Art Talks with Martin Randall

TUCSON ART TALKS brings Art Talks on a wide variety of art history topics to your public library, school, residential facility, business, auditorium or home. With years of experience speaking at museums, libraries and other venues in the Tucson area, these highly popular and engaging talks are sure to fascinate and delight!

Isaac Levitan (1860-1900) captured the beauty of the vast Russian countryside with his luminous landscapes that could only be Russia. Transcending politics, his art gives us an insight into the Russian people and the world they lived in before the revolution.

In this talk we begin with a brief survey of Russian art through the ages, before focusing on the life and work of Isaac Levitan. He was a close friend of the writer Anton Chekhov and their lives were in many ways intertwined. In Levitan's short life, he produced some of the most beautiful and evocative paintings of the Russian countryside.

Free admission.

 If you ask most people if they can think of a Scandinavian artist, they may only be able to come up with one name - the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and his iconic painting The Scream. But there were many other talented Scandinavian artists who are less well known, who produced gorgeous paintings that capture the lives, the spirit, the scenic beauty, and the unique light of the North.

Join us on a journey north through the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland as we explore the work of the artists that lived and worked there.

Free admission.

 John Singer Sargent captured the spirit of the Gilded Age with his lavish portraits of wealthy society patrons and their families. 

Growing up in Europe as the son of expatriate Americans who exposed him to European art and culture at every opportunity, and living in many different countries, he soaked up their culture,  becoming fluent in many languages. But he was also an outsider. In Europe he was the American expat. When he later moved to England he was the sophisticated Parisian painter. When he finally traveled to America he was the famous European artist.

Perhaps being an outsider gave him the perspective to paint his subjects objectively, and he became highly sought-after as a portraitist. His paintings were mostly highly admired, sometimes scandalous, and always captivating. But eventually he tired of portraits, and in his later years he returned to his first love, travel, and he painted countless images of his time in Europe, North Africa and America, traveling with his artist friends.

We look at Sargent's fascinating life, mixing with high society and meeting famous people, but also traveling simply and painting whatever caught his eye.

Free admission.