A veritable explosion of colour and innovative thinking about art awaits us in various museums and galleries this spring! Inspired by a plethora of provocative exhibitions both in the UK and abroad, we offer an ‘Armchair Travel’ zoom course for those of us not in a position to travel to distant cities, or as potent background preparation for those of you who are. These works, whether by Münter or Valadon, Peploe or Lautrec, Munch or Cezanne, can strike the sternum! Rich experiences await! Do join us!
The Guggenheim New York, no less, has woken up to the individual genius of Gabriele Münter. She was a German Expressionist who was at the forefront of the Munich avant garde in the early 20c. Despite her commitment to her art, she was long seen merely as a sideshow to her partner Kandinsky. She had a distinct vision of her own, exploring how vibrant colour, brushwork and form could express deep emotions and spiritual ideas. While resisting Kandinsky’s push towards abstraction, she completely reimagined the traditional genres of still life, landscape, and portraiture giving each painting a visual punch that broke through the carapace of convention. Constantly striving to experiment and adapt, she spent World War I in Scandinavia, prompting a rich exchange with Nordic modernism, influenced by and even influencing Edvard Munch.
Suzanne Valadon, model for Renoir, lover of Toulouse-Lautrec, friend of Degas, was the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. Boldly taking on the canon of western art history of Giorgione, Titian, Ingres and Delacroix, she challenged the male gaze with her radical rethinking of traditional, that is “male” representations of women. Her portraits often catch sitters with unguarded expressions which therefore capture the complexities of what it is to be a sentient human, one without artifice. Cubism and abstract art were a nascent distraction to some artists, while she ardently defended her position that subjects – whether male or female – should be painted realistically.
There appears to be a streak of quite radical courage in the Scottish Colourists from 1905 to the outbreak of war in 1914 – SJ Peploe, Lesley Hunter, FCB Cadell and JD Fergusson. Rather than letting the urge to relate narratives overwhelm them, these painters allowed themselves to celebrate the world in colour as did Matisse and his contemporaries; they seemed to have a hotline to the French avant-garde and the colour adventures of French art. Hot reds are offset against brilliant greens, post-Edwardian hats become excuses for exuberant slashes of the brush, and colour becomes a source of light just as Matisse had intended it should. There is freedom in their brushstrokes, enjoyment in the sensuality of oil paint, delight in making visible the very processes of a work of art.
There are few collectors with an eye. One was Oskar Reinhart, whose collection normally resides in Wintherthur, Switzerland and another was Samuel Courtauld, whose collection is permanently in the Strand. This spring we can see a astonishing conjunction of the two, for 25 works of huge impact have come to the Courtauld Galleries from the Oskar Reinhart Collection. Thanks be that there are not more than 25: as it is, we reel from the sheer power of every work, whether a Gericault portrait of a man in a mental hospital, a Courbet painting of a wave (and what a wave!) or a Cezanne watercolour of the Mont Ste Victoire. Dazzling!
Oslo in the late 19c and early 20c was Kristiania, the Bohemia of Knut Hamsun and his fellow literati. Their painter was Munch. This exhibition does not show the 1890s Munch of tortured relationships, of men in despair by seashores or women bracing themselves in woodland. Widely regarded as one of the great portraitists, Munch produced portraits of family, friends, lovers, writers, fellow artists, patrons and collectors. This is a Munch of the 20c, in a Nietzchean world celebrating individual creativity, using vibrant, often complementary, colour and brushstroke to express the vitality and intellectual challenge of his friends and supporters.
galleries when Nicholas returns in the spring.
Street art in late 19c Paris did not mean graffiti, as it might in 21c London. It meant a proliferation of fine poster art by such geniuses as Toulouse-Lautrec, Cheret, Mucha, Steinlen, Bonnard, Vuillard and Vallotton, advertising clubs and cabarets and covering the smallest bit of empty space: walls, palisades, newsstands, Morris columns (those wonderful Parisian green advertising columns with Islamic caps), urinals and the metro as well, and even human beings, who turned themselves into sandwich men. A new visual world sought to catch the eye of passers-by with sheer genius of colour and composition, becoming a key area not just for advertising, but for political expression and social demands.
Booking Information:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
‘Spring Exhibitions 2025’ is a zoom course which has been developed by Louise Friend and will be presented by Nicholas Friend. It is held on Tuesdays, beginning on Tuesday 8 April 2025 at 5 pm and ending on Tuesday 13 May 2025 at 5 pm. Please note the time of 5 pm: Nicholas will be lecturing from California (at 9 am his time) for some of the duration of this course.
If you book for the course but cannot manage a particular date, then be assured we will be sending recordings of sessions to all registered participants. Each session meets from 15 minutes before the advertised time of the lecture, and each lasts roughly one hour with 15 minutes discussion.
COST: £300 for all six for members, £360 for all six for non-members. All sessions are limited to 21 participants to permit an after-lecture discussion session.
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 719 397. She is available on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 2-5 pm.
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