Info

Please be aware that there are no trailers before the performance.

• Fri 8 May to Fri 12 Jun
• 120 minutes

Synopsis

Roger Simpson presents a series of 6 talks on
Art in America

£10 per talk, £51 for all 6 bought in advance in one transaction

Thomas Eakins - John Biglin in a Single Skull
© 1932.263 Yale University Art Gallery

May 8th. The Loneliness of American Freedom

The American Dream hoped for a New World where all people were free. And equal. But “never before had society consisted so precariously of individuals each going his own way regardless of the rest”. It seems that liberty and equality are incompatible. Thomas Eakins, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth plumb the depths of American solitude.

May 15th. The Architecture of Guilt

We admire those who acquire great wealth, even while knowing that they have usually done so through less than admirable means, often amounting to a sociopathic self-serving ruthlessness. Many will attempt to atone for their sins through philanthropy. And, remarkably, it works.  Andrew Carnegie and literacy for the masses.

May 22nd.  Great American Buildings of the Jazz Age

Tall buildings were at one time emblems of a shared faith. Cathedrals, pyramids. Now they mark little more than vanity. Corporate and billionaires’ pissing contests. The question is, must it be just an imposition on the humbled multitude, or can the tall building also reflect the beliefs of its day. Art Deco gave tall buildings a human face and a shared conviction.

May 29th. Women at War

Two very different American women photographers were thrust into the front lines of World War Two. One of them, Lee Miller, directionless and angst-ridden, has been virtually canonized. The other, Margaret Bourke-White, angst-free, hard-nosed professional and manifestly the better artist, has been ignored. Both left remarkable records of a key moment in human history.

June 5th. Norman Rockwell

If the individualism of American Freedom is ultimately a socially divisive force, then one of the paramount functions of popular art must be to create the illusion of a coherent community sharing a belief system greater than ourselves. Norman Rockwell worked tirelessly towards that end, as the old community crumbled under the weight of urbanisation and corporate culture.

June 12th . “Born to be Posthumous”: the peculiar world of Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey was a mid-20th century American who longed to be a 19th century Englishman. A children’s author and illustrator whose publishers refused to let children anywhere near his books. An artist whose black ironic comedy carries on the ancient joyful traditions of folk and fairy tales, and places him among the masters of children’s story-tellers.