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Presentations by Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong's Presentations

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Monday

18th

September

2017

 

     An Introduction to the Art of Painting, from the  Renaissance to the Baroque

Monday

16th

October

  2017

 

Introduction to the Art of Painting from the Renaissance to the Baroque – Part II

Monday

13th

November

2017

 

Landscape into Art (Part I)  From Pompeii & the Art of Symbols to Claude Lorrain & Nicholas Poussin

Monday

11th

December

2017

 

The Golden Age of Baroque Landscape Art (Part 2)

  Monday

  26th

February

2018

The Birth of the Avant-Garde & Modernism - Gericault & Delacroix to Courbet & Manet

Monday

26th

March

2018

Society reflected in the Art of the Dutch Golden Age - from Home to Tavern

Monday

30th

April

2018

Vincent in Arles & The Yellow House

Thursday

14th

June

2018

1896, Paul Cezanne, The Courtauld Collection

Thursday

19th

July

2018

 

John Singer Sargent, the last of the great society portrait painters

Thursday

16th

August

2018

Art Appreciation - The Treasures of the National Gallery - Part 1

Thursday

13th

September

2018

Art Appreciation - The Treasures of the National Gallery - Part 2

Thursday

11th

October

2018

Realism to Naturalism - Jules Bastien Lepage and The Glasgow Boys

Thursday

8th

November

2018

Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni

Bellini - The Venetian

Renaissance

Thursday

15th

November

2018

Art Appreciation - The

Glasgow Boys

Thursday

13th

December

2018

Berwick St James Art

Appreciation - The

Nativity Story

Thursday

24th

January

2019

Berwick St James Art

Appreciation - Caravaggio,

the Flawed Genius

Thursday

21st

February

2019

Berwick St James Art

Appreciation - Caravaggio's

Legacy Part 1

Thursday

21st

March

2019

Berwick St James Art

Apreciation - Rembrandt &

Vermeer, Masters of

Light

 

Thursday

4th

April

2019

Berwick St James Art

Appreciation - Jan van Eyck -

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

Thursday

19th

September

2019

Berwick-St-James Art Appreciation - Sorolla - The Spanish Master of Light

Thursday

24th

October

2019

The Life & Work of John Constable

Thursday

21st

November

2019

 Beauty, Love and Desire – The Pre-Raphaelites to Modernity

 

Thursday

16th

January

2020

 Beauty, Love and Desire, The Pre-Raphaelites to Modernity, Part II

Thursday

13th

February

2020

The Power of the Portrait

 

Thursday

12th March

2020

Jules Bastien-Lepage & Followers, Naturalism

Thursday

17th February

2022

Claude Monet & the Birth of Impressionism

Thursday

10th March

2022

Art in Harmony with Nature - Paul Cezanne

Thursday

7th April

2022

From Cezanne to Picasso, Braque & Matisse

Wednesday

25th May

2022

Essential Raphael

(1483-1520)

Thursday

16th June

2022

Insights into Gems of UK National Collections - Part 1

Thursday

30 June

2022

Insights into Gems of UK National Collections - Part 2

Thursday

22nd September

2022

Paintings of the Belle Epoque

Thursday

20th October

2022

The paintings of Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519

Thursday

1st December

2022

Le Concert Champetre, the Pastoral Concert, Titian, 1509-10, oil on canvas, Louvre

Thursday

9th February

2023

Emerging from the Shadows – Women in Art Part I

Thursday

23 February

2023

Emerging from the Shadows – Women in Art Part I1

Thursday

23 March

2023

 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

 1596-7. The Musical Concert, oil on canvas, Metropolitan, New York            

Thursday

14 September

2023

1825. The Defence of Saragossa, oil on canvas, Sir David Wilkie, R.C.Trust

 

Thursday

2 November

2023

The very singular Felix Vallotton (1865-1925)

Thursday

7 December

2023

Palmer’s Virgilian Idyll to Caspar Friedrich’s Mystic Landscape

ART HISTORY & APPRECIATION PRESENTATIONS 

Brian Armstrong, a retired Royal Air Force dentist and a resident of Berwick is giving a series of presentations and lectures to the village in the Reading Room on The History of Art, the study of which has been a hobby of his for many years.  He started with a series of four lectures  between September '17 and the end of the year to assess the level of interest.   These were;

 

Monday 18th Sep:.    An Introduction to the Art of Painting: The Renaissance to the Baroque.

