How to look at Art

Arthur Schopenhauer said:  Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.
Georgia O'Keeffe wrote:  Nobody sees a flower, really – it is so small – we haven't time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.
In this richly-illustrated presentation we’ll talk about how to get a work of art to speak, how to visit a museum, and how to make friends with the art you see.

Art in the City - (1) London

This is the first in a series to be offered over the next few years looking at the best art to be seen in public places and museums in cities around the world.  You will enjoy the images presented whether you are looking for ideas for a future visit, want to remember past joys, or just sample the best art the world has to offer.

I grew up in the Tate, the Victoria and Albert and the National Gallery in England, so the series begins with highlights from these and other less well known collections in London.

Art in the City - (2) Madrid

This is the second in a series offered over the next few years looking at the best art to be seen in public places and museums in cities around the world. 

Madrid boasts the Prado Museum but also other treats for the art lover to enjoy in the city and its environs.  

Art in the City - (3) Chicago

This is the third in a series offered over the next few years looking at the best art to be seen in public places and museums in cities around the world. 

Chicago is a winning city despite losing its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.  An easy trip from Detroit, it is a city full of delights for art lovers from sculpture in Millennium Park and world famous architecture to high quality museums.  The Art Institute of Chicago boasts some of the best loved paintings in America and a new wing for modern art.

We will sample the Chicago's treats old and new in this richly illustrated talk. 

Art Controversies Old and New

Should Britain return the Parthenon marbles to Greece? 
Is the Mona Lisa a man? 
Are the Rivera murals sacrilegious? 
Was Jackson Pollock a genius or a fraud?
Should museums display nudes? 
Is Marcel Duchamp's urinal art? Is Tracey Emin's bed?
Throughout history much art has been controversial. 
We'll look at a variety of images and discuss many issues.

Magical Multiples:  The Art of the Print
(single talk or 3-part series)

Come and see my etchings!  Prints have intrigued us since the first woodcuts.  Since prints have their own particular aesthetics, artists from the fifteenth century to today have explored the visual possibilities of printmaking.  We'll talk about how different prints are made and look at a rich variety of fine artworks from inventive printmakers such as Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Kathe Kollwitz and Mary Cassatt.

This will increase your enjoyment of the exhibition In Your Dreams: 500 Years of Imaginary Prints at the Detroit Institute of Arts Sept 8, 2010 - Jan 2, 2011.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Women in Art
(single talk or 3-part series)

Some of the earliest art we have – from 30,000 years ago – seems to show women barefoot, pregnant, and in the cave.  Over the centuries since then, men making art have tended to portray women either as goddesses or whores.  This lecture or lecture series looks at how the male gaze has rendered the female and explores the changes when women have the chance to become artists speaking about themselves.

Session 1:     How the male gaze has rendered the     female over the centuries
Session 2:     Women struggle for a place in the art world (15th though 19th century)
Session 3:     Women artists get to speak for themselves (20th century)

English Accents

Perhaps you thought English art was like English cooking – boring!  Not so as you will find out as we journey from Old Masters like Hogarth and Turner to the sensational, even scandalous, Young British Artists and Turner Prize winners of today.

Continuity Forever: The Art of Ancient Egypt

This talk will bring 3000 years of ancient Egypt to life in all its glory.  We'll resurrect a people who loved life and worked to ensure they could continue to live life to its fullest even after death. As Tjaiemhotep urged "Cease not to drink, to get drunk, to enjoy making love, to make the day joyful, to follow your inclination day and night, do not allow grief to enter your heart."  

Sensuous Poetry: The Art of 16th Century Venice

Bellini, Giorgione, Tiziano – even their names are poetic.  Their art was no less so.  Venetian artists revel in the sensuality of color and the glory of the female form.  Compared to the Venetians, contemporary Renaissance Italians painted only prose.

Renaissance and Baroque Art 
(single talk or 3-part series)

About 500 years ago Europe went through a period of exciting change as people awoke to the wonders of our world and to the ideas and ideals of ancient Greece and Rome.  We will trace the changes in art brought about by this Renaissance, then go on to explore the social, religious, and economic reasons causing art to move from classical calm to the dramatic sensationalism of the Baroque.  We'll try to capture some of the fervor sixteenth and seventeenth century audiences would have felt confronting the masterpieces created during this era.

The Sensational Seventeenth Century

Art in the 17th century moved from the classical calm of the Renaissance to an art of dramatic sensationalism.  

Looking at paintings and sculpture by great masters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Bernini, this talk discusses why Italian and Flemish art became so exciting and sensuous.  

The Netherlands had its own special style during the 17th century "Golden Age" of Dutch painting so we'll explore that also.  

Along the way we'll detail the social, religious, and economic reasons behind these styles.  

You don't like Baroque art?  I challenge you to look with me before you make up your mind.  This is art at its most accomplished and most moving.

Century of Change:
The Art and Ideas of 18th Century France

This covers the amazing journey from the art of the French aristocracy at the start of the century, through the changing ideas about art resulting from the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and the growing art market.  

Vive la France!  Vive la Revolution!

A fully illustrated look at the revolution in art that took place in France in the second half of the 19th century.  This features artists like Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet who were the first to challenge academic traditions, then the younger revolutionaries like Claude Monet and the Impressionists, and on through rebels, like Vincent Van Gogh, who followed them.

