Whether you know and love New York, or have never visited, here’s a chance to discover more about the personalities of the artists, designers, patrons and social climbers who shaped this extraordinary and ever-changing city.

Our speaker this year, Mary Alexander, cherry picks the art and design highlights of the city that never sleeps. She aims to capture the vibrancy, energy and ever-changing nature of the city.

She will explore the people, ideas and fortunes that created the great art collections, buildings and visual environment of the city. Themes include the influence of ‘new money’ on art patronage and the changing moves of fashionable society. The day will touch on authors Henry James, Edith Wharton and F Scott Fitzgerald whose work is set against a New York background.Mary will reflect on how the constantly changing city sees and re-imagines itself.

Session 1  Keeping up with the Jones: climbing the social ladder in the Gilded Age Session 2  The Big Apple Takes a Lead: Jazz Age ManhattanSession 3  Exploring the city today: From Central Park to the High Line and Reflecting Pools

Time: 10.30-15.00 hrs

Venue: Thornden Hall Conference Room

Cost:  £37.00 plus £1.56 booking fee to include a buffet lunch and refreshments

OPEN TO ALL

BOOKINGS ARE NOW OPEN

Please go the home page and click on the TicketSource logo

Any queries please email Gail Alexander via Ticketsourcesouthampton@gmail.com

Movers and Shakers!The Art World Today

Three talks and a must for anyone who is interested in learning more about the exciting art of today, including women artists leading the way.

Speaker: Cindy Polemis BBC Broadcaster, art historian, independent lecturer and art guide.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF BRITISH CONTEMPORARY ART?

In 1988 art students from Goldsmith’s College, led by Damien Hirst, put on an infamous exhibition called Freeze, arguably kicking off one of the most fertile and radical periods in the story of art and putting London firmly at the centre of the contemporary art world. What was their legacy and was this a golden age for British contemporary art?

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS

With the art scene finally giving some real recognition to both long-established and emerging female artists, Cindy looks at what’s been happening in Britain: who are the leading contemporary female artists who should be household names?  Some names will be familiar, others getting increasing recognition. Artists include Tracy Emin and her painful yet hopeful personal journey; Chantal Joffe’s haunting psychological portraits; Joy Labinjo - making black lives visible; and the extraordinary frozen moments of Cornelia Parker’s installations (photo). These are just a few of the artist we will discuss.

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR EYESIGHT

This talk explores the discombobulating world of Optical Art or Op-Art art - how artists including Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely use shapes, patterns and eye-popping colours to create artworks which literally fool our eyes.

Venue: The tiered purpose-built MAST Mayflower Studios , 144 Above Bar St, Southampton SO14 7DU

Doors open 10.00: first talk is at 10.30

Tickets  £35 plus a small booking fee now available viaTicketSource on the home page.The price includes mid-morning refreshments.

Please note change of theme for this Special Interest day 

Colour and the Artist’s Palette: Red Blue and Yellow

The challenge to find long-lasting paints and dyes - some costlier than gold, others deadly poisonous, and many fading even before they reached the walls of the Royal Academy - has preoccupied artists since the dawn of civilization. What do different colours symbolise and what is the significance of artists’ choice of colour?

Lynn Gibson, art historian and professional artist, will tell the story in three colour-themed talks, Red, Yellow and Blue, taking us from the world of the prized dyes of old to the democracy of modern-day blue denim.

Along the way, we will discover a colourful assortment of facts: which dye was reserved for the Roman Senate, why Turner chose Iodine Scarlet for the setting sun in his Fighting Temeraire and which colour drove artist mad. Lynne will talk us through the search for long-lasting colour and reveal historical recipes. She will bring along pigments and dyes to illustrate her talks.  

The Arts Society Southampton are sure you’ll find the story of the search for colour, and its symbolism, science and psychology is a fascinating one.

Venue: MAST Mayflower Studios, 144 Above Bar St, Southampton SO14 7DU

Timing: 10.30-15.00; first talk at 10.30

Cost: £35 to include morning refreshments

Please book via Ticketsourceon the homepage

Any queries to Gail Alexander email Ticketsourcesouthampton@gmail.com

Open To All

At MAST Studio Theatre, Guildhall Square, Above Bar, Southampton

Mark Hill, specialist in 20th century design and decorative art, and Antiques Roadshow expert, will present two talks about modern design movements in furniture, ceramics and studio glass and will give a bring along an object for identification and valuation inter-active session.

Session 1: Curves, Colour and Cool: An Introduction to mid-20th Century Modern

The antiques market has changed dramatically and now pieces that were made during the 1970s can fetch many times more than a piece made in the 1770! Why has the teak sideboard you threw out become so desirable? Who is this Eames guy? Who’s buying what and what are they doing with it? This practical and inspirational lecture looks at furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and metalware, identifies key designs and designers, and examines the revolutionary design movements they began.

