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The Arts Society Woking Talks Programme 2024
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All Speakers are carefully chosen based
on their reputation for attractive and
well-presented talks with good pictures. |
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Our talks are held on the second Tuesday
of the month except July and August
(when many members are on vacation). |
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They start promptly at 10.30 am but
doors open 9.45 am for tea and coffee |
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Our new venue is Normandy Village Hall. |
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Address: Manor Fruit Farm, Glaziers
Lane, Normandy, Guildford Surrey GU3 2DT |
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Members may bring a visitor, but
the same person may not be a guest more
than twice a year. While we do not
charge a Visitors fee, Visitors may want
to make a donation to the Society of
(say) £5. |
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For more information please
click on the title for any talk |
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Tuesday January
9th 2024 |
Talk: Sixty Years On, Life
in Britain as seen in 1960’s
Films
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There are four elements to this
lecture.
The first is a look at the
emergence of the North in
Saturday Night and Sunday
Morning, Room at the Top, A
Taste of Honey, This Sporting
Life etc..
Second would be a look at
Swinging Britain – Julie
Christie in Darling, Michael
Caine in Alfie, the Beatles in A
Hard Day’s Night and the James
Bond movies.
Third would be a look at the
last days of Empire as seen in
Tony Richardson’s Charge of the
Light Brigade, Zulu and,
comically, Carry On Up the
Khyber.
Finally the drastic change in
the depiction of sex from Dirk
Bogarde in Victim (1961) to Alan
Bates and Oliver Reed famously
wrestling nude in Women in Love
(1969). |
Speaker: Colin Shindler |
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Tuesday
February 13th 2024 |
Talk: Domenico Ghirlandaio -
A Forgotten Renaissance Master
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Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494) was one of the most successful artists of the fifteenth century. Born in Florence, Ghirlandaio established one of the leading studios producing works ranging from small devotional images to prestigious fresco cycles for churches in the city.
Ghirlandaio’s success led him to Rome during the 1480s as part of a team of artists commissioned for the Sistine Chapel.
Though a significant amount of his work remains in Florence, he is largely unappreciated today. To his contemporaries, however, Ghirlandaio’s style and organisational skills were greatly admired, leading the sixteenth century biographer Giorgio Vasari to claim he deserved to be “celebrated with extraordinary praise after his death.”
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Speaker: James Lindow |
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Tuesday March
12th 2024 |
Talk: The Glittering Canvas.
Jewellery in Portraits 1850-1950
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Jewellery has always been one of
the most personal of art forms.
While its styles tend to follow
in miniature developments across
the decorative arts, its more
intimate nature prompts a
multiplicity of references,
meanings and messages.
In this lecture V&A curator
Clare Phillips guides the
audience through a century of
jewellery design - from the
diamond-set naturalism and
historicist revivals of the High
Victorian period, though the
glorious excesses of Art Nouveau
enamels to the geometry of Art
Deco and the emergence of a
softer post-War style.
From Queen Victoria to Alexander
Calder jewellery will be our
principal focus, with portraits
illustrating the complete look,
and adding context and
biographical interest to the
passing decades. |
Speaker: Clare Phillips |
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Tuesday April
9th 2024 |
Talk: The Splendours of the
City Churches
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This lecture describes the immense variety of the Norman, Gothic, Wren and post-Wren churches in the City of London. In addition to their architectural merit, these churches contain hidden treasures – the monuments, paintings and woodcarvings of great craftsmen of the time.
The lecture also includes stories of the many people connected with the churches - medieval kings and queens, religious leaders, great statesmen and explorers, poets, playwrights and novelists, and modern film-stars and personalities. |
Speaker: Tony Tucker |
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Tuesday May
14th 2024 |
Talk: An Artist’s Best
Friend. The Dog in Art
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Dogs are man’s most loyal
friend. They are often used in
art, as in life, to project our
ambitions and anxieties.
From the poignancy of Landseer,
Queen Victoria’s favourite
animal painter; to the
dachshunds of Bonnard and
Picasso; the xolos of Kahlo; the
whippets of Freud and many more,
explore how dogs have provided
inspiration, solace and
companionship throughout
artistic lives. |
Speaker: Alexandra Epps |
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Tuesday
June
11th 2024 |
Talk: The Top Twenty Most
Popular Artworks in Britain
Today
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Beginning with Radio 4 in 2005,
and continued by the likes of
YouGov, panels of art experts,
and several broadsheets and
tabloids, there has been a
fascination to discover the most
popular paintings and other
artworks in Britain today.
