Art for Everyday Life

Speaker
With Peter Vass, Fellow of Oxford Brookes University
Event date
6 Oct 2021 to 20 Oct 2021
Event time
14:00 - 15:00
Venue
Ashmolean Museum - Online Workshop
Online
Event type
Courses and workshops
Event cost
£21 for the entire course
Disabled access?
Yes
Booking required
Required

With Peter Vass, Fellow of Oxford Brookes University

Some of the best 20th century British pictorial art was not found in museums and galleries but on tanker lorries and in underground stations. In a series of three talks, Peter Vass shows how artists like Piper, Ravilious, Sutherland and the Nash brothers became involved in commercial and government-funded projects to record landscape and life in Britain.

Preserving Britain

Companies like Shell were making places much better known to people by using artists' representations of landscape and life to advertise their products. However, it was a countryside under threat not only by modernisation but by the threat of war. This produced a unique project to record people and places at the time. This talk examines the art resulting from these efforts to record Britain.

Educating Britain

Artists' interest in the education of children resulted in two remarkable initiatives to bring fine art and schools closer together. So successful were these that even great European artists like Matisse and Picasso became involved.

Brightening Britain

Post-war Britain was a country in a state of depression and austerity. Private and public companies from Lyons Tea to the London Underground sought to brighten the gloom through the use of graphic and vivid images. Many artists, in a similar state of despondency, welcomed and responded to this opportunity to work.

The event will take place online on Zoom and a link to join the event will be shared in advance by email.

Booking is essential and tickets are £21 for the entire course.