Brisbane River
ArtsNational Brisbane River welcomes you.
For your annual subscription ArtsNational BrisbaneRiver provides a program of eight beautifully illustrated, informative and entertaining Lectures on many diverse topics relating to The Arts given by Lecturers all chosen for their communication skills and passionate, expert knowledge of their fields. Light Refreshments are served after each Lecture in a friendly welcoming environment which provides Members with the opportunity to socialise and to meet the Lecturers and ask questions. Your membership fee also provides access to the special Christmas Morning Tea which follows the Annual General Meeting.
Costed separately there are also four additional Afternoon Lectures for $35 each and a Special Interest Afternoon which provides an extended format for a more in-depth experience is $70 each. Enquiries to Chris Rylands on 0404 875 309 or payadfasbr@hotmail.com
Anyone with an interest in the arts or who wishes to develop an interest in the arts is very welcome. No prior knowledge is needed and the Lectures are very accessible. Our friendly Members all have one thing in common – an interest in learning more about the arts.
ArtsNational Brisbane River proudly supports young people under 25 to engage in the arts through our Young Arts (YA) Projects. We also support Young Conservators through the Association of ArtsNational’s the Patricia Robertson Fund.
Lectures:
Venue:
Lectures are held at The State Library of Queensland, Stanley Place, South Brisbane.
Time:
Lectures are on a Friday, please be seated by 10.25am as sessions begin at 10.30am sharp.
Membership:
The annual membership subscription is $220.00
We regret that we currently have no membership vacancies available but we do have a waiting list for future membership opportunities. To join the waitlist please contact Maria Hansen on mariahansen2@bigpond.com or (07) 3374 3530.
Contact:
For all general enquiries please contact: Terry Cronin
adfasbrisbaneriver@gmail.com or 0438 708 799.
Due to our full Membership, we are unable to accommodate Visitors or Guests at all Lectures in 2024. To enquire about Guest availability for each Lecture please contact Maria Hansen on mariahansen2@bigpond.com or (07) 3374 3530. Should there be a place available there is a $35 guest attendance fee.
Booking for each Lecture and Morning Tea is required on the Trybooking Link provided each month or, if you have problems, contact Jenny Neuss on bookingadfasbr@gmail.com or 0414 230 358.
Enquiries about Extra Events to Chris Rylands on payadfasbr@hotmail.com or
0404 875 309.
For all Payment enquiries contact Treasurer Chris Rylands on payadfasbr@hotmail.com or 0404 875 309.
Postal Address: PO Box 1764, Carindale, 4152
ABN: 21 339 806 033
Committee
Chair: Terry Cronin
Vice Chair: Paul Anthony
Secretary: Barbara Lloyd
Treasurer: Chris Rylands
Membership: Maria Hansen
2024 PROGRAM
Friday 8 March 2024
JENNIE CHURCHILL, WINSTON’S AMERICAN MOTHER: STYLE ICON OR AMITIOUS SEDUCTRESS?
Presented by Anne Sebba
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
History has treated Jennie Churchill unfairly as a woman with 200 lovers but 100 years after her tragically premature death, this lecture re-evaluates her legacy. In 1874, aged 20, American-born Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill. When this ended in disaster, she threw all her energies into her son Winston, her most absorbing creative project. However, having no income in an age when women were not expected to earn a living, Jennie indulged in various loss-making projects until becoming an interior designer before the term was invented.
Anne Sebba Biographer, historian, and author of eleven books Anne Sebba lectures in the US and UK, including the English- Speaking Union, Royal Overseas League, National Trust, British Library, and Imperial War Museum. A former Reuters foreign correspondent, Anne presents documentaries on BBC Radio. and regularly appears on television talking about her books, mostly biographies including Jennie Churchill, William Bankes, Laura Ashley, and Wallis Simpson. The latter, published as That Woman, was an international bestseller. Anne’s latest book is a history of Paris between 1939-49 through women’s eyes published in 2016 as Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s. Anne is a former chair of Britain’s Society of Authors.
