ART HISTORY FESTIVAL 2024 – London and National

Join a free online discussion exploring the impact of residencies held at the G.A.S. Foundation in Nigeria since 2019.

Founded by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, the live / work artist residency programme includes two sites, one in Lagos and one on a rural farm in Ljebu, Ogun State. Part of the artist’s eponymous foundation, the programme aims to cultivate the local art scene, as well as the broader ecosystem and sustainable farming. It combines critical and engaging practices in the fields of contemporary art, design, architecture with agriculture and ecology. The residency has attracted remarkable artists and academics from the Diaspora and further afield, with motivations such as a desire to connect with the African continent or specific curiosity relating to pan African history and culture.

In this panel discussion we are joined by Belinda Holden, CEO of Yinka Shonibare Foundation, UK and Moni Aisida, Executive Director of the G.A.S. Foundation, Nigeria to hear how artists and academics are using the space to research, experiment, share, educate and develop work, and the impact G.A.S. is having both locally and globally.

“The mutually beneficial exchange, between artists and intellectuals, visitors and locals, is happening at G.A.S Foundation. In a global world of continuing and growing conflict, polarisation, ignorance and misinformation, providing a safe space to meet with other cultures for research, exchange, debate and collaboration, really feels to me more vital than ever.” – Yinka Shonibare CBE RA

This talk considers the games and toys marketed in Europe and in the United States over the long 19th century, from the French Revolution to the First World War. It will examine the way in which games, aimed at both children and adults, contributed to the creation of an image of the world and its history.

We will look at widely distributed paper and cardboard games and toys, such as card games, goose games, lotto and jigsaw puzzles. From the memorialization of Napoleon’s career to later colonial conquests and from geographical exploration to touristic enjoyment, these games brought history down to a miniature scale and imported distant landscapes and peoples into the domestic sphere.

While the transmission of historical and geographical knowledge was most often the ostensible objective of these games, what did it actually mean to play with it?

Hélène Valance is a lecturer in American history at Université de Franche Comté and scientific advisor at Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, where she is leading a project on French 19th century games. She is the author of Nocturne. Night in American Art (Yale University Press, 2018).

As ethnographic research into indigenous groups grew after the Mexican revolution, photography became one of the most important instruments in the representation of these vast ethnic differences and specificities. Modern artists were interested in photography, both as an expressive artistic form but also as a useful documentary technique, often exchanging with both anthropologists and professional photographers.

Join Deborah Dorotinsky Alperstein for a free online talk, on the exchange between ethnography, photography and modern art and the construction of new Mexican identities between 1890-1940.

Deborah Dorotinsky Alperstein (she/her/ella) is a full-time, tenured researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas in UNAM, Mexico City. Her areas of research include the History of Mexican Ethnographic Photography 1850-1950, Visual Culture and gender in Mexico 1920-1950 and Popular Arts through the 20th Century. Her book, Viaje de sombras. Fotografías del Desierto de la soledad y los indios lacandones en los años cuarenta was published by UNAM-IIE in 2013 http://biblio.esteticas.unam.mx/items/show/9 She is currently responsible for the Getty research project “Popular Arts in the Twentieth Century: concepts, dialogues and social resistance” a joint venture She is currently responsible for the Getty research project “Popular Arts in the Twentieth Century: concepts, dialogues and social resistance” a joint venture between Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas-UNAM, IDEAS in the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Graduate Art and Architecture program in Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in Medellín.

Join Celia Joicey, Director of Dovecot Studios and Naomi Roberston, Master Weaver and Head of the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, to hear about the work of Dovecot Studios and the making of their major tapestry with Chris Ofili, The Caged Bird’s Song, commissioned by The Clothworkers’ Company. Explore Dovecot’s latest exhibition on a virtual tour which has brought the tapestry back to Scotland to be shown in the context of the tapestry studio where the work was created. Learn how the colour, myths and magic of Ofili’s watercolour design were transformed into a large format tapestry that took Dovecot’s master weavers over three years to create.

The United Arab Emirates has rapidly earned its place on the international museum and art market landscape over the last decade.

Join leading women art world leaders from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah to learn more about the development of an art history in the United Arab Emirates in recent times.

This free, online panel discussion features key figures in the country’s art ecosystem and lead by Sophie Kazan Makhlouf, author of Art Is Not Made To Be Understood: The Development of An Art History in the UAE and a member of the Association for Art History’s Higher Education Committee.

