The international 1925 Paris Arts Décoratifs exhibition marked the culmination of an exciting new style – the streamlined elegance of 'Art Deco' – and its transmission to a new generation of artists and designers. Using contemporary photographs and accounts of the stunning showcase pavilions, we will act as spectators of the wide range of work and media on display, including Baccarat crystal, Cartier jewellery, fashion by Poiret, furniture by Ruhlmann, metalwork by Brandt and the leading French magasins exhibits, Bon Marché and Primavera. We will ask such questions as – Why Paris? What would it have been like to be there? Was there a distinctive style? And what propelled its international influence? A visual feast ...

You will have the rare opportunity to see and handle artefacts from the time, including postcards and the exquisite 1925 medallion by Pierre Turin.

The programme for the day includes 3 one hour lectures:-

 10.30 – 11.30  A Phoenix arises in Paris: origins and design leadership

11.30 -12.00 Coffee

12.00 – 13.00 As if we were there …. A Virtual Tour of the Exposition

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 15.00 The new Deco style goes international – the role of the Press and New York as the conduit

 Cost:           £39  to include coffee and lunch  

Venue:       Main Hall, Shalford Village Hall, Kings Road, Shalford, Guildford  GU4  8JE

 Contact:   Mrs Judy Downing – Tel. 01483 856856 or e-mail - judyjeffes@gmail.com

 ALL ARE WELCOME !

Mary Alexander

Mary Alexander trained as an art historian and graduated with a BA Hons in History & History of Art (University College London) and later an MA (with Distinction) in History of Art (University College London). She moved to Manchester to take up the post of Assistant Curator at Platt Hall, the Gallery of English Costume, a renowned collection of historic dress. Subsequently she lectured in art history at the University of Leeds, the Open University and Manchester University Extra Mural Department. From 1995 - 2008, she was a Visiting Lecturer at Christie’s Education in London. Mary has also combined academic work with the world of design consultancy. In 1985 she joined Pentagram Design in London, a leading international design consultancy, and coordinated client presentations, publications, conferences and international special events, including the 1986 British Design event in Aspen Colorado. In 1988 she transferred to Pentagram’s New York office with the task of organising an international design conference held at Stanford University involving business, design and education leaders. As an experienced international speaker, Mary lectures regularly for The Arts Society throughout the UK, Europe and Australia and New Zealand. She also contributes articles to magazines, newspapers and professional journals. She was President of The Arts Society Glaven Valley, Norfolk from 2016- 2021.  

Lecture 1 ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know’

 Lord Byron’s family history is a story as turbulent and passionate as that of any of his romantic and troubled heroes. The lame son of ‘Mad Jack’ Byron, a gambler, a renegade Guardsman and a debauched seducer of high society beauties, and of rich heiress Catherine Gordon of Gight, who herself came from a long line of lawless and violent Scottish aristocracy; Byron’s was indeed a heritage of storms. This session looks at the background and upbringing of ‘Mrs Byron’s crooked devil’, as his schoolfellows in Aberdeen described him, his unexpected succession to the Byron title and his development as peer, politician, philanderer and poet. Very much a child of his time; Byron’s childhood and youth took place against the stormy political upheavals of the late c18th and early c19th, and the ongoing tide of Romanticism in art and literature. In 1812 at only 24 he achieved instant celebrity with the publication of his verse narrative Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, introducing a new hearthrob - the dark-haired Adonis with a secret grief; the Byronic hero. Overnight Byron had become the Romantic icon of his age.

Lecture 2: ‘Wandering Outlaws’ -  Byron and Shelley in Switzerland: Monsters, Vampires and the Gothic Imagination

It is June 1816; we are at home with Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva and the dramatic Jura mountain range.  Byron’s guests are his secretary Dr Polidori, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary and her stepsister Claire. Outside, the rain is beating down and thunder and lightning flash across the lake from the mountains. Inside, each of the five tries to intensify the gothic atmosphere by telling a ghost story. Mary’s creation is ‘Frankenstein’ - which was to be the most enduring result of that stormy night.  In this lecture we explore the artistic origins of the Gothic revival and the fascination with dramatic scenery and natural disasters as well as with vampires, monsters and other horrors which found their expression in those stories.  We look at a range of weird, supernatural and fantastic subjects pictured by a range of artists including Fuseli, Blake, Wright of Derby and others, and at some depictions of Prometheus to explain Mary Shelley’s subtitle to Frankenstein :‘The Modern Prometheus.’

