Showcasing Art History
On campus and online
Introduction
As the programme name implies, our evening lecture series Showcasing Art History shares the latest art-historical thinking and The Courtauld’s excellence in research and teaching with the wider public. The lectures aim for a lively delivery and are given by members of the Courtauld faculty, by associates and alumni of our college, and by other eminent scholars.
Each new season of Showcasing Art History offers three free-standing terms. Lectures delivered on campus at Vernon Square are recorded and made available to our online audience, who will be given their own live Zoom discussion sessions. There will be extensive course materials on the VLE for both in-person and online learners.
Lectures are given live on campus at 19:00 on Tuesdays and Zoom discussions for our online audience members take place on Wednesdays in the following week at 20:00 [London time]. Terms may be booked in isolation or in combination, and discounts apply if more than one term is booked.
Course delivery details
You can opt to attend these lectures either on campus or online. If you attend on campus and have to miss one or more lectures, please send us an email requesting a recording of the relevant lecture(s) (for one week).
On-campus: lectures are given at our Vernon Square campus at 19:00, followed by discussion and drinks; the course also includes pre-course and further reading, and handout materials on our Virtual Learning Environment.
Online: the course includes pre-recorded lectures, released weekly over 10 weeks (Autumn and Spring terms) or 5 weeks (Summer term), and each lecture viewable for a fortnight; there are pre-course and further reading, handout materials and a discussion forum on our Virtual Learning Environment; live discussions of each lecture, delivered via Zoom take place on Wednesdays at 20:00 (London time).
Monet’s Thames Series: Painting Modernity at The Turn of the Twentieth Century
Autumn term
Tuesday 1 October – Tuesday 3 December 2024, 19:00
On campus
OR
Wednesday 9 October – Wednesday 11 December 2024, 20:00 [London time]
Online
This lecture series accompanying the exhibition Monet and London. Views of the Thames will explore a range of subjects that will enrich our wider understanding of Monet’s work, of Impressionism, and of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art world.
Find out moreAnatomy of an Art World – The American Scene c. 1850-1950
Spring term
Tuesday 7 January – Tuesday 11 March 2025, 19:00
On campus
OR
Wednesday 15 January – Wednesday 19 March 2025, 20:00 [London time]
Online
This lecture series will examine the institutions, processes and individuals that led to the centre of the art market gravitating from Europe to the United States, along with the societal shifts – cultural, political, demographic – that transformed the United States over the course of a century.
Find out moreArt, Experience, and the Psychology of Perception: Milestones of Curating European Modernism
Summer term
Tuesday 29 April – Tuesday 27 May 2025, 19:00
On campus
OR
Wednesday 7 May – Wednesday 4 June 2025, 20:00 [London time]
Online
Focusing on the display of European modernism in exhibitions dating from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries, this pioneering series of lectures will explore the link between curating and the psychology of perception.
Find out moreArchive: Showcasing Art History 2021-2024 series
Click on the titles below to read the archived course descriptions
Autumn 2021: Liberator, Despot, (fallen) Hero: Napoleon Bonaparte and the Visual Arts
Spring 2022: Portraying van Gogh: Biography, Mythology and New Research
Summer 2022: Between Power and Conflict: Case Studies of Art in Times of War and Revolution from 1868 to Today
Autumn 2022: Agents of Change: Women Artists in German and Austrian Modernism
Spring 2023: Flesh, Spirit, Power: The Body in Spanish Art 1400s-1700s
Summer 2023: Photography and the French Avant-Garde from Delacroix to Cézanne
Autumn 2023: Ordinary People: Paintings and Prints of Everyday Life from Bruegel to Hopper
Spring 2024: Antiquity, Taste, and the Self: Revisiting the Discoveries of the Grand Tour
Summer 2024: Re-Framing: Modern and Contemporary Art by Women 1870s to Today