This promises to be an interesting and lively presentation with perspective from the country’s three largest emirates.

Manal Ataya is a Senior Advisor and was previously Director General of Sharjah Museums Authority

Asmaa Shabibi is the co-founder and Director of Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai

Munira Al Sayegh is an independent curator and founder of Dirwaza Curatorial Lab in Abu Dhabi.

Join London historian and conservationist, Alec Forshaw, for a walking tour of Smithfield, looking at the remarkable variety of architecture in this fascinating part of central London. Alongside Horace Jones’s masterful 19th century meat market there are the medieval and Tudor remains of St John’s and St Bartholomew’s Priories and The Charterhouse, early Georgian houses, ornate Victorian warehouses, and eye-catching buildings from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Alec Forshaw, a leading expert in London’s architectural heritage – a writer, planner, historian. Alec worked for over 30 years at Islington Council where he was head of conservation and design. He was the key witness for one of SAVE’s greatest battles the General Market and the Fish Market in Smithfield. He is also the author of New City: Contemporary Architecture in the City of London and 20th Century Buildings in Islington.

Join us in person or via the livestream to hear an engaging conversation with renowned art historian Janina Ramirez. She will discuss the value of art history, its impact on society and culture, and on her own life with fellow art historian and educator, Sarah Jaffrey.

For our 50th anniversary celebrations, the Association for Art History is asking people in the arts and those interested in our subject – Art History Advocates – what art history means to them.

Hear Art History Advocate Janina Ramirez address, in a variety of inspirational ways, why it is important to the individual and to society, and gain a new perspectives on Art History Now.

“Art History is one of the few subjects that leaps across disciplinary boundaries, combining our intuitive responses to visual stimulus with documents, music, film, archaeology, as well as the sciences. To understand the world through the marks and images humans have made provides a unique way of viewing past, present and future.” Janina Ramirez, Art History Now

Professor Janina Ramirez is a lecturer, researcher, author and broadcaster.

She is Research Fellow in History of Art at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, and Visiting Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln. Her most recent book, ‘Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages Through the Women Written out of it’, was an instant Sunday Times number 1 best-seller, Waterstones Book of the Month and Book of the Year. Janina is also an award-winning documentary-maker, with 15 years of writing and presenting for the BBC, Sky Arts and Arte. Her films include ‘The Search for the Lost Manuscript’, ‘Britain’s Millenium of Monasteries’, and ‘Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War’. Her repeating series ‘Raiders of the Lost Past’ has included episodes on the Olmec Heads of Mexico, the Lion Man of Germany, and Tutankhamun in Egypt. She has published extensively, including monographs on The Private Lives of Saints, Julian of Norwich and Beowulf. Her forthcoming book, ‘Legenda: A New History of Nation Building Through the Women at the Heart of It’, is due for release July 25 with Penguin-Random house.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society for the Arts. 

Sarah Jaffray is an art historian and educator who currently works as the art history coordinator at City Lit.

Sarah holds a BA and MA in art history with an emphasis in 19th/20th century France and a minor in the Italian Renaissance. She holds a second MA in cultural theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. Sarah was a tenured professor of art history in Los Angeles before relocating to London in 2012. She has worked in curatorial roles at the British Museum and Wellcome Collection. In addition to her current coordinating role, Sarah lectures on art history for a variety of organisations and societies, including City Lit and University of Arts London. Her art historical practice focuses on experimental narratives, artistic process, art pedagogy, politics and philosophy. Sarah’s current research is focused on translation and empathy.

In this talk, Fatos Üstek will outline her curatorial approach and critical thinking behind the new model she proposes for the art institutions of tomorrow (and today). She will discuss the changes that art institutions will need to undergo in order to maintain their relevance for generations to come.

The Art Institution of Tomorrow is published as part of Hot Topics in the Art World series by Lund Humphries, in association with Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Get a 10% discount on the book when you order before 20th October. Visit www.lundhumphries.com and apply code FEST10 at checkout.

Fatos Üstek is an independent curator and writer, working internationally. With a deep fascination for how art can challenge perceptions, provoke thought, and offer new ways of seeing the world, she takes on multiple roles: Curator of Frieze Sculpture, Co-founder and Managing Director of FRANK Fair Artist Pay, Chair of New Contemporaries, among others. In her recent book The Art Institution of Tomorrow, Reinventing the Model she punctuates the critical juncture where not-for-profit art institutions must rethink their purpose, governance, and relationships with artists, audiences, and communities.

