The Arts Society Woking's Talk Programme 2016
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| All Speakers are carefully chosen
based on their reputation for attractive
and well-presented talks with good
pictures. Talks take place on the
second Wednesday of each month except
July and August. |
| Talks commence promptly at
10.30am at
The Lord Roberts Centre,
Bisley Camp,
Brookwood,
Woking
GU24 0NP |
| This
website includes an
Interactive map. |
| Coffee and biscuits are served from
9.45am. |
| Members may bring a visitor, but
the same person may not be a guest more
than twice a year. While we do not
charge a Visitors fee, Visitors may want
to make a donation to the Society of
(say) £5. |
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For the 2017 Talk
Programme, please click here |
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January
13th 2016 |
Talk: The Art And Craft
Of John Piper
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Speaker: Jo Walton BA Dip Hist
Art (Oxon) |
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Jo Walton ran a specialist art
bookshop in London, had a
working relationship with
Christies, taught adult
education classes in art history
and was a volunteer guide for
Tate Modern and Tate Britain.
Today much of Jo’s work is as an
Arts Society speaker but she also
talks for Dulwich Picture
Gallery, the Art Fund and for
local art groups and societies. |
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Blenheim Palace by John
Piper .Source: Blenheim
Palace |
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John Piper (1903-1992) was an
abstract painter, writer,
critic, typographer and lover of
architecture. He became one of
the best known Official War
artists depicting powerful
images of the destruction of
Coventry cathedral, the Houses
of parliament and the city of
Bath. He is also well-known for
his illustrations in the Shell
Guides working with John
Betjeman. |
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February
10th
2016 |
Talk: “Wild Beasts”‘of
1905 Fauve & French
Expressionist Painting
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Speaker: Frank Woodgate BA MBCS
ACIB. |
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Although this will be Frank’s
first visit to The Arts Society
Woking his
wife, Val, has talkd to us on
several occasions. Frank is a
speaker and Guide at Tate
Modern. He has talkd on P & O
cruises and is a script writer. |
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The Dance II by Henri
Matisse 1910. Source:
The Hermitage, St Petersburg |
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“Fauve” which
is The French equivalent of
German Expressionism is full of
colour and a sense of joie de
vivre, and artists such as
Matisse and Derain caused a
sensation when their works were
exhibited alongside a
classicised sculpture in Paris
in 1905. A critic referred to
the sculpture as “Donatello
parmis les fauves” (Donatello
among the wild
beasts), giving the name to the
movement. |
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March
9th 2016 |
Talk: Murderers,
Magicians, Madmen & Monarchs.
Shakespeare Through Artists’
Eyes
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Speaker: Vivien Heffernan BA
Cert ED. |
Vivien Heffernan is an art
history tutor for the continuing
education departments of Essex
and Cambridge Universities,
colleges and adult education
organisations. Vivien, who is
visiting us for the first time,
is a long-standing speaker with
the Open University on art
history courses ranging from the
early Renaissance to the 20th
century. As an Arts Society
speaker Vivien has also
talkd in Australia and New
Zealand. She is also a
practising artist. |
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David Garrick as Richard III
By William Hogarth
1745. Source: Walker Art
Gallery, Liverpool. |
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Shakespeare’s
plays over the past three
centuries have provided artists
with wonderfully rich source
material. Painters have been
inspired by extremes of passion,
by sprites, ghosts and monsters,
by the humanity of everyday
characters and by Shakespeare’s
evocative language. Two
tragedies Macbeth and Hamlet and
a comedy, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream will be explored.
Many Artists have illustrated
these plays. The talk
includes works by Fuseli, Blake,
Landseer and Millais. The images
will be accompanied by recorded
readings by a Royal Shakespeare
Company actor. |
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April
13th 2016 |
Talk: The Georgian House
Around The World
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Speaker: Roger Mitchell |
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Roger Mitchell studied History
at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds.
