Programme
Membership year 2023/24
The lecture programme is subject to change so keep checking back to the website for
the latest information about lectures. The meetings start at 7.30pm.
First lecture of the new membership year 2024/25
23rd October 24
Peter Swallow
Bentwood and plywood furniture. Its design and
creation
Plywood can trace it origins back to Ancient Egypt where
thin, hand sawn slices of timber were used to build up
decorative panels. The widespread is of plywood began in
C19th with advances in manufacturing technology to
produce large stable boards.
Following a brief introduction to furniture prior to 1800 and
and overview of the many uses of plywood the talk will
concentrate on the design and manufacture of plywood
chairs.
Frame of curving linear bent beechwood elements; the arms flow into two long parallel runners;
caned, oval back joined to elongated oval bent wood element, in turn joined to caned seat
supported on the runners by four intertwined circular bentwood form; two curving bentwood
supports join lower back to runners. Unknown artist. Public domain
27th November
Paul Rabbitts
Concise History of Public Parks
This really is a fascinating insight into the
history of one of our greatest ever institutions
- our Great British Public Park. We have all
enjoyed them at some time in our lives but
what do we really know about them? What
are their origins?
This talk illustrates their origins from the great
Royal Parks to the Pleasure Gardens of the
eighteenth century, to their Victorian heyday.
It discusses what makes a great park, it’s
‘parkitecture’ with examples of lodges, lakes, bandstands, fountains, lidos, palm
houses and to their wonderful floral displays, to their great decline in the sixties,
seventies and eighties.
Bandstand at Priory Park (Great Malvern) Photo: Fabian Musto. C
reative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
22nd January 2025
Astrid Bolodis
Gustavs Klucis: Lenin’s poster boy, careerist or enemy of the state?
Gustavs Klucis was born in a region of the Russian
Empire that would become the independent
Republic of Latvia. His life and practice
followed the trajectory of the Bolshevik Revolution,
the death of Lenin, the eventual acknowledgment of
Joseph Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union, and
ended during the Great Terror.
The talk will illustrate how his work and ambition
was influenced by other artists, and adapted in
response to the politics and economics of his time.
Gustavs Klucis - Construction. Public domain
26th February 2025
Barry Venning
Cartoons and Contraptions: the Wonderful World of W. Heath Robinson
For over a century, W. Heath Robinson, whom the
novelist, Philip Pullman called ‘the immortal
contraptioneer’, has been famous for drawing rickety,
bizarrely complicated devices that carry out the simplest
of tasks like potato peeling, wart removal or pancake
making.
He became so famous for them that in 1933, he was the
obvious person to illustrate Norman Hunter’s Professor
Branestawm books and, in 1943, Bletchley Park named
one of their code-breaking machines after him.
Much later still, some of the contraptions in Wallace and
Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers are based on a scale
model of a gadget filled house that he made for the
Ideal Home Show in 1934.
Inventions - How to Avoid Tears when Peeling Onions.
William Heath Robinson. Public domain
26th March 2025
Joanna Banham
A Passion for Pattern : Victorian Wallpapers
The Victorian period witnessed massive
increases in the production of wallpaper when
a product that had previously been a luxury
item became a commodity that was available to
all but the very poorest of homes. It was also a
time that saw a huge proliferation of different
styles ranging from glamorous hand-printed
French floral patterns, to the geometric designs
of the Gothic Revival, to the innovative work of
Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement.
This lecture also discusses innovative features such as nursery designs and relief
decorations like Lincrusta Walton and Anaglypta, and the many different ways that
wallpaper was used in the decoration of the Victorian home.
Drawing, An Interior, 1837–40. The boldly patterned wallpaper, green draperies and matching
upholstered furniture shown in this interior impart an air of masculinity to the room.
Photo: Mary Ellen Best. Public domain
23rd April 2025
Raymond Warburton
Sculpture in Britain Today and Tomorrow
British sculpture enjoyed a renaissance in the 20th
century, with the likes of Henry Moore, Barbara
Hepworth, Anthony Caro and Elizabeth Frink leading
the way. But who came afterwards and with what
effect?
Among the new generation of British-based sculptors
were Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley, Maggi
Hambling, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long and David Nash.
These days all six are world-renowned and are still
working as hard as ever. Each in their own way is
innovative, inspirational and deeply human. They have
produced sculptures that are glorious, challenging and
moving in equal measure.
Anish Kapoor / Istanbul. Nevit Dilmen.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
21st May 2025
Charlie Hall
Peggy Guggenheim - A Life of Collecting
Describing herself by writing, "I am a museum", Peggy
Guggenheim's life took a clear path, from setting up a
commercial gallery in London, going on a single-minded
shopping trip to Paris in the late 1930's even as the German
tanks were rolling in to the suburbs, to escape (with her
selection of European artists) to New York.
There the subsequent establishment of her museum (and
Arts centre), and finally the purchase of the eccentric
'unfinished palazzo' in Venice, her collection remains one of
the most iconic assemblages of Twentieth Century art in the
world.
Peggy Guggenheim Museum Venice. "Angel of the City".
Photo: David Pirmann. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
25th June 2025
Antonia Gatward Cevizli
Snuff-boxes Salons and Studios: Women Artists in the 18th and 19th Centuries
In 1971 Linda Nochlin wrote her famous essay “Why have there been no great women
artists?”
Since then, much has been done to insert women into the canon and uncover their
lives and works.
24th September 2025
Ashley Gray
Post War Textile Visionaries of Modern Art: Alistair Morton & Edinburgh Weavers
Alistair Morton, a modernist visionary, was uniquely
recognised for his talent of interpreting in fabric the full
quality of an artist’s handwriting. He commissioned drawings
from some of the greatest modern artists for textile
production and through his designer's eye took their art to
new levels.
In the late 1930s his Constructivist range saw work from Ben
Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth translated into jacquard
woven textiles for the top end of British Interior design. In the
post war era, Morton continued to fuse modern art with
textile design, keeping it in step with contemporary living.
This is the last lecture of the 2024/2025 Membership year.
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