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Past Meetings Here are details of our past meetings, to give you an idea of the variety and scope of the lectures. 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. Social Evening: Wednesday 16 July 2025 Doors will open at 7.00 pm for those of you who wish to have a drink in the bar and socialise with friends and fellow members before the buffet supper. The supper will be a savoury buffet, followed by a selection of sweets and tea or coffee and mints, all for the price of £25.00 per ticket. Should you have any dietary restrictions please indicate this when booking. Places at the evening will be allocated on a first come - first served basis. Guests will be welcome to come with you. There will be no speaker this year, as the aim of the evening is to give you the opportunity to enjoy conversation with friends and other members of the society. However, we hope to have an exhibition of past events at the society, including photographs of society excursions and holidays. Please bring along to the evening any photographs of excursions and holidays with the society. 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. Visit to Ely Cathedral on Thursday 19th June 2025 Ely Cathedral is one of the wonders of medieval engineering. The structure was completed in 1342 and is considered the jewel in the Cathedral crown. It has welcomed visitors and pilgrims for over 1300 years and offers a glimpse into centuries of English heritage, alongside stunningly beautiful art and architecture. The small city of Ely has grown up around the Cathedral and its arresting and beautiful structure dominates the surrounding Fens. In addition to having a guided tour of the Cathedral, you will be able to visit the stained glass museum (entrance price included) to view panels representing 800 years of the history of the ancient art. The museum is accessed by a spiral stone staircase. The Oliver Cromwell museum is also nearby. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour, on Wednesday 29th January 2025 Visit to Milton Keynes Gallery This is the largest ever show of work from this prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group. It examines every facet of her work, including paintings, drawings, ceramics and furniture. This promises to be a wonderful, not to be missed, exhibition.