Happy New Year to All Our Members
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TASNEE News Update * January 2021 Happy New Year to all our Members First of all, thank you to all who joined our December webinar lecture, ‘In the Kingdom of the Sweets’ with Nigel Bates. I hope those of you who ‘zoomed’ in enjoyed the lecture as much as I did – I felt that for the first time I have actually understood the story of ‘The Nutcracker’ and certainly the history of Tchaikovsky’s music and the making the ballet itself was completely new to me. It was wonderful to see the extracts from the ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, reminding us how special it will be to see live performances again. It was a real pre-Christmas treat and one that prompted a lot of positive feedback. Once again, fortunately, Nigel Bates being an experienced ‘zoom lecturer’, I was able to learn a little bit more about the process from him. Christmas has as usual whizzed by, even though my Christmas, probably like a great many people’s, has been very different this year and here we are, already in January 2021. Fingers crossed that the year can only improve on 2020. There is of course positive news with the vaccine gradually becoming more available. It seems to be the one thing that will hopefully take us back to a more normal, sociable life and one in which our lectures can take place in a venue with a live speaker and audience. So, trying to stay on a more positive note, I even detect a slightly lengthening day, even if only for a few extra minutes and walking around the garden there are definite signs of life – spring bulbs poking through, even the odd snowdrop and primrose in flower. It seems however that for the foreseeable future our lectures are going to be on-line, offered only in this ‘Zoom Webinar’ format, so I hope more members will have a go and join us for our next lecture on Thursday 14 January, ‘Paula Rego: Painting women on the Edge and Tales of the Unexpected.’ The lecture is only available as a Zoom webinar lecture. Just as a reminder I am including the information about how to join the Zoom webinar lecture again: 1 Joining the Zoom webinar lecture It is very straightforward to join a Zoom meeting or webinar, as shown below: Zoom instructions: To participate in our lectures via Zoom webinar you can download a Zoom app onto your device or join our lecture directly via a Zoom link. The easiest method is if you have already downloaded the Zoom App. The invitation to the Zoom lecture will be sent on Tuesday 12 January. Provided you register in advance when you receive the invitation, you will be reminded on the day with another email and just have to click on the link. To help those who are unfamiliar with Zoom here is a link to a short Zoom Video Tutorial which explains how to join a Zoom meeting or webinar. Zoom Webinar Lecture Programme Thursday 14 JANUARY 2021 11am Paula Rego: Painting women on the Edge and Telling Tales of the Unexpected Linda Smith This lecture looks at the life and work of Paula Rego, who is a British artist of Portuguese origin best known for her depictions of folk tales and strikingly unusual images of women. Paula Rego settled in this country permanently in the 1970s and over the following twenty years her career and reputation built steadily. In 1990 she was invited to become the first Associate Artist at the National Gallery. Her well- known series of paintings and prints based on nursery rhymes emerged from this residency, as did another series of large scale paintings which is currently displayed in the National Gallery restaurant. In her early days, Paula Rego experimented with many different approaches but her mature style places a strong emphasis on clear draughtsmanship and the human figure. She produces works which suggest complicated narratives full of psychological tension, drama, and emotion. She was made a DBE in 2010. 2 Thursday 18 February 11am Peggy Guggenheim Alexandra Epps She was described as the 'poor little rich girl' who changed the face of twentieth century art. Not only was Peggy Guggenheim ahead of her time but she was the woman who helped define it. She discovered and nurtured a new generation of artists producing a new kind of art. Through collecting not only art but the artists themselves, her life was as radical as her collection. The Annual General Meeting 2021 The AGM is normally held directly before the February lecture but in 2021 this will not be the case. It has been decided to postpone the 2021 AGM until later in the year when hopefully, there will be the possibility of members being able to attend the lecture in person. The Programme Booklet should be amended accordingly; please refer to the TASNEE website for up-to-date news. Thursday 18 March 11am Field of the cloth of Gold: 