Get your glad rags on, curate your own evening and come along to celebrate the newly reopened Gallery in style!
We are delighted to announce our brand new ‘After Hours’! On the 15th of December, 7 – 9pm, we are hosting our very first ‘Glow-Up!’ — with pop-up talks, installations, activities, music, food and drink inspired by the dress, make-up, hair and bodily adornments represented in our collection. Fashion, make-up and adornment, often considered feminine and frivolous, will be reclaimed as empowering tools of self-expression, self-confidence and self-care! This event will grant a rare opportunity to experience The Courtauld’s incredible transformation after dark.
Pop-up talks and object study sessions will focus on The Courtauld Bag, George Seurat’s Young Girl Powdering Herself, Amedeo Modigliani’s Female Nude, Pierre Auguste Renoir’s La Loge and Paul Gauguin’s Nevermore. A specially designed DJ set by multifaceted artist, DJ, music curator and founder of Moonlight Creative Fiona Jane will take place throughout the evening alongside activities such as ‘Mantra Tattoo with Davina Drummond’, a brand new installation by Rujazzle (Painted Lady, Walking Exhibition(ist), Glasgow-based drag artist and host) and more! Food and drink will be available from the stylish Art Café throughout the event.
Line-up!
Pop-up talks
Join our curators, conservators, fashion historians and special guests for expert talks on the hairdo’s, jewellery, make-up and bodies represented in some of our most loved works.
- 7.15 – 7.25: Amedeo Modigliani’s Female Nude, The LVMH Great Room, Aviva Burnstock
- 7.30 – 7.40: Pierre Auguste Renoir’s La Loge, The Weston Gallery, Claudine Seroussi
Please note that the planned talks on Georges Seurat’s Young Woman powdering Herself and Paul Gauguin’s Nevermore by Karen Serres and Kyle Ring has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
Object Study Sessions
We are delighted to invite our Glow-Up attendees to participate in a rare up-close and personal object study session!
- 8.00 – 8.15: Drop in to Room 4, The Blavatnik Fine Rooms, to hear, see and touch our replica Courtauld Bag with expert Alexandra Gerstein.
Activities
- 7.00 – 9.00: ‘Mantra Tattoos’ with artist Davina Drummond, The Vaults
Installations
- 7.00 – 9.00: Rujazzle ‘Queering the Canon’, Ticket Hall
- 7.00 – 9.00: The Courtauld’s Art, Fashion and Innovation Micro-Exhibition, Room 6, The Blavatnik Fine Rooms
Music
- 7.00 – 9.00: Exclusive DJ set by Fiona Jane, Ticket Hall
Food, Drink and Shopping
- 7.00 – 9.00: Both our stylish Art Café and shop will be open throughout the event. In each space we have crafted a shopping and eating experience inspired by the world-class artworks on display at The Courtauld.
Meet the experts, artists and performers Glowing-up The Courtauld after dark!
Aviva Burnstock: Aviva Burnstock is a Professor of Conservation at The Courtauld Institute of Art, where she took a PhD (1991) and a Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings (1984). From 1986-1992 she worked in the Scientific Department of the National Gallery, London after a year as a paintings conservator in Australia with the Regional Galleries Association of New South Wales. Her first degree is in Neurobiology (BSc University of Sussex 1981). She was awarded the first Joop Los Fellowship at the Institute for Molecular Physics (AMOLF /FOM) Amsterdam in 2003, and is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC). Aviva’s research interests include investigation of the materials and techniques used for painting; and characterisation of visual and material changes; the application of new methods for technical study; evaluating methods for conservation practice (for example methods for cleaning paintings); focus on the deterioration and conservation issues for modern oil paint and paintings.
Davina Drummond: Davina Drummond is a Scottish social practice artist who lives and works in London, UK.Davina graduated with a B.A.(hons) in Fine Art Textiles from Goldsmiths College, London in 2005 and with a postgraduate diploma in Art Education from the Institute of Education, London in 2007. At the heart of Davina’s practice lies an invested interest in site, context and audience. Her work does not exist without participation, without a public collaborating with her, taking part in her work or viewing it. Accessibility is key to Davina, for example by using formats within contemporary popular culture; jokes, gospel choirs, teaching syllabuses, merit badges, temporary tattoos. She believes that using simple devices can produce the most powerful artworks.
