Victoria, BC – If you’re an enthusiast of modern art who would like to learn more about it, or if it leaves you feeling a little dumbfounded, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria welcomes you to join them for a unique lecture series.
Building on the success of last year’s inaugural art lectures, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Gallery Associates are presenting a new four-part series on Sundays in February and March. Dr. Daniel Mato returns with a focus on the “shock of the new” and an examination of modern art between the wars.
“The lectures are captivating, and bring together art lovers as well as raise funds to support the Gallery,” says Patti-Anne Kay, of The Gallery Associates, the AGGV’s fundraising group.
Modern Art, Understanding the Shock of the New invites the public to either individual or all of the four lectures in the Gallery on Sunday afternoons, February 14 and 21, and March 6 and 13. Each lecture runs from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and includes time for questions and light refreshments.
In the first lecture, Making the Cubes Dance, Dr. Mato begins with cubism, its forms and masters, including Picasso, and its impact on the development of modern art. A full description is available here.
Subjective Realities: Do You Feel What I See? will be the second lecture, which looks at art projected in images that distort reality, creating worlds of emotive force often depicting urban life in its most garish and corrupted manner. Dr. Mato will discuss expressionism in France and Germany and the impact the First World War had on expressionist work.
The third lecture, Art of Suspended Belief: The Surrealists, looks at how surrealist artists sought to give form to the spirits lurking in the subconscious by creating a reality in which ordinary objects are placed in a new set of relationships that challenge rational understanding.
In the final lecture, Russian Art, Spiritual and Objective, Structure and Void, Dr. Mato looks at some of the first truly abstract paintings that came out of Russia before the First World War and after the first few years of the revolution in 1917, and how the early Russian artists, architects and designers strongly influenced modernist design in Europe continuing to the present.
The presenter, Dr. Daniel Mato, Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Calgary, has held many notable titles, including gallery and exhibition curator, Professor of Art History and Director of the Art Gallery at the University of Manitoba. Daniel has a fascinating knowledge of modern art at the turn of the 20th century. Daniel, who has retired in Victoria, is taking an active role in supporting the AGGV and the gallery’s renewal project.
Tickets for the entire series are $100 for students and Gallery members, $120 for general admission. Individual lectures are $30 for students and members, $35 for general admission. Tickets include admission to the AGGV and light refreshments. You can purchase online at aggv.ca/events, through Eventbrite and at the AGGV.
For more information, visit aggv.ca/calendar or call 250-384-4171.