Please join us for a talk and wine reception with the artist Zak Ové.

Hear from the artist, discussing how his work draws from the African diaspora, emphasising masking and masquerade as symbols of self-emancipation. His notable large-scale public artworks include ‘The Mothership Connection,’ showcased at Frieze 2023.

Zak Ové is a British/Caribbean artist whose artworks are informed through the history and lore carried through the African diaspora to the Caribbean, Britain, and beyond, with particular focus on the contradictions of masking and masquerade as a tool of self-emancipation. His artworks are a celebration of the power of play and myth, both in spirit and imagination, that future and potential futures, through the fantastical, can shed the burden of history and see the past in a new light.

Ové has produced large-scale artworks for public and private commissions. ‘The Mothership Connection,’ a 9m totemic sculpture recently exhibited at Frieze 2023. ‘Moko Jumbie,’ for Art Gallery Ontario, a similar artwork is on permanent display at The British Museum. Ové’s most recent public artwork, ‘Jumbie Jubilation,’ is revealed in Notting Hill this June 2023. Ové’s large scale installation ‘The Invisible Man and The Masque of Blackness’ has been shown across the UK and west coast USA. Ové curated the acclaimed exhibition, GET UP STAND UP NOW: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers, London, 2019.

Join us for a free webinar offering an overview of some of the various roles in arts organisations such as in Engagement, Learning, Fundraising and Development and Marketing and Comms.

Our guest speakers will offer information and advice aimed at undergraduate students and A Level students thinking about pursuing careers in this sector. There will be time for Q&A.

Amber Akaunu, Video Producer, National Gallery, London

Kathryn Havelock, Marketing and Communications Specialist in Arts and Culture

Claire Mead, Community Engagement Manager, Museum of London

Gráinne Rice, Adult Programme Co-Ordinator, National Galleries of Scotland

Siti Osman, Philanthropy and Patrons Manager, Yinka Shonibare Foundation

Join curator Fatos Üstek for a guided tour of Frieze Sculpture on Sunday 22 September at 2 pm, where she will offer insights into the curatorial framework, the works on display and the ideas behind them.

Frieze Sculpture has expanded for its 12th edition to include 22 leading international artists hailing from five continents, whose work will be sited throughout the park’s historic English Gardens.

Meet at St Andrew’s Gate, Regent’s Park, NW1 4NR

Closest Tube stations are Regents Park and Great Portland Street.

You are cordially invited to the private view of the first retrospective exhibition of the Polish-born, UK-based artist, illustrator and graphic designer Joanna Ciechanowska. The exhibition traces Ciechanowska’s rich and versatile creative output in the context of her vicissitudes and the itinerary of her life journey as an émigré woman artist together with key formative influences. Having left Poland during the communist regime in 1977, Joanna came to Britain where she met her English civil engineer husband. Together they were sent to many international postings – from Iran, through Africa (including the Kingdom of Lesotho and Egypt) to Hong Kong, and post-communist Poland, where Ciechanowska was able to re-connect with her Polish roots, before settling down in Great Britain. By the 1980s Ciechanowska became a distinguished international illustrator and graphic designer, before taking on the role of POSK Gallery Director, promoting and mentoring Polish artists in the UK. 

You are cordially invited to the Curatorial Tour of the first retrospective exhibition of the Polish-born, UK-based artist, illustrator and graphic designer Joanna Ciechanowska.

The exhibition traces Ciechanowska’s rich and versatile creative output in the context of her vicissitudes and the itinerary of her life journey as an émigré woman artist together with key formative influences. Having left Poland during the communist regime in 1977, Joanna came to Britain where she met her English civil engineer husband. Together they were sent to many international postings – from Iran, through Africa (including the Kingdom of Lesotho and Egypt) to Hong Kong, and post-communist Poland, where Ciechanowska was able to re-connect with her Polish roots, before settling down in Great Britain. By the 1980s Ciechanowska became a distinguished international illustrator and graphic designer, before taking on the role of POSK Gallery Director, promoting and mentoring Polish artists in the UK. 

This tour is led by the artist and co-curator Joanna Ciechanowska and co-curator Julia Griffin.

Tea and coffee is included with the morning tour.
A glass of wine is included with the evening tour.