        (In the introductory presentation, he discusses with the assistance of images the fundamentals of painting and demonstrate how with the availability of new materials and the discovery of revolutionary techniques, the full flowering of the Renaissance first transformed the painted image, to that of the Baroque Caravaggio and Vermeer, where the illusion is complete. )

 

Monday 16th Oct '17:         Landscape into Art Part I, from Pompeii and the Art of Symbols to Claude Lorrain & Nicolas Poussin

     Monday 13th Nov '17:         Landscape into Art Part II, The Landscape of the Dutch Golden Age to the Romantics and the Art of the Sublime

    Monday 11th Dec '17:         Landscape into Art Part III, The Barbizon School to Impressionism.

He has then continued with further monthly art history and appreciation seminars & presentations commencing January 2018, covering topics as diverse as,    

  •  The Apollo Belvedere to Renaissance David – An Introduction to the History of Sculpture, 
  • Caravaggio & The Caravaggisti, 
  • Genre & Still Life Art of the Dutch Golden Age, 
  • Maritime Art, 
  • The History of Portraiture, 
  • Vincent – Life and Work, 
  • The Birth of Modern Art 
  • The Avant-Garde, 
  • The Glasgow Boys, etc.

 

As previously advised in the parish magazine , these evenings are interactive and are fun for everyone, no matter what  level of knowledge.

 

The venue for the meetings will be the Reading Room, with doors open at 7pm and each presentation commencing at 7.15to finish 8.30. The cost inclusive of wine and refreshments will be £5, payable on the evening, with all proceeds donated to the Reading Room Fund.

Art History & Appreciation Meetings in Berwick-St James, Jan-March 2018

The meetings continue to be reasonably well attended, but I do hope that I can tempt even more of you to attend the series of meetings planned for the first three months of next year. As before, my intention is to provide a varied and interesting programme of topics, across the ages up to and including the 19th century, hopefully with something for every taste. No previous knowledge is required, just an inquisitive mind.

Monday 29th January: The Birth of the Avant-Garde and Modernism – Gericault & Delacroix to Courbet & Manet. In this presentation we will discuss how French painting underwent the revolutionary change that reflected the turbulent social and cultural environment of early 19th century France. From the masters and their paintings that challenged the political and Academic artistic establishments, to those that caused society scandal and outrage.

Monday 26th February: Genre painting in the Dutch Golden Age – from Home to Tavern. In this presentation we will discover how the Dutch 17th century masters represented everyday life, from the well ordered domesticity of the Leiden Fijnschilders and the Delft masters, to the thoroughly disorderly school and tavern scenes of Jan Steen, Adriaen van Ostade and Adriaen Brower, full of good natured humour and moralistic finger wagging.

Monday 26th March: A Brief History of Sculpture from the Greeks to Neoclassicism. Here we will examine how the rediscovery of Greek and Greco-Roman sculpture in the Renaissance led to the production of many of the most iconic images of Art, thereafter influencing both the Baroque and Neoclassical masters; included of course will be works by Donatello, Michelangelo, Bernini and Canova. Depending on interest, there may then be a follow-up presentation on Pierre Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel in April.

Doors of the Reading Room open at 7pm, with each meeting commencing 7.15pm. The cost/person, inclusive of wine and other beverages is £5, payable on the evening, with all proceeds donated to Reading Room Funds.

Enquiries for further information and to discuss opportunities to learn more about and enjoy Fine Art first hand, are always welcome: Brian Armstrong on 790647, or [email protected]