He then travelled and studied in
the USA with a Churchill Award.
A former college Vice Principal,
he now talks at the
University of Liverpool and for
adult residential colleges. In
addition to lecturing for
The Arts Society, he organises and leads
country house tours and also
carries out research at
Chatsworth. This is his first
visit to The Arts Society
Woking. |
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Vassal – Longfellow House 1759
in New England displaying fully
developed colonial Georgian
style. |
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The Georgian House
between 1720 and 1850 was one of
Britain’s most successful
exports. It was elegant and
versatile, particularly suitable
for hot climates and a wide
variety of building materials.
British or local architects
might provide plans but a
carpenter or bricklayer equipped
with a pattern book could
produce a satisfactory product.
In this
talk we travel with Roger
from England across the Irish
Sea and then across the Atlantic
to the American Colonies. We
continue to the far side of the
world, looking at Georgian
buildings in Australia and New
Zealand before heading for home
with a brief stop in Cape Town. |
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May 11th 2016 |
Talk: South West
Modernism – Avangarde In New
Mexico
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Speaker: Trisha Passes BA
(Hons) MA |
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Trisha has taught Art History at
Bristol University since 2005
and in 2009 won the teaching and
learning prize for the Faculty
of Fine Arts. She has also
taught in the Department of
Continuing Education at Oxford
University since 2008. This is
her first visit to Woking. |
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Indian Girl with Parrot and
Hoop, painted by Victor
Higgins 1920 |
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South West Modernism –
Avant Garde in New Mexico
will focus on the vibrant
artists’ colony that developed
in Taos New Mexico in the last
quarter of the nineteenth
century. It attracted Georgia
O'Keeffe and Marsden Hartley
during the 1920's and 1930's. |
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June
8th 2016 |
Talk: The Genius Of
Stradivari
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Speaker: Toby Faber MA MBA |
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Toby Faber began his career as
an investment banker with
Barclays de Zoete Wedd followed
by a stint as management
consultant with McKinsey &
Company. In 1996, he joined
Faber and Faber, a publishing
firm founded by his grandfather,
where he was managing director
until 2001. He has written two
books to date (on the
violin-maker Antonio Stradivari,
the other on the Imperial Easter
Eggs made by Carl Fabergé) and
now talks widely on these two
topics and on the history of
Faber and Faber. This is his
first visit. |
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Portrait of Antonio Stradivari
by Alton S. Tobey,
1971. Source:
Oberlin College Library, Ohio. |
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For more than 250 years
Antonio Stradivari’s
violins and cellos have been the
most highly prized instruments
in the world, loved by musicians
for their tone and beauty and
capable of fetching fabulous
sums of money when sold. How can
it be that successive
generations of violin-makers
have failed to meet the standard
set by Stradivari? Following
instruments from Stradivari’s
Cremonese workshop to the
present day, this talk which
includes illustrations and short
musical recordings, explores
that mystery |
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July
2016 |
No Talk (Summer
break)
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August 2016 |
No Talk (Summer
break)
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September
14th
2016 |
Talk: The Great Fire Of
London 1666 (350th Anniversary)
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Speaker: Barbara Askew BA
(Hons) Dip Ed MITG |
Barbara graduated with an
honours degree in History and
taught history for 15 years
before qualifying as a City of
London Guide in 1987 and as a
London Blue Badge Guide in 1988.
She is a Speaker, Course
Director and Examiner on Blue
Badge Guide Training Courses and
City of London Guide Training
Courses.
Barbara is a Freeman of the City
of London and regularly conducts
groups on walking tours in the
City. This is her visit to
The Arts Society Woking. |
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Unknown Artist circa 1700
Source: London Fire Brigade |
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The Great Fire of London
of 1666, which came
only months after the Great
Plague, devastated most of the
City of London. 13,500 houses,
87 churches and 44 livery halls,
as well as many public
buildings, were destroyed within
four days. This talk examines
the devastation wrought by the
fire, looks at the inspirational
plans put forward for the
rebuilding of the City and
explains how the reconstruction
which followed changed the face
of London for ever.
