the ancient world, to Velazquez and beyond. If you haven’t read it, come along to the lecture – because Nick’s read it for you, so you don’t have to!
20 April
20 century and Modernist Architecture Part I – In a debate considering a redesign to the Houses of Commons Winston Churchill once said, ‘We shape our buildings and afterwards, our buildings shape us’. How did we get what we have known for over a hundred years as ‘Modern Architecture’ and how has it responded to and shaped the society we live in?
27 April
20 century and Modernist Architecture Part II – we shall look at the development of modernist architecture into the post-modern period and look at some more contemporary buildings
11 May
On Reflecton . . . Mirrors in Art – an interest in the similarity between the painted image and the reflection of the world in a silvered glass interested artists from Jan van Eyck in 15 century Flanders, Jan Vermeer in Holland and the Spaniard Diego Velazquez in the 17 century to Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet in 19 century France and the Pre-Raphaelites in Britain –we’ll see a lot more modern examples too. Come with Nick, through the looking glass, for a tour of reflection, deception and revelation!
18 May
Secret Knowledge: The Hockney-Falco Thesis – art historians knew how Vermeer used optics as an aid in creating his paintings but in a 2002 BBC film, artist David Hockney and optical scientist Charles Falco revealed their fascinating theories regarding the early use of lenses in art. We shall follow the pair’s investigations (with some of Nick’s own thoughts) and see some beautiful and often surprising examples along the way!
Support notes are included
After each lecture Nick will send you a copy of his comprehensive, illustrated notes via email.
Not able to make the lecture but still want the notes? For a fee of £5 we can email you a copy of the notes.
We look forward to seeing you at this series of art history lectures by Nick Pearson.