The Anglo-Polish Cultural Exchange (APCE) at the Polish Social and Cultural Association is a public cultural programming forum and a social inclusion campaign, aimed at celebrating Polish diaspora’s contributions to British culture and society.

This illustrated talk by Dr Julia Griffin, APCE Curator, traces her personal journey and experience of curating (Anglo-)Polish art in the UK. It will discuss ways of making Polish art relatable to diverse British society, focussing on the curatorial rationale, challenges and public resonance of several recent exhibitions including Young Poland (William Morris Gallery), 2021-2022); as well as APCE shows at the POSK Gallery – Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal: Theatre of Dreams (2022); Punks, Princes and Protests: the Chronicles of Feliks Topolski RA (with Topolski Studio, 2023); Ania Ruszkowski: Recreating Home (2024) and the current Emigration. Will I Make It? Joanna Ciechanowska: A Retrospective (1970-2024).

The talk seeks to start a debate why Polish art matters in Britain.  

Ania Ruszkowski is a practising artist whose work explores her Anglo-Polish heritage and migrant roots. With UK’s migration being a regular part of political, social and economic discourse, Ania explores and questions how global migration is captured at a local level in contemporary British art and whether current exhibitions are representative of the richness of Britain’s diverse diaspora groups? She will explore recent installations, exhibitions and artworks which have arisen as a consequence of migration, linking these to some of the challenges of representing the migrant story and identity faced by artists (including herself) today. These include the connotations of migration with refugeeism, the complexities of how to differentiate migrant culture, nationality and ethnicity, and the place of hybrid cultures within such depictions. A lively and topical presentation will leave you with more questions than you came with.  

Release your creativity, and create a work of art which captures your unique identity. This interactive workshop is designed for adults and teenagers, with no expectation or need to know how to draw. Complete novices and budding artists are equally welcome. Participants will explore what forms individual and group identity. Visual examples will be shared to demonstrate how art has reflected identity historically and the different approaches used; and to consider how present global migration means we are no longer defined by a single culture or nationality. Participants will then create images to reflect their local and global migrant influences. The workshop is led by Ania Ruszkowski – a qualified Learning Specialist and practising artist whose work explores her own migrant history and Anglo-Polish identity. Techniques to choose from will include drawing and/or collage. All materials will be provided; please bring any mementoes such as photographs, books, etc to inspire you. 

Join us for an engaging and insightful panel discussion, “Why Study Art History at University?”, designed for young adults and teenagers eager to explore the fascinating world of Art History. This free Zoom event brings together a group of students who studied Art History A Level as part of our free Art History for Everyone Programme (applications for the next academic year are currently open) and went on to study it further at University. They will share their unique perspectives on the transformative power of the subject.

Hosted by two passionate advocates for the subject, Rose Aidin, Founder and Chief Executive of Art History Link-Up, and Ludo Amory, Education and Outreach Officer, this discussion will delve into the many reasons why Art History is a vital and rewarding field of study. We will also be joined by AHLU’s Chair, Toby Monk, Global Director, Recruiting and Staff Engagement, Christie’s, on possible career pathways in which studying Art History can take you.

Whether you’re interested in pursuing a career in museums, galleries, education, or even fields like media and cultural heritage, this panel will reveal how Art History can open doors to a multitude of exciting career paths. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with like-minded peers, ask questions, and discover how studying Art History can enrich your academic journey and shape your future!

Goya & Africa is a new virtual exhibition and learning resource designed to introduce young people to work of the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya and contemporary African artists whose work responds to Goya’s including William Kentridge, Roméo Mivekannin, Grace Nyahangare, Johannes Phokela, Athi-Patra Ruga, Yinka Shonibare and Diane Victor.  In this talk, the project team from Athena Art Foundation and their South African partners, Brundyn Arts and Culture, introduce the project, talking about how they have set about trying to engage groups who have had little or no experience of visiting art galleries, for example in rural Africa, and about the feedback they have had so far.

Offering a rare and reflective insight into the seminal South African photographer Ernest Cole, A Lens in Exile is the first exhibition of his photographs documenting New York City during the height of the civil rights movement in America.

Best known for his radical images documenting the violence of apartheid, Cole fled South Africa in 1966 and was officially made stateless in 1968. Focused on the humanity of everyday life, Cole spent his first years in New York City photographing Harlem and Manhattan, focusing his lens on the experience of living in a racialised America. Framed against the struggle for civil rights, Cole captured moments of emergent black awakenings, unfolding within public and private spaces by the forces of Black Pride and Black Power. These remarkably intuitive photographs – documenting protest, politics and daily existence – were forged through a transgressive challenge to the status quo of American society. 