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October
12th
2016 |
Talk: The Art Of
Perception- Now You See It, Now
You Don’t
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Speaker: Bertie Pearce BA
(Hons). |
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Bertie Pearce returns to Woking
after his first very successful
visit in 2015. He is a Member of
the Inner Magic Circle with Gold
Star and has performed all over
the world. In 2009 he became an
accredited The Arts Society
Speaker and
has toured extensively sharing
his passion for Magic, Punch and
Judy, Victorian Pastimes and
Charles Dickens. He is an
entertainer who keeps audiences
enthralled whilst imparting his
knowledge on his specialist
subjects. |
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OP art by Victor
Vasarely |
Trompe l’oeil “Escaping
Criticism”
by Pere Borrell del
Caso, 1874 |
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There is an eternal fascination
with the unfathomable, the weird
ambiguous state of seeing things
which are not there – yet are
there. Since Roman times
illusions have been used in art.
The stretching and distorting of
perspective has been highly
developed by artists to create a
range of effects on the viewer.
This includes Trompe L’oeil,
Anamorphic art and Surrealists
Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte.
Op Art led by Victor Vasarely
and Bridget Riley. Finally
Camouflage, born out of war,
used also during peace |
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November
9th 2016 |
Talk: The Paintings Of
Hieronymus Bosch (500th
Anniversary)
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Speaker: Val Woodgate BA |
Val is a Speaker and Guide at
Tate Britain and Tate Modern and
is also a Speaker for Tate on
P&O cruises. She talks at
many other London Galleries and
for the National Trust.
She is a former member of the
teaching team at the Dulwich
Picture Gallery and is a script
writer for the Living Paintings
Trust, which brings art to the
blind and partially-sighted. As
an Arts Society Speaker Val has been
to Arts Societies throughout Britain and
elsewhere in the world.
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Hieronymus Bosch’s
paintings of devils,
demons and deadly sins are truly
unforgettable.
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At the same time, his
extraordinary treatment of
religious themes can be deeply
moving. His works are among the
most mysterious in the whole of
European art, yet if we examine
them in the context of
contemporary politics and
cultural sources we find that
not only are they perfectly
understandable, but
they also provide an amazing
insight into the society in
which the artist lived. |
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Right: The Garden of
Earthly Delights:
Detail of blue bird-man on a
stool by
Hieronymus Bosch (c.1500)
Source: Prado Museum, Madrid |
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Talk: Is Christmas Still In Good
Taste?
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Speaker: David Philips |
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David Phillips studied History at
Oxford, has worked for Nottingham Castle
Museum and from 1982-98 talkd in
Museum Studies and Art History at
Manchester University. This is his first
visit to The Arts Society Woking. |
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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens |
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Has Christmas gone downhill? Wasn’t
there a time when it was a celebration
of real values? The talk forms a
review of some historic and modern
Christmas imagery, starting with
Giotto’s painting of the first Christmas
crib. Then a light-hearted historical
survey of mid-winter celebrations,
starting in ancient Rome, reveals that
much of our traditional Christmas is
much more recent than one thinks.
Charles Dickens in England and
Washington Irving in the USA played a
major role. We look at revels and
rough-house Edwardian party games, and
discover a marriage chronicled in annual
photos of a couple showing their tree
and gifts over forty years. |
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Prior Year's Talks |
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To see the activities in
previous years, click on the
year;
2024
/
2023
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2022
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2021
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2020
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2019 /
2018 /
2017 /
2016 /
2015 /
2014 /
2013 /
2012 /
2011 /
2010 |
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Disclaimer |
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The Arts Society Woking cannot be held responsible for any personal accident, loss, damage or theft of members' personal property. Members are covered against proven liability of third parties. |
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