6000 Englishmen in France Jo Mabbutt In June 1520 Henry VIII and Francis 1 met to ratify an Anglo-French alliance and to celebrate the betrothal of Henry’s daughter Mary to the Dauphin. The two handsome ‘Renaissance Princes’ were both in their 20’s with similar reputations in military prowess, sport and patrons of the Arts. Both had imperial ambitions and were eager to display themselves as magnificent noblemen and warrior kings. Each took 6000 to a field in Calais for 18 days of events and entertainments staged to display the skill and splendour of each King and country. How was it all achieved? Articles, Reviews, Recommendations and Links What did you do during lockdown? Well, I spent those long, boring, culture derived days, online learning about anything from Welsh small trains to ballet. One of my favourite zoom courses explored the Garsington Manor crowd, who gathered around the fabulous society host Ottoline Morrell. The Manor was the home of Ottoline and Philip Morrell who hosted wonderful gatherings, initially at 3 their London home and later at this country Oxfordshire residence; it was a who’s who of up and coming cultural icons. Garsington Manor was in its heyday during, and just after, WW1, attracting many visitors, some who were pacifists, including the Bloomsbury gang, and writers including D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot and Aldous Huxley. There was entertainment and grand surroundings, but guests also risked being the subject of a novel or poem, satirised and lambasted by their fellow visitors. Poor Ottoline was particularly a target for their writings, and also barbed remarks, despite enjoying her generous hospitality and patronage of the arts. She was a toweringly tall women, a wearer of large hats, with a highly individual wardrobe, draped on a body which was set off by a distinguished face, aquiline nose, and not least a distinctive, loud, sing song voice. It was Ottoline, and her home, that is the focus of Aldous Huxley’s early novel Crome Yellow –and which formed part of our course studies. It is a thinly disguised novel mocking the characters and goings on connected to Garsington Manor. I think my tutor summed up the book very well describing it as more accessible and instantly readable than The Waste Land by T. S Eliot, but as rich in references as that iconic work. The cast of Crome Yellow (Crome = Garsington Manor) includes Dennis Stone (Huxley), Priscilla Wimbush (Ottoline), Mr Barbecue-Smith - Mr BS, (Arnold Bennett), Gombauld (Mark Gertler) and two characters sharing attributes of the artist Carrington. It was through critical reading that I really unravelled this novel and its many digs and back stories. If you are familiar with Gertler and Carrington you will know of their complex relationship, which often played out, and reached its climax, at Garsington. Carrington eventually chose homosexual Lytton Strachey, who in turn preferred Ralph Partridge, who loved and married Carrington, thus forming a ménage à trois, each in love with someone else in the triangle. The novel discusses the development of art, often through Gombauld, references Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, a poem eagerly anticipated at Garsington, and current interests, which are comically described, concerning such as automatic writing and using spirits to instruct writers. The more you dig the more you find on so many topics, history, religion, and of course art and writing, explored through the complex lives of its characters, treated with irony, humour and withering reductions of the most self-important members of its cast. Lucy Barr 4 Minsmere Chapel, RSPB Minsmere Suffolk East Suffolk Arts Society sent us this link to a wonderful art installation project at Minsmere RSPB completed by artist Arabella Marshall. The site includes a short video about the creation and installation of the art work. It is really very uplifting. www.awingandaprayer.org.uk Other News I have to confess that I have not had a particularly culturally rich month of December. I had bravely booked for the ‘Arctic Culture and Climate’ exhibition at the British Museum in early January but heard from them last week that it, like all galleries and museums, is shut until further notice. There is still much to access on-line. I receive notifications from all the big five – The Tate Modern and Britain, The Royal Academy, The National Gallery and The National Portrait Gallery and The British Museum. The Courtauld, the Photographers’ Gallery, The Hayward and galleries around the country - all have a wealth of information. There is theatre to watch and music to listen to. One television programme that I enjoyed in Lockdown was ‘Staged’ with Michael Sheen and David Tennant and I see there is a second series starting on Monday 4 January.