Session 2 Michael Harris: Medina Glass and the Isle of Wight Studio Glass

Did you know that Michael Harris - who transformed 20thC glass with his pioneering work - had a studio just over the water on the Isle of Wight as well as in Malta? Mark’s second talk on the international studio glass movement will examine Harris’s studio glass including the influences, production techniques and the heritage he left behind.

 Session 3: Identification and Valuation Session

And now for something completely different! Our very own ‘Antiques’ Road Show. Raid your china cabinets, attics or the local charity shop to see what treasures you can find in 20th Century ceramics, glass, and metalware. (Mark specialises in these areas so please leave your jewellery, militaria, antiquities, silver and pictures at home.) Mark usually selects some of the more interesting pieces to talk about but always aims to cover everything, even if it’s a chat with you afterwards.

We will be meeting in a new venue for our Arts Society – the new MAST Studio theatre in the heart of Southampton’s cultural centre. Its tiered seating will ensure everyone has a clear view of the speaker. Refreshments, including pastries, are included in the price, which will be served in the adjacent atrium with views over the Guildhall Square.

Booking: The cost for this full and interesting day is £32 (plus a £1.34 TicketSource booking fee). Please go the home page on this site and click the TicketSource logo. If you have questions: contact Gail Alexander, Study Day Organiser, at TicketSourcesouthampton@gmail.com

 Siân Walters will guide us through an architectural and art tour of important Spanish art collections and buildings. The day comprises three lectures:

1. The architect, architecture and collection of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao: "the greatest building of our time”.

 2. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, in Madrid’s Golden Triangle of Art, a private collection which includes masterpieces by Holbein, Caravaggio and other masters. Siân traces the fascinating history of these acquisitions and the story of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family themselves.

 3. The Museo del Prado with its wealth of paintings by Goya, El Greco, Titian, Velázquez and others from the Golden Age of Spanish Art. Discover how the collection was shaped by the personal tastes of the royal family. The day concludes with a discussion of a recently opened extension to the museum which has been the subject of some controversy.

Siân Walters: Lecturer at the National Gallery and The Wallace Collection and taught at Surrey University, specialising in 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish art & architecture. Teaches private courses and organises lectures, study days and art holidays abroad.

Venue: The Birch Suite, in Solent University’s Spark Building. Ventilation in the Spark uses 100% fresh air with no recirculation.

Cost: £32 including morning refreshments. Book by clicking on the link shown below. 

If the event is cancelled due to a further lockdown, this will be refunded. Any questions can be addressed to Gail Alexander via email: Ticketsourcesouthampton@gmail.com  

Siân Walters: Lecturer at the National Gallery and The Wallace Collection and taught at Surrey University, specialising in 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish art & architecture. Teaches private courses and organises lectures, study days and art holidays abroad. 

You can book tickets for this event via TicketSource. Please click here

This day concentrates on those artists who have used their art to communicate ideas, opinions, criticisms or fears about their world and, in doing so, tell us a great deal about the historical period in which the art was created.

From the 15th to the 21st centuries, artists as varied as Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Goya, William Blake, Picasso, Grayson Perry,  Ai Weiwei and many more have created powerful, exciting, moving and, sometimes, disturbing works of art dealing with topics as varied as social unrest and poverty, feminism and gender politics, race, prejudice and multi-culturalism, the environment, war and propaganda, and the cult of personality.

There will be 3 lectures:

1. Sermons and sayings and the many faces of poverty and racism.
2.  War and propaganda
3.  The Cold War and the nuclear age, the environment, gender politics

Held at Southampton Solent University. Cost: £30 but free to full time students & the 25's.  Booking Form available in "Documents" under the "Our Society" tab  

 Val Woodgate: Lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, also at many other London galleries. Former member of the teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lecturer and runs courses at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.

 At Southampton Solent University. £28 to include coffee.

Douglas Skeggs History of the Medici: Bankrolling the Renaissance 
 
The Medici’s were ruthless in their pursuit of profit yet without them we would not have such wonders as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, the Fra Angelico frescoes in San Marco, Donatello’s David or the majestic sculptures in the Medici chapel. This study day, composed of three talks, looks into the turbulent history of this extraordinary family. 

God’s Bankers: Under the guidance of Cosimo Medici, the family became the unofficial rulers of Florence and leading patrons of the arts. This inevitably aroused fierce jealousies, which boiled over in an attempted assassination. 

 Popes & Patrons: The Medici were exiled from Florence but re-emerged triumphantly as Popes in Rome. Their decadent rule led to the Sack of Rome and opened the door to Luther’s Reformation of the Church.

