Professor Lorenzo Pericolo and Dr Carlo Avilio are taking part in an international study day at the Dulwich Picture Gallery - Ribera’s Art of Violence: New Intersections and Interventions. The event relates to the exhibition Ribera: Art of Violence (26 September 2018 – 27 January 2019), and comprises academic and public sessions.

You can watch Professor Paul Smith in an event which will be streamed live from Coventry's Herbert Art Gallery. He will join Darryl Georgiou of Coventry University to discuss works in the current exhibition Cézanne: Montagne Sainte-Victoire showing the well-loved and significant painting by Cézanne lent by the Courtauld Gallery in London, and paintings from the Coventry collection by artists such as Paul Nash, David Bomberg, LS Lowry and Prunella Clough.

The History of Art Department recently joined other institutions at the annual ARTiculation Finals event at Clare College, Cambridge. ARTiculation is a public speaking competition for 16-19 year olds, offering a chance for pupils from state and independent schools all around the country to engage with art and architecture in a way which encourages looking, thinking and speaking. Nearly 200 people attended the competition.

Our department had a stall at the University Fair which received many interested visitors, and Dr Sarah Walford presented a seven-minute taster lecture on the Sèvres ‘Copenhagen Vase’, from the Waddesdon collection.

Sarah Walford - “It was a wonderful opportunity to take an object that our first-year students have studied and to show the many ways in which it can be interpreted. It’s important to show that art history can encompass everything from politics to manufacturing process and science to social history.”

Dr Sarah Walford has been speaking to Trish Adudu on the BBC Coventry and Warwickshire radio Breakfast Show about the campaign to raise funds for the repair of the bell tower of St Oswald’s Church, Tile Hill. The church is one of a group of three parish churches in Coventry designed by the architect Basil Spence. Sarah was asked about Spence and his architecture, and why the tower is important. It was noted that many Coventrians are unaware that these churches in the Coventry suburbs (also Wood End and Willenhall) were designed by the same architect as the Cathedral, and that the campaign is raising awareness of their significance. The three churches have all been listed for their architectural quality and technical innovation.

You can find out more about The Life and Work of Sir Basil Spence on our project pages.

(Image credit: cc-by-sa/2.0 © Robin Stott geograph.org.uk/p/5345926)

Tomorrow evening, Karen Lang (Reader in History of Art) and Clare Woods will be discussing the artist’s new series of paintings in a special event at the Mead Gallery. A panel of University of Warwick academics including Clément Dessy, Johannes Roessler and Jonathan Skinner will comment on Woods’ work and the discussion will then open up to involve the audience.

Clare Woods’ work is held in many major international collections including those of the University of Warwick, Arts Council England, the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, USA.

The event is organised by the Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts.

Don't miss Canaletto & the Art of Venice, which opened the major ITV series Great Art.

The National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition Cézanne Portraits, which opened on October 26th, is getting 5-star reviews for its wonderful collection of paintings brought together from galleries and collections around the world, some of which haven't been seen in the UK before. The exhibition draws on the expertise of Paul Smith, a leading authority on Cézanne, both for his lecture 'Sit like an apple': painting people as if they were things (in the Late Shift Talks and Lectures series, 30th November, tickets from NPG), and also for an innovative new idea that allows you to take an expert with you around the exhibition.

Visitors to the exhibition can pick up an app for their smartphone that goes far beyond the usual audio guide. This app bridges the gap between the expert and the gallery visitor and lets Prof Smith share his expertise about the paintings. He shows visitors how to experience the artist's vision, and use of colour, and how to understand Cézanne as the painter he was.

Paul Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888-90. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Canaletto and the Art of Venice is a feature film about the Queen's Gallery exhibition of the same name.

On Wednesday 20th September 2017 Art History PhD student and lutenist Adam Busiakiewicz presented a public talk on Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors.

The talk focused in on the symbolism and significance of the lute featured within Holbein's enigmatic double portrait. Aside from the broken string which emphasised the growing political discord due to the protestant reformation, Holbein's brilliantly detailed depiction of the instrument provides a thrilling insight into the status of the lute at the court of Henry VIII. The talk was researched in association with London luthiers Sandi Harris and Stephen Barber, who loaned a closely corresponding instrument for the presentation.

Several pieces of contemporary sixteenth century music were performed in front of the painting, including a printed Lutheran hymn which appears within the painting itself.

Dr. Alice Eden has begun the Enchanted Community collaborative art project in Coventry and Leamington! The project kicked off with a well-received talk at Leamington Spa Art Gallery on Friday 12th May followed by a family workshop on Saturday 27th May. This series of public engagement workshops, outreach sessions and talks will culminate in an art exhibition in Coventry created by local residents, school children, local artist Holly Dawes and Alice Eden. Please see the project website for more details. This work is supported by Professor Michael Hatt, History of Art and the Institute of Advanced Study, Warwick.

Emeritus Professor Louise Campbell will be giving a paper on Sussex University on 15 June at the Oxford Brookes conference 'Architecture Citizenship Space: British Architecture from the 1920s to the 1970s'. The paper is entiltled "'A background sympathetic to young and energetic minds': forming modern citizens at the University of Sussex".

On the 26th of April 2017, Art History PhD student and lutenist Adam Busiakiewicz presented a public talk on Ter Brugghen's Lute Player at the National Gallery in London.

The lute was used by painters to express various ideas in their works, apart from the obvious allusions to harmony and discord. The musical associations with Orpheus, the melter-of-hearts, would not have been lost on the contemporary audience of this painting. Various symbolic links to notions of youth, flippancy and the transience of life and worldly pleasures are also all associated with the mythology of the instrument and its music. Paintings such as Ter Brugghen’s Lutenist allow us to open up a world of understanding how music was appreciated and consumed in the past.

The talk was accompanied by several live performances of lute music relevant to the period and themes of the painting.