Class details
Join Nick for an enthralling lecture on art and illusion. Artists across the ages and different cultures have been interested in visual phenomena such as illusions, mirrors and what can be done with lenses. For the next three thought-provoking, but always entertaining talks, Nick will be looking at how artists, from Caravaggio and Velasquez to Picasso and Bridget Riley have used these phenomena in their work and why they have held such a fascination for them – and us.
Monday 5 June
10am
£10 including light refreshments
During this 2 hour lecture Nick looks at
- the development of perspective in the Renaissance
- anamorphic images
- trompe l’oeil
- the ‘Ames room’
- light, shade and relative values
- figure and ground
- colour perception
- ambiguous forms
- motion illusions
- ‘seeing’ things that are not there
- ‘Gestalt completion’
- and impossible structures
If all that sounds frighteningly scientific, it is true that artists have used such tricks of perception for centuries (without necessarily knowing the science of it) – but it is the work of artists like Velazquez, Hogarth, Dali, Escher, Riley and others that we can all sit back and enjoy in this lecture as they fool us into seeing things we may not believe or didn’t expect!
After the lecture Nick sends you the notes for future reference.
Interested in exploring art and illusion? Join Nick on 5 June.
We look forward to seeing you.
