1.30 - 3.30pm
The course takes place over 9 sessions starting on 23 April 2026.
A new series of nine talks on this ever poular series from Richard. Combining art history, biography and critical analysis you will learn about the lives and works of some important artists and topics.
What did these artists do? Why did they do it? Why does it matter?
Each session will incorporate discussion, PowerPoint presentations, handouts and recommendations for further study.
This short course is suitable for beginners and/or intermediate students, learning will take place in a relaxed and friendly environment, without formal assessment.
Course tutor, Richard Dean MA, is a practicing artist and experienced lecturer who has lectured at universities and art colleges in London and the southeast and at Tate Britain.
23 April
Manet’s Musique
His panorama of fashionable Paris, Music in the Tuileries, is Manet’s first masterpiece. This is a talk about Manet’s early work and the background of profound social and cultural transition which helped shape it.
30 April
Realism, Impressionism, Naturalism
We’ll look at three important and differing currents in French art 1850-80 which sought answers to the neverending question of how an artist can or should represent the natural world.
7 May
Marie Bashkirtseff “I Am Made Up Of Courage”
Bashkirtseff (1859-1884) is one of the most singular personalities in art’s history. “Beautiful, intelligent, ambitious”, hugely talented and believing herself destined for fame, Marie Bashkirtseff was on the brink of a successful art career when she died aged only 25. The publication of her acutely observant and self-revealing Journal was a sensation and made her one of the most famous women of her time.
21 May
1913: Crest Of A Wave
In 1913 everyone who was or would be anyone in art, music, dance and literature – Stravinsky, Picasso, Duchamp, Schiele, Kafka, Apollinaire, Marc – was on top form. We’ll see the who, what and why of Modernism’s peak year.
28 May
Guernica: The Making Of An Icon
The second most important cultural event of 1937 was the Paris Universal Exposition. The most important was the creation of Picasso’s Guernica, his ferocious memorial to the victims of the Spanish Civil War. This is the story of how and why this icon of modernism came to be made.
4 June
Picasso At War
Despite the risks, Picasso chose to stay on in Paris during the German occupation. In the face of danger and loss, he made some of his most powerful and personal work. Let’s have a look.
11 June
Whaam! It’s 1963
It was a year with a string of hits for Beatles, the Ronettes and Bob Dylan – but David Hockney, Francis Bacon, Bridget Riley, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Edward Hopper didn’t do too badly either.
18 June
Seurat And His Dots
Seurat is famous for one thing, little dots of paint. This talk is about all the other things he did; like inventing a new way of making art and creating some of the most complete masterpieces in art history, and why.
25 June
Francis And George: Love And Death
George Dyer was a pretty criminal from the East End. Francis Bacon was Britain’s most famous painter. Their doomed affair led to some of Bacon’s greatest works. Here’s what happened.