Three Kinds of Art: Impressionism, Cubism and Abstraction (1)

This lecture concentrates on just three paintings to illustrate the retreat from illusionistic painting familiar to us since the Italian Renaissance. Taking three concrete examples, Professor Read shows how, in search of ever more realistic effects, Monet thickened the transparent picture surface with opaque crusts of paint. This caught the attention of the early Cubists as they took apart the language of nature painting to create ambiguous effects more suited to the industrial age. The lecture ends with a close reading of a contemporary work of abstract art to show how it presents the art work as an object in its own right rather than one that sacrifices its reality to illusions of other objects. He will show how abstract artists work with the eyes and minds of the spectator, as much as the materials they shape and colour. One of the dilemmas that the audience will be invited to discuss is whether the path to such art is fundamentally materialistic or transcendental.

Richard Read is Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, Perth. He is widely published and presents art lectures in an engaging and informative way for all audiences. 

Hosted by Tresillian Arts Centre.