This lecture explains art history as a critical thinking, community building tool. More than the study of elite objects, we’ll think about how studying art history might transform our cultural landscape and our personal perspectives on humanity. The goal is to understand why art history matters in the world, right now.

Join us for this interactive lecture where we explore different ways into thinking about art and its histories from illuminated Islamic manuscripts to Japanese prints, Italian textiles, French paintings and ancient earthworks.

The voyages of William Wallis and those that followed by Captain James Cook and Louis Antoine de Bougainville brought back images and people from the far side of world that fascinated Europeans. This lecture will look at the wealth of painted images that astonished European audiences by artists such as, William Parry, William Hodges, David Martin, Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, and many others. Individuals’ stories also became inextricably wrapped up in this period, such as Dido Belle and Mai. The artworks that their fame engendered will be part of this lecture, which, in turn, will give us a fully rounded image of this period.

Antonio Calderara (1903-1978) was an artist who spent most of his life in a small town on the shores of Lake Orta in the north of Italy. However, like Giorgio Morandi – with whom his work contains marked affinities – he was in no sense an isolated or ‘provincial’ figure. Familiar with contemporary artistic trends and debates both at home and abroad, his essays in minimalist abstraction are attuned to the work of a range of artists, including American colour field painters such as Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt. This talk will situate Calderara’s fascinating life and career in both a domestic and international context, revealing a figure whose artistic horizons extended far beyond his small corner of Italy.

An open studio day that showcases the process of trace monotype printing. Charlotte Cooper will make a piece of artwork on site at Hogarth’s House that shows visitors the easy, effective process of trace monotype printing.

Charlotte will create several large printed pieces related to her Interference Patterns exhibition (at Hogarth’s House from November 2025) inspired by human relationships, responses to the idea of the ‘other’ and Hogarth’s work.

Visitors will be invited to join Charlotte in creating some prints to either take home, or display at Hogarth’s House. All ages are welcome to participate but we will be using oil based printing inks so do wear something you don’t mind getting stained.

Join Kandace Chimbiri, author of The Story of the Windrush and Britain’s Black Airmen, for a collage workshop exploring the lives of Britain’s Caribbean servicemen and women.  Learn about Sam King, MBE. A Jamaican RAF serviceman who returned to England aboard the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948. Follow his story from Jamaica to London, from the RAF to Mayor of Southwark.

Sessions will include an introductory talk and reading from Kandace, followed by a collage-making activity. There are three sessions each day, starting at 11am, 1:30pm and 2:30pm. The workshops are suitable for drop-in visits.

It’s a Lot Like Life is an exhibition of paintings, etchings, projections and installations by 2023-24 Zsuzsi Roboz scholars Alice Mendelowitz and Marco Piccari.

Piccari employs archival photography of gay cruising in pre – Aids New York. Mendelowitz works from a hybrid of her own personal archive and ready-made imagery. Themes of desire, urgency and fetishization run through the show, together with questions around nostalgia and the politics of space.

Join for an In Conversation, hosted by Melissa Baksh, where the artists will delve into the themes and dialogues explored in the exhibition.

Going through the evolution of London homes, this tour will explore how decorative arts evolved through history and how individuals have expressed themselves in domestic spaces.

Vincent Van Gogh was an impassioned reader of poetry. In a letter to his brother Theo he wrote: “It always seems to me that poetry is more sublime than painting; although painting is dirtier, and, when it comes down to it, more annoying. And after all, the painter says nothing; he is silent and I still prefer that.”

Michael Glover’s latest collection of poems is published to mark our exhibition ‘Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers.’ As an accomplished poet and art critic, Glover brings together two of his passions in this book. This evening he reads from his collection, addressing paintings in the exhibition and revealing a revolutionary artist and lover of poetry.

Room 45
18:00-18:45

Sketch scenes of oversized sunflowers and create poetic portraits with Originary Arts. Paying tribute to the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, real-life lovers Sian Carousel and Nikki Shaill will pose to inspire your playful portraits. Capture colour, a costumed model couple and create imaginative drawings as you listen to a soundtrack. Live poetry is performed at intervals to help inspire you too. 

