CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ART TALKS:

John William Mallord Turner was born at a time of seismic change in Britain, as the Industrial Revolution swept away the bucolic agrarian society and replaced it with machines and industry. Turner's art documents and reflects this enormous change in the country, as the age of sail was replaced by the age of steam.

It was a time when audiences were fascinated by the Sublime - the immense and awesome power of nature, at times breathtakingly beautiful, at times terrifying - and man's place in it. Turner's work - his skies, his depictions of seas and storms - reflects this fascination, as well as man's struggle to harness and overcome the forces of nature through his ingenuity.

In this talk we explore the evolution of early Western art  from the Middle Ages to the birth of the Renaissance over a period of 750 years, from about 750AD to 1500AD. We trace the path of art from the illuminated manuscripts of the monastic traditions, through the invention of books and the advent of universities, to the beginnings of the Renaissance.

We journey through the Medieval era with stunning images, often illuminated with gold and ground precious stones, following the path from predominantly religious art to more secular images from scientific texts, Arthurian legend, and delightful depictions of everyday life in the Middle Ages,  to the birth of the Renaissance both in Italy and in the Northern countries. Please join us for a fascinating journey through history and art!

For much of his life the French artist Paul Gauguin searched for an escape from 'anything that is artificial and conventional'. He traveled first to Brittany to live a simple, uncluttered life among the rural communities there, far from the bustle of the increasingly industrialized and materialistic life in the cities. Dissatisfied with that, he ventured deeper, to Martinique in the Caribbean, and then to the distant South Pacific islands - first to Tahiti, and finally to the even more remote Marquesas Islands. 

We explore the controversial life and work of Gauguin as he delved deeper and deeper into the mystic in search of the authentic, and look at the astounding images he created, particularly during his time in Tahiti and the Marquesas, sometimes blending reality with imagination, bringing a vision of a paradisiacal world that most of us will never ourselves see.

Georgia O'Keeffe has been called 'The Mother of American Modernism'. In this talk, through her paintings as well as through archival photographs and quotes from her letters and interviews, we examine the remarkable life and work of Georgia O'Keeffe, from her humble childhood on the plains of Wisconsin, through her time in New York with the renowned photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, and focusing especially on her time in New Mexico where she spent the last five decades of her groundbreaking life capturing the rugged beauty of this stark landscape.

Gustav Klimt's career straddled two worlds - the world of classical art that first made him famous, and the new and exciting world of Symbolism and Art Nouveau that would change the world of art forever. He was instrumental in shaping this new world, with his daring compositions, his new ways of looking at art, and his dazzling use of gold and his use of themes from the ancient world that made his paintings both timeless and hyper-modern.

We'll look at Klimt's life and career, from his humble beginnings and his classical paintings for theaters and museums, through his break with the past in helping form the Viennese Secession, and his bold and dramatic new style of mythical themes, his portraits of women, and his landscapes, that helped shape the world of fin de siecle Vienna.

Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous and beloved artists of our time, but in his own time he lived in relative obscurity, known to have sold only one painting during his lifetime. He was a famously troubled man, plagued with self-doubt and mental illness, but he produced some of the most beautiful and evocative paintings of his generation.

In this talk we focus on Van Gogh's final years, from Arles to Auvers, by far his most productive. In his last months he was producing paintings at the astonishing rate of more than  one a day. It was during this time that he painted many of his greatest masterpieces that are so well-known today. We'll look at many of his paintings from this period, and also try to understand something of the man behind the paintings through the letters he wrote.

If you missed the recent fabulous Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam - the Exhibition of the Century by some accounts - you will love the Vermeer in Amsterdam talk. We were fortunate enough to visit the exhibition ourselves, and this talk brings a first-hand account of our visit  to the show. 

Vermeer's output was small - only about 37 existing paintings are attributed to Vermeer. 28 of them were on display at this beautifully curated show.

Experience this amazing exhibition up close, with detailed discussions of each of the 28 paintings on display, in a fascinating talk about one of the most beloved painters of all time.