Lecture 3: ‘For Greece a Tear’

 A preoccupation with the past glories of Greece and its current fate under Turkish rule was not just an abiding passion for Lord Byron, but a hugely enriching creative force in the poetic, literary and artistic output of the Romantic period. Byron, always searching for a cause and a heroic destiny for himself, became obsessed with the image of the gallant yet desperate Greeks – descendants of a great civilisation, struggling to free themselves from the Ottoman yoke. He had relocated from Switzerland to Italy - spending three years in Venice -‘fairy city of the heart’, where he lived in some splendour in a palace near the Rialto and enjoyed a series of amours tempestuous and tranquil, as well as writing some of his most dramatic poetry.  A move to Ravenna and a new love offered for a time some sort of domestic stability, but by the end of 1823 the dream of Greek freedom had become all dominating; Byron seized his chance to move centre stage in the text of history. Dying not on the battlefield but of fever in Missolonghi, Byron is nevertheless still revered in Greece as a hero of their struggle.  All Europe mourned his death, and of all the Romantic poets his artistic legacy is the most enduring. We finish with a look at that legacy – which has influenced and shaped creative expression in the arts ever since.

Elizabeth Merry

Elizabeth has over 25 years' experience lecturing on a range of subjects including classical art and architecture, aspects of the visual arts and the links between literature and art. Has lectured for the WEA, the Universities of Bristol and Southampton Departments of Continuing Education, Royal Society of Arts, Dillington House, Jane Austen Society, Thomas Hardy Society, Brussels Brontë Society, Finzi Society, the Art Fund, Dorset County Museum and literary, historical and philosophical societies nationwide. Has also lectured on study tours to Rome, Aachen, Cologne, Brittany and the Dordogne, as well as all over the UK. Lectured in Australia and New Zealand in 2011 and is returning to Australia for two further lecture tours.

THE SILK ROAD

The three lectures titles are:-

A Textile Journey         Cottonpickers and Cosmonauts     A Carpet Ride to Khiva

We start the day exploring the Silk Road through the lens of textiles and how wool, silk and cotton changed the fortunes, cultures and landscape of Central Asia. Then we examine how Central Asia came under Russian and the Soviet influence and how art was used in propaganda, moulding and influencing the Muslim peoples now under Russian atheist rule. Finally we hear how independence of 'the -stans' has led to a resurgence in art and textiles, focussing on the silk carpet workshop founded by the lecturer, reviving 15th century carpet design based on Persian illuminated manuscripts.

 Chris Aslan Alexander

Chris Aslan was born in Turkey (hence the name Aslan) and spent his childhood there and in war-torn Beirut. After school, Chris spent two years at sea before studying Media and journalism at Leicester University. He then moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan, establishing a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries, and becoming the largest non-government employer in town. He was kicked out as part of an anti-Western purge, and took a year in Cambridge to write A Carpet Ride to Khiva. Chris then spent three years in the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan, training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down. Next came two years in Kyrgyzstan living in the world’s largest natural walnut forest and establishing a wood-carving workshop. Since then, Chris has studied and rowed at Oxford, and is now based in Cambridge and focussed on writing fiction, including Alabaster, Manacle and Mosaic, and The Broken Hexapus. He has just completed a new book on the Silk Road called Unravelling the Silk Road that marries travel and textiles. He also leads tours to Central Asia, returning whenever he can having left a large chunk of his heart out there.

The moving image has been a powerful source for imagination from the first moment a magic lantern flickered into life in the 17th century. In this lecture we will be looking at how the Motion Pictures industry first developed throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. How it then went on to change the face of entertainment and inspire the imaginations of some of the greatest artists of the early 20th century. 

Geri Parlby

Geri is a former Fleet Street journalist and film PR. She has a first-class honours degree in History and Theology, a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology doctorate from Roehampton University in London. She has been lecturing for the past 14 years both in the UK and internationally. She is also principal lecturer on The Arts Society South West Area’s History of Art course and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Roehampton University.

PROGRAMME

The programme for the day includes 3 x one hour lectures with coffee and lunch:

10.30 – 11.30     From Shadow Shows to Magic Lanterns  - the art and artifice of the moving picture

11.30 -12.00       Coffee

12.00 – 13.00     Smoke and mirrors to Nickelodeons – the pioneers of early moving pictures

13.00 – 14.00      Lunch with wine or a soft drink

 14.00 – 15.00    The Birth of Hollywood, Epic Movies and the Cult of the Silent Movie Star.

