This year, Dr Gail-Nina Anderson will teach six one-day study sessions at the University Gallery and Baring Wing, Northumbria University, Sandyford Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST (location). Tickets for Study Days are priced at £15 each; to book, please telephone the Gallery on 0191 227 4424. Tickets must be booked in advance. Refreshments will be served through-out the day.
You don't have to be an expert in the history of Ancient Greece or Rome to recognise the classical myths that have informed the western cultural tradition in so many ways.
This is a chance to look at the original representation of the Olympian gods as ideal physical types, but also to explore character and narrative via stories that appear again and again in the art of subsequent centuries. The seductions of Zeus look quite different in 17th century Holland to the way they appear in 16th century Italy or 18th century France, for example, as tastes, styles and meanings change. Track the treatment and popularity of myths that still resonate through our own culture, from Earth goddesses to Sun gods, complete with nymphs for every occasion.
The history of female artists may look briefer than it really is - while women have always made art, issues of professional status and gender roles have conspired to mask and belittle their contribution. This study day reveals the often overlooked history of early female artists such as Lavinia Fontana, Lavinia Teerlinck and Judith Leyster, as well as the success stories of Rosalba Carriera and Angelica Kaufmann, through to the feminist art movement of the 1970s and the way today's women artists deal with their celebrity identities.
Works discussed will range from Elizabethan miniatures to iconic modern installations, from Dutch faces to Victorian battle scenes, Neo-Classical portraits and Impressionist interiors.
While Pablo Picasso actually lived from 1881 to 1973, he seems to bestride the entire 20th century as a massively vital, influential and iconic symbol of the Modern Art movement.
This study day aims to give an overview of Picasso's career and development as an artist and in relation to the art-scene of his times. From his surprisingly formal roots in Spain he moved to France and not only embraced the concept of stylistic innovation, but maintained it all his life. A massive output in a bewildering variety of styles and media can make his achievement difficult to grasp, but this is an opportunity to track the patterns of his ever-shifting curiosity and experimentation, from his most playful decorative work to the painful political statement of 'Guernica'.
Produced in multiples copies and on paper, the print has always provided artists with a cheaper way to produce images - and thereby to reach a wider audience of buyers.
Print-making, though, is far from being the Cinderella of the art world, involving as it does innovative, liberating techniques and fresh approaches to subject matter and to the interaction between art and commerce. This is a chance to explore the why, where and when of printmaking, beginning with its sudden rise to popularity in the art of the Northern Renaissance, when masters such as Dürer swiftly developed it to remarkable heights of artistry. Topics discussed will include the historical role of the portrait print, the influence of Japanese woodcuts on European art, the significance of printmaking in Pop Art and print as a chosen medium by masters such as Rembrandt and Whistler.
Folklore might be described as the mythology of the unofficial, the web of stories, superstitions and rituals which are legitimised by custom rather than authority. Tales passed by word of mouth, beliefs that never get written down, ideas that slip under the radar of logic - this is where fairies and mermaids live, where ghosts haunt and anything from spilling the salt to seeing a magpie is fraught with meaning. Folklore is also, though, the way we structure our narratives, the way we expect (because we've been told) that certain incidents and types will recur to tie an individual instance to a universal pattern.
This study day will look at the occasions when the submerged imagery of superstition takes on visual shape in the more formal environment of art, which means not only periodic fashions in witches and fairies, but also dreams, games and revels. It also explores the folklore of art itself, with recurring story-types of how we expect artists to behave as we mythologise the concept of the 'artistic personality'.
The Italian Renaissance of the 15th century may have been centred in Florence, but at the beginning of the 16th century the city state of Venice emerged as a dominant location for artistic innovation. It was here that the full technical possibilities of oil paint were explored in a school of art where colour and light could be evoked through expressive, gestural techniques new to western art. Through a long career Titian emerged as the most prominent Venetian painter, with a style that could encompass traditional religious subjects but also classical narratives, lush nudes and lively, communicative portraits. This is a chance to examine the range of his work, alongside that of contemporaries such as Bellini, Giorgione and Tintoretto, and also to discuss the startlingly innovative style that characterises his controversial late work.
Gail-Nina Anderson's very successful series of lectures on all aspects of art continue at London's King's Place. Talks are on Mondays, at 6.30 pm, and tickets are £6.50, bookable through the King's Place web site.
Wednesday evening lectures take place in the University Gallery and Baring Wing, Northumbria University, Sandyford Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST (location), on Wednesdays at 6.00 pm.
To reserve a place, please contact the Gallery on 0191 227 4424
Price: £5.00 per person per lecture.