 From Riches to Royalty. Although the Medici were a spent force in Italy, an ingenious marriage had put Catherine de Medici on the throne of France. This last talk looks at the impact this ultimately had on the shape of French history.  
 
  Booking form available under the “Our Society” tab. Scroll down to “Documents"

Southampton Solent University, East Park Terrace,  Silver Birch Suite: 10 am to 3.30 pm

 Cost: £28

See documents under “Our Society“  tab for booking form.

 Linda’s talk will explore how women have been represented in Western Art since ancient times to the 20th Century and how attitudes to women’s status as subjects, patrons and makers of art has changed. For centuries, women artists have created professional, provocative and appealing art work. Many have achieved local or even international fame during their lifetime, although they faced challenges due to gender biases, from finding difficulty in training to selling their work and gaining recognition.

 The day will be split into three sessions:

 1: Looking Back: From Antiquity to Renaissance

 2: Looking The Part : Some Women in British Art c.1550-c.1900

 3: Who Are You Looking At ?:Twentieth Century Art & Feminism

 Linda Smith holds two first-class degrees in Art History. She is an experienced guide and lecturer at the Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. She also lectures to secondary school audiences and independent arts societies. 

At Southampton Solent University : East Park Terrace, Silver Birch Suite 

A journey through the life and work of members of the brutal dynasty that ruled Russia for over three hundred years. This day will divide into 3 parts:

·         The Blaspheming Bear - The Life of Peter the Great

·         The New Byzantium - Russia at the time of Catherine The Great

·         The Last Romanovs - The Life and Death of Nicholas and Alexandra

Douglas Skeggs will take us on a journey through the life and work of members of the often brutal dynasty that ruled Russia for over 300 years. From Peter the Great - the founder of St Petersburg, to his eccentric daughter Elizabeth, then to Catherine the Great - the most powerful of all the Empresses of Russia, who had no real claim to the throne and on to the tragic figure of Nicholas II, the last tsar and one of the most poignant figures in history, whose death in 1918 ended the reign of this turbulent and ill-fated family.

Douglas Skeggs studied Fine Arts at Cambridge. He has written and presented various TV documentaries and has published six novels. He is a lecturer to many London art courses and Director of the New Academy of Arts.

A comparison of the way in which the modern treatment of traditional genres in art is different from that of the Old Masters, the effect of these differences, and whether they add to, or change, our understanding of the subject and its message. The lecture will cover all of the traditional genres, i.e. History Painting, Portraits, Genre (pictures of everyday life), Landscape and Still-Life, and we will consider the way in which the treatment of these subjects has changed over the centuries, up to the present day.

Southampton Solent University, Conference Centre, Above Bar street. Cost £28 including tea & coffee. For booking form, see Documents under the "About Us" tab.

Valerie is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and for Tate on cruises. She lectures in other major galleries, including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and, on religious art, in churches and cathedrals. She is a script-writer for Living Paintings Trust (art for the blind and partially-sighted).

Shakespeare’s plays have provided artists with rich source material. Painters have been inspired by extremes of passion, by sprites, ghosts and monsters, by the humanity of everyday characters and by the playwright’s evocative language. We will explore Macbeth and Hamlet as well as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure and Richard III. From the wide variety of artists who have illustrated these plays, we will include works by Fuseli, Blake, Landseer, Waterhouse and Millais.

UNFORTUNATELY ALL AVAILABLE SEATS HAVE NOW BEEN ALLOCATED.  HOWEVER WE ARE HAPPY TO ADD YOUR NAME TO A WAITING LIST.  WE USUALLY GET A FEW LATE CANCELLATIONS.

Details & application forms will be available in the Autumn Vivian Heffernan Teacher and Head of Art Department 1976-1986. Art history tutor for continuing education departments of Essex and Cambridge Universities, colleges and adult education organisations. Long-standing lecturer with the Open University on art history courses ranging from the early Renaissance to the 20th century. Wide experience as a freelance lecturer since 1988.

Lecture1: History of Berlin and its main Rulers and their Palaces in Berlin/Potsdam Lecture 2: Reichstag and former West Berlin with Cultural Forum: Museums of Fine and Decorative Arts Lecture 3 Highlights of Dresden: Churches, Castle and Green Vaults, Picture and Porcelain Galleries; Surrounding area: Meissen, Colditz, Moritzburg, Pillnitz

In England, for about 200 years after the Reformation, portraiture was almost the only subject in art. During this time most major painters working here were foreigners; the most important of these were Holbein and van Dyck. From the 18th century on, outstanding British portrait painters such as Reynolds and Gainsborough came to prominence and the portrait has continued to intrigue and fascinate right up to the present day, as artists such as Lucian Freud continue to explore and expand the subject.