Tue 23 Feb, 2021
ART HISTORY AND PRACTICAL WORKSHOP
Tuesday 19 February 2019, 10.45am – 4.30pm
Free art history workshop! Suitable for Year 10 and above
MORNING – visit The Courtauld (Somerset House) & the National Gallery
Learn: about the science behind how we perceive and conceptualise colour. Join a university seminar-style session to trace important developments in how paints are made and the discoveries that led to a brighter palette. Hear about some unusual ingredients, from bugs and berries to dangerous chemicals.
Discover: some of the National Gallery’s masterpieces by artists known for their spectacular handling of colour. Tour the Medieval and Renaissance rooms to see how artists like Jacopo di Cione and Titian used the most expensive pigments available in order to breathe new life into ancient and biblical stories.
Explore: the social and cultural significance of colour. Consider what it meant to wear certain colours and what they could symbolise. Place paintings in context and understand why colour has sometimes been a controversial topic in the history of art.
AFTERNOON – visit Tate Modern (lunch and travel provided)
Learn: how the substance of colour changed in the mid-twentieth century with the inventions of new kinds of paints and artistic technologies.
Discover: Tate’s magnificent collection of Mark Rothko’s Four Seasons paintings and how this pioneer of colour field painting exemplifies the revolutionary effect of the new acrylic paints on abstract and pop artists in New York City.
Explore: how a younger generation of twentieth-century artists responded to colour, such as Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley, and see how they further experimented with perception and a broad range of technologies, including lights, to create new visual experiences.