U3A Art Appreciation Network
Subject Adviser: Margaret Tomlinson
15 Clifton Court, Old Street, Ludlow SY8 1TZ
A Gloucestershire Orchard in Spring
Ralph William Bardill
St Helens Council Collection
email [email protected] tel 01584 873260
Spring 2016
Newsletter no 27
Thank you for all your kind messages. It’s good to receive encouragement in a new venture. I hope
you’ll all be making new ventures now that spring is here – visiting a new gallery or making a study
of an artist you’ve never heard of before – even if it turns out you don’t like him or her!
Margaret
So you think Monet is old hat? A review of the
Monet to Matisse exhibition at the RA (till 20
April) says differently:
Snow in April
William McTaggart 1892
Claude Monet
Waterlilies 1914-15
Just in case you thought you’d escaped the
snow this winter, here’s a reminder that it’s not
too late! This painting is in the collection of
National Galleries of Scotland. If you missed the
recent series about Scottish Art on BBC4, try
and watch it on iPlayer – it ranges from stone
circles to the ultra modern.
This exhibition of psychedelic modernist pastoral
art is a ravishing joy and takes Monet out of the
chocolate box, revealing one of art’s great
humanists.
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
Spring – March
Summer – June
Autumn – September
Winter - December
Self Portraits
GOYA - VISIONS OF FLESH AND BLOOD
FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON
IN UK CINEMAS NOW
Who are they?
Answers on back page.
Find a cinema near you by visiting
www.exhibitionscreen.com
Heir to Velázquez, hero to Picasso. Discover Spain’s
celebrated artist with this cinematic tour de force
based on the National Gallery’s must-see
exhibition Goya: The Portraits.
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Francisco Goya is Spain’s most celebrated artist and
considered the father of modern art. Not only a
brilliant observer of everyday life and Spain’s
troubled past, he is a gifted portrait painter and
social commentator par excellence. Goya takes the
genre of portraiture to new heights and his genius is
reappraised in a much-anticipated landmark
exhibition at The National Gallery, London. The film
uses this exhibition to look in depth at Goya’s
eventful life.
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Rooting through my archives recently, I came across
this piece I wrote for our U3A in Ludlow Newsletter
in 2007.
THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH
I can't believe that I'm in my seventh year of
studying Art History. It's been a HUNT for knowledge
that sometimes made me NASH my teeth but I've
worked ERNSTIy and found nothing to BRAQUE my
heart, although I'm sometimes in a BROWN study
for a long time before bringing home the BACON. I
hope I haven't made too much of a BOSCH of it!
Fortunately we have no CONSTABLE to make us
work - who needs one with Olwen to help when we
are at our WITZ end? Our group is very friendly and
we all get on all WRIGHT, though sometimes we
chat a bit too LONGHI and Olwen has to blow her
WHISTLER to stop us being too LIPPI.
It's not a life of RILEY all the time. We don't dilly
DALI and sit around the RAEBURN with PANNINI and
KUPKAkes although a break to go to the JOHN is
allowed. We do get through a LOTTO work and I
Portrait of Goya by Vicente Lopez 1826
OPIE it will continue thus. After seven years perhaps
we deserve a MARTINI or even a glass of
The artist has used Goya’s ‘tools of the trade’ to CHAMPAIGNE. It wouldn't cost MUNCH MONET.
help in identifying the sitter. It’s interesting (and I'm itching to continue - you can be SEURAT that!
useful) to watch for such items when looking at
portraits.
And continue we did – for another eight years!
Is this a record?
I’d like to hear from other long-life groups.
What would you choose to identify you if you
were being painted?
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Exhibitions
Museums and Galleries
National Gallery
Delacroix & the Rise of Modern Art
17th Feb to 22nd May
Dutch Flowers 6th April to 29th Aug
Dulwich Picture Gallery, designed by Sir John Soane,
is the world’s first purpose-built public art gallery. It
was founded in 1811 when Sir Francis Bourgeois RA
bequeathed his collection of old masters “for the
inspection of the public”.
National Portrait Gallery
A Century of Style – to 22nd May
Tate Britain
Hockney’s Double Portraits – to Autumn
The Holburne Museum, Bath – to April 2016
Gold: an Exhibition from the Royal Collection
Courtauld Gallery, London – 18th Feb to 15th May
Botticelli & Treasures from the Hamilton Collection
Today the Gallery is a vibrant cultural hub hosting
some of the UK’s leading exhibitions alongside its
Permanent Collection of Baroque masterpieces
while staging a wide-ranging programme of public
events, practical art and community engagement.
It now houses over 600 works rich in European
masterpieces.
National Galleries of Scotland
Bridget Riley - 15th April 2016 to 16th April 2017
Scots in Italy - 5th Mar 2016 to 3rd Mar 2019
National Gallery of Wales, Cardiff
Augustus John in Focus – to Oct 16th
Royal Academy - 2th Mar to 5th June
In the Age of Giorgione
Tate Liverpool – 18th Feb to 12th June
Alexander Calder Performing Sculpture
Current exhibitions include: I am Van Dyck (to 24th
April) and Nikolai Astrup Painting Norway (to 15th
May). The Amazing World of M C Escher closed in
January, but you can see one of this fascinating
artist’s works opposite. I am told you can find an
explanation for the phenomenon on YouTube.
OPPOSITE Waterfall is a lithograph by
the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, first printed in 1961. It
shows a physically impossible perpetual motion
machine where water from the base of
a waterfall appears to run downhill along the water
path before reaching the top of the waterfall.
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Artists on Art
Answers to self portraits
Tranquility
1 Jan van Eyck d 1441
2 Raphael 1483 - 1520
3 El Greco 1541 – 1614
What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and
serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject
matter, an art which might be for every mental
worker, be he businessman or writer, like an
appeasing influence, like a mental soother,
something like a good armchair in which to rest
from physical fatigue.
Henri Matisse 1869- 1954
I find self portraits of artists fascinating,
especially the ones where they paint
themselves into a picture.
An excellent book is The Artist Revealed.
Ian Chilvers ISBN 1-84013-547-6
A French artist, known for both his use of colour and
his fluid and original draughtsmanship. Although he
was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the
1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of
the classical tradition in French painting. His
mastery of the expressive language of colour and
drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over
a half-century, won him recognition as a leading
figure in modern art.
If you’d like to read more of John Farman’s
gems on art, his book - ART, a Complete and
Utter History (without the boring bits) - is
published by MacMillan ISBN 0-330-33046-2.
I’ve recently had a query about copyright in the
use of pictures etc in study groups.
If you’d like a copy of the Resource Centre’s
advice, please contact Susan Radford at the
Resource Centre – see below.
Looking for ideas for your group studies?
Woman Reading
1894
Susan Radford in the U3A Resource Centre –
open Monday to Thursday – has a very
extensive list of artists, schools, sculpture and
workshops, hard to match and free to borrow.
Only return postage is involved.
Woman with a Hat
1905
[email protected] or 020 8315 0199
If you are seeking ideas for your planning, I can
offer Olwen’s syllabus. Designed for beginners or
advanced members, it covers art from Byzantine
to the present day, researching schools of
painting, looking at specialities of painters’ work
and developments, influences, legacies etc.
Easily arranged for all groups and adaptable for
all levels of knowledge. No cost involved.
La Musique 1939
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