Lectures 2019-20
Programme Secretary Kati Byrne: programme@tasla.org.uk
If you want to view the programme for the whole year, just click on Programme 2019-20.
September 10th 2019 Nigel Bates
Tantrums and Tiaras- Backstage at the Royal Opera House London
The Grand Tour was regarded as an essential rite of passage for the aristocracy
andeducated classes. Its origins, dating from the 15th century and incorporating the wonders of the ancient world from the Mediterranean to the Holy Land, reached their zenith in the 18th and 19th centuries with the discoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum. This talk, based on Marc’s passion for collecting Grand Tour souvenirs and illustrated with examples from his own collection, is a fascinating insight into the world of early tourist travel and collecting and its far-reaching influence on the fashion and style of a nation.
October 8th 2019 Mark Hill
Undressing Antiques
“Antiques. I don’t understand them and they’re beyond my budget. Nobody
even collects any more. They’re not for me.” An introduction to buying antiques and using them in today’s homes. We look at the antiques market and at different meanings of the word ‘value’. What are current and future generations of collectors buying, why are they buying it and how do they display it?
November 12th 2019 Paul Rabbitts
Great British Public Parks – A Concise History
We have all enjoyed our own local parks at some point but what do we 
really know about the origins of this great institution? From their Victorian heyday, through their decline in the 1960s and 1970s, to our revived love for them today, this talk explores the need for parks and what makes parks great, illustrated with examples of lodges, lakes, bandstands, fountains and floral displays.
December 10th 2019 Jo Banham
The History of Wallpaper
Wallpaper is the Cinderella of the decorative arts – the most ephemeral and least 
precious of decorations for the home. Yet, wallpaper has adorned houses grand and ordinary since the 16th century, with many beautiful designs: the first black and white patterns, elegant flock hangings, Chinese hand-painted papers, Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and 20th century Modernist as well as contemporary designs.
January 14th 2020 Natalia Murray
New Art for a New Society: Propaganda and Russian Art
In 1917 Lenin proclaimed that culture in the new Bolshevik State should 
support political needs and propagate Communist ideas. How did the revolution, and the new role of art, affect artists? How did the new government define culture? We will look at the first expressions of proletarian art, monumental sculpture and evolutionary slogans and ask: was art useful for the revolution or was revolution useful for art?
February 11th 2020 Stella Lyons
Do women have to be naked to get into the museum? Women Artists and Art History
In New York in 1985, 7 women launched the Guerrilla Girls in response to the 
MOMA exhibition ‘An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture’, whose 165 artists included only 13 women. This talk considers the changing position of women in art history, and looks at examples of female artists who pushed the boundaries of this male-dominated world.
March 10th 2020 Simon Seligman
Venice to Sheffield - John Ruskin’s Passion for Art, Craft and Social Justice
We celebrate the extraordinary life and work of this visionary Victorian, born 200 
years ago. A writer, teacher, artist, collector, patron and critic, Ruskin is best known as a champion of Turner and admirer of Venice. But his ideas also inspired the Arts and Crafts and Labour movements; the founding of the National Trust; and influenced George Eliot, Tolstoy, Proust and Gandhi
April 21st 2020 Howard Smith
The Eagle Comic: Dan Dare and the Art of Frank Hampson
This is the extraordinary story of how a vicar and an art student founded the 
million selling Eagle magazine in 1950. It looks at how the Dan Dare studio worked and the incredible detail that Frank Hampson went to in creating a graphic legend that was to influence generations. The talk includes rare artwork and vintage film clips.
due to COVID-19
May 12th 2020 Tony Rawlins
Mad Men & Artists – how the Advertising Industry exploits Fine Art
Fine art has given advertisers a great deal of material to use in creative campaigns.
From the Renaissance to the present day, art has provided opportunities to enhance brand imagery with humour, satire and irony. The talk covers how advertisements are created, and why the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo have been a particularly rich source of their visuals.
due to Covid-19
June 9th 2020 Graham Griffiths
Leokadiya Kashperova – Russia’s celebrated forgotten Female Composer
The rediscovery of Leokadiya Kashperova - composer and concert pianist previously 
known only as Stravinsky’s piano teacher - establishes her as the earliest known female Russian composer of international stature. The story of the lecturer’s research unveiling this romantic figure – nicknamed ‘Snow Maiden’ - and of Kashperova’s lyrical music, was part of the BBC Radio 3’s 2018 celebration of ‘5 Forgotten Female Composers’.
due to Covid-19