Until the time of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-69), western art had been predominantly religious, with scenes of figures or events from the Bible, or else of royalty or wealthy patrons. Bruegel took a radical new approach. He practically invented the landscape in western art, and he also gave us our very first glimpse of ourselves, of the life lived by the common people, our own ancestors.

In this talk we look at the life of Bruegel, and examine some of his greatest works. In doing so, we learn a little about the lives our ancestors lived.

There is no greater emotion in life than love, and artists have depicted its various aspects - romantic love, motherly love, unrequited love - since time immemorial. 

In this talk we look at the ways in which love has been depicted in art through the ages, from the ancient world to modern times, and across many cultures. 

For many years, artists never thought of depicting the winter months. They were a cold and harsh time of year when people hunkered down and tried to keep warm. But as we see in this talk, that would change with artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder who was one of the first artists to paint winter landscapes. Over the centuries many artists from all across the world produced beautiful winter scenes.

Join us as we take a journey through time and across many different countries to see how winter has been depicted in its own unique way throughout history. You will find these beautiful images a welcome respite from the heat of the summer months in Tucson! Bring a jacket!

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.

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.

In another of our Virtual Museum Visits we travel to Quito, the capital city of Ecuador in South America, to visit the fabulous Casa del Alabado Museum of Pre-Columbian art. One of the best-curated collections of the art of the ancient Americas that this commentator has ever seen, the Casa del Alabado Museum gives fresh perspectives into the lives, beliefs and art of the people of ancient America, and leaves us with a deeper understanding of these complex and fascinating cultures.

The gift of motherhood is something that we can all relate to on a very personal level. But at a deeper level, there is perhaps no concept more important to humanity throughout the ages than motherhood. It represents the crucial continuity of life and has been depicted in innumerable ways since the beginnings of civilization. 

In this talk we take a look at how motherhood has been depicted in art throughout history and across many different cultures, from the ancient world to the present day.

In the mid-19th century, a small group of young and rebellious art students set out on an unlikely mission to overthrow the art establishment that they felt had been on the wrong track since the time of Raphael. They called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and the revolution they started, and the movement that followed, would change the course of western art forever, and set the stage for the rise of modern art in the 20th century. 

We’ll be looking at the beginnings of this revolution and its evolution through three distinct generations of artists, from the original Brotherhood, through the second generation and the broadening of the movement, to the work of one of the most beloved of all the Pre-Raphaelite painters, John William Waterhouse. 

We’ll also be looking at the depiction and role of women in art at a time of change for women in society, as the early women’s movement and the push for equal rights and suffrage was starting to gain steam. 

Around the turn of the 20th century, the tiny village of Worpswede in north Germany became home to a thriving community of artists who longed to escape the stuffy confines of the art academies and find solace and inspiration in the sweeping landscapes and picturesque villages of the north German moors and the hard lives of the farmers who eked out a living there. 

In this talk we look at the beginnings of the Worpswede artists' colony and its development over the next several decades, examining the lives and works of the artists that lived there, with special emphasis on the landscape painter Otto Modersohn and his partner Paula Becker who became one of the greatest pioneers of German expressionism.

In the 19th century artists from Europe and America started to venture to the East – the Orient as it was then  known – for centuries, to the West, a forbidding and mysterious region. They brought back images of people, cultures and traditions unlike anything they or their fascinated audiences had ever seen. 

For a time these paintings became controversial in the west, but nowadays they are highly sought after, particularly by museums and collectors from the region, as they seek to access images of their own heritage and a way of life that has now forever disappeared.

In this talk we look at the world of these artist-travelers – who became known as the Orientalists – and journey with them through North Africa, the Middle East, and even as far as Persia and India, exploring their lives and the extraordinary legacy of art that they left us.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) wowed Victorian Britain with his detailed and meticulously researched depictions of life in the ancient world. Mesmerized by trying to discover and visualize their past, Victorians were fascinated by Alma-Tadema’s accurate and relatable images of the classical world. After his death his work disappeared into obscurity until his legacy was restored to respectability through the help of an unlikely ally.