This Autumn’s Tuesday evening lecture series – The Canvas Ceiling, starting on January 12th, includes: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman? ; Frida Kahlo – a life on canvas ; Art and the F-Word: Feminism ; Modern Mothers ; Georgia O’Keeffe ; “Mad Tracey from Margate”
This series examines the involvement of women in art, not as models to be painted by men for men, but as significant artists in their own right. From the 17th century to the early 20th, female artists were very much in the minority. Two women were amongst the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768, but it was 168 years before another woman was permitted to add ‘RA’ to her name.
Read on for more details and tickets
Please note that sales of just this series will start on December 15 at the Gallery desk and by phone 020 8299 8750. Tuesday evening lecture series: Jan 12 to Feb 23 2010 The Canvas Ceiling: Women Artists through the ages 7.45-9.15 pm/Linbury Room
Series of 6 lectures £50, £40 Friends Single lectures £10, £8
Friends Bar and book sales in the interval
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman?
Tuesday 12 January
Lecturer: Jo Walton
In this lecture we’ll discover some of the powerful and determined women who forged careers for themselves as artists. The realm of home and family may have provided subject matter for some, but others tackled Biblical violence, military disaster, emerging technology and the glamour of High Society. It’s all a long way from a cultivated lady doing a little light sketching as one of her many accomplishments.
Frida Kahlo – a life on canvas
Tuesday 19 January
Lecturer: Frank Woodgate
After a terrible accident as a child, FridaKahlo was seldom without pain, and she charted her life, including her two marriages to the same man, Diego Rivera, through a series of fascinating and revelatory self-portraits and other colourful (and sometimes disturbing) works. As well as illustrating her personal agonies and ecstasies, her art reflected her attitude to pre-Columbian tradition, capitalism and Communism. “We can’t get even, so we’re gonna get mad.”
Art and the F-Word: Feminism
Tuesday 26 January
Lecturer: Linda Smith
After many years of agitation, feminism has managed to achieve major legislative changes in many parts of the world. As all women know, however, changing the law is one thing, but changing attitudes and cultural practice is quite another. Feminism in art has used various strategies, ranging from humour and irony through to confrontation and downright belligerence. This lecture will look at some key artists and their work, and ask questions about what kind of impact feminism has had on art, and whether overt political content compromises artistic integrity.
Modern Mothers
Tuesday 2 February
Lecturer: Melanie Paice
Modern portrayals of motherhood by women artists are far removed from traditional images such as the Madonna and child. Today we are presented with everything from giant spiders to candid photographs taken one hour, one day and one week after giving birth. What are these artists telling us about their view of the relationship of mother and child?
Georgia O’Keeffe
Tuesday 16 February
Lecturer: Peter Scott
Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most popular artists in America, known principally for her semi-abstract paintings of Nature, particularly flowers, which are said to contain strong erotic undertones. However, during her 70 years as an artist, she produced works of great originality, variety and complexity. Conventionally trained in the most prestigious art schools in the United States, she developed her unique style after studying Kandinsky’s works and writings and coming under the influence of Alfred Stieglitz, the great photographer and gallerist. This lecture aims to explore some of the life and work of this eccentric and pioneering woman.
“Mad Tracey from Margate”
Tuesday 23 February
Lecturer: Rosalind Whyte
Tracey Emin shot to fame and notoriety with My Bed in 1999. She has since earned fortune and criticism in virtually equal measure. She is frequently accused of being self-indulgent because of the autobiographical nature of much of her work, yet many artists have used their life experiences to inform their work (including Frida Kahlo from earlier in the series), without attracting the criticism of self-obsession. This lecture looks at some aspects of what is a wide- ranging and varied body of work, and seeks to examine some of the reasons behind the antagonism Emin faces. All the speakers lecture extensively for Tate Britain, Tate Modern, throughout Britain and internationally.
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