ADDITIONAL AFTERNOON LECTURE
Friday 8 March 2024
LES PARISIENNES: HOW WOMEN LIVED, LOVED, AND DIED IN PARIS FROM 1939 TO 1949
Presented by Anne Sebba
Time & Venue: 12:30 – 1:45pm, The State Library of Queensland
Cost: $35
Les Parisiennes is a story about women’s lives during the Nazi occupation including British and American women caught in Paris, as well as native born resisters who were eventually sent to prison camps, couturiers, and jewellers as well as actors, night club dancers and housewives. British women worked as secret agents living clandestinely escorting downed Allied airmen from one safe house to another. We open with a magnificent circus ball at a chateau in the grounds of Versailles, many guests not believing war was imminent and ends with Christian Dior’s lavish 1947 new look and his perfume Miss Dior.
Enquiries to Chris Rylands on 0404 875 309 or payadfasbr@hotmail.com
Friday 19 April 2024
SEEING MUSIC, HEARING ART
Presented by David Banney
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
Leonardo and Palestrina, Picasso and Stravinsky, Debussy and Matisse – art and music are never produced in a vacuum, and the histories of art and of music have run similar courses, with music always a little way behind. This lecture traces the major historical movements of the last 1000 years, exploring the parallels between sound and visual images. How can we ‘hear’ perspective? How can we ‘see’ sonata form? What does Rothko sound like, and what does Philip Glass look like? And why does music always take longer to catch up?
David Banney is a conductor, composer, string player and educator. David is the Music Director of the Christ Church Camerata and the Newcastle Music Festival. David has worked with the Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras and Opera Queensland. A passionate educator, David has taught music from primary school to post-graduate level and spoken at numerous international conferences. He presented ‘Banney’s Baton Banter’, a weekly ABC radio show. Studying for a PhD in music David discovered the fascinating world of symmetry and symmetry breaking which has led to papers about symmetry in music, as well as interdisciplinary research with physicist Giuseppe Caglioti and endocrinologist Roger Smith. He is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Newcastle exploring the roles of symmetry and symmetry breaking in mathematics, science, visual art and design, music, literature and psychology. Also a Medical Doctor, David continues to work as a skin cancer practitioner.
ADDITIONAL AFTERNOON LECTURE
Friday 19 April 2024
WONDERS OF THE ALHAMBRA – SYMMETRY AND PATTERNS IN ISLAMIC ART AND DESIGN
Presented by David Banney
Time & Venue: 12:30 – 1:45pm, The State Library of Queensland
Cost: $35
For more than 700 years the Alhambra Palace in Granada has delighted and inspired. A treasure trove of art and design, the Alhambra is a virtual encyclopedia of symmetry and patterns, even more remarkable given the simplicity of the tools available to the artists and craftsmen. This lecture introduces the extraordinary techniques of design and construction that lie behind the tessellations of the Alhambra.
Enquiries to Chris Rylands on 0404 875 309 or payadfasbr@hotmail.com
Friday 24 May 2024
NORDIC VISION: SCANDINAVIAN PAINTING 1880 – 1914
Presented by Anne Anderson
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
The Scandinavians have developed a distinctive artistic culture. Their painters embraced modernity in terms of technique and subject matter. Many studied in Paris, but they invariably came home to paint en plein air. Anders Zorn built Zorngarden, a studio-house in Mora, Sweden; Carl Larsson moved to Lilla Hyttnäs, Sundborn in Denmark and Gallen-Kallela returned to Helsinki. The Symbolists artists sought to capture the spirit of a place rather than an accurate rendering. No one captured the angst of the era more effectively than Edvard Munch (1863-1944). Imitated his iconic Scream is as famed as Leonardo’s Mona Lisa.
Anne Anderson is a specialist in the Aesthetic Movement, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and Modernism. She is am Hon Associate Professor at Exeter University, a tutor for the Victoria and Albert Learning Academy, and Ceramics Consultant for Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum. Anne has published books on Art Deco teapots, the Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones, and Art Nouveau architecture. She has held several prestigious fellowships, including in the US. Anne has curated several national exhibitions, the most recent Beyond the Brotherhood; the Pre-Raphaelite Legacy (2019-20). An Arts Society lecturer since 1994, Anne toured Australia 4 times and has lectured on Cruise Ships. As well Anne guides for Travel Editions UK tours.
