Many of us encounter wall art, in the form of graffiti, on a daily basis, whether passing by on foot, on a bike, in a car or train. The artists of that graffiti in leaving their “tag”, have, over time, accumulated their very own fifteen minutes of fame, they have made their mark, they have had their say. This second course in the ART ON WALLS series is not concerned with everyday random graffiti, at least not in the sense of graffiti that is menacing or mischievous scrawls on walls. We will be concerned with those fine artists who have also wanted to make their marks on a public scale: as statements, perhaps, sometimes as messages, sometimes as proclamations, sometimes as invitations to escape into other worlds, for many people to see. By definition this art must be all-encompassing and all-enveloping, with the power- through scale alone- to immerse the viewers in an alternate reality, freeing them from the tenacious grip of the mundane world. It is art that is simultaneously circumscribed and expanded by the size of the wall it is on. Forever part of the very architecture in which we live and work, it is integral to the building, actually indivisible from it. Thanks to Zoom technology we can now have an unobstructed view while we discuss its messages, explore its intricate stories, engage in its palette and pulse, or simply be moved by it.
This past February we began this course by studying the astonishing precocity of prehistoric cave artists (many now thought to have been small-handed women) through the glimpses their realistically illustrated hunting scenarios give us of the world as they experienced it. In their extreme realism these paintings put to rest all notions that our cave dwelling ancestors were mindless brutes. We then travelled from Rome to Padua and on to Florence following closely a discernable shift from the pagan grotesqueries of the infamous Nero’s Golden House to the carefully curated Christian narratives of Giotto in Padua and Ghirlandaio in Florence. We ended with the light-hearted trompe l’oeil open doors and landscapes of Veronese’s Villa Barbaro, where we were tricked into believing we were actually being warmly welcomed by Daniele Barbaro’s family, his servants, and, even introduced to some of his friends.
In Part II we will pick up the story of secular imagery with a close look at sections of wall covered with paintings during the golden age of the Grand Houses in Europe, from the 17c to the late 18c. We unpick the messages of each work: we ask why Laguerre was commissioned to paint scenes from Roman history on the staircase walls of Chatsworth, while at Burghley, Verrio painted gods and goddesses pouring into the room from all different directions. We contrast the English obsession with telling themselves reassuring stories of their past achievements with the Venetians very great pleasure in present diversions as seen in the cavorting delights of the Ca Rezzonico paintings by Tiepolo, his followers Crosato and Colonna and by his son Giandomenico Tiepolo. The message of these paintings is loud and clear- there could be no more delightful life than that of 18c Venice where the gods come down as guests of a family wedding, or where Commedia dell’Arte figures mock and overturn the rigid conventions of high society.
In the 19c and 20c, we can see a shift towards more political messaging in the blatant expression of pride through narratives of national epics, whether in the work of Maclise and Dyce in the Houses of Parliament, Karoly Lotz in Hungary, Carl Larsson in Stockholm, Axel Revold in Oslo, or Diego Rivera and his contemporaries in Mexico City. We encounter magnificent and little-known works – little-known only because mural art is not only indivisible from its architecture and therefore “stuck” in the context in which it was made. Hitherto you have had to travel to see it. But now, with Zoom and modern image technology, we can travel virtually and gain something of the sense of what it is like to be enveloped in a work of art, experiencing a sense of immersion as though in a theatre or film set.
We then take an excursion into a modernism softened and balanced by intense spirituality in the chapels of Cocteau and Matisse in southern France, and, that of Stanley Spencer at Burghclere who rendered the domestic sacred and in one fell swoop overturned the expectations of war painting. We experience the power of entirely abstract non-narrative murals as in the room-walls of Mondrian in Paris and Rothko and Ellsworth Kelly in Texas.
Our journeys end with murals with political messages which have completely transformed the streetscape: those on the Berlin Wall, on the Falls Road in Belfast; or Tim Chalk and Paul Grime’s mighty mural on Leith Road in Edinburgh; or the more than 40 murals concerned with Gay Pride now covering gable-ends in Ostend. Even graffiti, well-done, can hugely enliven our urban explorations. Banksy’s wit is well-known, making international headlines. Art on walls whether human-scale and inducing a rueful smile, or covering an entire building and dwarfing us with the grandeur of their vast colourful figures and the power of their messages, now represents a major contribution to the art of our times. We sincerely hope you will join us in discovering them.
Booking Information:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
This online course via Zoom has been developed by Louise Friend and Nicholas Friend. It will be presented by Nicholas Friend, Co-Founder of Inscape. It is held on Tuesdays and repeated on Thursdays, beginning on Tuesday 8 May 2023 at 5 pm and ending on Thursday 29 June 2023 at 5 pm. Please note the time of 5 pm: Nicholas will be lecturing from California (at 9 am his time) for the duration of this course.
You may choose to attend individual sessions or all eight. If you would like to attend but cannot manage a particular date, then be assured we will be sending recordings of sessions to all participants. Each session meets from 20 minutes before the advertised time of the lecture, and each lecture lasts roughly one hour, with around 15 minutes discussion.
Cost: £360 members or £440 non-members for the course of 8 sessions or £45 members or £55 non-members per individual session. All sessions are limited to 21 participants to permit an after-lecture discussion session.
Due to the coronavirus cheques are not a viable option at this time. Instead, please make your payment to Friend&Friend Ltd by bank transfer to our account with Metrobank, bank sort code 23-05-80, account number 13291721 or via PayPal to nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk, or credit/debit card by phone to Henrietta on 07940 719397. She is available Tuesdays 10-12 and 2-5 pm or Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5 pm. Do get in touch if you would like extra support learning how to use Zoom.
How to Set Up a PayPal account::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Click on this link: https://www.paypal.com/uk/home
In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, click “Sign up.”
On the following screen choose “Personal account” and click “Next.”
On the next page, you’ll be asked to enter your name, email address and to create and confirm a password. When finished, click “Next.”
Click “Agree and create account” and your PayPal account will be created.
How to Connect your Bank Account to your PayPal account:::::::::::::::::::::::
Log on to your account and click the “Wallet” option in the menu bar running along the top of the screen.
On the menu running down the left side of the screen, click the “Link a credit or debit card”.
Enter the card information you wish to link to your PayPal account and click “Link card” for debit card.
How to Send Money::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Log on to your account. Click Send & Request.
Enter the email address of the person you wish to send money to: nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk
Type in the amount you wish to send, click continue then press ‘Send Money Now’.
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