Impressionism:  The Art of Seeing
(single talk or 2- or 3-part series)

The Impressionist paintings which are so loved today began in the rebellion of a few young artists in Paris against the formalism and sentimentality that characterized the academic art in the late 19th-century.  We’ll explore the roots of this transformation, look at works by the artists, like Monet, who are most closely identified as Impressionist, continuing to artists like Van Gogh, who fell under the Impressionist spell.

Post -Impressionism:
The Art of Late 19th Century France
(single talk or 2- or 3-part series)

Impressionists introduced a new way of painting in bright colors to try to capture the brilliance of outdoor light.  Artists after them tended to retain the vivid colors but reject the idea that art should quickly and spontaneously just depict the world as it is.  Some, like Gauguin and Van Gogh, wanted a more emotional approach; others like Cezanne and Seurat, wanted more structure.  This series of three classes will explore the work and ideas of these and other Post Impressionist artists.

Expressionism: The Assertive Art

(single talk or 3-part series)

This talk or in-depth series delves into the roots of Expressionism, its flowering in the early 20th century especially in Germany, and its legacy in Europe and America.

Expressionist artists often rebelled against contemporary social values and conventions.  They rejected traditional art forms, colors, and refinement in order to communicate ideas and emotions in intense paintings, sculpture, prints and architecture. 

Session 1:     Roots and Beginnings (in ancient, medieval and late 19th century art)
Session 2:     Flowering and Forbidden (early 20th  century German Expressionists)
Session 3:     Later and Legacy (after 1914)

Opening Doors, Opening Eyes:
 American Art, 1875-1955
(single talk or 3-part series)

This series explores American art from the critical period when it adapts to the contemporary world and forges modern ideas about art.  Images shown will range from the realism of Thomas Eakins to the abstraction of Jackson Pollock and from the urban life scenes of John Sloan and the Ashcan School to the regionalism of Grant Wood.  Discussion will range from the changes wrought by the Armory Show and the World Wars to the impact of the New Deal and the Cold War. 

Picturing America
(single talk or 3-part series)

America's art tells America's story - the optimism, struggles, humor and pain.  We'll explore how people from the earliest inhabitants to today have pictured the history and landscape of the country reflecting its ideas and ideals.

Images will range from realistic paintings of John Singleton Copley to modern abstractions by Jackson Pollock, from the innocent America captured by Norman Rockwell in his early work to the struggles of black Americans seen in his late paintings and those of black artists like Jacob Lawrence, and from inspiring views of unspoiled country by Thomas Cole to the lonely cities of Edward Hopper.

These artists, and others whose work we'll see, help  build our picture of America.

Art in the Third Reich

In his play Taking Sides, Ronald Harwood has the German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler say, "Only tyrants understand the power of art."

Hitler and the Nazi elite in Germany certainly did.  In light of the Holocaust, art may seem a minor concern, but the Nazi cult of art was central to their ideas.  Their cultural policies were inextricably linked to their other goals.  This presentation looks at how the National Socialists used art during the Third Reich to promote their ideology and further their racial, social, and military objectives.

Monet to Dali

This richly illustrated talk presents artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who changed the course of western art.   It will focus on artists such as Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Dali and Picasso who were featured in the special exhibition Monet to Dali: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  

New No Longer: Art of the 20th Century
(single talk or 3-part series)

It was a time of change, a time when art shocked.

We'll look at the founding of modern art in Europe early in the century by artists like Matisse and Picasso in France and the Expressionists in Germany.  Then we'll move to New York for the flowering of an abstract approach to art, and end by examining the satirical, often politically- charged art made later in the century by artists who rejected the formalist modern approach to art-making.

Titans of the Italian Renaissance
(single talk or 3-part series)

The High Renaissance was a brief - 30 year - tranquil period at the end of the 15th and start of the 16th centuries when the technical mastery to produce illusionistic art and the desire to make classically- inspired art came togther in the hands of profound thinkers.  

We'll look at a rich variety of images by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael while exploring their personal stories and the times in which they lived as well as their contributions to art.  

Celebrities, courted by princes and popes, these men produced some of the most influential works of western art.

Revisiting Rembrandt

In this tribute, we'll explore the rich art world of 17th century Holland from which Rembrandt emerged, and look not only at his uniquely sensitive paintings but also at revolutionary prints and drawings created by this master draftsman.  Along the way we'll tell the story of Rembrandt's life, his eclipse and the rediscovery of this very human artist.

Paul Gauguin: Dreaming amid Nature

Art is abstraction when you dream amid nature

We can tell many stories about the Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin:

• How he turned from banker to impoverished artist.

• How he escaped from the "artificial and conventional" Paris to seek the primitive

• How he fought with Vincent van Gogh over what art should be

• How he went from husband and father of five to seek love on tropical islands.

We'll touch on all these but focus on Gauguin's emergence from a mediocre impressionist to a strong original artist who left a legacy that influenced 20th century artists.

Painters of Urban Life: The Ashcan School

In the early 20th century the cities of America were expanding rapidly with immigrants from rural areas and overseas creating a lively mix of rich and poor, parks and tenements.  Artists flocked to New York to teach and to study. This talk focuses on those artists, such as John Sloan, George Bellows, and Maurice Prendergast who depicted scenes of life in city streets, parks, and bars.