ART HISTORY TALKS

Paul’s talks cover a wide range of Artists, from Edouard Manet to Jean- Michel Basquait.

The paintings can be considered in the traditional way, the artists techniques, composition, colour and application of medium are there to be examined and discussed. However, a more wide-ranging critique is often needed to fully benefit the viewer. Each individual painting can reveal numerous narratives which allows us to connect to the work with greater clarity. All great paintings have multifaceted stories to tell. The artists own personal narratives can also be universal, a human story to which we can all relate. A painting will often reveal the bigger story, make us consider the tangled web of human existence, it may bring to light the politics, religion, economics and social conditions of the scene it depicts. A painting can show it’s influences, how the artist has found inspiration in his or her environment. A novel, a play or a piece or music may have moved the painter to create an image.

As we move through the 20th Century we see painting create a much closer relationship with popular culture. Photography, cinema and popular music inspires many artists to create works which become a reflection of the times.

Many examples could be noted of how a painting is much more than an illustration of an event, a person or a place. Paul’s lectures help reveal the narratives contained in a painting, some things are instantly recognizable, some things remain hidden, often in plain sight. All can be revealed with some investigation and consideration. A whole world of human existence can be seen. Love and beauty, war and violence, politics and economics, intrigue and mystery, sex and sensuality. The whole spectrum of human emotions is rooted in our visual language and reflects to us from the canvas. Painting speaks about who we are and what we do, it holds a mirror to the world, and we are all reflected in it.

 A painting can reveal the whole of humanity, it’s majestic beauty and its disquieting dark side