Brisbane River

Friday 6 March​ 2026
ALBRECHT DURER: Life, Ego and Afterlife.
Presented by Albert Godetzky
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

In his day, Albrecht Dürer was a larger-than-life figure. Through the high quality of his woodcutting, and the facility with which printed culture could be disseminated, Dürer became an international success. Not a stranger to a mode of self-fashioning that would sit comfortably in today’s social media channels, Dürer crafted a lasting legacy for his art through his prints, paintings, and copious writing. Yet, the words he wrote – as much as the images he invented – reveal a man in profound search of his identity, especially at a time when social and religious values were in radical flux. Albert traces the artist’s origins in his goldsmith father’s workshop in Nuremberg, his ambitious travels in Italy and subsequent patronage by the Habsburgs.

Albert Godetzky received his PhD on Haarlem Mannerism from the Courtauld Institute where he was Associate Lecturer in Early Modern Art until 2025. He has worked at several European institutions including the National Gallery, London. In 2022, he was guest curator of Silent Rebels: Polish Symbolism around 1900 at the Munich Kunsthalle. His research has appeared in numerous art magazines and yearbooks, and he is currently preparing a book-length biography of the Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius.

Friday 17 April​ 2026
FASHION AND ART
Presented by Peter McNeil
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

Fashion has frequently been both subject and object for the practice of art, and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, became a type of popular aesthetics. For centuries artists engaged with and influenced fashion, many designing the very stuff of its support, cloth. Learn how art forms as different as history painting, sculpture, portrait painting, print-making and the commercial art, ephemera and photography of our own era have depicted, created and promoted fashions. Gain a firm sense of fashion history from the Middle Ages to our time. 

Dr Peter McNeil FAHA, is a Distinguished Professor of Design History, and a leading international scholar in the fields of design history, fashion studies and material culture. He was Foundation Professor of Fashion Studies in Sweden, and Academy of Finland Distinguished Professor, Helsinki. He has published widely, including Pretty Gentlemen on the 18th century’s Macaroni Men, and has worked with communities and museums around the world.

Friday 15 May​ 2026
AUGUST RODIN AND 19TH CENTURY SCULPTURE
Presented by David Worthington
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

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. Now that 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 ever, looking at his work in relationship to 19th century sculpture as well assessing his continuing relevance.

David Worthington has been drawn to abstract sculpture since seeing a Barbara Hepworth in a school history book aged 10. He graduated from Oxford University in 1984 with a degree in Philosophy and Theology, then studied Fine Art in London, Barcelona and New York. David is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Sculptors and was Vice President in 2010-13. He has carried out public commissions in the UK, America and Japan.

Friday 26 June​ 2026
ON THE WILD SIDE: Filming Creatures Great and Small
Presented by Pieter de Vries
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

“In this lecture, I’ll share my techniques for capturing extraordinary images for Sir David Attenborough and National Geographic. From playful Macaque monkeys in China to majestic Cassowaries in Northern Australia, I’ll illustrate my presentation with segments from my nature documentaries.”

Sydney filmmaker Pieter de Vries is one of the leading documentary cinematographers in the world. His career has seen him filming the Red Army in China, rats in the sewers of New York, and the wreck of the Titanic with director James Cameron. Pieter has contributed to programs hosted by Sir David Attenborough and was Director of Photography for Darwin’s Lost Paradise. His numerous awards have included Cinematographer of the Year, and an Emmy nomination.

Friday 10 July​ 2026
WHO’S AFRAID OF AI WEIWEI? Repression and Resistance in Recent Chinese Art
Presented by Barry Venning
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

When Chinese authorities arrested Ai Weiwei in 2011, the graffiti artist – Tangerine (Tang Chen), stencilled his image, Banksy-like, thousands of times all over Hong Kong, with the question ‘Who’s afraid of Ai Weiwei?’ Ai became the best-known symbol of resistance to Chinese repression, but many of his friends and peers risked the wrath of the Chinese state. In addition to Ai himself, the lecture examines the coded resistance of Ai’s friends in the Beijing East Village art community.

The interests and teaching of Art historian Barry Venning, range from the art of late medieval Europe to global contemporary art. Barry has published books, articles and exhibition catalogue essays on Turner, Constable and European landscape painting and has an ongoing research interest in postcolonial art and British visual satire. His media work includes two BBC TV documentaries, radio appearances for BBC local radio and ABC Australia and a DVD on Turner for the Tate.

Friday 7 August​ 2026
PERSEPOLIS: Art, Architecture and Ideology of the Persian Empire
Presented by James Renshaw
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

The Persian empire exploded into life during the middle of the 6th century BC and was the largest empire in the world for the next two centuries. In around 515, its third Great King, Darius I, commissioned the building of a new city, Persepolis, with his palace at its centre. We know a great deal about this palace, and one of its central features, the Apadana Staircase, can be seen in replica in the British Museum. What can this palace and its art tell us about the ideology of this extraordinary, influential empire?

