Tamworth
ArtsNational Tamworth welcomes you.
ArtsNational (formerly ArtsNational) societies present a series of quality lectures by leading UK and Australian experts. Each lecture is followed by light refreshments and a convivial social forum.
Lectures:
Venue:
Lectures take place at the Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street Tamworth.
Time:
Lectures are held on Fridays, meet at 5.45 pm for 6.00 pm start.
Program
Find full details of the 2024 program here
Membership:
Annual membership
$165 Adults
$140 Pensioners
$140 Adults under 30 years
To join email: adfas.tamworth@gmail.com
Guests welcome:
$30 per lecture
Contact:
For all enquiries please email: adfas.tamworth@gmail.com
Postal Address: PO Box 1293 Tamworth NSW 2340
ABN: 42 943 596 020
Committee
Chair: Peter Johnston
Treasurer: Steve Cunneen
Secretary / Membership: Ruth Blakely
2024 PROGRAM
Friday 1 March 2024
AUGUSTE RODIN AND THE 19TH CENTURY SCULPTURE
Presented by: David Worthington
Venue & Time: Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
Rodin is one of the heroic figures of 19th century art history and was internationally celebrated during his lifetime. But after his death his reputation slipped and there were questions about his use of the female image. His work is very much being reassessed and he is seen as having in one career taken sculpture on a revolutionary path equivalent to what the Realists, Impressionists and Post Impressionists did with many careers. This lecture surveys his work showing why he is one of the greatest sculptors of all time and his continuing relevance.
David has been drawn to abstract sculpture since seeing a Barbara Hepworth in a school book. He graduated in Philosophy and Theology from Oxford in 1984, then studied fine art in London, Barcelona and New York. A sculptor with many international commissions, he also curates and writes about art. He was shortlisted for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2009. David is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Sculptors and was Vice President in 2010-13.
Friday 19 April 2024
THE POSSESSIONS OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR – ART OR OBSESSION
Presented by Adrian Dickens
Venue & Time: Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
This lecture provides an insight into the story of the abdication of England’s King Edward VIII, and the purpose of the legendary jewellery and art collection of the Duchess of Windsor. You will learn why a man who didn’t want the British throne spent the rest of his life trying to replicate it. Hear the stories behind the Duchess’s obsession with fashion and displays of jewels. Understand how the Windsors used their collections and possessions to undermine the occupants of Buckingham Palace. You will discover who “Cookie” and “Shirley Temple” are and why the Windsors loathed them.
Adrian has become a fixture on the Australian jewellery scene for the last 27 years. Adrian created CIRCA AD Jewels in late 2012 with the purpose of providing a genuinely unique personal jewellery service. CIRCA AD Jewels specialises in collecting selected items of fine jewellery, and rare pieces from around the world, which reflect the design values – and quality – of their era. Contemporary items and innovative jewellery designs are also included. “Re-inventing” jewels from unwearable pieces from the 19th and 20th century into wearable 21st century designs is a specialisation.
Friday 10 May 2024
THE GENIUS OF RENE LALIQUE
Presented by Andy McConnell
Venue & Time: Heritage Room Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
René Lalique was the 20th century’s greatest glass designer/entrepreneur. Lalique’s extraordinary work was unrivalled, combining his unique visual sense with a perfect understanding of glassmaking technologies and revolutionary approach to marketing. This talk is a visual feast, covers Lalique’s early work in jewels and furniture before he dedicated the remainder of his life, c1905-45, to glass. His output spanned simple, pressed cosmetic pots through car mascots and stemware to the unique cire perdu [lost wax] vases that today can command tens and even millions of pounds.
Andy has dealt in antiques since adolescence but served an apprenticeship in journalism. After working in music, film and television, he returned to writing in 2004, authoring the The Decanter, An Illustrated History of Glass From 1650. He followed this in 2006 with Miller’s’ 20th Century Glass. He continues to write and runs Britain’s largest antique glass gallery in Rye, Sussex. Andy is best known as the humorous glass specialist on BBC’s evergreen Antiques Roadshow.
Friday 14 June 2024
SIDNEY NOLAN AT HEIDE: THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK
Presented by Kendrah Morgan
Venue & Time: Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
Sidney Nolan is perhaps the most famous member of the ‘Heide circle’, the group of young artists whose formative careers were championed and shaped by Melbourne art patrons John and Sunday Reed. This lectures charts Nolan’s early, experimental years as a young painter, from his days as a commercial artist and the enfant terrible of the Melbourne art world to the completion of his acclaimed Ned Kelly paintings in 1947. It also explores his complex relationship with the Reeds, who supported Nolan unreservedly from the time of their first meeting in 1938 until his abrupt departure from Heide a decade later, after which they never saw him again.