This event is suitable for all ages to attend. Models will be costumed. There will be an ambient playlist of recorded music playing throughout the event at a low level. Feel free to bring headphones or earplugs if desired. Seating is provided and backed armless chairs are available on request. There are also cushions on the floor to draw from and space for wheelchair users.   

Materials are provided but you are welcome to bring your own sketchbook and pencils.

Room 32
18:15-19:00 and
19:15-20:00

Throughout history, flowers have been widely represented in the arts, with painters, in particular, drawn to their fragile beauty. From Rachel Ruysch’s ‘Flowers in a Vase’, to Monet’s ‘Water-Lilies’, flowers have served both decorative and symbolic purposes in some of the greatest works from across European art history.

Join Gallery educators Alex Bowie and Bethan Durie for a tour exploring floriography, the language of flowers, found within our collection.

Room 17
18:30-19:30

David Hockney has a long-term practice of inserting small-scale images into his compositions – creating ‘pictures within pictures’. With close reference to the works in ‘Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look’, James Cahill explores how Hockney’s various depictions of paintings and reflected images reflect a deep investment in historical painting, from the pivotal Renaissance works of Piero della Francesca and Jan van Eyck to the high-Baroque conceptualism of Velázquez.

Cahill considers how Hockney’s use of the inset image functions often as a mise-en-abyme, drawing the viewer through time and history – but also how his ‘pictures within pictures’ serve a more private, autobiographical purpose. Through the examples of ‘My Parents’ and ‘Looking at Pictures on a Screen’ (both 1977), we see how the inset picture functions, for Hockney, as a means of transcending the here-and-now of a given scene – of inducing his viewers to take a longer look.

Room 45
19:15-20:00

Join us for an exclusive tour of the exhibition Gary Stewart: A Ripple in Time followed by a behind-the-scenes look at Orleans House Gallery’s picture store. The event will explore themes of identity and time, and it will give attendees an insight into the time that Gary Stewart spent in our archives to prepare for this exhibition.

The exhibition is free to explore Tuesday – Sunday, 10am-5pm.

The exhibition will show 12 artists who rethink the British landscape through painting. Standing Ground dramatically expands the British landscape painting tradition, in terms of subject matter, use of paint, and medium. Neither ‘the British landscape’, nor ‘today’s political landscape’ are fixed entities, but common threads that emerge (and at times unravel) in the paintings brought together in Standing Ground.

There will also be a free panel discussion at the gallery with artists chaired by Dr Kate Nichols on the 14th of September 2 to 4 pm.

Raise the Roof: Building for Change is a unique opportunity to explore the stories embedded within the architecture of RIBA’s headquarters through a creative and inclusive lens. The design of 66 Portland Place has a multifaceted history, with motifs and materials throughout its interior decoration that reveal the Institute’s unexplored links with the British Empire. This exhibition seeks to confront some of the uncomfortable truths woven into the fabric of this building by creating a progressive dialogue between the past and present.

Join curator Margaret Cubbage for an exclusive and in-depth exploration of the exhibition and four new commissions that confront and address the colonial narratives found within the building.            

Join us as we explore examples of architecture that are bold in colour and character. We will explore the theory and practice of architects and designers who use colour in different ways to inspire and empower.

Throughout the history of European art, the tree has been of great importance in so many ways. It can act as a punctuation mark within a composition, or to create perspective, to draw attention to a figure, to offer a framework for a narrative or to give meaning to the subject of the painting or sculpture. Dead or broken trees can symbolise death, a living tree in contrast can indicate everlasting life or the Resurrection, and in the Garden of Eden the Tree of Knowledge is crucial to the Fall of Adam and Eve. This V&A Academy online lecture, given by Clare Ford-Wille, will explore the many ways in which artists and sculptors, such as Piero della Francesca, Titian, Caspar David Friedrich or Constable, use trees in their work. .

Once you have booked your free place, you will receive a link to join the live lecture 24 hours before the event, as well as a link to the recording afterwards, so that you can enjoy watching the lecture on demand.

During the 19th century, there was a rising demand in Western Europe for ‘Orientalist’ paintings and the Wallace Collection displays several fascinating examples. On the surface, these alluring depictions of Asia and North Africa appear realistic and potentially innocuous. However, Dr Matthew Morgan will reveal how these highly contrived images represented deeply entrenched racial and gender stereotypes, and supported Eurocentric views of cultural superiority.