Following a degree in Classics from Oxford University, James has taught Classics at secondary school and is currently teaches at Godolphin and Latymer in London.. Since 1998, James has published a number of textbooks related to the classical world, including In Search of the Greeks and In Search of the Romans. James has also lectured for the V&A Academy, most recently on their Classical World and its Afterlife and Classicism from the Ancients to the Renaissance courses.

Friday 11 September​ 2026
THE FASCINATION OF JEWELLERY: IMPORTANT WOMEN COLLECTORS
Presented by Clare Blatherwick
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

Looking at the collections of four very different women and their approaches to jewellery, how their backgrounds influenced their choices, and the messages jewellery can send in respect of status, wealth and politics. Marjorie Merriweather Post, Evalyn Walsh McLean, Madeleine Albright and Elizabeth Taylor are the subject of this richly illustrated talk.

Clare Blatherwick is an independent jewellery consultant based in Scotland. She has over twenty years of experience in the jewellery business, ten of which were spent as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams in Scotland, a role which saw her travel internationally searching for wonderful jewels to be auctioned around the globe. She has a keen interest in the historical aspect of jewellery and has lectured and appeared on various TV programmes in the UK and US as a jewellery expert.

ADDITIONAL LECTURE 3

Friday 11 September​ 2026
THE WORLD OF PEARLS
Presented by Clare Blatherwick
Time & Venue: 12:30pm, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland
Cost: $40
Enquiries to payadfasbr@hotmail.com

The allure of pearls has been documented from ancient times and there is evidence of the use of pearls in the Arabian Gulf region dating back to 4000BC. In ancient Rome, according to legend, Venus herself was born of the sea like a pearl. The Romans thought pearls were formed from the teardrops of the gods, or perhaps as a result of clams capturing dewdrops in the moonlight. This talk looks at the amazing variety of types of pearls, from those produced by oysters to marine snails, how they are found and some of the most famous pearls in the world, including those that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots.

Clare Blatherwick is an independent jewellery consultant based in Scotland. She has over twenty years of experience in the jewellery business, ten of which were spent as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams in Scotland, a role which saw her travel internationally searching for wonderful jewels to be auctioned around the globe. She has a keen interest in the historical aspect of jewellery and has lectured and appeared on various TV programmes in the UK and US as a jewellery expert.

Enquiries to payadfasbr@hotmail.com

Friday 16 October​ 2026
‘ONCE UPON A TIME … IN BLUE AND WHITE’: The Story of the Willow Pattern Plate
Presented by Amanda Herries
Time & Venue: 10:30am, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland

Two lovers meeting underneath the orange tree, an elopement, a fierce father and jilted suitor; pursuit across a bridge and into a little boat; tragedy and death. Two love-birds flying together forever – all under the gentle sway of the willow tree – on the instantly recognisable ‘Willow Pattern Plate’. From the early nineteenth century it was well-known and much loved design on thousands of English teapots, plates and dishes. Is it Chinese? Is it English? With one or two surprises, the story behind this famous image takes us from the origins of blue and white designs in the exotic East to the emerging wealth of the Midlands pottery towns.

Amanda read Archaeology & Anthropology at Cambridge. From 1978-1988 was a curator at Museum of London specialising in the decorative arts 1714 to present day. She has lived in Japan lecturing and writing on Oriental / Western cross-cultural and artistic influences. Her most recent publications on Japanese plant and garden influences in the West and the life of Henry Raeburn, Scotland’s foremost portrait painter.

ADDITIONAL LECTURE 4

Friday 16 October​ 2026
EAST MEETS WEST: The Influence of Chinese and Japanese Art on European Decoration
Presented by Amanda Herries
Time & Venue: 12:30pm, Auditorium 1, The State Library of Queensland
Cost: $40
Enquiries to payadfasbr@hotmail.com

From the 16th century people were seduced by the wonders of Chinese and Japanese porcelain and lacquer wares. Palaces and aristocratic houses had special rooms built to house the obsessive collections and the never-ending fascination for Oriental designs and decoration.

Amanda read Archaeology & Anthropology at Cambridge. From 1978-1988 was a curator at Museum of London specialising in the decorative arts 1714 to present day. She has lived in Japan lecturing and writing on Oriental / Western cross-cultural and artistic influences. Her most recent publications on Japanese plant and garden influences in the West and the life of Henry Raeburn, Scotland’s foremost portrait painter.

Friday 4 December​ 2026
AGM and Christmas Party
Venue: The Edge, The State Library of Queensland