The Work of George Walton: Glasgow and Beyond

September 23, 2026 10:30 am

Daniel Robbins September 23, 2026 @ 10.30am The achievements of designer and architect George Walton (1867–1933) have too often been eclipsed by his contemporary Charles Rennie Mackintosh. From a gifted artistic family, Walton not only established a flourishing business in Glasgow, but went on to develop a successful career in London, carrying out a wide […]

See more...

Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found

October 21, 2026 11:00 am

Andrew Graham-Dixon October 21, 2026 @ 11.00am Please note the later start time of 11.00am for this talk Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Delft, Rotterdam, and beyond, Andrew offers a dramatic reassessment of Johannes Vermeer – not as the isolated genius of legend, but as a painter deeply embedded in the radical, intellectual, […]

See more...

The Secrets of Painting

November 25, 2026 10:30 am

Lachlan Goudie November 25, 2026 @ 10.30am How do you paint a masterpiece? Lachlan Goudie seeks the answer  by exploring how twenty of the greatest paintings in human history were created, from a blank surface to the finishing brushstroke. Beginning at the dawn of civilization with prehistoric cave paintings and ending with the arrival of AI, […]

See more...

The Three Kings: the Real Story

December 16, 2026 10:30 am

Tony Rawlins December 16, 2026 @ 10.30am The Three Kings is a light-hearted look at what we think we know about them – how many of them were there, were they men or women or both, or actually kings? Where did they come from? Why do they feature in our Nativity plays and crib scenes, when […]

See more...

The Japanese Garden in the West: 100 Years of Eastern Influence

February 17, 2027 10:30 am

Amanda Herries February 17th, 2027 @ 10.30am The serenity, asymmetry and control of a Japanese garden is a seductive contrast to Western symmetry, form and free growth. Even at the time of Japan’s self-imposed isolation, 1639-1854, information reached the West about trees, plants, flowers and designs through illustrations on imported porcelain, lacquer and screens. Once […]

See more...

An Introduction to Ice Age Art

March 17, 2027 10:30 am

Dr Paul Bahn March 17, 2027 @ 10.30am The earliest art known to the world, dating to c.40,000 to 12,000 years ago, is found primarily in western Europe and takes the form of portable art objects, engravings, drawings and paintings on cave walls and in the open air. This is the story of the art’s […]

See more...

The Helmschmids of Augsburg: German Renaissance Masters of the Art of Armour

May 19, 2027 10:30 am

Dr Tobias Capwell May 19, 2027 @ 10.30am Armour was both equipment for fighting and expressive art and by the sixteenth century, the art of the armourer in southern Germany had attained unrivalled technical sophistication, artistic conception, and decorative richness.   The centre of the German Renaissance armour world was Augsburg, led by the Helmschmid […]

See more...

Rococo: the first Pop Art?

June 17, 2026 10:30 am

This talk may raise some eyebrows, but it is hoped that those who like Rococo might see Pop Art differently, and those who like Pop Art might look at Rococo again.

See more...