Alexandra Gerstein: Alexandra Gerstein is McQueens Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts here at The Courtauld. Alexandra studied art history and museum studies at the École du Louvre, Paris and at The Courtauld (MA 1995, PhD 2003), where her research focused late 19th and early 20th century Beaux-Arts architecture and on the architectural sculpture of the Edwardian Baroque Revival. Before joining The Courtauld, she worked at the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal. Alexandra has responsibility for the collection of sculpture and decorative arts, which counts over 500 objects spanning a wide geography and a variety of media and technique, dating from the medieval period to the early 20th century. She is also the lead curator for provenance research with respect to the Nazi period, and for restitution claims, and sits on the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC) Spoliation Working Group, which coordinates research in UK museums. Since 2010 she has overseen a programme of research and conservation of the areas of strength of the collection, which has led to publications and exhibitions and has raised the profile of this less well known part of the collection.
Fiona Jane: Fiona Jane is a London based, Copenhagen-born, Fiona Jane is a multifaceted artist, DJ, music curator and founder of Moonlight Creative. Possessing the distinct ability to weave seamlessly between genres and styles, her eclectic sets have soundtracked parties for some of the world’s most prestigious brands, including Dior, Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Emilio Pucci and Vogue, taking her across the globe throughout the last decade or more. Whether appearing at Paris Fashion Week, Cannes Film Festival, Ibiza or at Burning Man, Fiona always leaves a distinct and personal impression, intuitively connecting the dots between music, fashion and alternative culture. She’s also performed for The EDITION Hotels, The Soho House Group, The Gagosian, London Fashion Week, and Mykonos’s favourite spot; Belvedere Hotel where she is music ambassador.
Kyle Ring: Kyle Ring is a curator and founder of @in.hair.itance. This platform is an anachronistic celebration of the diversity, complexity & creativity of people of colour and how we choose to style, decorate & care for our hair
Rujazzle: Painted Lady, Living Art, Scottish Masterpiece, Walking Exhibition(ist), Art B!tch, Glasgow-based drag artist, host and event producer, Rujazzle does its all! Rujazzle’s drag is culture, glamour, and stupidity. Their art is inspired by all types of cultural references, whether high art or pop culture, and uses high art as a means to elevate drag as an art form.
Karen Serres: Karen Serres is Curator of Paintings here at The Courtauld. Karen received her training in art history and museum studies at the Ecole du Louvre (1997) and the Sorbonne (1998) in Paris. She completed her MA (1999) and PhD (2004) at The Courtauld, where her research focused on French and Italian Baroque painting. She was then appointed Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, working on French and Italian painting and sculpture. She later became the Robert H. Smith Research Curator in the Sculpture Department of that institution. In 2009, she was named the Nina and Lee Griggs Associate Curator of European Art at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. She returned to the Courtauld as Schroder Foundation Curator of Paintings in September 2012.
Claudine Seroussi: Claudine is a current PhD student at The Courtauld. Claudine’s thesis focuses on ‘Continuity and disruption: The French jeweller 1920-1929’. Her research investigates French jewellers between 1920-29: their voice, influences and perspectives, explores how they wrestled with ways to define and legitimise jewellery as an expression of style, an object of high culture, a luxury good and the tensions those identities created.
Courtauld National Partners: Inspired by the work of Samuel Courtauld, our National Partners Programme is collaborating with museums and galleries across the UK to develop exhibitions, volunteer-led projects and school workshops that engage with local communities connected to the Courtaulds Ltd textile company. Find out more about our projects on our website (https://sites.courtauld.ac.uk/nationalpartners/)
Our After Hours series is produced as part of the Open Courtauld strand hosted by The Research Forum. This strand is all about sharing advanced research in art history, curating, and conservation, and is part of our Courtauld Connects project. Aligning with The Courtauld’s digital events series ‘Open Courtauld Hour’ our ‘After Hours’ will broach contemporary issues in society through participatory activities that encourage new perspectives and thinking, focused on The Courtauld collection.