ADDITIONAL AFTERNOON LECTURE
Friday 24 May 2024
THE VIENNA SECESSION: FROM KLIMT TO SCHIELE
Presented by Anne Anderson
Time & Venue: 12:30 – 1:45pm, The State Library of Queensland
Cost: $35
In 1897 Gustav Klimt, already a well-established academic painter, led the Secession, a ‘break-away’ group of artists who embraced progressive ideas and sought artistic freedom. Paintings by Klimt and Schiele shocked the Viennese. They were accused of creating pornography, of revelling in the ugly and bringing art down into the gutter. Klimt celebrated the femme fatale, while Schiele was fascinated by the fragility of youthful innocence. The surface of Klimt’s The Kiss (1907) is richly covered with complex patterns that are esoteric and hard to decipher. Yet we are fascinated by such images, as we are by the man himself.
Enquiries to Chris Rylands on 0404 875 309 or payadfasbr@hotmail.com
Friday 28 June 2024
STREAMS OF FIRE AND TONGUES OF FLAME – A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ART OF GLASS
Presented by Geoffrey Edwards
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
In this illustrated lecture the ancient and remarkable history of glass as an art form is traced with reference to works in major public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. The lecture also refers to glass related imagery and symbolism in the visual arts, film and literature – a tradition that ranges in time and type from biblical allusion and Chaucerian dream visions of glass temples through to the novels of Daphne du Maurier, the films of Orson Wells, the poetry of Les Murray and recent science fiction.
Geoffrey Edwards was Director of the Geelong Art Gallery, one of Australia’s oldest and largest regional galleries. Prior to this appointment, he held Senior Curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Victoria where he was in charge of the collections of International and Australian sculpture and Melbourne’s celebrated holdings of ancient, antique and modern glass. His professional affiliations, here and abroad, are extensive and include, amongst others, the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, Visions Australia, the International Councils of Museums, Craft Australia, Museums Australia (Victoria), the Winston Churchill Trust (he is a former Churchill Fellow), the George Baldessin Trust and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria).
Friday 19 July 2024
RUBENS: POSES, POSITIONS AND PROPERTY
Presented by Dan Evans
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
Writhing sea nymphs with dimpled bottoms were only a small part of this prolific painter’s offerings. Rubens was charm personified and he worked for every major court in Europe. With his paintbrush he helped create peace in Europe and was honoured with a knighthood by not one but two European monarchs. Rubens used his position to retire early, retreating to his country estate to paint it most beautiful grounds. Understandably his career caused envy, yet created inspiration in equal parts, and his work demonstrates the close relationship between Money, Art & Power, whilst his attention to the female form has both scandalised and seduced.
Dan Evans, an educationalist with a passion for European art and architecture. He is a Housemaster at Cheltenham College, a full boarding and co-educational independent school established in 1841, where he also teaches History and A Level History of Art. Dan has been lecturing since 2001, and spent 9 years working as a senior lecturer, tutor, and tour guide for Art History Abroad. He was once voted the British winner of the World Guide of the Year Awards and continues to take groups of intrepid travellers to a range of European destinations.
Friday 16 August 2024
THE ART OF SEDUCTION
Presented by Lynne Gibson
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
Seduction had been one of the enduring themes of art since Eve offered Adam an apple. Courtly love blossomed in manuscripts and miniatures of the Middle Ages and the Italian Renaissance offered painters an Olympian cast of amorous gods and goddesses. Puritanical Dutch and Prudish Victorians tutted over the loose morals of fallen women. Rococo artists revelled in the flirtatious fun of Fetes Galantes and Belle Epoque ‘Gay Paree’ flaunted the Femme Fatale. But in our permissive society has the ‘Battle of Sexes’ killed the spirit of romance? This lecture celebrates the theme of love and courtship through painting from the Age of Chivalry to the Modern Age.
Lynne Gibson is a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, as well as in practical Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. She has held posts at the Universities of Sussex and Bristol, where she introduced ‘Understanding Art’ to the Lifelong Learning programme. She gives talks, lectures, courses and guided tours for a wide range of organisations including ARCA colleges, Art Galleries and Museums, The Art Fund, The National Trust and The Arts Society. She has worked as a professional artist specializing in oil painting and etching. Her work has been exhibited widely and used in a range of publications.
