'Matisse in the Studio': joie de vivre and Matisse as collector
Two-day art history and theory course
28 October 2017 10am - 5pm29 October 2017 10am - 5pm
The General Assembly Room, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
£360. Includes all materials, light refreshments and a wine reception at the end of the Saturday.
Matisse in the Studio
Terms and conditions
Join international expert on Matisse and modern art, Dr Nicholas Watkins, for a thrilling insight into Matisse’s art and practice, the inner sanctum of his studio and his relationship to the outside world, and people and objects he collected around him.
Matisse was at the forefront of one of the most vibrant and progressive periods in European culture which lay the foundation for modern art and its ideals. He was fiercely independent and embraced motifs that evoked a unique view of the human condition and its context. Even in times of great historical turmoil and uncertainty, straddling two great wars that ravaged Europe, Matisse offers a vibrant, almost utopian, vision of exotic setting and objects, richly colourful interiors, oriental nudes, and seascapes of the Côte d'Azur where he worked, provocatively glimpsed from a window beyond. His interpretation of the world remains both beguiling and unsettling and evokes discussion, debate and much admiration.
Guided by experts, this course provides a unique opportunity to explore the RA’s exhibition Matisse in the Studio, and gain a deeper understanding of this remarkable artist as well as exciting and ground-breaking period in the arts.
The course aims to evoke the spirit of the age and the popular setting of the French Riviera, which became both a winter and later summer retreat of unrivalled reputation. The lifestyle and the landscape fuelled and inspired several generations of Europe’s greatest artists, who lived and worked there. As well as providing an over-arching art historical frame, the course allows a unique insight into the inner sanctum of Matisse’s working life, studio and practice.
The course is notable in drawing on the research and archival material of Dr. Nicholas Watkins who, during lengthy research trips to France in the late 1960s and early 1970s, became closely acquainted with Matisse’s immediate family, models and friends. He was able to experience and photograph several of Matisse’s motifs, objects and studio interiors which have subsequently been lost or destroyed and this unique documentary material will form part of his lectures.
Matisse was an obsessive collector of objects and this course will consider the artist as collector alongside the objects that surrounded him. We will consider the what, why and how he collected and the influence Matisse's collection had on his practice and art.
This weekend course provides an exciting opportunity to explore the contributions of Matisse also within modern art with insight into the historic and critical narratives. Tracing Matisse’s practice with reference to contemporaries and the artists he directly inspired, as well the immediate context of the French Riviera in which he worked and the wider historic, social and economic context of the time provides a unique opportunity to understand the significance and enormous influence of Matisse, his ideas and the period in shaping the course of Western art and culture.
£360. Includes all materials, light refreshments and a wine reception at the end of the Saturday.
Matisse in the Studio
Terms and conditions
About the course
This course is suitable for enthusiastic beginners as well as those with previous knowledge who would like to develop their understanding further.
This course is for you if:
• You have a general interest in the arts and culture and would like to acquire art historical knowledge alongside viewing the artworks.
• You have a general interest in modern art and would like to learn more about its importance and development during this period
• You would like to deepen and enrich your knowledge with an expert perspective and explore in detail the life and works of Henri Matisse.
What's included?
£360
Saturday 28 – Sunday 29 October 2017
10.00am – 5.00pm on both days
Includes
• A varied programme of lectures and discussions and debate led by specialist in the field
• Peer group conversations that are led by course tutors
• Early bird entry to the Matisse in the Studio exhibition on Saturday as well as complimentary access to the exhibition throughout the course and a directed visit alongside course material
• Light refreshments at the beginning of each day
• A drinks reception at the end of the Saturday
• A certificate of participation upon course completion
Minimum age 18
The General Assembly Room was originally a private room in Burlington House, a Palladian mansion set back from Piccadilly and completed in 1668 by its owners, the 1st Earl and Countess of Burlington. After the arrival of the Royal Academy in 1867, the room was transformed into the Chamber for the General Assembly, the Academy’s governing body, and has remained the central meeting room and debating chamber of Academicians who conduct the business of the Academy here up to the present day. It is part of the suite of John Madejski Fine Rooms, the opulent, gilded and frescoed rooms which contain many of the principle works of the Academy’s art collection and have views onto the famous Annenberg Courtyard and its learned societies.
Olimpia Isidori
Deputy Director Specialist Impressionist & Modern Art Department
Sotheby’s Auction House
Olimpia Isidori, Deputy Director, Specialist, Impressionist & Modern Art Department, joined Sotheby's London in 2010. Working closely with a range of international experts, she has been responsible for cataloguing, researching, authenticating and condition checking works of art presented in the bi-annual Day Sales. In her current role, Ms Isidori is actively involved in securing consignments throughout Europe for the Impressionist & Modern Art sales as well as advising continental collectors on both the selling and buying sides of the business. Of dual Italian and French descent, Ms Isidori received a BA and MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art specialising on the reinterpretations of Modern art through Postmodern theories. Prior to joining Sotheby’s, she was a curatorial intern assistant at Tate Modern, and assisted the Mayor Gallery and The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, strengthening her knowledge and expertise of this period.
Kathryn Brown
Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture
Loughborough University
Kathryn Brown is a specialist in French modernist art and literature. She has published widely on 19th- and 20th-century French painting, artists’ books, contemporary art, and the art market. Her most recent book is Matisse’s Poets: Critical Performance in the Artist’s Book (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) and she is currently writing a Critical Life of Matisse for Reaktion Books. Dr Brown's other publications include Women Readers in French Painting 1870–1890 (Ashgate, 2012) and, as editor and contributor, Perspectives on Degas (Routledge, 2017), Interactive Contemporary Art: Participation in Practice (IB Tauris, 2014), and The Art Book Tradition in Twentieth-Century Europe (Ashgate, 2013). She holds a D.Phil in French (University of Oxford) and a PhD in Art History (University of London) and is the series editor of Contextualizing Art Markets for Bloomsbury Academic.
About the tutor
Nicholas Watkins
Nicholas Watkins, B.A. Hons., M.Phil., Ph.D., Emeritus Reader in The School of Arts at the University of Leicester, is an acknowledged international authority on Matisse and modern art. His M. Phil. Dissertation at the Courtauld Institute of Art was on Matisse’s use of colour, which is a theme he has returned to throughout his research.
During a lengthy career spent lecturing at art schools and universities, Nicholas has written numerous books, specialist articles and reviews on Matisse. He has also curated and contributed to major exhibitions on modern art and catalogues on Matisse and French painting, notably: Matisse (Phaidon Press, Oxford 1984) and Matisse (Phaidon Press, London 1992) described as ‘A brilliant and accessible analysis of Matisse’s use of colour' (Kate Baillie, Provence and the Côte d’Azur, London 1998). Other notable books include Bonnard (Phaidon Press, London 1994); Les Chefs-d’oeuvre du Matisse et Les Matisse de Matisse, exhibition and catalogue, Tokyo 1991, to raise money for the renovation of the Musée Matisse at Nice; ‘The Genesis of a Decorative Aesthetic’ in Beyond the Easel: Decorative Painting by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis and Roussel, 1890-1930, The Art Institute of Chicago and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001; Behind the Mirror, Aimé Maeght and His Artists, Bonnard, Matisse, Miró, Calder, Giacometti, Braque (Royal Academy of Arts, London 2008); ‘Bonnard et l’art décoratif’ in Pierre Bonnard Peindre L’Arcadie (Museé d’Orsay, Paris 2015) and Pierre Bonnard Painting Arcadia (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco 2016); and most recently, ‘The Making of Matisse’ in the Royal Academy of Arts Magazine, Summer 2017.
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