Events

Tuesday 21 April 2026, 5-7.30pm. £20
For the first time in the UK, Michaelina Wautier is the subject of a major exhibition, opening at the Royal Academy of Arts on 27 March. Join Clare Ford-Wille with ARTscapades to explore the innovative and always exciting paintings by this trailblazing 17th-century Flemish artist whose life and work almost sank into oblivion after her death and was only rediscovered recently.

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Thursday 23 April 2026, 6-7pm. £10
Join Hilary Hope Guise for ‘Light’, the first of an exciting series of three talks on the depiction of light, space and time in art.

In the Dark Ages, Europe was covered in thick forests and fears abounded. Not surprisingly, light took on a theological or philosophical meaning. As the Medieval age of Faith waned, shadows began to appear, confirming the physical source of light as being from the sun,not from heaven. In art, sacred figures cast shadows for the first time, leading to the extreme chiaroscuro of Caravaggio and reflecting the political upheavals of the late 16th century. In the 20th century, Nihilism caused a plunge into the all-black canvasses of Ad Reinhardt, expressing a fear of light and human emotion. We then emerge into the 21st century with huge light installations by Olafur Eliasson, covering vast fields with coloured light, flooding buildings, churches, and landscapes.

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Tuesday 28 April 2026, 6-7pm. £10
Join Hilary Hope Guise for ‘Space’, the second of an exciting series of three talks on the depiction of light, space and time in art.

In early Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times, space was frightening, harbouring invisible demonic spiritual forces that caused a great fear of emptiness, as found in the book of Kells. This ‘Horror Vacui’ in which no space is allowed is evident in centuries of art.

In the 17th century, space is re-born in the airy landscapes of Claude Lorrain in step with the intellectual freedom in the Enlightenment. We return to the horror vacui in the late 19th century in Rodin’s Gates of Hell which announce a century of war. Today, the humbling reality and vastness of Space shows us ourselves, as seen from the other side of the moon.

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Thursday 30 April 2026, 6-7pm. £10
Join Hilary Hope Guise for ‘Time’, the final talk in an exciting series of three lectures exploring the depiction of light, space and time in art.

How do we frame time? First, with symbolic images, like the hour-glass, or the nails in Van Gogh’s boots? Yet iconography must evolve as the industrial world speeds up. In the 19th century the Impressionists’ rapid and cheeky images convey the pace of city life as in Monet’s flag-waving Paris, and later his time-capture in colours around his corn stacks. Brushstrokes speed up and disappear, annihilating human gestures in the consumerist images of the 20th century. Finally, in the installations of Andy Goldsworthy, time in Nature herself, is the great destroyer.

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Tuesday 12 May 2026, 4-5pm. £10
Join Desmond Shawe-Taylor to explore the rich tradition of comic painting. Images and jokes go together - as cartoons demonstrate - yet we often miss the comedy in the Old Masters. The Dutch painters of the golden age are some of the funniest, but their work draws on comic painting from the previous century and in turn inspires a British tradition, dominated by the work of William Hogarth.

Read more and book here >

Thursday 21 May 2026, 7-8pm. £10
Join Katie Wignall on a virtual exploration for ARTscapades of the capital's river crossings. Since London was founded, people needed to traverse the Thames and the varied history of these bridges give us fascinating insight into the history of the city. Part One will focus within the bounds of the City of London, from the world famous Tower Bridge to the hidden delights of Blackfriars.

Read more and book here >