Wells

Art Appreciation

We were meeting in the Denning Room in Union Street, when we watched DVDs on art history, with a break for refreshment, when we had the opportunity to discuss the DVDs. We will be transferring to the room next door, the Seager Hall, once the Covid-19 situation allows us to.

While we have been unable to meet, we have been able to use the Internet for information, watch various videos online, and watch BBC art programmes. For example:

⦁ Museums and art galleries from around the world to visit online: see list on the side panel.

⦁ Google Arts & Cultures Collections
You can look at art galleries' and museums' collections here, with a zoom-in feature to get more detail.

⦁ Wikipedia has many articles on art and artists - just type in the box Search Wikipedia

⦁ YouTube. You can search for whichever artist interests you, in the Search box:
e.g. Monet's techniques

⦁ The Arts Society are offering a series of online lectures

⦁ Art in Isolation - the expert from Fake or Fortune? invites you into his house to see some of his paintings

Currently, we are holding Zoom meetings in the afternoon of the first Monday in the month, when we watch one of the Cocktails with a Curator series produced by the Frick Collection, housed in the former residence of Henry Clay Frick on Fifth Avenue, NY. The basic format, introduced since lockdown prevented the museum from opening, features one of the curators mixing a cocktail, and then talking about it and the painting, for about 20 minutes.

So far we have watched:
⦁ Jean-Siméon Chardin's 'Still Life with Plums'
⦁ Vermeer's 'Officer and Laughing Girl'
⦁ Monet's 'Vetheuil in Winter'
⦁ Turner's 'Harbor of Dieppe'
⦁ Constable's 'The White Horse'
⦁ Rembrandt's 'Polish Rider'and 'Self-portrait'

In future we will be watching:
⦁ Holbein's 'Sir Thomas More'

If you would be interested in joining the Zoom meetings, you can contact me by clicking on the pigeon icon on this page to send a message, and I will send you the Zoom link.

Of course you can watch videos on your own at any time. There are many others in the Cocktails with a Curator series which are still available - the link to the series is:
https://www.frick.org/interact/miniseries/cocktails_curator

As well as videos, there are some Art programmes available on BBC iPlayer:
⦁ Art of France
Andrew Graham Dixon takes viewers on a stunning visual journey through French art history.
⦁ Art of Persia
Samira Ahmed goes on a remarkable journey to places rarely seen, as she travels through Iran, telling the story of a complex and fascinating people, culture and history.
⦁ African Renaissance: When Art Meets Power
Afua Hirsch shows Africa on its own terms, exploring the histories of Ethiopia, Senegal and Kenya through their extraordinary art, music and culture.
⦁ Museums in Quarantine
Series that explores national museum collections at a time of enforced closure.

⦁ There may be other programmes to be viewed on BBC iPlayer:
In the box Search BBC iPlayer, type in Art for a full list.

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In the past we have watched one of the Great Courses DVDs called "How to Look at and Understand Great Art". A synopsis of the "tools" the lecturer suggested for looking at works of art is available here on the website, and was circulated to members. Prior to that we looked at various examples of non-western art, and some of the images on this page reflect that.

Also featured are the paintings from a series of DVDs borrowed from the U3A Resources Centre called The Private Life of a Masterpiece: "This award-winning series reveals the full and fascinating stories behind famous works of art, not just how they came to be created, but also how they influenced others and came to have a life of their own in the modern world". We were halfway through this series and so far we have looked at:

⦁ Sandro Botticelli: La Primavera
⦁ Paolo Uccello: The Battle of San Romano
⦁ Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper
⦁ Rembrandt van Rijn: The Night Watch
⦁ Johannes Vermeer: The Art of Painting
⦁ Diego Velázquez: The Rokeby Venus
⦁ Francisco Goya: The Third of May 1808
⦁ Eugène Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People
⦁ Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave
⦁ Edouard Manet: Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe

We hope to be able to return to watching DVDs in the Denning Room in due course. Before the pandemic interrupted our meetings, the group was fairly full, but if you are interested in joining us there in the future, please contact me by clicking on the pigeon icon on this page to send a message.
Jenny