The lecture is based on a
rigorous bringing together of
the results from seven recent
polls, and several sets of
expert recommendations, to
present the most popular
paintings in Britain over the
last 20 years. There will be
some surprises when it’s
revealed which paintings and
which painters did and did not
make it into the Top 40, let
alone the Top 20. The no. 1
painting may also come as a
surprise.
Prior to the lecture, members of
the audience will be asked to
predict their Top Three. Towards
the end of the lecture, audience
members will see how their
predictions shaped up. There
will also be adequate time to
reflect on the factors that make
a painting popular. This lecture
is unique and engaging, full of
interest and variety. |
Speaker: Raymond Warburton |
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July
2024 |
No Talk (Summer
break)
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August 2024 |
No Talk (Summer
break)
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September
10th 2024 |
Talk: Illuminated
Manuscripts. A General
Introduction
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An introduction to illuminated
manuscripts of both pre- and
post- Conquest periods.
This considers briefly how they
were made and planned and the
difficulties faced by the
scribes, some of whom complained
bitterly in writing. The lecture
considers the importance of the
Correct Text and how errors were
corrected, how some manuscripts
are linked artistically to
others; we can track styles
migrating and progressing over
the years.
Throughout the lecture, there is
a theme of how the books were
used, whether as sacred vessels
for The Word or as memory
joggers for day-dreaming monks.
Overall, the audience should
gain an awareness of the great
diversity of styles and perhaps
be surprised at the vast amount
of material that survives and
how much we know about the men
and women who made them. |
Speaker: Imogen Corrigan |
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Tuesday
October
8th 2024 |
Talk: Frederic Lord
Leighton. Eminent Victorian
Artist
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Speaker: Daniel Robbins |
At the time of his death in 1896,
Frederic Leighton was the most
celebrated artist of his generation.
Recently ennobled, he had been the
president of the Royal Academy since
1878 and was widely credited with
enhancing the status of art and artists
in late Victorian society to
unprecedented heights.
This lecture explores Leighton’s life
and work; from his continental
upbringing to his dramatic debut at the
Royal Academy, the construction of his
remarkable studio-house in Kensington
and his rise to international fame and
recognition – including the story behind
his most famous picture, Flaming June,
and how it comes to be in the Ponce
Museum, Puerto Rico.
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Tuesday
November
12th 2024 |
Talk: Medieval Barcelona. A
World Apart
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Catalonia has a long and
turbulent history of continuous
opposition, emphasising always
its separate culture and
language. Its medieval
architecture and art reflect
this search for a distinct
identity during its early,
formative years.
We will explore this theme, in
Catalan Romanesque architecture,
in the Gothic quarter of
Barcelona, which contains the
most complete collection of 13th
to 15th century buildings in
Europe, and in the exceptional
collection at the National
Museum of Catalan Art (MNAC),
which has the finest group of
pre-Giotto, pre-Renaissance
painted murals in Europe.
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Speaker: Ian Cockburn |
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Talk: Christmas with Giles, Grandma
and Family
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For a great many members of The Arts
Society, the cartoonist Carl Giles was
as much a part of the festive season as
the Christmas tree, crackers and the
Queen's Speech. So popular were the
Giles annuals as Christmas presents that
they helped to make him Britain's best
loved, most successful and wealthiest
cartoonist.
The talk looks at Giles's life and work
with a particular emphasis on his
seasonal cartoons, particularly those
featuring Grandma and the Giles family.
TThey include some of his funniest
cartoons but, as the art historian
William Feaver pointed out, they also
demonstrate that he had few equals when
it came to representing Britain in
Winter. |
Barry Venning/strong> |
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Prior Year's Talks |
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To see the activities in
previous years, click on the
year;
2022
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2021
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2020
/
2019 /
2018 /
2017 /
2016 /
2015 /
2014 /
2013 /
2012 /
2011 /
2010 |
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Disclaimer |
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The Arts Society Woking cannot be held responsible for any personal accident, loss, damage or theft of members' personal property. Members are covered against proven liability of third parties. |
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