Friday 13 September 2024
PARADISE LOST AND RESTORED – 400 YEARS OF GARDEN DESIGN IN OXFORDSHIRE
Presented by Timothy Walker
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
The history of English garden design can be told in different ways, but rarely can it be told “through the lens” of one garden. The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and its design bears all the hallmarks of 17th century design. Through the next 400 years successive Horti Praefecti (head gardeners) changed the features reflecting the art of gardening, and occasionally the science of botany. This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed, or perhaps has not, in four centuries in Oxfordshire and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century. The title of the talk refers to the fact that one of the motivations for garden design remains the desire to create paradise on Earth. The meaning of paradise may now be less rooted in the Biblical account of the rise and fall of man, but there is still a clear vision of what we would like the world to resemble.
From 1988 to 2014 Timothy Walker was the Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Gardens are often thought of a place where science and art meet on equal terms. Timothy’s lectures often investigate this relationship. Since 2014, he has been a college lecturer and tutor in Botany and Plant Conservation at Somerville College Oxford.
Friday 1 November 2024
UNFOLDING THE ART OF GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
Presented by Deborah Jenner
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland
O’Keeffe’s special vision bends, buckles and lobs flowers, landscapes and space itself into smoothly-painted folds of swirling hues in order to unearth a deeper truth. Through the metaphor of folding, O’Keeffe’s art reveals an original interpretation of form and colour. Parallels with origami shed light on her approach to composition that never loses sight of the intrinsic wholeness of the blank surface. All allusions a 3rd dimension double-back (like a Mobius strip) to join the natural flatness of the canvas. Her palette is seen as a rainbow of translucent colour releasing brilliant hues through prismatic refraction from the underlying glow of white light. By redefining her art’s so-called erotic, biomorphic folds within a wider symbolic context, this study reveals a uniquely all-embracing vision of her work. Seen through the significance of folds, the critical texts on O’Keeffe’s painting – from those of Stieglitz’ revue, Camera Work, to the most contemporary – take on a new twist.
Deborah Jenner, American-born art historian; member of College Arts Association has resided in Paris since 1990. She has worked at the Ecole du Louvre, the Sorbonne, the Catholic Institute, and the British Council. Her Doctorate thesis proved non-western influences in Georgia O’Keeffe’s art. Deborah’s publications include catalogue essays for Musée d’Orsay (New York City et l’Art modern) and Centre Pompidou (Les Traces du Sacré), many scholarly papers and Gallery critiques. She gives public talks, guided walks and museum tours for ex-pat organisations and study-abroad programs.
SPECIAL INTEREST AFTERNOON
Friday 1 November 2024
Presented by Deborah Jenner
Time & Venue: 12:30 – 3pm, The State Library of Queensland
Cost: $70
Session 1 – Andy Warhol: Behind the Surface of the Superficial
Warhol: Just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it. However, Warhol’s Zen Koan statement begs closer investigation. Bearing in mind Warhol’s near-death experience after being shot in 1968 while looking at Widowed Jackies and Electric Chairs as well as the Camouflaged Last Supper of his later years, we see that his art is anything but superficial. His portrayal of a gun, in fact, reveals he same model that had been used tin an attempt to kill him. This talk will highlight revelations from Warhol’s early biography that trace an awareness of the Buddhist concept of emptiness and of infinite repetition as well as his ardent practice of Byzantine venting Catholicism and how he applied both to his artwork. It illuminates his forewarnings about our 21st century ‘s obsession with the mass media. The depth of Warhol’s message finally comes out.
Session 2 – Picasso: The Best Disguised Copycat off all Painters
Traditionally aspiring artists have set up easels in front of museum masterpieces to learn the tricks of the trade. Yet, Picasso elevated this to an art, as he copied anything and everything except the brushwork. His inspirations pick out costume details, stylised facial features, colour palettes and symbols to remake renowned genre scenes and portrait poses. Yet, for each work, Picasso’s own bravura, stylised forms, and flair for distilling line to its essence lend his unique signature. From African statues and Indus Valley seals to Titian, Chardin and Goya, and again, on to his greatest rivals – Matisse and Modigliani – Picasso builds up a repertoire that telescopes the history of art itself. He even copied Dada’s ready-mades and made them his own as with his Bull’s head from a bicycle. Yet, most of his sources go unrecognized. As he confessed: “Good artists copy, great artists steal”. In light of today’s worldwide web, his mise-en-abyme copying brings forth much debate to redefine art.
Enquiries to Chris Rylands on 0404 875 309 or payadfasbr@hotmail.com
Friday 6 December 2024
CHRISTMAS MORNING TEA AND AGM
Time & Venue: 10:30am, The State Library of Queensland