Meon Valley Arts Society
Lectures
Tuesday 14 January 2025Subject: Every Picture Tells a Story
Speaker: GRANT FORD
Grant discusses great pictures he has handled in his career, from Pre-Raphaelites to Modern British works. Why do certain works fall out of fashion only to set new records decades later? He will discuss changes in the market and look at some British artists.
Tuesday 11 February 2025Subject: The Truth behind Picasso’s Portraits
Speaker: JACQUELINE COCKBURN
Squiggles, doodles, sketches, caricatures, drawings and ravishing portraits. This lecture considers the life of Picasso through his friendships and loves, charting his varied and extensive career through a variety of media. Often comic, he captured the very essence of the sitter without flattery or idealisation.
Tuesday 11 March 2025Subject: Gustav Holst, ‘The Planets’ and beyond
Speaker: ROGER ASKEW
In celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the birth in 1874 of Gustav Holst, this lecture examines his life, the creation of “The Planets” and explores many of his other works. His so-called serious orchestral works do not follow convention. It will be a surprising and revealing lecture, which is richly illustrated with musical examples.
Tuesday 8 April 2025Subject: The Punch and Judy Show (a subversive symbol from Commedia Dell’arte to the present day)
Speaker: BERTIE PEARCE
Mr Punch, the most famous puppet character of all time. His comic irreverence gave ‘Punch’ magazine its title. His anarchic vitality has inspired opera, ballet and punk rock and his enduring popularity has seen his likeness on goods ranging from Victorian silverware to computer games. Even today this ‘Lord of Misrule’ uses his slapstick to dispense with oppressive authority whilst proclaiming “That’s the way to do it!”
Tuesday 13 May 2025Subject: The Making of Landscape Photographs
Speaker: CHARLIE WAITE
A fully illustrated talk with images exploring the relationship between the making of an image and the way it is perceived by the viewer. The lecture includes looking at the eye and brain as an extraordinary double act made up of visual references and intellectual interpretation.
Tuesday 10 June 2025Subject: The Mystery of Holbein’s ‘Ambassadors’
Speaker: ANTHONY RUSSELL
Hans Holbein was the first great mainland painter to spend much time in England. His ‘Ambassadors’ dates from a tradition in the arts when no object was without meaning and symbolism. This lecture considers its creation and the hidden messages concealed within it.
Tuesday 8 July 2025 - Members’ Party - members only, no guests permittedSubject: Renaissance Marriage and Mythology
Speaker: HELEN OAKDEN
Taking one work from Venice, Florence and Rome, Helen will explore the extraordinary secrets of Renaissance marriage. Giorgion’s ‘Sleeping Venus’, Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ and Raphael’s ‘Galatea’ show the differences between each city, their attitudes towards brides, ideals of love and even bizarre anatomical beliefs. The talk will uncover the politics, personalities - and sex.
Tuesday 9 September 2025Subject: How to read the English Country Church – the Pre-Christian to the Tudors
Speaker: REVD DR NICHOLAS HENDERSON
It is possible to ‘read’ the passage of time, movements, cultures and peoples in the architecture and art forms evident in many of our English country churches. This lecture takes us through the pre-Christian era, the arrival of the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans and onwards to the sixteenth century and the epoch changing Tudor period.