Cost:           £ 39  to include coffee and lunch

Venue:       Main Hall, Shalford Village Hall, Kings Road, Shalford, Guildford  GU4  8JE

Contact:   Mrs Judy Downing – Tel. 01483 856856 or e-mail - judyjeffes@gmail.com

ALL ARE WELCOME

SEE ALSO 'DOCUMENTS'

N.B. BOOKING REQUIRED - See 'Documents' for further details

Celts, Romans, Christians, Visigoths and Arabs have left many marks on the landscapes of Iberia. The most vivid reminder of their presence lies in their great cities, endowed with a remarkable fusion of cultures and architectural styles. This lecture or study day will unfold the many layers that make up this complex building and artistic history from the earliest settlements to the fall of Granada and the end of Moorish rule in 1492 with a particular emphasis on Andalucia.  

From man’s first arrival on the Iberian peninsula, the natural resources of the place proved to be most attractive to endless waves of invaders. Some were peaceful traders such as the Phoenicians from the Middle East, others more war-like in their conquering ambitions such as the Carthaginians and Romans. The Romans left behind spectacular buildings such as those still to be found in the ancient cities of Italica and Merida. 

With the decline of the Empire and the arrival of Christianity, new cultures, both religious and secular, were introduced by the Visigoths. Indeed, who were the Visigoths?! Well, for the moment, they were the elite governing class who in time were defeated by their hired mercenary Berber tribesmen from North Africa, though whom Islamic culture was introduced to mainland Europe. The monuments of Islamic Spain such as the Mezquita, the Great Mosque in Cordoba and the Nazrid Palace of Granada all demonstrate the majestic quality of Moorish architecture and design.

Tom Duncan

Tom Duncan was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied History of Art and Ancient & Classical Archaeology. He then studied for his Masters in the United States, and moved to England in 1984 to complete his Ph.D. He has lectured widely to heritage and artistic organisations, nationally and internationally for many years.

(BOOKING REQUIRED - contact Judy Downing Tel. 01483 856856)

Cost £35 including coffee and lunch. To see the programme for the day click here.

The three lectures are:

The Classical Re-Invented – the legacy of Sir Christopher Wren

 In this talk we wind the clock back to the seventeenth century and enjoy an armchair tour of some of Wren’s magnificent structures including City Churches, the Old Naval College at Greenwich and, of course, his greatest masterpiece St Paul’s Cathedral. Wren was primarily a mathematician and astronomer and we’ll see how these disciplines are harnessed in his work. His love of the classical order is everywhere to be seen in his legacy.

The Gleaming Spires of Modern London

 Whether we like it or not, within the next decade more than 450 buildings in London will be over 20 storeys high including dozens twice this height. This talk looks at the best of these buildings including the cutting-edge designs of the latest towers such as The Shard, The Walkie-Talkie, the Scalpel and the Cheesegrater. We discover their extraordinary architectural and engineering challenges but will also examine the controversies and difficult social decisions needed to manage this dramatically changing skyline.

 Treasures of the Square Mile – 350 Years of Art

 The City of London Corporation has been commissioning and acquiring art for nearly 350 years and now owns a vast and diverse collection. This talk covers the varied collection of works in the Guildhall Art Gallery and elsewhere in the City, along with sculptures on display in the street and some of the rarely seen hidden treasures in the ancient City Livery Company halls.

Ian Swankie

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture. He is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives regular tours at each venue. Also a qualified and active freelance London guide and a member of both the City of London and Westminster Guide lecturer Associations. Clients include NADFAS and WEA groups, Transport for London, the National trust and London Opera House. In 2012 he established a weekly independent art lecture group in Richmond and gives talks on a Variety of subjects.

BOOKING REQUIRED

Upper Hall                          

William lectures for the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, the National Gallery and the National Trust.  He has written several books and written and presented programmes for TV and radio.  He is a Blue Badge Guide and Lecturer.

William's tour begins with the perils and pleasures of the journey via Calais, Paris and the Alps. Then to Florence, Naples and Venice and from there to Rome.  On returning home we see how the tour influenced the exterior and interior of the British Town and Country House.