Kendrah Morgan is Senior Curator at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, where she joined the staff in 2003. She began her curatorial career at Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand, after previous roles in the commercial gallery sector and as a lecturer in art and design history. Since 1998 Kendrah has curated more than forty exhibitions, with Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls, (2017); Arthur Boyd: Brides (2014); and Fiona Hall: Big Game Hunting (2013) among her major projects. She has also co-authored four books on aspects of Heide history, including Modern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday Reed (2015), which was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for non-fiction and the Colin Roderick Literary Award. Her most recent book, Mirka and Georges: A Culinary Affair, the story of Mirka and Georges Mora’s transformation of Melbourne’s culinary and cultural landscape, was released in 2018.
Friday 12 July 2024
THE ARCHITECTURE OF MUGHAL INDIA: PALACES, MOSQUES, GARDENS AND MAUSOLEUMS
Presented by John Stevens
Venue & Time: Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
Prior to British rule, India was governed by the Mughal Emperors. The stunning buildings and gardens they constructed from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries left an indelible stamp on India’s cultural landscape. Mughal architecture fused elements from Islamic, Persian, Turkish and Indian traditions, giving rise to some of the most beautiful, iconic buildings in the world. From the Jama Masjid in Delhi, to the Taj Mahal in Agra, to Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, this lecture will take you on a tour of some of India’s greatest buildings, examining their historical contexts and the colourful personalities involved in their construction.
Dr John Stevens is a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London. His PhD in History is from University College London. He teaches British Imperial history, Indian history and Bengali language, and is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh.
Friday 9 August 2024
WHAT HAVE THE HUGUENOTS EVER DONE FOR US? MASS MIGRATION AND THE ARTS IN BRITAIN
Presented by Vivienne Lawes
Venue & Time: Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
The mass migration of the French Protestant Huguenots in the 16th and 17th centuries impacted the arts, the military and finance sectors of the countries to which they fled following Catholic persecution in their homeland. This lecture focuses on three areas of the arts impacted by the migration: the silk weaving industry; the silversmiths and ceramicists introducing Rococo style into Britain; and the Baroque style of the great Huguenot designer, Daniel Marot, who worked for William and Mary at Hampton Court. We see how the artistic works of the Huguenots changed material culture and became integrated into British national identity.
Vivienne Lawes is an art historian, art market analyst and curator/writer who combines a hands-on career in the art business with academic research and teaching in Higher Education. A former art market journalist at The Art Newspaper, she writes for a wide array of publications.
Friday 13 September 2024
A HIGHLAND THING: 18TH TO 20TH CENTURY SCOTTISH ART
Presented by Rosalind Whyte
Venue & Time: Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
For many years Scottish artists found it necessary to travel south to make their names and careers in art, but with the growth of Edinburgh and Glasgow from the end of the 18th Century, an independent Scottish art scene became possible. Individuals such as Sir Henry Raeburn enjoyed success whilst remaining in their native Scotland, while Sir David Wilkie became one of the first to truly export Scottish art. This lecture will also look at parallels between Scottish and European art, as well as periods of divergence, touching on art movements such as the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists.
Rosalind holds a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, the Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.She lectures at the Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises.
Friday 18 October 2024
TOULOUSE LAUTREC: THE PAINTER OF MONMARTRE
Presented by Paul Chapman
Venue & Time: Heritage Room, Tamworth Community Centre, Darling Street, 6pm
This talk will look at the life and work of the Post-Impressionist painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. For two decades of Lautrec’s short life the artist lived and worked in the Parisian district of the Montmartre. Lautrec led a colourful and theatrical life and through his paintings and graphics recorded a time of decadence in what was Paris’s entertainment district. Nightclubs, cafe concerts, cabarets, and brothels, Lautrec experienced and painted them all.
Paul is an Art Historian and a National Gallery trained guide with many years of experience working in education. As a freelancer, Paul delivers courses and lectures for a wide range of educational organisations. Paul has also given talks and tours for art associations/societies in Museums and Galleries in the UK and Europe. As a writer, Paul has published a book, which examines the subject of cultural crossovers and appropriations in 20th century painting. Paul has a long-standing commitment, in conjunction with the National Gallery as a tour guide at the Longford Castle art collection. He is also a visiting tutor at Marlborough College and a tutor at MCSS.
Friday 8 November 2024
To be advised