Lectures & Events

Martina Mrongovius captures urban environments in assembled photomontages she prints into holographic images. Her artworks investigate how perception shapes experience and are often installed in ways that provoke viewers to move. In this lecture Martina will discuss how her artworks were inspired by...

Damien Hirst is the most famous British artist since Henry Moore. Not even Francis Bacon had such a huge international presence. And yet in his home country he is often seen as a practical joker, pulling the wool over the eyes of the public, and not making proper art at all. This lecture aims to dis...

The ancient art of Southeast Asia took Hindu and Buddhist ideas from India and made them into something unique. Each of the major kingdoms of Southeast Asia evolved distinctive styles of temple building, sculpture and relief carving, from the vast cities of Pagan to monumental Angkor. The evolution ...

The Nordic countries played a minor role in the historic development of world glassmaking. It is astonishing that these nations, with some 20 million inhabitants, produced more Post-War glass designers of international consequence than the rest of the Western World combined. The talk examines the fa...

Wine has sustained humanity for almost 10,000 years. While causing wars and riots, it’s also helped broker peace and more commonly served as an aphrodisiac. Wine has been personified in the form of Gods and been a catalyst in civilised entertaining and dining rituals. Bottom’s Up! traces the st...

Japan has an extraordinary appreciation for art – with exhibitions drawing some of the world’s highest visitor numbers. Since the 20th century, government funding for acquisitions has continued to drop making private collections and corporate art museums ever more important. These include the ex...

Explore the origins and development of the nineteenth-century Indian Renaissance in theatre, architecture, literature, poetry and painting. We start with the arts and architecture of the vibrant city of Calcutta, the capital of British India. Then go on to explore the life and work of Calcutta’s m...

The Maharajahs and Maharanis of India were semi-independent rulers, responsible for governing territories outside the direct control of the British Empire; seen by the British public, as powerful symbols of ‘exotic India’. This lecture draws on an extensive collection of portraits and photograph...

Explores the work of an artist whose, inventiveness, and ability to catch the zeitgeist is still admired a century after her bold 'Bizarre' wares were launched in 1927. These Art Deco masterpieces are the products that most vividly signify Clarice Cliff's legacy. Cliff's talents were recognised w...

Portraits provide a fascinating insight into the changing styles of dress over the centuries. Follow the different fashions as revealed in paintings, looking at dress and accessories, and some of the more ridiculous styles of fashion from the 16th century to the 19th century – with a focus on fash...

The legendary Paris circus, from its beginning as the Cirque Fernando in 1875 (it was renamed Cirque Medrano in 1897) until its closure in 1963 was an integral part of Parisian cultural life. It attracted writers, painters and poets who created many works inspired by the Circus. Performers have been...

Join ArtsNational Newcastle members and guests at an end-of-year celebration lunch.  We are celebrating many things:  our new name; another successful year of lectures; our sponsorship of the Reg Russom Me...

A realist painter of modern urban life, John Brack emerged as an artist during the 1950s and took as his principal subject the people and life of Melbourne.  He became one of Australia’s most challenging and important artists of the 20th century.

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Constantinople and Istanbul, two names for one city.  One city straddling Europe and Asia: Byzantine imperial capital for 1000 years then capital city of the Ottoman Turks.   

Minarets and domes of Turkish mo...

Babylon: the very name is evocative. Once one of the greatest cities in the ancient world, a vanished metropolis which lay deserted for over 2000 years, its history is bound up with myth and legend but it has never been forgotten. Biblical accounts of the Tower of Babel, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, ...

A beloved and central figure in the cultural life of Australia, Mirka Mora long captured the public imagination with her distinctive art and inimitable personality.  Arriving in Melbourne from Paris in 1951, Mirka and her husband Georges contributed signif...

The Oxford English Dictionary defines portraiture as “a representation...of a person, especially the face...”.  However, this simple explanation belies the complexities of reproducing the face. 

Por...

Brisbane 1989 – fashion designers Pam Easton and Lydia Pearson began to create their range of garments.  The designs were deliberately nostalgic and feminine, with an air of retrospection obtained by engaging with historical and ethnographic sources.

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Chris Aslan tells his story of working with UNESCO to establish a silk carpet workshop in the desert oasis of Khiva, Uzbekistan - the most homogenous example of Islamic architecture in the world.  His work took him to the bazaars of Afghanistan to purchase...

These lectures delivers a single narrative covering the history of the 50 jewelled Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs from the first egg in 1885 to their current whereabouts.  The eggs illustrate the attitudes that would ultimately lead to the downfall of the R...

250 years after Antonio Stradivari’s death, his violins and cellos remain the world’s most highly-prized instruments.  Loved by great musicians and capable of fetching fabulous sums when sold, their tone and beauty are legendary.Tickets and More Info

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) rose to an almost mythical status as the pre-eminent modernist artist in early 20th century America.  She did so at a time when painting was still considered an unsuitable occupation for women and despite spending decades in th...

‘Street Art’, regarded as one of the largest art movements of modern times, has achieved huge popularity and is still rapidly growing as an art form.  It encompasses graffiti, protest art that speaks to political and social issues, and monumental paint...